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).

An Extra-galactic Globular

6 September 2021, 22:15 – 00:00 (BST)

Seeing: Poor

Transparency: Average

Conditions: A still night, very warm and mild for the time of year. Some high, patchy cloud which cleared as the night drew on. Thin layer of condensation on the scope by the end of the session.

After allowing time for the scope to reach equilibrium (and my eyes to dark-adapt), I started with a look at the autumn highlight globular clusters M15 and M2 at 171x, although the iffy seeing prohibited me from resolving the fine detail I was hoping for.

After a quick look at Saturn, I then paid a return visit to NGC 7814, which was very faint tonight. Supernova 2021rhu, unsurprisingly, was no longer visible.

However, NGC 404 (Mirach’s Ghost) was quite obvious at 171x, even with Mirach in the field. Mirach itself is worth looking at, as it has a distinctly reddish hue.

M32, satellite galaxy, Andromeda

171x. Small, round and very bright. Condensed core with a star-like nucleus. With prolonged examination there seemed to be just a hint of elongation along the axis pointing towards M31.

Mayall II (G1), globular cluster, Andromeda

171x. Finally tracked down the Andromeda Galaxy’s biggest and “brightest” globular cluster. I reached it via a careful and somewhat complicated star-hop from M32, but it was visible with averted vision as a tiny fuzzy spot flanked by one or two faint foreground stars. Most sources give the magnitude at somewhere around 13.7, but fortunately its light is very concentrated, which helps with its visibility.

G1 was a little more obvious at 240x (still using averted vision), but it was still very challenging. Now I know how to find it, I might try this again on a better night when M31 is nearer the zenith.

I finished off with a look at Jupiter at 240x and 342x (171x + 2x Barlow). All four Galilean moons were west of the planet. Indifferent seeing smeared out most of the fine detail, but one brown barge was visible near the western limb. The orange colour surrounding the NEB appeared to have spread farther into the EZ, and the northern polar region seemed to have a slightly blue-ish tone (compared to the southern region). I’ve noticed this before but I haven’t seen it on images, so I’m wondering if this is an illusion caused by atmospheric dispersion or contrast effects.

Nature (and other) notes:

The frogs were quite vocal tonight. Also, lots of air traffic flying east (out of the country). Oddly, I didn’t see any flying west.