xrekcor's Visual Challange: How many stars do you see in the Helix neb

[ving (David)]

Originally Posted by xrekcor

Thanks for contributing David,

Could you please indicate on your sketch north and East. looks to me north
is to the right. I place diffraction spikes on the stars I didn't pencil in.

You did very well though, the star to the NW of the central star is very hard to
detect here under dark skies when S 8/10 & T 8/10. Hopefully I'll have my sketch
completed in the next day or so, we have a bushfire to the west that has been
burning over the last few days.

regards,CS

thats the exact orientation in my eyepiece. i guess then north is right as you say
er...n/w? which one is that?

David,

Try having a go when she reaches your zenith, you might be able to pull more out of it.
When it's high over head and I'm sitting on the south side off my scope north is up. As in the orientation in my sketch. cdc should tell you anyway or where ever you got your template from. looks to me East is up in your sketch. Take your sketch with you again and see if you can plot more. If you can see if you can plot the central void. as there are a number of stars in the ring and in the central void and then around the perimeter of the nebulous dounut, another circle will do. So I'm looking for stars in these three areas, and the circle makes this hard to determine.

regards,CS

Originally Posted by dhumpie

I sketch the object with and without the filter to get the full picture....

Darren

Exactly how I do it, use the filter to get the nebulous dounut right, then spend a few nights plotting stars. And be dang! if more are appearing
which means another night confirming

regards,CS

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by xrekcor

Ken, if you can locate 59-Upsilon Aquarii in your 30mm SV and pan slightly to the west,

Rob, what's a 59-Upsilon Aquarii?

Andrew, what's a MOC?

Like I said once or twice before: "20 years at this and I still know nothing!"

Hey Ken,

Np's mate, 59-Upsilon Aquarii is a star just east of the Helix. Actually I tried it last night and found in my 30mm SV I could get both in the same field of view. 59-Upsilon Aquarii also has this designation SAO 191235 if you have some astro soft like CDC you should be able to punch it in. Or you could line up Uranus and pan 11° due south where you will come across 59-Upsilon Aquarii and the Helix.

MOC is Monthly Object Challenge, The helix happens to be one of October's

If you like I can make a star chart for you, that shows a fairly easy star hop to the Helix. The Helix should look pretty good from your dark skies.

regards,CS