[astroron (Ron)]

Planetary Nebulae NGC 3132,,NGC 2440.
Various observers have made reports with these two planetary Nebula included in their reports, so I decided to dedicate one observing session
to just these two objects

Planetary Nebula Report 25/02/11

21.44
Transparency 8-10 Seeing 7-10
Observed with 16" scope

NGC 3132 Eight Burst Planetary Nebula in Vela.

IN a 21mm Plossl eyepiece 88xmag.is seen as a small faint oval surrounding Mag 9 Star,
the central star over whelmed the nebula making
it more difficult to see without averted vision.

UHC filter improves the view of the nebula but dims the star.

O111 Filter brightens the nebula but makes the central star nearly invisible.

13mm Nagler 140 x mag.Higher magnification makes this a much easier object to see,
no difficulty identifying it as a planetary nebula.
the nebula is visible all the time and does not blink out as with lower power.

UHC filter fills in the nebula with some mottling seen, after a few minutes I felt that I was seeing a reddish hue surrounding the nebula,but was not sure?
The central star was still very prominent.

With O111 The Nebula was very bright and also had some darker patches and the southern part of the ring
seemed to be a double edge which made the nebula not round but elongated

6mm Radian 304xmag. In this eyepiece the planetary nebula is quite large, central star very bright
The reddish hue was seen without a doubt,no filter was used to see the colour
O111 filter confirmed the impression of the double lobe.
This object takes all the magnification you can give it.

22.42
NGC 2440 Planetary Nebula in Puppis
Strange Planetary nebula, in a 21mm Plossl 88Xmag, looks like a faint out of focus star with no detail,
O111 filter confirmed it as a P/N.
In a 9mm TMB 203xmag, it seems like a galaxy with two nuculei Best viewed with the O111 filter, showing the extensions north and south,with the northern extension being the longer.
In a 6mm Radian 305xmag,The two bright lobes are well separated and the extensions are more pronounced
In steadier Seeing I could see another spot of light,making it a triangle with extensions.
O111 and UHC both improve the view with the UHC being the more aesthetically pleasing.
This was a difficult observation as the object was just about on the Meridian which in a large Dob is not the best place to observe.

22.51
Saturn,6mm Radian 2.5x barlow,no storm seen.
Finished observing 23.00
This image of NGC2440 approximates what I see in very high mag with a 6mm Radian plus 2.5 Barlow giving a magnification of 762 x in the 16" scope .
Cheers