September 18, 2011: Dodging clouds, but a nice run of DSOs

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Yesterday was rather mixed, with clear skies and clouds and torrential rain alternating during the day. The clouds and clear bits were still there come evening, and occasionally there was a distant flash of lightning, but the clear bits were getting bigger so I checked out the sky's transparency with the 15x70.

First test: NGC 7000, the North America Nebula. I was stunned I could see it from my backyard, but I often find that the patches of sky between clouds can be stunningly clear. Feeling bold, I tried M101, and lo and behold, it was there in averted vision. I think I spotted SN2011fe below the core as well. I then searched for NGC 6834 in Cygnus. Starting from Albireo, I star-hopped to the right position and found a little ball of fuzz.

I decided to set up the C8, and had a more detailed look. Albireo itself was a beautiful pair, which funilly enough I had never really taken time for (not being a double-star man). The colours are just amazing. I found NGC 6834, but found it was actually harder in the big scope to sift it out of the star field. In averted vision it appeared as a fuzzy ball with some stars sprinkled across, in direct a row of four or five stars dominates the little cluster. Best view at 50x.

I tried a nearby planetary but failed to get that. I swung over to Cepheus, and after several attempts, thwarted by the clouds swung the scope over to M13 to check the alignment of the 16x70 finder. It was slightly off. I corrected that, said WOW at the sight of M13, and went back to Cepheus. I then did manage to get NGC 6939. I find this a difficult open cluster, nearly as bad as NGC 188 (Caldwell 1). It is a diffuse sprinkling of fairly faint stars, best seen in averted vision in my C8 at 50x.

I then moved a bit to NGC 6946, Caldwell 12, and was pleasantly surprised I could make out a fuzzy shape in averted vision. I moved the scope a bit and the fuzzy object moved with it. It was about as hard as M101 at the moment, but given that M101 is low in the sky and this near zenith, this is not an easy object at all. Closer to IC 342 I think.

Having bagged that Caldwell, I moved to NGC 7023, Caldwell 4, or Iris Nebula (and cluster). Curiously, the cluster showed up best in the 22mm Nagler, whereas the nebula showed up in the 40mm as quite an extended nebulosity in averted vision. The UHC filter increased contrast a bit, but not much. Given that it is a reflection nebula, this is not surprising.

Moving quite a bit in RA, I got NGC 6543, Caldwell 6, or the Cat's Eye Nebula. This is a neat little planetary, good surface brightness (though maybe I just saw the core), and distinctive blue-green colour. UHC filter helped, but was not needed. 119x magnification was helpful, but the object is distinct from stars at 50x.

After a quick look at that grand planetary, M57. I keep think I see hints of green, but maybe I am imagining things.

Finally, I tracked down NGC 7086, a nice little open cluster in Cygnus (at the Cepheus end). Easily found by moving north from M39 in declination until you hit a curious sigmoid asterism seen in the finder. The cluster is close to one of the bends in the S. Through the scope, a neat sprinkling of stars is seen, best framed at 50x with 1.36 deg FOV (Paragon 40mm).

The clouds were getting more ominous, so I decided to pack the stuff in. Still 6 new DSOs adding 5 Herschels and 3 Caldwells to the lists is not bad. I was really surprised at the transparency of the sky between the clouds.