The Skull and the Silver Coin

2 November 2021, 21:45 – 23:45

Seeing: Poor

Transparency: Good – Average

Conditions: A still, windless night after a surprisingly warm sunny day (but the lawn was still very muddy from the rain of recent days). In the afternoon I walked up to North Foreland, where the countless strands of spider-silk backlit by the sun made the farmer’s fields look like they were covered with fine silver blankets. The Clear Outside forecast (which is usually pretty reliable) was confidently predicting cloud and fog after dark, but it mostly remained clear, with just a few patchy clouds gathering in the northeast. However there was a lot of moisture in the air, mostly affecting the eyepieces. The low sunlight during the day had also left me with quite the headache; it took more of an effort to concentrate on what I was seeing, so I was pretty tired by the second hour of observing.

Also of note: a couple of bright blue flashes of light somewhere to the south which I thought might have been early fireworks, but there was no follow-up sound. Perhaps a distant storm was passing through the Channel.

NGC 246 (Caldwell 56), planetary nebula, Cetus

92x + OIII filter. Large (for a PN) bulbous haze; barely visible without the filter and still quite faint even with it in place. Speckled with 3 or 4 faint stars, one of which is presumably the central illuminating star. (The three brighter stars form an isosceles triangle.) This slightly punctured, speckled appearance made it seem like a cross between the two PNs NGC 6781 and NGC 6804 in Aquila. When observing an object for the first time I try to go in “cold” with little or no prior knowledge, but in this case I was vaguely aware that NGC 246 was nicknamed the Skull Nebula. With averted vision it does indeed have a blotchy, skull-like appearance. It’s certainly a more appropriate nickname than the “Pac-Man Nebula” which, confusingly, is also the informal name for NGC 281 in Cassiopeia.

NGC 253 (Caldwell 65), the Silver Coin Galaxy, Sculptor

92x. After several previous failed attempts to spot this galaxy I wasn’t getting my hopes up, but – after careful positioning of the scope to see through a gap in the neighbours’ foliage – I finally saw it as a large, faint and rather elongated ellipse angled NE to SW. Two field stars to the south and another one north, with a few fainter stars superposed on the galaxy, including one just west of the core. Averted vision showed the galaxy brightening smoothly towards the centre, but no bright core/nucleus or other details were apparent. Although faint, it wasn’t “vanishingly” faint like some of the more challenging objects I’ve tracked down, so I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to see it. I guess the sky conditions have to be just right. Having an Ethos also helps; I’m not sure I would have spotted it in any other eyepiece.

It’s a challenge for me to see any galaxy below -20 degrees declination, so although it wasn’t visually impressive, the fact I can see NGC 253 at all demonstrates that (like M83) it must be a spectacular sight from more southerly latitudes.

While in the area I also looked for globular cluster NGC 288 (which lies a couple of degrees south of NGC 253), but I couldn’t see it with any degree of confidence. I guess it must lack the central condensation of more typical globulars, plus the obstructing foliage didn’t help.

M77, Seyfert Galaxy, Cetus

92x. As per previous observations. Small, bright galaxy with an intense star-like nucleus. The nucleus seemed blue-ish, but this may have been because I had just come from Delta Ceti (which looks very blue in the Ethos). The surrounding haze swells with averted vision. Bright field star to the east. This is one galaxy that benefits from higher magnification.

A faint point of light was just about visible in the 9x50 finder at the corresponding location, but was impossible to tell whether it was the galaxy or the adjacent field star (or a combination of both).

NGC 1055, galaxy, Cetus

92x. North of M77. Very faint streak of light forming a triangle with two bright field stars to the north. Another fainter field star on the western end of the galaxy.

NGC 488, galaxy, Pisces

92x. Faint round haze west of a bright field star. Star-like core with averted vision. Another fainter field star on SE of galaxy. Visually, this one reminded me of NGC 278 in Cassiopeia.

The PSA plots a couple of other galaxies in this region, but I was unable to see them. I then relocated to M74, but the so-called Phantom Galaxy was even fainter than usual, at which point I noticed that the eye-lens of the Ethos was starting to succumb to the condensation. With the clouds starting to encroach from the northeast, I switched to the 7mm DeLite and made a return trip to M77.

