View of North American Nebula through 120mm refractor

[trevboyd]

After seeing some very nice looking images of the NA nebula on here, I thought I'd have a go at looking for it. Stellarium makes it look very easy to find, just beside Deneb. So I pointed my scope in that general direction and had a pan around. Nothing to see except a lot of stars (which are very nice in themselves)

So my question is, what should I expect to see? Is it only really visible in photographs? If so, I'll have to have a go...

I've previously found the Ring and Dumbell Nebula with no significant problems.

TIA

Trev

[Vega]

I have heard that it's only really a naked eye/binocular object visually. I'm sure there are more here that can confirm this

Cheers

Vega

[James]

Trev,

The NA nebula is huge and is larger than your field of view hence is tricky to see. If you have a filter such as a UHC filter that might help. Due to its size though you're not going to get the whole thing in one field of view.

James

[themos]

The Ring and the Dumbbell are "planetary" nebulae, though. The North America is an emission nebula. It's a bigger ask (sorry for the jargon).

There is a report of naked eye observation from very dark skies with a UHC filter.

http://www.visualdeepsky.org/netastrocatalog/msg00469.html

[trevboyd]

Thanks everyone for your quick replies! I did suspect that it was maybe too large, making it impossible to spot. I need to go and find out the difference between planetary and emission nebulae now - sounds interesting. I'm definitely going to invest in some filters at some point, so a UHC one sounds like one to add to the list!

Thanks again - I appreciate you taking the time to answer newbie questions!

Trev

[James]

A UHC is a good one to have as it doesn't take away too much light to be unusable in a 120mm scope.

James

[themos]

Apparently, a planetary is also an emission nebula. I guess the difference I was looking for was diffuse <-> planetary. Apologies for being a smart aleck.

[John]

While you are looking in that part of the sky you might try and pick out the Veil Nebula which is also in Cygnus. It's a sort of faint arc of nebulosity and the 2 brightest parts are NGC6992 and NGC6960. I've been able to spot the brighter of these (6992) with an 80mm scope on a good night using a UHC-S filter and a good star guide. They are big objects but not as big as the NA Nebula so use your lowest power. Even the brightest parts are faint but it was quite a thrill to see them, albeit faintly, with my own eyes after looking at pictures of them for years.

John

[Greg]

The North American nebula is best seen with binos or a low power scope with a UHC filter...

[trevboyd]

Thanks again everyone.

My lowest power eyepiece is 25mm, so after looking at your chart Greg, I see why I never noticed it before - I'd only be looking at a fraction of that field.

I think I'll wait until I have a UHC filter and then look for the Veil. I'm thinking of getting a UHC and "Baader Contrast Booster" - they look like they'd help me out from my light polluted back garden. Out of interest, where do they fit in the scope?

Thanks again

Trev

[themos]