Another challenge?

[Spec-Chum]

I read yesterday that the Blue Snowball Nebula was quite challenging to find so I made it my mission last night to find it. I knew it was in Andromeda, but that was about it.

Took me 2 hours, and the moon was doing her best to drown everything out in that area but I managed to find it just before midnight. Hoorah!

I must admit I was a bit “meh” when I found it, contrast was lacking due to the old Lunar and I just saw a large, fuzzy blue blob, even going to 200x didn’t reveal any kind of detail (also tried 300x but the least said about that the better). However, I found the challenge of the find very enjoyable; my bins and S&T Pocket Sky Atlas were both invaluable!

Can anyone recommend any other challenging to find sights for me and my 8” Dob? Nothing “near impossible to find on anything other than hubble” though please haha

[John]

Have you seen the Veil nebula yet ?

It's the best Summer DSO in my opinion and you have the filters for it. Use your lowest power eyepiece on a moonless night.

[Spec-Chum]

Just a point of note, I meant “large” relative to the stars near it. The actual nebula was tiny, even at 200x. It turned into an animated blue “fireball” at 300x…

[Spec-Chum]

Have you seen the Veil nebula yet ?

It's the best Summer DSO in my opinion and you have the filters for it. Use your lowest power eyepiece on a moonless night.

I haven't no, challenge accepted!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I found the Veil best in a wide-field scope, like my 80mm F/6. You should be able to see all the things I have spotted with my C8. I have put many reports in the observing/reports section. There are quite a few planetaries which you can see (I have found 37 so far) all from this list: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/plannebs.html

The Eskimo, the Blinking Planetary, The Little Gem, the Blue Flash, the Cat's Eye and many others are well worth a look. And then there are all the objects of the Caldwell list, or the Herschel 400.

[Spec-Chum]

Cool, thanks Michael. Planetary nebulae are fast becoming my favorites...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Note tat quite a few are so small that they seem almost stellar. In moderate or bad seeing, the only way to spot them is by looking with and without a UHC filter. Planetaries do not lose (much) brightness in UHC, stars do. Therefore the planetary seems to brighten with respect to the stars. UHC also blocks a lot of moonlight.

[Moonshane]

when the moon is less troublesome (although taking up the lunar 100 is a great idea for when it is) a lovely galaxy if you have decent skies is NGC 891 close to Almach in Andomeda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_891

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

NGC 891 is great but not easy, btw. You really want dark skies! A real challenge, and of course it is on the Caldwell list as well.