Cygnus Planetary

2 September 2018, 22:00 – 23:00 BST

Conditions: Poor transparency, hazy, fully clouded over by 23:00.

Sensing that time was against me, I took a quick look at M71, the Dumbbell Nebula (M27), the Coathanger cluster/asterism (could barely see NGC 6802), M15, Mars. These are all objects I've seen before under better conditions, but the evening did have one new highlight:

NGC 7027, planetary nebula in Cygnus
Observed at 133x (9mm Nagler) with and without Ultrablock. Small, but bright and conspicuous with a greenish hue. At first the nebula seemed round and featureless, but prolonged scrutiny showed an elongated oval shape. Brighter at one end, suggestion of shell structure. Possible bright knot masquerading as central star. Definitely worth revisiting at 240x on a better night.

Three More Clusters

31 August 2018, 22:00 – 23:00 BST

Just time to get in an hour of observing before the moonlight interferes.

Mars
240x (Nagler 5mm). Dust slowly clearing, hint of dark markings, polar cap very bright – like a sliver of fluorescent light.

NGC 6940, open cluster in Vulpecula
Best views at 50x (24mm Panoptic): an impressive sprinkling of stars with what looked like a central ribbon of brighter stars defining the long axis. Overall its shape vaguely resembled a tadpole or a deflating balloon on a string.

NGC 7063, open cluster in Cygnus
Loose, sparse gathering of bright stars – better suited to a wide-field refractor.

M15, globular cluster in Pegasus
The faintest stars were washed out by light from the rising moon, but it still looked impressive, particularly with averted vision.

Late Summer Clusters

6-7 August 2018, 23:00 – 01:00 BST

Tonight I set up the TV-60 and the Super Polaris for imaging M52 and NGC 457 (open clusters in Cassiopeia). While that was in progress I revisited some of last night’s targets and also sought out the following objects:

M2, globular cluster in Aquarius
Appeared as a circular fuzzball, possibly affected by haze and cloud. Some resolution with averted vision and one bright (foreground?) star offset from core. Easier to find than I expected, but needs revisiting under better conditions.

M92, globular cluster in Hercules
Every bit as impressive as M3 and M15, despite being on the “brighter” side of the sky tonight. Resolved nicely with a bright condensed core (albeit not as condensed as M15). It appeared to be a little elongated along one axis, almost oval–shaped.

NGC 129, open cluster in Cassiopeia
Loose arrangement of stars, but still obvious.

NGC 436, open cluster in Cassiopeia
Small cluster near NGC 457 (below the "feet" of the Owl Cluster). It was one of those clusters that hovered on the threshold of resolution in the 4-inch scope (which, in a way, made it more fascinating), but now with full resolution it seems a little disappointing – not as many stars as I was expecting.

M34, open cluster in Perseus
Large, bright and loose – more impressive than M39 in Cygnus, but I still think it looks better with a wider, more contrasty field.

Andromeda – Cassiopeia – Perseus

5-6 August 2018, 23:00 – 02:00 BST

As expected, I wasted a lot of time getting the SP/TV-60 combo polar-aligned and focused (but in my defence I hadn’t done it since May). I took a couple of test shots of the Veil Nebula but, realistically, exposures longer than about 90 seconds will need autoguiding – especially the further I get away from the pole. But on the plus side, I appear to have fixed the issue with the declination worm gear.

Anyway, I switched to a brighter object and shot 60 x 1 min exposures of M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. While that was in progress I pointed the XT10 at the following targets:

Saturn showed fleeting moments of good seeing, but again, not enough to justify shooting video clips. It’s noticeably lower in the sky now, so it’s unlikely it’ll look as good as it did on 25 June (at least for this year).

The Witch’s Broom segment of the Veil Nebula was faintly visible at 50x, brushing against 52 Cygni – the first time I’ve seen any part of the Veil without having to use the Ultrablock filter. Though I’m not sure I would have noticed it if I hadn’t already known it was there.

Double Cluster in Perseus
Spectacular as always. No significant increase in the number of stars I could see, but they were all that much brighter. The usual red giant stars were prominent – particularly the one halfway between the two clusters.

M31, Andromeda Galaxy
With the higher altitude I could get a sense of the galaxy extending beyond the dark dust lanes. The star cloud NGC 206 seemed to be visible with averted vision, but I’m still getting my bearings with Andromeda. The 24 mm Panoptic is better for getting more of M31 in the frame, but higher magnification might improve the contrast around its constituent parts.

