An old friend, and then some...

[Josh Wilson]

I got bored when I was waiting for M93 to be high enough to observe last night so I decided to visit a few old friends in Auriga-- M36, 37, and 38. I star hopped from the star Alnath and moved the scope left a tad when I saw what we call a faint fuzzy. It was faint and fuzzy. I looked through my finder and memorized its location ( or tried to, I'll find out tonight) and stuck it in the back of my head.

When I got up this morning I googled Auriga and saw IC 405 on the star chart. I googled IC 405 and identified the object as the Flaming Star Nebula. It was quite faint and had no distinguished border but I did see a faint central star, which made me think it was a planetary nebula. I wish the skies were better though. Is there a filter I can use to make this look a little better? O-III? H-Beta?

I also bagged M79 in Lepus, too.

Josh

[Double Kick Drum]

Congratulations on your new finds.

M79 is quite tricky from the UK without a dark sky, due to its poor elevation from our latitude. Not so much of a problem from Arizona, I guess.

Thanks for sharing

[VigdisVZ]

Nice bag of objects, thanks for the report.

[Mr Q]

` Hi Josh - Your report intrigued me since the central star of the Flaming Star Nebula is a 6th mag. star (hardly a "faint" star. This central star makes the nebula very hard to detect due to the star's glare. But something clicked in my mind about an object close to IC 405 - it's IC 410 - an emission nebula around the 7.5 mag. open cluster NGC1893. Seeing the brightest star of the cluster (9th mag), would certainly look "faint" and fits your description much better. IC 410 is only a degree or so E of IC 405 and if this was what you actually saw, it was an even more challenging object (the nebula) The link below is photo of what I believe you saw -IC 410 And if so, a real good catch!

IC 410

[m_j_lyons]

Mr Q - that's some good research...and a worthy find if indeed true for Josh. Is that your image or did you find it? Pretty either way.

Josh - are you around Sedona? I visited there over the summer and found the skies stunning...I longed for my scope while I was there.

Clear skies!

[Adrian lord]

impressive bag there

[Josh Wilson]

Josh - are you around Sedona? I visited there over the summer and found the skies stunning...I longed for my scope while I was there.

Clear skies!

No, unfortunately. I am in Chandler surrounded by arrogant neighbors who like to watch lights burn only at night...

I have had the opportunity to visit Sedona and all of its amazing rock formations. At the time, though, I didn't have an interest in astronomy and I never thought to look at the skies at night.

Cheers,

Josh

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

IC 410 is more likely. I only found IC405 later, and it really only shows up on very clear and dark nights, and even then only as a region in which the background is lighter than the surrounding area. It is very extended, and not like a planetary nebula at all. H-beta might help, O-III not.

[Josh Wilson]

H-beta might help, O-III not.

I have both and tried both the night after and neither of them helped anymore than without a filter. Maybe in a dark sky though.

Cheers,

Josh