M77, Seyfert Galaxy, Cetus

171x. The oval shape of the galaxy was more pronounced at this magnification, and there was more distinction between the bright core and the nucleus embedded within it, but the poor seeing smeared out any fine detail I was hoping to see. The core still seemed slightly blue, but not as much as at 92x.

Although the DeLite has a similarly-sized eye-lens to the Ethos, I thought the raised eye-cup design might provide better protection against the condensation. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be, so I was forced to switch eyepieces again.

After a first look at M42 for the season (just clearing the fence) and quick trips to M78 and the Pleiades, I rounded off the session with a look at one of the best open clusters of the winter.

M37, open cluster, Auriga

133x and 50x. Magnificent as usual: a water beetle with a jewelled heart. Looks best at low-to-medium powers. The 24mm Panoptic’s field is wide enough to show a bright orange-red star southwest of M37, contrasting with the pale red star at the centre of the cluster.

Other notes:

I glimpsed a few faint meteors while I was taking breaks from the eyepiece. I also heard a few more Redwings flying overhead.

Sightseeing in Cassiopeia and Perseus

8 October 2021, 20:45 – 22:45 (BST)

Seeing: Average

Transparency: Average

Conditions: A mild night with a light breeze. Patchy cloud at the start and end of the session.

With all the forecasts predicting clouds at some point, I wasn’t sure how much time I was going to get, so I kept the 13mm Ethos in the focuser for the entire session.

NGC 7789, open cluster, Cassiopeia

92x. Lovely, rich cluster – looks like a very loose globular in the Ethos. Orange star on the leading (west) side of the cluster.

NGC 457, open cluster, Cassiopeia

92x. The unmistakable Owl Cluster; this was always one of my favourites in the SP-102. Rich central spine of stars with several close doubles. Looks good in the Ethos.

NGC 436, open cluster, Cassiopeia

92x. Companion cluster to the Owl. About 15 members resolved in direct vision, with an underlying haze of unresolved stars.

Nature note: At approximately 21:20 I heard the first of several Redwings flying overhead. Winter is coming…

Double Cluster, Perseus

92x. What more can I say that I haven’t already said other than: wow! I don’t know if it’s the eyepiece design or something to do with the magnification I’m using, but star colours really seem to “pop” in the Ethos, particularly red giants and carbon stars.

NGC 957, open cluster, Perseus

92x. Elongated, almond-shaped cluster, with a mixture of bright stars and an underlying haze. Two bright stars at the east and west ends of the cluster. Not bad as clusters go, but its cause isn’t helped by its close proximity to the Double Cluster.

NGC 744, open cluster, Perseus

92x. Loose, vaguely bat-shaped cluster. (It also resembles – putting it less charitably – a concertina clothes horse.) Central diamond-shaped concentration of stars with a few close doubles. Bright star on the northern corner.

M76, “Little Dumbbell Nebula”, Perseus

92x. Seemed a little fainter at this magnification (possibly due to lower contrast). As noted previously, aligned NE-SW, with the SW lobe being the brighter of the two. The orange star noted last time out is due east. Field star west of the nebula, another one NW, and two more in a line farther out on the eastern side.

NGC 278, galaxy, Cassiopeia

92x. Small, round condensed fuzz southwest of a prominent blue field star. Bright core with averted vision; like an unresolved little globular cluster. A MEO satellite crawled through the field at around 22:15.

NGC 278 is certainly a lot easier to see than the two Andromeda satellite galaxies that also occupy this corner of Cassiopeia. Talking of which, NGC 185 was just visible as a faint featureless oval, but NGC 147 was a lot harder to see (as usual). After sweeping the area I thought I could detect a very faint glow south of a triangle of field stars – and by “very faint” I mean right on the threshold of visibility. I was going to take a breather and try again, but unfortunately the clouds returned at this point, bringing with them a thin layer of haze. When I went indoors I looked at a photo of NGC 147 in NSOG, and there it was south of a triangle of field stars, so I think maybe I did spot it at last. (But I’d like to see it again to be sure.)

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I also went out the following night (9 October) from 21:00 to 22:15. I had planned to follow up on the observation of NGC 147, but it was quickly apparent that the transparency was too poor for viewing faint objects. The air temperature was also noticeably cooler, with condensation appearing on the scope from the outset. (The big eye lens of the Ethos doesn’t cope well with dew.)

