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Hi §AB,
Again, very nice report. I particularly liked the sketch of NGC 2440 -- one of the most interesting PNe in the sky I reckon and your sketch looks remarkably similar to one I did about 15-odd years ago with my old 25cm on GEM at x290 with a lumicon UHC. The two spots in the centre are really intriguing. I'll see if I can find it over the next few days.
2440 changes again as aperture increases and there is an outer halo at a strange angle, visible in 46cm that it only hinted at in smaller apertures.
NGC 362 is another fav of mine too. I remember a night about 4 years ago when we were observing it using a friends 50cm f/5 and looking at NGC 362 in very good seeing that comfortably permitted full resolution within the inner core at x350 with pinpoint star-images, when we noticed a very tiny dark cross -- like a " + " sign dead centre of the cluster. Several of us saw it that night, but I have never seen it again like that. It was very small -- only about 5-odd arc-seconds across I think.
Anyone else with that aperture range seen that? I don't think even a 12" will show it because it won't (can't) resolve the tightly packed core so well.
Best,
Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T
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