18th September 2012 - The Veil Nebula, One of the Best

[Double Kick Drum]

Faced with another good sky but not much time, I started with two open clusters in Casseopeia. Following my first sighting of NGC 7789 (Caroline's Rose) in binoculars a couple of days ago, I turned the scope on it tonight. One of the prettiest clusters around, I would say. It appeared at its best in my 15mm eyepiece (42x) where a number of individual stars were resolved and the large hazy area seemed to be mottled as though other stars were at the point of further resolution. Very nice.

I moved on to the less impressive NGC 433, which appeared as a small glow around a brighter star in a v-shaped asterism between Ruchbah and Gamma Casseopeiae. Still, another one chalked off.

The best was saved until last. Thanks to a post from Cotterless45, I went for the Veil nebula rather than save it for a dark sky session some unimaginable time in the future. Wow! What a stunner! First of all, I sort of stumbled across it. Not hard, given the size of the thing. As I scrolled across the sky in the right area of Cygnus, a beautiful milky crescent moved through the 25mm eyepiece field of view. The UHC filter had done its job. The crescent was of course NGC 6992 (Caldwell 33, a.k.a. the Eastern Veil). It culminated in a denser patch of nebulosity, namely NGC 6995, (the Southern Veil), slightly wider and near a pair of 8th magnitude stars. The map indicated there was more of the Eastern Veil beyond this but it seemed to fizzle out at this point for me.

I recommend anyone with half decent skies and a UHC filter go for this. It is superb, like a mini-Milky Way!

__________________________________________________ ______

Observing Session: Tuesday 18th September 2012, 21:10 hrs to 22:10 hrs BST

VLM at Zenith: 5.3 - 5.4

New - Revisited - Failed

[rory]

exellent dkd. this is the reason i really must get a filter. ngc7789 is noted for my next session.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report, DKD! I haven't bagged NGC 433 yet, I think. Should give it a bash

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Great report. Easy to see why the veil is a favourite of so many isnt it. I've found the veil on the verge of detection from my garden, no nebulosity, just a hazy crescent, like a mini milky way. Hoping to get a narrowband uhc filter or even an oiii filter to bring out the nebulosity.

[John]

Nice report !

The Veil is without doubt my favourte DSO of this season and quite possibly of any season. Worth the price of a wide field low power eyepiece and a UHC / O-III filter on it's own I reckon

[swamp thing]

Good stuff. The veil is a stunning object. The level of detail observable with the eye is quite astonishing.

There are some other great nebulae in Cygnus for the astronomer equipped with a filter to hunt down. Have a bash, you may be pleasantly surprised.

[Double Kick Drum]

Good stuff. The veil is a stunning object. The level of detail observable with the eye is quite astonishing.

There are some other great nebulae in Cygnus for the astronomer equipped with a filter to hunt down. Have a bash, you may be pleasantly surprised.

I thought the Pelican, Cocoon and Crescent nebulae were more photographic objects.

I have seen the two brightest planetary nebulae (NGC 6816 and NGC 7027) and the North American nebula. I have NGC 7048 on my target list but that sounds quite a tough one for my aperture. Beyond that i'm struggling.

Have I missed something?

[swamp thing]

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I thought the Pelican, Cocoon and Crescent nebulae were more photographic objects.

I have seen the two brightest planetary nebulae (NGC 6816 and NGC 7027) and the North American nebula. I have NGC 7048 on my target list but that sounds quite a tough one for my aperture. Beyond that i'm struggling.

Have I missed something?

You may need dark skies but you should get the pelican and the Crescant nebs for sure. Shane got the pelican in his 6" newt from a good site recently, and I'm pretty sure Michaels seen it in a much smaller scope too, and I've seen it too in my 10". I've observed the Crescant this year with my 10" with an O-III filter and it was pretty easy amd showed the full Crescant shape. I reckon your frac should pick it out.from a good site. Ive not tried the cocoon yet (keep forgetting about it like the klutz that I am )

Filters have really lifted the bar on what's visible through the eyepiece. I've observed a few objects that until recently were thought to be photographic only, and my eyesight is not anywhere near as keen as others.

[andrew63]

How does the veil appear without a filter? If at all.

andrew

[Double Kick Drum]

You may need dark skies but you should get the pelican and the Crescant nebs for sure. Shane got the pelican in his 6" newt from a good site recently, and I'm pretty sure Michaels seen it in a much smaller scope too, and I've seen it too in my 10". I've observed the Crescant this year with my 10" with an O-III filter and it was pretty easy amd showed the full Crescant shape. I reckon your frac should pick it out.from a good site. Ive not tried the cocoon yet (keep forgetting about it like the klutz that I am )

Filters have really lifted the bar on what's visible through the eyepiece. I've observed a few objects that until recently were thought to be photographic only, and my eyesight is not anywhere near as keen as others.

Thanks for that tip.

Some real challenges there.

[Moonshane]

at a dark site I reckon the Veil would be visible with maybe 10" aperture or more and no filter. with a filter though and darker skies it's miles better.

great report DKD. I like your colour coding idea. might rob this for future reports if that's OK. the Pelican was a little less bright than NA nebula but certainly observable with darker skies and especially with Oiii. the crescent was also visible in my 6" but much better with more aperture. from home in bad LP I can see the brighter half of the crescent with Oiii.

I also like Caroline's cluster - really special from a dark site even with 6" aperture.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have seen the Pelican with my 80 mm with UHC filter. I also spotted the Coccoon with the same setup. I was in France in the Alps at 800 m altitude, under crystal clear skies. I got the Crescent with my C8. All quite hard, nut not as difficult as e.g. the California nebula.