So instead I switched to the back-up plan and spent an enjoyable hour observing Jupiter and its moons. The seeing was mostly poor with fleeting moments of clarity, so I didn’t go higher than 240x (5mm Nagler). However it was good enough for me to watch Europa emerging from Jupiter’s shadow at approximately 21:35, appearing first as a pinprick of light, then growing to full brightness in just a few minutes.

One brown barge was visible above the NEB, and the GRS was starting to rotate into view near the end of the session, but the seeing was deteriorating badly by this point. The metal tube of the scope was also dripping wet, so I packed up for the night.

Autumn Favourites

29 September 2021, 20:30 – 22:45 (BST)

Seeing: Poor

Transparency: Average

Conditions: A cool, somewhat chilly night; gusty to begin with, but the wind dropped off fairly quickly. Low patchy clouds passing overhead (like fluffy icebergs), joined later on by high hazy clouds (all coming from the west). The sky wasn’t great and the moon was due to rise at 23:00, but with the forecast not looking good for the coming nights I figured I had to make the best of what I had.

After warming up with a look at M15 (at 133x), I popped in the OIII filter and had a somewhat optimistic search for the nearby planetary nebula NGC 7094 (using an article in the November 2018 S&T as a guide). It’s not plotted in the PSA or SA 2000 – and perhaps with good reason; I couldn’t see any trace of it.

I thought about swapping the Nagler for the Ethos to give myself a better chance of finding it, but I didn’t want to waste too much time on a single (very faint) object, so I pushed the scope up to Cygnus to drop in on an old favourite.

Veil Nebula, SNR, Cygnus

133x + OIII filter. 133x is really too high a magnification for this object, but quite a lot of structure was visible in both arcs, including the brighter edges of the Western Veil, and the “talons” extending from the Eastern Veil.

Before leaving the Veil, I tried a quick experiment: removing the OIII filter and holding it over the eyepiece of the 9x50 finder. The two arcs were just about visible using this method, but they were extremely faint – nowhere near as good as the view through the TV60 (15x + filter).

A quick look at NGC 7331 (Pegasus) confirmed that the sky (the part of it that was clear at least) was much better than it had been on 7 September, so I went after some galaxies before it got too cloudy.

NGC 7457, galaxy, Pegasus

133x. I couldn’t remember if I’d seen this one before (turned out I had), but it was fairly easy, showing as a soft oval glow which was brighter towards the centre. Suggestion of a stellar nucleus with averted vision. Two faint 12th magnitude field stars to the south; three brighter ones to the east.

NGC 7662 “The Blue Snowball”,  planetary nebula, Andromeda

133x. (A quick look before tackling galaxy NGC 7640.) Small and very bright, with a distinctive blue-green tinge; it almost seemed like it was sparkling. Even at 133x I could still see a hint of the darker core.

NGC 7640, galaxy, Andromeda

133x. Very faint streak of light, aligned roughly north-south, and “encaged” in a triangle of 11th magnitude field stars which make seeing the galaxy harder than it should be. An easy one to overlook; I can appreciate now why I had trouble spotting it before. The brighter core seemed “clumpy” with averted vision, with two points of light popping in and out of view. Reading about this galaxy later in NSOG I learned that one of these points is a magnitude 13.5 foreground star.

The advancing haze brought the galaxy-hunting to an end, so I pushed the telescope south for a look at Jupiter and Saturn. Sometimes a bit of haze can improve planetary viewing, but not tonight. The seeing was consistently poor with only coarse details visible.

I had expected to pack up at this point, but the sky had cleared over Cassiopeia and Perseus, allowing time for a few bonus objects.

NGC 7789, open cluster, Cassiopeia

133x. Another old favourite. Rich, large cluster with stars arranged in spiralling “petals”. As noted on previous occasions, the wider field of the Ethos gives the best view of this cluster.

There's an interesting (and very close) double nearby in the shape of Sigma Cassiopeiae. Worth revisiting at higher magnification on a night with better seeing.

M76, “Little Dumbbell Nebula”, Perseus

133x. North of Phi Persei. Easy at 133x despite its reputation, with the bi-lobed structure immediately apparent. The seeing wasn’t good enough to pick out the knots in the brighter lobe. Orange 7th magnitude star in same field 12’ to ESE. With the OIII filter the nebula seemed a little more boxy, with the faint outer loops just about visible with averted vision. The northern one was a little easier to see, but appeared patchy and discontinuous. 

