[DougAdams]

4th September 2007 – Low North to the Zenith
Seeing 3
Transparency 5
4" Refractor

I set up around the back of the house again, with its restricted east/west view. The upside is that it is much darker there if the neighbours cooperate. I decided to consolidate my rare northwards session from Saturday night, and have another look. Conditions were very cold and breezy, with a gusty south easterly blowing. Looking through the eyepiece, I never noticed any wind wobble.

Epsilon Lyrae (The Double Double) – I had observed Vega on Saturday night, not realising the double-double was a couple of degrees east of it. I knew from just looking at Vega with the naked eye, I was asking a lot. It was low in the north east, bubbling and boiling. Looking at Epsilon Lyrae through the eyepiece, all I could see was two stars widely separated. No hint of splitting either star – I pushed it all the way up to 180x – seeing wasn’t good. I wish I tried it on Saturday, as the seeing was much better then.

M57 Ring Nebula – went and had another look at it for consolidation, now that I know where it is. It is located right between Sulafat and Sheliak, and very obvious in the eyepiece. It was a little more difficult to find, because the two guide stars were very hard to pick out tonight with the naked eye. Through the eyepiece, however, the view was good. On Saturday I saw a circular smudge at 49x, but tonight with a 7mm Nagler (80x) in the telescope I could see some elongation and a distinct oval shape. The “hole” was more evident too. Considering this is skimming along about 20º above the northern horizon, it’s surprising what detail you can see in it.

Albireo – another peek at this colourful double. The colour difference wasn’t as obvious as Saturday night, but it’s there. I can see this being a show off object when friends and family are over. Easy to find, easy to split, and the colour difference creates a nice “ooh” factor.

M56 – I tried for this globular on Saturday and couldn’t nail it. Another crack at it tonight and it was more of the same. Point scope half way between Albireo and Sulafat, nudge it slightly south east, and have a look. No joy. Determined, I decided to star hop from Albireo and worked my way down to a group of similar magnitude stars in the shape of a “V” pointing towards Sulafat. Recognising this pattern in the Pocket Sky Atlas, I noticed M56 was near the upper left star of the “V”. I stared at this star, nothing. I pulled my jacket over my head and stared again, and I fancied I could see something. I started the heavy breathing exercises that make the neighbours lock their windows, and finally a very faint misty patch shimmered into view. Tough object from Melbourne suburbia with small scope. I resolved 3 or 4 stars, but only one with direct vision.

M27 Dumbbell Nebula – another look at this object. Didn’t seem as detailed as Saturday night, where I saw a definite rectangular shape. Tonight it was just a blob of gray light, slightly elongated. Very easy to see, but not a lot of detail.

Brocchi’s Cluster – not far from M27, I found this large cluster. It’s about 2º across, so it just fit into the field of view of my 24mm Panoptic. The shape of the cluster is almost exactly like a coat hanger, with six stars of similar magnitude (6 or 7) lined up in a straight line, with a “hook” of 3 or 4 stars branching off. Quite striking. The stars all appeared to be the same colour.

M71 – this was a spectacularly unexciting object I found on Saturday, but just to be sure I went and found it again. Located part way along the arrow shaft of Sagitta, right next to a group of 4 stars that look like a lower case letter “y”. Again, very faint, but I did the jacket and breathing thing and resolved a few stars in it.

Gamma Delphini – an easy double star. The brighter member is a yellow colour, while the fainter companion was white/blue. Checking later I saw this is supposed to be orange/green! I saw no green, perhaps larger apertures would see more colour.

Plans to ramble through the Messier objects in Sagittarius were put on hold, as my feet were icing up. Put thick socks on the to do list. It was 11:45pm, and I'd been out for 2 hours. Felt like 45 minutes!