Which Nebulae Are Visible
We have magnitudes for open clusters, globular clusters, planetary nebulae and galaxies, but no magnitudes for most emission and reflection nebulae.
Which nebulae are visible in a 10” Dobsonian telescope? Last night I looked at 19 of them between 11 pm and 1 am.
The list below puts them into categories based on their brightness. A Lumicon UHC filter and 26 mm Plossl were used for most of them. The UHC was not used on the reflection nebula marked R.
Very bright (for a nebula)
M8, M17, M16
Bright
M20, N7000, N6960 & N6992-5
Moderately bright
N6995 R, IC 4628, N6726 R
Faint
IC1318, N6559, N6357, N6334, N6188, Fleming's wisp in the Veil neb*
Very faint
IC 5067, N6888, N6604
Have you seen these nebulae?
Do you agree with my brightness estimates?
* Pickering's Wedge was discovered in 1904 by Williamina Fleming of Harvard College. Fleming was examining photographic plates of the region around 52 Cygni when she noticed a triangular wispy patch of nebulosity. As was the custom of the day, credit for the discovery went to her supervisor, astronomer E. C. Pickering.
http://hometown.aol.com/billferris/pwedge.html
But I think it should be called Fleming's wisp.