Another evening spent on Cygnus

[Piero]

After one week, I finally had a chance to go out for a brief session this evening.

There were some targets I could not really see last time because of the full moon (see http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/253615-cygnus-west-end/#entry2766064).I did not go through all the open clusters located on the West side of Cygnus, but I decided to visit the targets I missed. First of all, on my list there was Omega Cyg, a nice double star in my opinion. I also managed to see the Blinking planetary nebula. After reading one of the last report by Nick (cotterless45), I gave a try to NGC188 and NGC40. Not that I expected much to be honest, but it was still interesting to see what was visible, or better findable. Thanks Nick! 

Anyway, apart from all these challenges for a small telescope, the biggest pleasure for tonight was to see some gorgeous double stars at low power. Although it is nice to push the limit of a telescope at high magnification trying to split tight doubles, I find the observation of these targets (and many others) really enjoyable at low power when this is possible. I guess the difference is like admiring a portrait vs admiring a landscape. Possibly my addiction to wide field is due to the fact that I love landscapes.. 

Date 01/10/2015

Time 20:00-21:30

Location Cambridge, UK

Altitude 12m

Temperature 11C (5 km/h)

Seeing 3 - Moderate seeing

Transparency 3 - Somewhat clear

Telescopes Tele Vue 60 F6

Eyepieces Panoptic 24mm, Nagler 13mm, Nagler 7mm, Nagler 3.5mm, Powermate 2.5x

Filters Astronomik OIII

Delta Cyg Dbl Star 15x, 51x, 69x, 103x, 129x

Tonight, the seeing was not very good. In any case, I was not able to split this double. I also wonder whether I did last time. After examining the diffraction rings, I could not spot any anomaly letting me think of a star companion. 

Omicron Cyg Dbl Star 15x

Omicron 1 and 2 form a large pair of similar brightness separated by more than 2 degrees. The two stars were orange-ish. A nice blue star is located next to Omicron 1. Some dimmer stars are also located near Omicron 2.  

Omega Cyg Dbl Star 15x

Omega 1 and 2 are still widely separated although less than Omicron 1 and 2 at the same magnification (about 1 degree apart). Omega 2 (Ruchba) is an interesting red star with a close dimmer white companion.

Theta Cyg Star 15x

From the white star Iota Cyg (West Cyg), Theta Cyg can be found easily and is close to another star. Theta is yellow, whereas the companion is orange. The two form a nice pair. 

16C Cyg Dbl Star 15x, 28x

A pair of almost identical yellow stars located less than 1 degree North of Theta Cyg and within 1 degree from NGC6826. 

NGC6826 Cyg Pln Neb 15x - OIII, 28x, 51x + OIII

Blinking Nebula. Mag:8.8, SB:6.9. Invisible at 15x without OIII filter. At 28x with OIII filter, it appeared as a luminous dot compared to the nearby stars which were dimmer. At 51x it appeared as a fat dot. The shape was quite regular and did not show the classic fading border that many other planetary nebulae show.

NGC188 UMi Opn CL 15x, 28x

Also called C1. I was a bit in a rush for this target as the first group of clouds for tonight was covering the sky. Very few stars, possibly 3-4, were visible with averted vision. This target requires a darker sky or a larger aperture for being slightly appreciated. 

NGC40 Cep Pln Neb 15x, 28x +/-OIII

Mag:10.7, SB:7.3. From Gamma Cep (Alrai), I easily star hopped to the location of NGC40, also called C2. Nothing was visible without a OIII filter except for some faint stars of mag 9.5-10 visible directly. With OIII filter, the nebula was not visible or if it was, it was extremely faint with averted vision. I cannot exclude that that faint light was due to those faint stars rather than the nebula itself though. As for C1, also this target requires a darker sky or a larger aperture to be spotted and appreciated.

[laudropb]

Hi Piero. Very nice report. Did you manage to get the nebula to blink by looking away from it?

[Piero]

Hi Piero. Very nice report. Did you manage to get the nebula to blink by looking away from it?

Hi! Yes averted vision helped considerably. Thankfully it was not difficult to spot its location as it was the only targets whose brightness was not severely affected when the filter was used. As usual no structure was visible at that magnification, but it's still interesting to spot its location, I think!

[Mike73]

Hey Piero

That was a great read, you do very well with that little 60.

[Helix]

Excellent report, Piero.

All your reports joy to read. I am so amazed how much could be achieved just with small aperture telescope.

[Piero]

Excellent report, Piero.

All your reports joy to read. I am so amazed how much could be achieved just with small aperture telescope.

Thanks helix,

I wish i had a bigger telescope, but that is what I can have right now, so I try to use it as much as I can!

[egris]

Super write up

Cygnus is also one of my favourite constellations