[Paddy (Patrick)]

Saturday night had some stunning seeing, but transparency was a bit ordinary. Time to follow Sab's lead and hit some planetaries with some magnification. I was not disappointed! The Ghost of Jupiter at 660X rules. I didn't see a lot of things because I couldn't leave each object.


Telescope 400mm f4.9 tri-dob reflector
Eyepieces 28mm UWAN, 17,13,9 mm Naglers, Paracorr, 2.5x Powermate
Navigation: Uranometria, Night Sky Observer’s Guide,

2200

Seeing excellent, transparency fair.

After a lovely cruise around NGC 2070 and Messier 93 whilst dark adapting, it’s time to hunt planetary nebulae.

NGC 2453 OC & NGC 2452 PN in Puppis

175x NGC 2453 is a very appealing 6’x3’ right angled triangle (long side WNW-ENE) the brighter of the 20 or so member stars picking out the shape of the triangle, but many fainter stars in a clump nestled just inside the right angle. 10’ SW is 2452. At 250x, this PN is a faint uneven round glow <1’ dia. with impression of annularity. At 440x, this impression is replaced by two bright patches separated by a dark lane bisecting the PN from NW-SE. These observations confirmed with UHC filter. No central star seen.

NGC 2440 PN in Puppis

440x I revisited this PN I recently observed to see if I could make out the face that Sab talked of on IIS. At this mag. It is quite clear, an inverted triangular arrangement of bright patches within a somewhat triangular halo gives strong impression of eyes and mouth in a face. Of demonic appearance even!

NGC 2438 PN in Puppis

250x This is a lovely 2’ dia annular PN sitting amidst the beautiful OC Messier 46. The PN looks elongated EW with a wide bright outer annulus & thick inner dark disc around the central star. This dark disc looks darker to the east of the star. Similar appearance at 440X but the PN looks huge. Brightens with UHC but the dark disc is not accentuated.

NGC 3242 PN Hydra “Ghost of Jupiter”

660x The seeing has improved enough to really ramp up the magnification and so off to 3242. Absolutely mesmerising at this mag! Huge luminous blue E-W oval glow with large soft outer halo, a crisp thin inner bright ring ½ way out from central star to halo edge. Inside the ring is a darker disc around the central star. The outer rim is a bit softer at the western edge. A stunning almost 3D jellyfish floating across the night sky and I am rivetted to the eyepiece!

Mars

250x distinct north polar ice cap, large triangular dark area very distinct on the western limb and widest at the equator. A dark thin arc from this patch curves down to the southern pole, enclosing a broad orangy-brown expanse in the middle of the disc. I then sketched this very crisp vision (will post later)

Finished the evening with browsing Saturn, Messiers 104 & 83, NGC 4945, Omega Centauri and Eta Carinae. Galaxies stills suffering from poor transparency, but what a night!