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Old 19-08-2009, 12:32 PM
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Obs Report 18/8/09

The first clear sky in 3 weeks. In 3 painful weeks. While the rest of Australia is enjoying spring and wall to wall clear skies, here in Novosibirsk it's been cold and cloudy everyday, so it was finally time for a few precious hours to fill this century's quota of clear sky.

Scope: 12" F4.6 dob
Seeing: 3/10 - poor
Transparency: 3/5
Dew: light
Temp: 10C

Henize 2-163
A PNe in Norma. Started the hunt at Eta Ara and something immediately tripped my alarms. Nearby was a bright hazy blob, whose position did not match that of the nearby galaxy NGC 6221. After much excitement I finally realised that there is another galaxy, NGC 6215 nearby, which turned out to be my imposter comet! These 2 galaxies are very bright, quite surprising really. Might have to observe the area in more detail.

Anyway, The PNe was not seen without the OIII filter, although it was suspected at 404x (massive overkill for the seeing at hand). The OIII immediately made it conspicious. At 283x with the OIII, it was small, circular and I suspected annularity. DSS photos do indeed show it to be a little donut.

DeHt 3
A PNe in Sagittarius. Invisible without OIII, but at 283x with the OIII I could make out faint round blob of light, however it was too faint to conclusively detect any detail.

M 1-54
PNe in Sagittarius. Relatively bright, although very small. Seen without filter at 283x and 404x as a tiny roundish blob. Using the OIII filter revealed an E-W elongation but other than that, no detail within the nebula was seen.

PC 22
PNe in Aquila. Very faint at 217x without filter. Adding the OIII revealed an elongated, somewhat rectangular patch of light, with the southern rim being noticably brighter than the rest of the object. I wanted to use higher mag on this object, but being lower in the sky and with the poor seeing, anything more than the 200x range would render nothing but a blurry mess.

Abell 70
PNe in Aquila. Not visible without OIII but at 283x with the OIII I suspected a very faint haze at the nebula's location, visible only intermittently.

NGC 7009 Saturn Nebula

Tried a variety of magnifications on this in an attempt to see the "rings". Surprisingly, despite seeing, my best view was without the OIII filter at 566x. The rings were seen with averted vision intermittently as the seeing boiled away. The knots at the ends were quite evident. Reducing the mag to 353x in an attempt to get a clearer view rendered the rings nearly invisible, and using the OIII did not improve the view.

Uranus
I've been wanting to observe Myanus since the dawn of time. Finally, I got the chance. Because seeing was so poor,I was limited to 217x, but got a nice pale Aqua orb. With averted vision, I could spot 2 tiny points of light on either side of the planet intermittently. Upon later research, it turns out that these were the moons Oberon and Titania! Come to think of it, these moons should be a rather easy catch when the seeing cooperates!

I've also had a look at NGC 55, 246 and the Helix Nebula. See attached sketches:
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Old 19-08-2009, 01:50 PM
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I enjoy reading your nights work pgc.
It's great you could get the scope out.Oberon & Titania are a great catch.
It, "may" be clear again tonight ! I think the LP is quite a bit less down your way.Knox City is a shocker!
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Old 19-08-2009, 01:59 PM
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Thanks David! Tonight is not going to be clear, there's a big mass of cloud and thunderstorms heading this way so it's a writeoff Heres a good site for satellite images: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/satellite.jsp

Saturday night is the best chance at this stage.
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Old 19-08-2009, 02:23 PM
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Thanks for the report. Pity about the poor seeing.

I must mark down Uranus + moons for Saturday night.

I used to think of NGC 55 as an odd edge-on spiral - but I see consensus is that it is "irregular". If they say so.....
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Old 19-08-2009, 10:02 PM
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Well write off tonight (wednesday). Again.Funnily enough it's cloudy.
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Old 20-08-2009, 10:14 AM
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Well write off tonight (wednesday). Again.Funnily enough it's cloudy.
Yup just another disasterous day in this cold and cloudy hole

Eric - I hope you get clear skies on Sat, but ofcourse being cold and cloudy Melbourne, chances are slim even with the forecast northerly winds. The moons of Uranus seem to be easy catch, well atleast Titania and Oberon. If you get good seeing, crank up the mag!
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Old 20-08-2009, 12:52 PM
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Hey PGC, pretty impressive seeing those details in 7009 at 566x.
I only went to 250X and didn't see much apart from the main, somewhat oval shape, but I am using 20 year old Celestron Orthos. I wouldn't like to push them to over 500x.

