August 6, 2012: Best night so far in France

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Some more tales from my sojourn in France this summer. By August 6, the moon was no longer troublesome in the evening, so I got some proper DSO-hunting done.

I set up the scope early to catch NGC 5694, Caldwell 66, after finding the correct pattern of stars in Hydra with the bins, only to find it had just set behind the trees when I had everything set up. Bummer!

Never, mind, there are other globulars to be had, so M4 was the next target. I have never seen it through a scope under good conditions, so this was a good chance to see this somewhat diffuse globular properly. Apart from its low surface brightness compared to the likes of M22 and M13, it has some striking, almost linear patterns of stars in the central region. Quite the best view I have had of this object.

I then moved the scope a bit to find NGC 6144, a globular quite close to M4. Due to the aforementioned poor viewing conditions for M4, and the nearby glare of Antares, I ad never been able to spot this globular, but this time it proved quite easy. A bit higher, in Ophiuchus, NGC 6366 was another one that had eluded me until now, but this time a low surface brightness haze appeared in the right spot consistently. Not an easy one at all.

Back on the Caldwell trail, I picked up NGC 6302, the Bug Nebula (Caldwell 69) quite easily. It clearly showed in the UHC filter, as an elongated planetary, with hints of fuzzy, almost filamentous structures at the two extremities (averted vision in the latter case).

M7 was nearby and was glorious indeed, without encroaching moonlight. It did not fit comfortably in the 1.25 deg FOV afforded by the 31mm T5 Nagler. Back to globulars, I picked up NGC 6355 as a fuzzy globular, not very easy, higher up in Ophiuchus. Nearby planetary NGC 6369 was a pleasant surprise. At apparent magnitude of 12.9, I had not expected it to be easy, but a neat little circle showed, especially in the UHC filter.

Back in Sagittarius, I found NGC 6624, a very nice little globular near Kaus Media. This was a staging post to move to Corona Australis, where I picked up NGC 6723, a really nice globular, close to NGC 6729 (Caldwell 68). The latter did not show, though NGC 6726 did.

I tried Barnard's Galaxy, or Caldwell 57, or NGC 6822 again, but no go. I did get some hints of vague nebulosity, but too faint to be sure. Moonlight was beginning to be a nuisance. Just above the galaxy I did spot NGC 6818, or the Little Gem Nebula. This is a little gem indeed! At very high surface brightness it was magnificent (if small) in the 17mm with UHC filter.

I then pointed the scope further west to avoid encroaching moonlight, and had a quick look at NGC 6530 in M8 (really nice circular open cluster), and moved on passed M19 to NGC 6284 (a difficult globular in encroaching moonlight) and NGC 6287 (even harder). I finished the session with something much easier: M13. After admiring it a while I could not resist trying one last Herschel 400 object: NGC 6229, high up in Hercules. This is a very easy and compact globular, with high surface brightness.

All in all a very nice evening's work with 12 new objects to show for my efforts. The few failures at least made me aware of where they should be, and I could attempt them next evening.

[KevUU]

Sounds like you had a really good time down there.

I have a tendency to not reply to posts talking about observations which are well beyond where I am at the moment (like this one), as I feel I have little to add; but I just wanted to say thanks for the posts, I've been enjoying reading them (and hearing about what's on offer once I work out how best to sate the inevitably starting fever!).

Cheers

[Stu]

Great report Michael, as always. I very much admire your skill and determination tracking down all these wonderful objects. You inspire me to be more adventurous, and better planned for the few opportunities I do get, which has led to some good success.

Which scope were you using?

Cheers

Stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report Michael, as always. I very much admire your skill and determination tracking down all these wonderful objects. You inspire me to be more adventurous, and better planned for the few opportunities I do get, which has led to some good success.

Which scope were you using?

Cheers

Stu

Thanks Stu. I was using the C8, which I could carry with all the camping gear this time round (we now have a (secondhand) Renault Espace, love that car, simply for the ease of packing loads of stuff). I simply look up stuff in the Sky Atlas 2000.0 (Deluxe Edition), and set star-hopping paths from landmarks I know well. A big finder like the 16x70 I brewed up helps a huge deal.

[Stu]

Lovely scope, very different field when using the 31t5 in the C8 versus my apo (3.6°). In my mak I think it gives around 0.7°! When I first got the mak I wondered why finding things was so tricky

The Espace sounds ideal. I have a totally unsuitable 10 year old 330 coupe, fast, but hopeless for carrying anything hence the roofbox. To be changed quite soon for something sensible. My dream though is an old style VW camper van which I can disappear off with all my kit to lots of dark places.

The big finder sounds ideal. I am hoping to get my 10" sorted by the autumn and might even stick my old st80 on it as a finder

Need to have a good read through your other reports, hadn't seen them before now.

Stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Cheers, I use the 80mm F/6 for wide views (5.3 deg with the 31T5). I will add some more reports from the summer holidays later.

[Stu]

Now that's wide!

Stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

But then your apo scope has the larger aperture. There is always a trade-off

[Stu]

Too true

Stu