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).