490 Million Light-Years from Home

16-17 May 2020, 22:45 – 3:15

Conditions: no wind; cool (not as cold as previous sessions); some clouds – increasing over the course of the session.

Seeing: Good / average
Transparency: Average

I had no set plan for this session, which was just as well because the clouds largely dictated where I could and couldn’t point my scope.

M97, Owl Nebula, Ursa Major
171x + OIII filter. Large round disc, seemed speckled with averted vision. The dark patches (the “eyes” of the owl) were visible but ill-defined. Faint star north of nebula.

NGC 6058, planetary nebula, Hercules
171x + OIII filter. A third planetary nebula in Hercules; plotted in SA 2000, but not the PSA. Small oval nebula, near the centre of a triangle formed by 2 bright stars and 1 fainter one. The nebula was quite faint even with the filter. Brighter centre with averted vision, but I couldn’t quite tell if this was the illuminating star or a brighter portion of the nebula (immediately surrounding the star).

M61, galaxy, Virgo
Another over-optimistic attempt to look for SN 2020jfo; this time at the higher magnification of 240x, but this part of the sky was really too bright to see any stars west of the nucleus. With averted vision and enhanced breathing I could just about make out the spiral form, but that was as good as it got.

NGC 6166, galaxy, Hercules
Back down to 133x, and back to Hercules, for another object plotted in SA 2000 but not the PSA. Appeared as a very faint ellipse north of 3 field stars, aligned north-south. A little brighter towards the centre with averted vision. A tough object, but the remarkable thing about this galaxy is that it’s the dominant member of the Abell 2199 cluster, whose distance is (according to Wikipedia) a whopping 490 million light years. Other sources put it closer to 400 million light years, but either way it’s the furthest non-quasar object I’ve seen to date (ahead of NGC 4889 at 308 million light years).

From the very faint to the very bright as the ISS made the first of three passes at 23:45.

M92, globular cluster, Hercules
133x. Smaller, more condensed than M13, but still impressive. Appeared to be a couple of dark patches east of the core. If there is colour in this cluster, it’s subtle: a very pale aquamarine.

95 Herculis, double star
133x. Very attractive, bright pair of stars separated by just 6 arcseconds. Pale green primary (that colour must be a contrast effect) and a pale orange secondary (almost as bright as the primary).

NGC 6791, open cluster, Lyra
133x. Rare example of a DSO plotted in the PSA but not SA 2000. I failed to spot this last time out and with good reason: it’s a large, faint misty patch lurking in a rich star field. With averted vision it slowly starts to resolve, and there appear to be some foreground stars overlaying the cluster in direct vision. One for the big scopes, I think.

As more clouds flitted across the sky I swapped one Nagler for another and increased the magnification to 240x for quick looks at M57 and NGC 6543. Not much to add to previous observations although, on evidence of this night at least, the central star of the Cat’s Eye is easier to see in the DeLite.

At 1:20 (shortly after I was distracted by a large frog bumping into the garden shed), the ISS made its second appearance, reaching magnitude -3.3 as it passed overhead.

NGC 7023, The Iris Nebula (Caldwell 4), reflection nebula, Cepheus
133x. Bright star surrounded by an extended haze, elongated in a N-S direction. One of those objects that appears quite obvious once you know what you’re looking for, but could easily be mistaken for condensation otherwise (there are no other bright stars in the field to compare it to). The nebula appeared vaguely mottled with averted vision. There was also a noticeable lack of stars in the space surrounding the nebula.

NGC 6939, open cluster, Cepheus
133x. Better view tonight. Rich, compact cluster; spray of stars overlying an unresolved haze.

NGC 6946, Fireworks Galaxy, Cepheus/Cygnus
133x. Large amorphous haze (as previously described). A little brighter towards the centre with averted vision, but no structure that I could discern.

There was another distraction at 2:10 in the form of 2 bright satellites passing through Aquila. As I was killing time until Scorpius/Sagittarius cleared the neighbour’s tree, I temporarily switched from the Nagler to the Ethos.

M13, globular cluster, Hercules
92x. The Ethos gives an aesthetically more pleasing view of M13, but it’s not quite as easy to resolve at 92x as it is at 133x. The Ethos fov is also large enough to show the two 7th magnitude stars either side of the cluster.

I also had quick looks at NGC 6543, M57 and M4 with the Ethos, before balancing the scope on the table again.

M6, open cluster, Scorpius
133x: Large, loose collection of bright stars. A slightly better view tonight, but still only just clearing the fence, and atmospheric turbulence made it hard to find the best focus. The brightest stars seemed to form the outline of a watering can. At other times the cluster looked like a fat dragonfly or the flapping pages of a book thrown into the air. (Yes I know I'm over-reaching here, but you try finding the right words to describe a shimmering star cluster at nearly 3 in the morning.) The cluster was also visible in binoculars as a faint hazy patch with at least three stars resolved. I still couldn’t see M7, though.

The third and final ISS pass took place at 2:55; this time lower in the sky and at a less bright magnitude of -2.9.

With the clouds gathering again and the sky starting to brighten, I just had time to screw the OIII filter into the 24mm Panoptic (I’d used every other eyepiece tonight, so why not?) and take a very quick look at some summer nebulae (three of which I’d only previously seen years ago in the SP-102).

M8, Lagoon Nebula, Sagittarius
50x + OIII filter. Large and bright (prominent in the finder and in the binoculars). Nebulosity to the west, star cluster to the east, with a very obvious wide dark lane dividing the two.

M20, Trifid Nebula, Sagittarius
50x + OIII filter. Smaller and fainter than M8. Nebula surrounding tight cluster; mottled with averted vision. Needs higher magnification.

M17, Omega/Swan Nebula, Sagittarius
50x + OIII filter. Very bright nebula and quite large. Like a number “2” with an extended tail.

M16, Eagle Nebula, Serpens
50x + OIII filter. Three-pronged cluster of stars with associated haze of nebulosity. (Unlike the previous three objects, it’s the cluster which grabs the eye before the nebula.) Not nearly as prominent as M17, but at this stage the sky was too bright to really do this one justice.

Sagittarius presents a lot of interesting objects to look at in a limited time, so hopefully I’ll get at least a few clear moon-free nights over the next couple of months.