M33, Triangulum Galaxy
Some tantalising structure starting to emerge, but needs to be higher in the sky. Again, higher magnification and a detailed finder chart might help with this one.

NGC 752, open cluster in Andromeda
Bright stars, but a large and very loose cluster. Better suited to the TV-60 or binoculars.

NGC 891, edge-on galaxy in Andromeda
Took a long time to find it, and even then it was extremely faint. I think I was expecting something smaller and brighter, but perhaps (although I couldn't see it) the light from the rising moon was already starting to interfere.

M76, Little Dumbbell Nebula in Perseus
Bright both with and without the filter. Double-lobed structure with one lobe clearly brighter than the other. Light greenish colour.

Then followed a quick tour of Cassiopeia to reacquaint myself with its many star clusters; not much to add on the notes from the old SP-102 log but now all the clusters are resolved to varying degrees (sometimes to their detriment, as the larger, looser clusters are hard to distinguish from the background Milky Way):
NGC 457, Owl Cluster: like meeting an old friend; one of the most distinctive clusters not in the Messier Catalogue
M103: very pretty little cluster
NGC 663, 659 and 654: 3+ clusters in the same patch of sky; potential astrophoto target
NGC 7789: very rich cluster
M52: also rich, but smaller than 7789; Bubble Nebula suspected, but not confirmed
Stock 2: large, sprawling cluster, more like a denser section of the Milky Way

NGC 281, Pacman Nebula (surrounding IC 1590 cluster) in Cassiopeia
Faintly visible without the Ultrablock filter, the addition of which increases its size as well revealing a trace of mottled detail. Very obvious dark bay eating into nebula. Sparse but tight grouping of stars at centre – more like a multiple star system than a cluster. Its size (about the same area as the moon) makes this another potential photo target for the TV-60.

Other Notes
Perseid meteors becoming more frequent.
NELM: Approximately 6 naked-eye stars counted in the square of Pegasus, indicating a limiting magnitude between 5.25 and 5.5 tonight.

Nature Note
One bat, a curlew (and some other bird – likely a wader) calling in the distance, and two frogs in the pond (one big, one little).

Planetary Nebulae in Aquila

2 August 2018, 22:00 – 00:00 BST

Transparency improving week by week, but the seeing seems to be going the other way. Saturn only showed well for fleeting moments, not enough to justify attaching the camera and the laptop. From about 23:00 onwards the entire Sagittarius “teapot” asterism was visible, with Epsilon Sagittarii (Kaus Australis) being the most southerly star I could see at -34 deg 23’ declination. (Apparent mag. +1.85).

The ISS also made one of its regular appearances.

All observations at 133x (Nagler 9mm) unless otherwise stated.

M17 (Omega/Swan Nebula), nebula in Sagittarius
Very bright both with and without the Ultrablock (although the filter really helps improve the contrast in this light-polluted part of the sky). An extended bar of nebulosity with the brightest part forming the characteristic “2” or swan shape around a conspicuous dark patch. The main bar takes on an impressively mottled structure with the filter in place.

M22, globular cluster in Sagittarius
A large, sprawling ball of stars. Surprisingly well resolved despite its very low altitude and the murky light pollution.

Intrigued by all the planetary nebulae symbols marked on the PSA chart for Aquila, I decided to take a closer look...

NGC 6751, PN in Aquila
Small, featureless disc of light.

NGC 6781, PN in Aquila
Large, low surface-brightness nebula. Responded well to the Ultrablock filter. Not perfectly round; suggestion of an asymmetric dark core.

NGC 6804, PN in Aquila
Medium sized planetary nebula. Faint field stars in and around disc – could trick a casual observer into thinking they were looking at a partially resolved star cluster.

Also looked without success for NCG 6741 and 6803 – though I discovered later it was probably due to their very small apparent size. I did however notice a couple of conspicuously bright aquamarine “stars” through the Ultrablock filter, so it’s possible I did see them without realising it.

M71, globular cluster in Sagitta
Not completely resolved (unlike the comparably rich M11), confirming its status as a globular cluster, albeit a very loose one. Roughly triangular in shape, with chains of stars forming two swept-back “wings”.

Mars
Current altitude (approx. 12 degrees) is so low I was literally looking at it through my neighbours’ fence, so the image was severely hampered by diffraction as well as poor seeing. Suggestion of polar brightening, but no significant detail seen.


Nature Note
Saw one big frog in the pond, but no froglets. The heavy rain on Friday night seems to have been the cue for a mass exodus. In recent evenings I’ve also seen a couple of bats hunting low over the garden.