Prop...M13

[jetstream]

After being inspired by another thread I had to try M13's prop again with some sort of strategy.....The first strategy was to NOT look for a line of stars (thanks John) and to look for rifts/lanes like in Carolines Rose (thanks Nick).Armed with the confidence given by SGL'ers that the 10" can see the prop, I figured it may be mag/eyepiece dependent and surprise surprise!

M13's propeller seen in direct vision!with only 2 of my eyepieces however,best is the 6mm Delos followed by the 7mm Luminos.1 other EP tried showed it with averted vision and the rest nothing but a great view of M13.I didn't realize how big this feature is,I was previously looking for something small.

The home skies @ 19.9 mag were pretty good,not great transparency, but enough for the 120ED to show the Veil and the VX10 the Crescent neb shell.This(Crescent) is another first from home,NGC 6905 was a no go.....tried with OIII low mag,not sure how this thing is supposed to look.I need to learn how to star hop...the RACI gives me fits though .

I'm going back out to see some great star colors before packin' up

[Mike73]

Glad you spotted it Gerry, its not a tough thing to see you just need to know what to look for.

I find the Cresent is quite hard with any kinda LP, nice object from a dark site though.

FWIW I never used a RACI when going through the Messier list, I just didn't need it as they are all big and bright easy to find objects but the smaller almost stellar PN's can be tricky just using a Telrad. I use Nexus on my 16" now though, I used the LZ + VIP nearly all night last Monday, think I took it out of the focuser twice!

[swamp thing]

Maybe M13 should be renamed the Mercedes cluster?

[RikM]

I love M13 the propeller is a nice feature and quite easy after you see it the first time. Either 120x or 171x work for me.

[estwing]

Well done Gerry

[AndyWB]

Jealous - I tried for the Crescent for ages the other week and couldn't see it at all.

[jetstream]

Jealous - I tried for the Crescent for ages the other week and couldn't see it at all.

Andy you will get the Crescent,just a matter of time,I tried for a long time from home here with no luck but the sky finally revealed it.Only a faint shell from home and it is exit pupil sensitive from less than truly dark skies IMHO.My 17mm didn't work,but the 21mm did-I tried with a bunch of different combo's.The OIII sure works.

I thought that the Crescent was fainter than the North American neb,but this appears not to be the case.

[AndyWB]

Okay, that's weird - I actually find the NA neb pretty easy from anywhere dark (though I gather I'm in the minority), but the Crescent - nothing, even with an OIII filter. But I did only try at 28mm.

[jetstream]

I agree,maybe the transparency or who know what changes things,I tried and tried to see the NA neb like I say and not even a squeak of a shadow...And yet I got patches of the Wisp the same night-maybe its my object recognition but I have viewed the NA neb lots so not sure.There is a lot of stars around the Crescent,can kinda camo it

[Don Pensack]

NGC6888, The Crescent Nebula, is visible in my 12.5" from mag.21.4 skies without a filter.

With a filter, it's shaped like a large pear (or ear, depending on how you see internal striae in the nebula).

At mag.20.8, it gets a lot tougher without a filter, and an O-III is necessary.

At magnitude 20.5 (the brightest skies i observe under for any DSO observing), it's hard with an O-III filter

and impossible without--well, maybe similar to the Veil without a filter in somewhat darker skies.

At mag.19.9 skies (moderate-severe light pollution), transparency will be key.  You want the contrast with the sky

to be as high as possible.

Since it's large, you'll want to start with 60X and look for something maybe 15' or so long.

If using an O-III, keep the magnification low (say, 30X or less in a 120mm scope).

If no filter is used, 60-75X MAY decrease sky brightness enough to see it with averted vision.

If the Veil is visible WITHOUT a filter, NGC6888 should be visible WITH.

Good luck.

[jetstream]

So Don about the OIII's.....how much darker is the sky background Lumicon OIII vs Astronomik OIII?Can you see stars in the Crescent with the Lumicon?

[swamp thing]

So Don about the OIII's.....how much darker is the sky background Lumicon OIII vs Astronomik OIII?Can you see stars in the Crescent with the Lumicon?

I certainly could. It's in the Milky Way there's hundreds of the blighters.

[faulksy]

i viewed the prop in m13 last night at a amazing 320x, this was with a bgo so you couldnt see the whole thing but you could see lovely separations in the prop. beauty