Clouds clouds but still some nice views

[Piero]

Threatening clouds coming from South-West.. How many of those rich and white clouds! 

Well, let's see whether something is observable after one weekend covered with rain and dark clouds! 

Date 01/09/2015   

Time 21:15-22:30   

Temperature 10C (11 km/h)   

Seeing 3 - Moderate seeing   

Transparency 4 - Partly clear   

IC4665 Oph Opn CL 15x 

Summer Beehive Cluster. One of the best targets for a wide field telescope. Easy to find as it is located just North of Beta Oph (Cebalrai).

NGC6633 Oph Opn CL 15x 

An equilateral triangulum is drawn by joining the stars Alpha, Beta and the couple 71-72. From 71-72, just continue South-East for about 4 degrees. NGC6633 can be easily reached. Its size is about half than IC4665.

IC4756 Sct Opn CL 15x 

Graff's Cluster. Continuing on the same line where both 71-72 Oph and NGC6633 lie, The Graff's Cluster can also be found quickly. This is a rather sparse open cluster but still gorgeous. 

NGC281 Cas CL+Neb 15x, 28x + UHC 

Pacman Nebula. Invisible. Although the Moon was not yet visible, the sky was just too bright due to the combination of light pollution and clouds. Possibly it was not sufficiently transparent either due to humidity.

NGC869/ NGC884 Per Opn CL 15x, 28x, 38x 

Double Cluster. A classic, but one of the best open cluster in the Northern Hemisphere. I pushed the magnification a bit higher than usual (38x) although to me. The two clusters are still largely in the same field of view. To me, the best view remains at 28x though.

NGC663  Cas Opn CL 15x, 28x 

A nice little cluster but still bigger than M103. It is located above the Double Cluster and Stock2 towards Cassiopeia. 

Beta Cas Star 15x Caph. 

Lovely chain of stars starting from Caph and moving to South for about 2 degrees. It was a little reminder of the chain of stars leading to the open cluster NGC1502.

Mel20 Per Opn CL 15x 

Alpha Per Moving Cluster. Honestly, I always wonder whether I like the most this cluster or M45. At 15x it covers 4.3 degrees of FOV very nicely showing a mixture of blue bright stars and some red. 

HIP16292-HIP16307 Cam Star 15x 

From Mel20, I moved North-West towards Gamma Per. From Gamma Per, I moved East-North-East for about 5 degrees. These stars are not double but they still form a nice coloured couple. 16292 is white-blue, whereas HIP16307 is red and slightly dimmer. Nice little gems of mag between 5 and 7.

NGC1502 Cam Opn CL 15x, 28x, 38x, 51x 

One of the most beautiful chain of stars ending in little lovely open cluster. The cluster is not big and to me it requires a magnification above 25x for being appreciated. At 38x I had the best view and I could spot about 10-12 dim stars next to the brightest ones.

Moon - Satellite 15x, 28x, 38x, 51x 

Waning Gibbous, phase 85.9%. This evening I had one of the best view of our satellite. The Moon was just coming up from the trees and a soft gentle layer of clouds was above. At 15x, this suggestive scene was all visible with plenty of little details across the Moon surface near the Terminator line but also on the main surface. Sometimes, a bird flew away from a tree and crossed the Moon which meanwhile was slowly and partially covered behind soft clouds. Eventually it emerged bright and candide again. As a whole, that picture was splendid and the surrounding clouds gave a spectacular grey faint tint to the landscape. At 28x, 38x, or 51x the Moon was gorgeous and many details were much more visible, although the whole context faded away to leave space to the Moon's portrait.

[FenlandPaul]

Very nice report, Piero, and well done for squeezing in some observing time last night. As dusk began to fall here I noticed that the sky had cleared, but half an hour later the clouds rolled back in. I did get a nice glimpse of a cloud-bathed moon through the trees as I went up to bed though.

Forecast is grim for a while now - glimmer of hope for the early hours of Saturday night / Sunday morning. Really hoping for some good clear sky around new moon this month.

Paul

[cotterless45]

Nice report mate ! Did you spot the red star between NGC 884 and NGC 869 ?

There's also the "star hole" and a chain up to Stock 2.

NGC 1502 is the "Skull & crossbones" the two bright stars making eyes ! Very close to that is the little "Blue Oyster" of

NGC 1501. Both live at the end of Kemble's cascade, one top span of Cassiopeia to the left.

Plenty to see in this area,

Nick.

[Paul73]

Nice report Piero. You did well between the clouds.

Between this and Nick's "September Targets" I'll have enough to keep me going for a couple of sessions.

Paul

[Stu]

Very nice again Piero, no chance here, heavy cloud

I do like NGC1502 at the end of Kemble's Cascade, lovely in binos to see the whole lot, but 1502 at higher power is a lovely little cluster. Not seen 1501 so will have a look for that next time out.

[mdstuart]

Very enjoyable read...almost poetic!

[Tzitzis]

Grea report as always! Very well written. Hope you can all get more time between the clouds guys!

[Piero]

Nice report mate ! Did you spot the red star between NGC 884 and NGC 869 ?

There's also the "star hole" and a chain up to Stock 2.

NGC 1502 is the "Skull & crossbones" the two bright stars making eyes ! Very close to that is the little "Blue Oyster" of

NGC 1501. Both live at the end of Kemble's cascade, one top span of Cassiopeia to the left.

Plenty to see in this area,

Nick.

No Nick, I haven't! New targets for next time then! Thanks!

I have to say that last night wasn't really the best in terms of seeing, transparency and number of clouds!

I often had to move away from a target and then go back to it. Anyway those targets are on my list now!

[laudropb]

Very good report. It's amazing how you managed to squeeze it in given the conditions. Thanks for posting.

[Piero]

I had a look at the details for NGC1501:

NGC 1501 (PN G144.5+06.5, PK 144+06.1)

Planetary Nebula

Integrated Visual Magnitude: 13.3?

Apparent Diameter: 52"

Magnitude of central star: 14.4

Mean Surface Brightness: 21.6 mag/arc-sec2

RA: 04h06m59.4s, Dec: +60°55'14" (2000) in Cam

Distance: 3600 ly

It seems to me far behond the limits of my 60mm! It could be that an OIII filter does the trick as it did for me with the Owl Nebula (M97), completely invisible otherwise. 

Has any of you tried to spot this target with a small telescope? 

Well, I will give a try anyway when the Moon is not out. It would be nice to spot it at least.

[Dave In Vermont]

My weather-maps here show clear skies for the next several days & nights. This sounds wonderful BUT, clear as it was last night, the seeing was not so wonderful. Way up there is a hazy layer of turbulence. You can see this haze in the daytime, and my money is on the massive forest-fires out west in Washington. I saw a photo from space showing this rolling into Europe, too.

So if you find it nice and clear tonight, but the seeing is off - you'll know which way to point your finger.

Pass the buckets,

Dave

[YKSE]

Piero,

NGC 1501 is mag 11.8 with surface brightness 11.2 according this site, it's small size 0.9'x0.9' seems to be doable with your 60mm scope. You may need to blink with your filters to distinguish it from stars.

[Piero]

Piero,

NGC 1501 is mag 11.8 with surface brightness 11.2 according this site, it's small size 0.9'x0.9' seems to be doable with your 60mm scope. You may need to blink with your filters to distinguish it from stars.

Thanks for the info, Yong!

I need to update my sources!

It will be a nice test! Looking forward to trying it!

[Special K]

Great stuff, Piero! I must track down that Summer Behive.