Observing Planetary Nebulae

[Mark at Beaufort]

In late 2013 I found an interesting list of the brightest planetary nebulae all visible in the Northern Hemisphere.

For the last two nights I have choosen a few objects to observe after viewing the Comet. The first night I used the Skywatcher 150PDS but having failed to view one object in Delphinus I used the 10" Dob last night.

I star hopped to each object using the Uranometria star atlas together with the 80mm Opticstar frac acting as a finder (first night) and my Stellarvue 80mm finder on the Dob last night.

The first night I choose some of the brighter PN -  NGC6905 (Blue Flash Neb - Delphinus), NGC7009 (Saturn Neb - Aquarius), NGC7027 (Magic Carpet Neb - Cygnus)and NGC7662 (Blue Snowball - Andromeda). I tried to view NGC6891 in Delphinus but failed with the 6" Newt.

Last night I used the 10" Dob and was able to see NGC6891 although I had to set a high magnification to see it. Finally I decided to view PNs in Hercules and was able to view NGC6210 (Turtle Neb), IC4593 (White Eye Pie) and finally NGC6058 which was faint at 12.9 mag although was ok in the 8mm Ethos. On some of the objects I used an 0lll filter although on NGC6058 it completely disappeared.

This PN catalogue is a nice little list if you fancy studying the brighter PNs.

The brightest planetary nebulae (white) 2nd ed.pdf

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. Like the list too, will check it against the list I tend to use (which is a bit longer): http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/plannebs.html

NGC 6891 is tricky, I found, not because it is faint, but it is very compact. I first spotted it 3 years ago with Olly's Dob, and at first we failed due to bad seeing. Only under better conditions with more magnification did I find it. The filter switch diagonal (or a filter slide in a newt) can be very hand to rapidly switch between UHC or O-III and no filter. This produces a blinking effect that has helped my find quite a few tricky ones (like the two Jonckheere ones I bagged)

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks Michael for the other list. I have now viewed almost three quarters of the 41 so a list of 100 is going to be useful.

[John]

That sounds a nice project Mark - thanks for sharing the list

Interesting that one PN responded poorly to the O-III. After viewing the Veil and NA nebs last night I left the O-III on and tried viewing comet Jacques with it. I thought the comet would look much dimmer but actually it seemed just as bright and contrasty as it had without a filter if not a little better. We don't always get the results we expect

[Mark at Beaufort]

John it is interesting regarding the 0-lll filter. I notice looking back over the forum Mick (Doc) used his 16" Dob and found the PN using the blink method. Now that I have found the PN I might repeat the exercise.

[cotterless45]

These are wonderful targets with very interesting life stories. I never tire of looking at them, their diversity and the blinking effect of the small bright blue ones,

Nick.

[skfboiler]

Good report.  I went Planetary hunting myself a couple of weeks ago and saw almost all the objects you found.

[Paul73]

Thanks for the list. There are a heap of new targets (for me).

No moon or Clouds (please) tonight.

We'll see how I get on.

Paul

[cotterless45]

Just had three hours out under the most impressive sky. Our targets ? Planetary nebulae. Some really wonderful sights out there,

Nick.