I notice from the excellent sketches, that you are using Vixen LVW's. How do you rate them? Another observer nearby uses the Hyperions and rates their 68 degree field to be more natural than the rather distracting 82 degree Naglers, impressive though they are. Naturally I haven't had the chance to do a comparison. Cheers, Paul.
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Old 20-08-2009, 03:06 PM
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Originally Posted by Lismore Bloke View Post
Hey PGC, pretty impressive seeing those details in 7009 at 566x.
Aside from the "rings", all I saw was a big green blurry blob...not much visible structure within the main body.

Quote:
I only went to 250X and didn't see much apart from the main, somewhat oval shape, but I am using 20 year old Celestron Orthos. I wouldn't like to push them to over 500x.

I notice from the excellent sketches, that you are using Vixen LVW's. How do you rate them? Another observer nearby uses the Hyperions and rates their 68 degree field to be more natural than the rather distracting 82 degree Naglers, impressive though they are. Naturally I haven't had the chance to do a comparison. Cheers, Paul.
THe LVWs are nice, but don't have anything to compare to apart from a few plossls I have. After becoming accoustamed to the LVWs, looking thru a plossl is like looking thru a straw.

Last edited by pgc hunter; 20-08-2009 at 04:47 PM.
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Old 20-08-2009, 05:02 PM
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Originally Posted by pgc hunter View Post
Yup just another disasterous day in this cold and cloudy hole

Eric - I hope you get clear skies on Sat, but ofcourse being cold and cloudy Melbourne, chances are slim even with the forecast northerly winds. The moons of Uranus seem to be easy catch, well atleast Titania and Oberon. If you get good seeing, crank up the mag!
I have a "new" (second-hand - thanks Jason) 5mm Burgess/TMB that is itching for a workout on a target that takes magnification!
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Old 20-08-2009, 05:08 PM
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I have a "new" (second-hand - thanks Jason) 5mm Burgess/TMB that is itching for a workout on a target that takes magnification!
Go for NGC 7009 or any other small HSB PNe. Perfect targets to flaunt your scope's muscles on
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Old 28-08-2009, 11:08 AM
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Excellent sketches

Hi PGC,

Another excellent report.

I enjoyed the sketches -- especially 246 and 55.

If you have a UHC filter it is worth a try on NGC 55 and enhances its HII regions more clearly -- though you've captured them well in the drawing anyway. An OIII filter is not as good because it won't allow H-Beta through like the UHC does.

A few other nearby galaxies are worth a try with the UHC to see if you can pick-out the HII regions. M33 in a large 'scope is one to try, as is M101 -- or so I'm told! NGC 1313 might also be worth a go (haven't tried myself yet).

NGC 7009 (Saturn Nebula) is a really lovely object in +10" 'scopes. As you've noted the ansae are best seen in good to very good seeing; though the knots at their ends are a tad easier than the connecting wisps. Without doubt, one of my favourite spring PNe in large 'scopes.

Well done again mate!


Best,

Les D
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Old 28-08-2009, 05:50 PM
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Hi PGC,

Another excellent report.

I enjoyed the sketches -- especially 246 and 55.

If you have a UHC filter it is worth a try on NGC 55 and enhances its HII regions more clearly -- though you've captured them well in the drawing anyway. An OIII filter is not as good because it won't allow H-Beta through like the UHC does.
Hey Les, thanks for commenting Wow I never would've thought of trying that in a million years, thanks for the tip! Will be sure to put the UHC on for ngc 55 next time.

Quote:
A few other nearby galaxies are worth a try with the UHC to see if you can pick-out the HII regions. M33 in a large 'scope is one to try, as is M101 -- or so I'm told! NGC 1313 might also be worth a go (haven't tried myself yet).
NGC 300 is another large galaxy that appears to be speckled with HII regions. NGC 7793 and 7424 are filled with HII regions aswell on images but not sure how conspicious these features are at the eyepiece, ifthey are visible at all. That's something I'll have to try for myself

Quote:
NGC 7009 (Saturn Nebula) is a really lovely object in +10" 'scopes. As you've noted the ansae are best seen in good to very good seeing; though the knots at their ends are a tad easier than the connecting wisps. Without doubt, one of my favourite spring PNe in large 'scopes.

Well done again mate!


Best,

Les D
Seeing was garbage, so Im sure it'll look better in good conditions. Now if all this damn cloud would just bloody bugger off

cheers
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