Showcase Planetaries of Aquarius

[StarSapling]

Took a gander at the Helix and Saturn nebulas in Aquarius the other night.  They were low to the southwest at the time, so they were in the light dome of Tucson, but I still had some good views.

11/5/2015 - Oracle, Arizona - seeing good - trans fair - obs good

120mm f5 refractor

Aquarius:

NGC7293 - Helix Nebula - PN - Visible with both my 8x42 bins and 6x30 finder! - 24x - Large, somewhat dim, circular nebulosity - with averted vision, some structure could be made out - gave the impression of a dissipating smoke ring -  60x - larger, but not nearly as prominent as at 24x - ragged and billowy ring structure - central area of ring elongated north to south - several faint stars scattered across surface, one popping in and out of view dead center - central star? - appears to be an object best viewed at low magnifications.

NGC7009 - Saturn Nebula - PN - 24x - nearly stellar in appearance - 120x - smallish, bright, pale blue - shaped somewhat like a football (rugby ball) with long axis oriented west northwest/east southeast - hints of a very faint halo - it does somewhat resemble Saturn as seen through my 20x80 bins

[cotterless45]

Very neat targets,

Nick.

[PeterW]

The helix always reminds me of a big version of M57

Good find

PeterW

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

They are very nice indeed. I got my best views from the Provence and Tuscany, where they are considerably higher up in the sky. The view of the Helix from Tuscany with my C8 and Nagler 31T5 at 65x was absolutely stunning