A Crystal Ball in Taurus

2 November 2018, 19:45 – 21:45 GMT

Cold, very light wind, transparency improving over the course of the session.

Double Cluster, Perseus
Viewed at 50x (24mm Panoptic). Comparing against recent photo (above). The lower magnification is better for framing the clusters – at the expense of some contrast – but the eyepiece view always beats the photographic representation. Red giant stars showing well.

Cr 466, open cluster in Cassiopeia 
Large and loose, would probably look better in a wide field refractor.

vdB 1, reflection nebula in Cassiopeia
First entry in O’Meara’s Secret Deep book. Despite its obscure designation it stood out reasonably well as an extended, if subtle, haze surrounding three stars. Not surprisingly the Ultrablock did nothing to improve the view (other than damping the glare from Beta Cas). Probably worth revisiting at higher magnification on a darker night.

M76, Planetary Nebula in Perseus
Prolonged averted vision (+ Ultrablock filter) seemed to reveal the faint “loop” extensions on either side of the main nebula (brighter on one side). Starting to wonder whether an O III filter might make a significant difference on this and similar nebulae.

NGC 1501, Planetary Nebula in Camelopardalis
133x + Ultrablock filter: green-grey disc which seemed to subtly change shape depending on which side of it I was looking. Otherwise, same details seen as on 9 October.

NGC 1514 (The Crystal Ball Nebula), Planetary Nebula in Taurus
The undoubted highlight of the session – a very pretty planetary nebula flanked by two nearby 8th magnitude stars (which help make the nebulosity obvious even at 50x). At 133x it appeared as a 9th magnitude star peering out from a cocoon of light. Obvious without the filter, but the Ultrablock really enhanced the view. The edges didn’t have a sharp cut-off (unlike other PN I’ve looked at recently), but the nebula had a certain indefinable quality about it that distinguished it as a Planetary Nebula rather than an Emission Nebula (like the difference between smoke and mist). It seems from my notes that I never tried for this with the 4-inch scope, but it doesn’t deserve its reputation as a difficult object. Having two similar-brightness stars in the same field-of-view really helps to “lock in” the averted vision.

Other notes: failed to find NGC 1275 (galaxy, Perseus), but did spot a lovely close double-star pair in the vicinity. Looked a little bit like a condensed facsimile of Eta Cas.

NGC 1342, open cluster in Perseus
133x. Fairly loose at this magnification. The “starfish” shape started to become apparent when I nudged the scope around, so would probably look better at 50x.

Also, a first look at M38 and NGC 1907, pair of open clusters in Auriga: very nice, well resolved at 133x. Two rich clusters presenting very different aspects – would definitely make a good imaging target for the TV60.

Condensation wasn’t so much of an issue this time, being noticeable only on the red dot finder.

Cassiopeia – Camelopardalis

9 October 2018, 22:00 – 23:45 BST

Conditions: Transparency not great again, but still plenty of bright objects to look at.

NGC 281, nebula in Cassiopeia
Ultrablock filter helped a lot to improve the contrast at 50x (Panoptic 24mm). Central portion bright, contrasting against dark “maw”. Some mottled detail visible - dark lanes cutting through the nebula. Hard to determine overall size – nebula faded smoothly into background sky with no obvious cut-off.

Scanned the Cassiopeia/Perseus region for nebulae. Nothing popped out, but did sweep past some attractive open clusters, including Stock 23.

Gamma Arietis, double star in Aries
Pleasing blue-white pair of stars, equal brightness - like headlights.

NGC 1501, planetary nebula in Camelopardalis
Fairly bright medium-size PN, almost round. Slightly darker core revealed with averted vision, but not a “smoke-ring” like M57. Holds brightness at 240x (Nagler 5mm); appeared clumpy/mottled at higher magnification, seemed slightly brighter on north/south edges.

NGC 1502, open cluster in Camelopardalis
Viewed at 133x (Nagler 9mm); bright, rich cluster, pairs of stars running through middle. Triangular or wedge shape – like a racing yacht.

