Blinking Planetary Found (Flipping Veil missed!)

[Jim-a]

Another nice session last night.

On BigMakStutov's recommendation I hunted down the blinking planetary. It took a while of scanning the sky roughly around where the telrad pointed me with a 25mm before I noticed something that was not quite star-like. Upping it to 9mm and there it was... blinking. Looking at the star next to it the nebula 'halo' would pop into view, then as I looked directly at it it would quickly fade (although not completely - I could still see the shape of it, but very much dimmer than looking directly). Really good demonstration of how effective averted vision is.

Quickly took in the globs M56 & M71, then I tried for the Veil - but no luck - don't know if I need a much wider field of view, or if the LP where I am is reducing the contrast too much - I'm assuming I was pointing in the right place as there's a vary obvious star that should be slap bang in the middle of it.

After failing on the veil I then had success with M33 in triangulum. Last time I was out I tried to find it, but wasn't able to. This time I persevered and eventually saw a very feint smudge moving as I wobbled the scope around. Couldn't really see any structure and if what I found was M33 then I can see why I missed it the last time around. Guessing I really need to put the scope in the car and head out to somewhere darker soon.

Next up was M74, but didn't manage to find it - and by that time Jupiter was distracting me by shining out over next doors roof, so I finished up with a bit of planet gazing before packing up.

[webboid]

Nice report

I managed to view the veil recently at Kelling but have had no luck at home too much light pollution. The same with M33

Well done on the other objects

[Moonshane]

^{all you need to see the Veil is an Oiii filter. even in light polluted sites it's then quite obvious in any scope (even a small wide field frac) in my experience.}

[Mark at Beaufort]

I agree with Shane. Last night I saw both parts of the Veil nebula using a William Optics 66mm frac and a UHC filter. My Nagler 26mm EP gave me a FOV of over 5 degrees. I would say that NGC 6960, which is close to star 52, is the harder part to view - so start with NGC 6992.

Mark

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on getting the Blinking Planetary. My best views of the Veil were in my 80mm, with UHC filter (still do not have that O-III).

[Stu]

Nice one Jim. Glad you found the Blinking Planetary, it's a fun object to observe.

I agree with the other comments re OIII filter, it really helps with the Veil. I also agree that the, Eastern Veil, NGC6992 is the brighter part of the Veil. I just about managed it in my 15x50is binos with OIII/UHC-S filters from my back garden with averted vision. I normally use my 106mm with 31t5 nagler which gives 3.6° fov. Lovely object.

Stu

[swamp thing]

Hi Jim

You sure do like a challenge dont ya? M33, M74 and then the Veil without an O-III filter

M74 ( the phantom ) is like a small M33, very difficult indeed with any LP and made harder by the fact it's much smaller.

Good hunting and clear skies

[Jim-a]

thanks for the advice guys. I guess I better put a O-III filter on the (getting ever longer) wishlist

[Stu]

For m33 and m74, I think dark skies are the key. I got M74 through the 106mm frac from a dark site without too much trouble. It's pretty faint, but just shows you don't need huge aperture, just dark skies and good dark adaptation.

Stu

[KevUU]

I can confirm what Stu says - I found this from 5.5 skies in Keffalonia last week and recorded it as "Fairly faint at x13, needing aversion to see much of anything." so I wouldn't fancy it under LP.