NGC 6781 - Planetary Nebula in Aquila

[MarkRadice]

I made this observation on 7 August with the 14" dob and have just got round to writing it up.

NGC 6781 - Planetary Nebula in Aquila

Quite an attractive nebula if somewhat bland circle.  Appears to be slightly brighter on one side (very subtle if at all) with a slightly darker centre.  Responds well to averted vision and enhanced somewhat by UHC filter.  The sketch was interrupted by my wife bringing a very welcome tea and joining for a quick look at M11 and M57.

Sketched with HB (stars) and 2H pencil + blending stump (nebula itself), scanned and then redrawn in Potato Shop Elements.

Further details are on my blog http://www.refreshingviews.com/observing-report-7-august-2015/ 

[xtreemchaos]

great write up mate and drawing.thanks for posting. charl.

[laudropb]

It is always nice to see a sketch, especially one as well executed as yours. Thanks for sharing.

[scarp15]

Good sketch and a nice target, as it happens I also observed this on Fri 7 Aug from a dark site with my 14" dob, in my notes I wrote a bright fuzzy, tennis ball in profile. From an earlier report by Nick, Cotterless 45, I believe it is nick named The Ghost of the Moon.

[mariosi]

Great work!

Thank you for sharing

Marios

[MarkRadice]

Iain - fantastic to think we observed the same object on the same night with the same sized instrument!  I like the name Ghost of the Moon, it could even be a title for a book.

[scarp15]

Yes quite an evocative name. The 7 August provided the first opportunity here, making it worth while for traveling. Whilst it felt as though I was waiting an age for darkness to descend, it is absorbing slowly watching as the brighter stars make their appearance. Look forward to any further observational planetary nebula sketches, for the record in my case, I was using an OIII filter. 

[acr_astro]

Hi Mark,

fine sketch! Quite seldom that we see a sketch of a planetary nebula here. Well done and thanks for sharing!  I observed that nebula last summer with my 10" f/5 Dobsonian but didn't sketch it.

Achim

[stevecoe]

Howdy all;

Here is my sketch of NGC 6781, it is a fine planetary nebulae and I have returned to it often.  Here is an observation and drawing on a magnificent night.

NGC 6781 13" f/5.6 100 miles from Phoenix  Seeing=8/10, Tranparency=10/10  Wow night

100X--pretty bright, large, a little brighter on south side, smooth disk at this low power.  220X--no detail on disk revealed, still a smooth disk that is brighter on south side.  There are 2 13th magnitude stars involved at the edge of the disk, one on west side, one on north side.  Adding UHC filter enhances contrast of entire disk and shows a brighter "E" shape within it.
 

[MarkRadice]

Looks great from those dark desert skies! 

[Mike73]

Just thought I'd add my sketch of NGC 6781 just for comparison.

Its fairly similar to Stevecoe's in that there was a definite 'half shell' shape but I didn't pick out the little bar stretching into the centre like Steves, those must have been amazing conditions!

[stevecoe]

Mike, Mark, et al;

Yes, that was indeed a prefect night, rare is the evening I rate the transparency at 10 out of 10.  I looked up that night on my Excel spreadsheet and sorted by transparency.  There are only 7 out of over 1000 nights that I gave a 10 for transparency.  One must take advantage of those.

Clear skies to us all;

Steve Coe

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Some very nice sketches here