Galaxies and Ice Giants

4 October 2018, 21:45 – 00:00 BST

Conditions: The seeing was quite good but the sky was a little hazy, affecting the transparency.

NGC 7479, galaxy in Pegasus
Viewed at 133x (9mm Nagler): faint, extended streak of light with bright star at one end and a fainter one at the other. First impression - not unlike NGC 891. Sky transparency not good enough to see spiral arms, but suggestion of mottled structure along central axis.

NGC 404, Mirach’s Ghost, galaxy in Andromeda
Follow up observation at 240x (5mm Nagler). Showed up very well. High power made it easier to keep Mirach out of the field of view and to see more detail in the galaxy itself: condensed core and suggestion of nested structure rather than smooth gradation – arranged in two or three “shells” of brightness.

Neptune
Appeared as a blue “out of focus” star. The colour made it stand out from neighbouring stars. Hard to resolve, even at 240x. Two faint stars in vicinity.

Uranus
Obvious green-grey disc even at 133x. Clearly resolved at 240x – no detail or moons seen.

NGC 7331, spiral galaxy in Pegasus
Bright core, extended envelope, sharp cut-off on one side, indicative of dust lane. Very much like a smaller copy of M31. Could probably take 240x.

M74, spiral galaxy in Pisces
Faint, but still obvious despite its reputation as the toughest Messier. At 133x it showed a condensed core surrounded by a large faint disc. Hard to see any detail, but darker areas possibly indicating regions between spiral arms.

NGC 772, spiral galaxy in Aries
Small asymmetric patch of light, lacking same degree of condensation as M74. Seemingly irregular. My old notes tell me that I did see this with the Vixen 102, describing it as looking like a "ghost globular".

NGC 925, spiral galaxy in Triangulum
Extremely faint, amorphous patch of light. Could be easily overlooked if just sweeping through the area.

M33, spiral galaxy in Triangulum
Seemed positively bright compared to the previous three galaxies. One spiral arm clearly seen: clumpy patch of light curling from core towards a bright field star. The question remains (as with NGC 891) as to how much of this I would be able to see if I wasn’t already familiar with the photographic representation.

A quick look at the M31 satellite galaxies:
M32, Andromeda: star-like core.
M110, Andromeda: faint field star nearby perhaps matching location of globular? Maybe that's wishful thinking, but the G1 globular should just about be within my the range of my scope. Will need a detailed finder chart or photo to verify.

A quick look at two open clusters in Perseus:
NGC 1528 & NGC 1513: misty patches at 50x, partially resolved.

NGC 1664, open cluster in Auriga
Very distinctive cluster; stars form an outline resembling a kite or a stingray.

NGC 1579, emission nebula in Perseus
Very faint patch of light, possibly doubled. Somehow managed to lose track of it when I put in the Ultrablock. Though I might have been hampered by condensation.


Eventually the session was curtailed by condensation on the secondary mirror (although the primary remained dry). Could mean that I’ll be limited to two-hour sessions between now and spring.

Nature Note:
3 frogs in the pond: 1 big, 2 small.

Double Stars and Double Clusters

16 September 2018, 22:00 – 00:00 BST

First quarter moon adding to the light pollution in the south-west, but at least the seeing was good.

M15, globular cluster in Pegasus
Examined at all three available magnifications. The sky background was too bright to resolve stars at 50x; there was an improvement at 133x, but on this occasion the best view came at 240x – pleasing contrast, lots of faint stars resolved.

Veil Nebula, supernova remnant in Cygnus
Hindered a little bit by moonlight, but with the Ultrablock to filter most of it out, plenty of detail still visible. The nebula had a winding, braided structure. Brightness held up well at 133x with the two main arcs extending across several fields of view. Pickering’s Triangle suspected, but not confirmed – if so, it was right on the threshold of visibility.

A quick tour of the open clusters in northern Lacerta was a little disappointing. The sky was too bright to do justice to the 24mm Panoptic, and at 133x the field of view was too small to properly frame the clusters. For the most part, they just looked like sparse associations of bright stars.