Gamma Andromedae (Almach), double star, Andromeda

171x. Another favourite to round off the session. Golden primary (west), indigo-blue secondary (west); one of the most beautiful double star systems in the night sky.

Also of note: two medium-fast meteors after 10pm, both of similar brightness and both travelling on similar east-to-west trajectories about 10 or 15 minutes apart. Sporadics, or perhaps a pair of Southern Taurids?

The Bubble and the Veil

10 September 2021, 21:30 – 22:15 (BST)

Seeing: Average

Transparency: Average

Conditions: Cooler than the last couple of sessions (though still mild for the time of year), with a gusty wind. Cloud joining up from the west and the northeast, eventually putting an end to the session at 22:15. But the 45 minutes I did get were pretty good.

Czernik 43, open cluster, Cassiopeia

133x. About time I took some notes on this cluster given the number of times I’ve had it in the field of view. Loose, sparse cluster – hard to distinguish from the rich background of Milky Way stars. The view is currently livened up by the presence of Nova Cas 2021 right next to it.

NGC 7635, Bubble Nebula, Cassiopeia

50x + OIII filter. Seemed more “obvious” with this magnification/filter combination, but hard to define any shape on this occasion. Seemed larger too (paradoxically); perhaps I was detecting traces of the surrounding nebulosity. The clouds forced me away before I could try other combinations.

Veil Nebula, SNR, Cygnus

50x + OIII filter. Looked spectacular tonight before the clouds got in the way. The three brightest components were showing up well.

M27, planetary nebula, Vulpecula

50x + OIII filter. Very bright with this eyepiece/filter combination, but hard to make out much detail. The “spinning coin” effect seemed quite pronounced at this magnification.

The clouds were pushing in from all sides by this point, but a gap had cleared over Cygnus, allowing a quick return trip to the Veil before the sky was completely covered.

Veil Nebula, SNR, Cygnus

50x + OIII filter. Quick notes to add to previous observations. The spike of the Witch’s Broom had brighter edges with averted vision. Fleming’s Triangular Wisp is very long – starts farther north than I had previously realised. Couldn’t see any of the other, fainter sections, but I didn’t really have enough time to properly look for them.

More Autumnal Haze

7-8 September 2021, 22:30 – 00:30 (BST)

Seeing: Poor / Average

Transparency: Poor

Conditions: Similar to the previous night; warm and hazy, with a hint of a low-lying mist. Unusually, despite there being no condensation on the scope, the pages of my notebook became very soft and difficult to write on by the end of the session. Even the pages of the PSA had lost their usual sturdiness.

Once again, the poor transparency left me scratching around for things to observe, but I started out with a look at Saturn at 171x, with Titan and a couple of the other moons showing well.

M52 was visible in 7x50 binoculars as a misty, grainy patch of light. The view in the 9x50 finder was similar, but I could more easily see the fan shape and the 8th magnitude star at its apex.

Nova Cas 2021 seems to be slowly brightening again at approximately 7th magnitude.

A test of different filters and magnifications on the Bubble Nebula proved inconclusive because of the poor conditions. Need to try again on a better night.

That was followed by an ambitious attempt to look at some galaxies.

NGC 7331, galaxy, Pegasus

171x. As per previous observations. Only the core region was showing up well tonight. Stellar nucleus visible with averted vision. I did nudge the scope southwest towards the Stephan’s Quintet area, but there wasn’t even a hint of the fuzziness I've seen before.

NGC 7479 wasn’t visible tonight (at both 171x and 133x).

I kept pushing the scope south to look for Neptune. The chart showed some more galaxies en route (including NGC 7556 in Pisces), but I couldn’t see any of them. However there was a consolation prize in the bright, red-hued carbon star TX (19) Piscium, which looked like a glowing coal at 133x. It showed well in the finder too. Possibly the highlight of the night.

Neptune itself was smeared out and mushy because of the poor seeing. I had made a note of where Triton was supposed to be, and at one point I thought I caught a glimpse of it, but I was unable to repeat the observation, so that has to go down as a non-detection.

Jupiter (at 240x) was perhaps the only thing that benefited from the haze, as it seemed to improve the contrast on the cloud belts. Unfortunately the seeing was only intermittently good (and otherwise mostly poor). Ganymede and Callisto were close together.

Nature note:

Two large frogs in the pond and several smaller ones queuing up on the exit log (I suppose you could call it a frog-jam).