A similar tour of the Cassiopeia clusters at 50x fared better due to the richer clusters and the darker background in that part of the sky. An intermediate magnification might help with some of these NGC clusters.

Eta Cassiopeiae, double star 
Looked very nice at 133x, with the secondary appearing to have an unusual purple hue.

Double Cluster in Perseus
The red giant stars stood out more at 133x, but the two clusters lose some of their impact at this magnification. However, higher magnifications might be useful for separating close pairs and picking out fainter cluster members at 240x.

The following observations were all carried out with the Ultrablock filter.

M76, planetary nebula in Perseus
Holds brightness very well all the way up to 240x. Bi-lobed, boxy shape, with the brighter lobe appearing almost rectangular. No colour apparent. Prolonged examination suggested one or two knots/condensations within the brighter lobe.

NGC 404 (Mirach’s Ghost), galaxy in Andromeda
Only a quick look, but this little galaxy showed up surprisingly well. It seemed the Ultrablock dimmed the glare from Mirach more than it dimmed 404, but I’ll have to try this again without the filter to verify.

NGC 604, emission nebula in M33, Triangulum Galaxy
Perhaps it stood out a little more through the filter, but the difference seemed marginal at best.

NGC 1491, emission nebula in Perseus
I actually meant to look for a different nebula, but this one stood out surprisingly well as an extended misty patch with a single reasonably bright star offset from the centre. Suggestion of mottled structure at higher magnification. Faded smoothly into the background sky, unlike some of the nebulae I’ve been looking at recently.

A Nebula in another Galaxy

14 September 2018, 23:00 – 01:00 BST

Started by looking for Neptune but I couldn’t be sure I’d found it, even at higher magnification. Lack of bright stars nearby makes it difficult to star-hop with the EZ Finder.

M31, Andromeda Galaxy
Satellite galaxies M32 and M110 showed up well at 133x, but M31 still frustratingly bland apart from the dark lanes.

M33, galaxy in Triangulum
Viewed at 133x for a change and very quickly spotted the star-forming region NGC 604 as a small but obviously non-stellar patch of nebulosity close to a foreground star. I could still see it when I switched to 50x, though it’s easy to overlook at lower magnification. (Certainly much easier to pick out than the NGC 206 star-cloud in Andromeda.) With hindsight I probably could have seen it with the Vixen 102 if I’d known where to look, but now I can use it as a reference point to trace out the spiral arms. It's kind of mind-boggling to realise that I’m looking at a nebula in another galaxy. A reminder that higher magnifications are worth trying even on low surface brightness objects like M33.

NGC 891, edge-on galaxy in Andromeda
Still very challenging, but an improvement on my last attempt. Appeared as a very faint spindle of light, a little brighter on one side. Central dark dust lane seen fleetingly with averted vision as a narrow bar of empty space. I'm not familiar with using averted vision to see a dark or “absent” object (especially when I'm already using averted vision just to see the galaxy), so the effect was slightly disconcerting. It was as if the dark lane was right in front of my eyes the whole time, but for whatever reason I had to “allow” my brain to see it. Would I have noticed that level of detail if I hadn’t already seen so many photos of NGC 891? That's a tough question to answer, but I'd like to observe this galaxy again on a really dark, transparent night to put it beyond doubt.

Almach, double star in Andromeda
Very pretty at 133x – straw coloured primary, aquamarine secondary. Shows what an improvement steady atmosphere and properly-cooled mirror make not just to resolution, but colour perception too.

NGC 1023, galaxy in Perseus
Extended ellipse of light with a bright core, not unlike 7331 in Andromeda.

NGC 1245, open cluster in Perseus
Faint but rich sprinkling of stars, shaped like a large swift or a bow “aimed” at a brighter nearby star.

Double Cluster, Perseus
Hard to put into words how stunning this is through a telescope. Red giant stars showed up better with improved seeing and higher altitude. Exquisite resolution of bright and faint stars in the densest regions of the clusters.

Pleiades (M45), Taurus
Too large for field even at 50x. Definite mistiness around some stars – reflection nebula at last? Need to cross-check against photo, and inspect at higher magnification.