Medusa Nebula

[Bart]

Had the most fantastic's nights observing last night. Went out at about 8pm and came in at 2am. When the dew finally got the primary, frankly, I was relieved. I know, its terrrible, but I was wrecked and my back was killing me.

Anyway, I had the Wixey calibrated with my Skysafri really well and found many new galaxies and clusters.

Got the Intergalactic Wanderer, it intrgues me its so distant relative to the other clusters, and hey, with a wonnderful name like like that, you just gotta find it. Looked ok, could tell it was a cluster rather than a galaxy.

Among the many new things I located was the Medusa Nebula. Wow, that is tough! Only for the fact I had the Wixey spot on, I'd never have found it. People say the Veil is tough, but this leaves the Veil in its dust..Only for Skysafari states to use an OIII, it would be almost impossible, and I have a 16" with pretty decent skies. I found it difficult tto make shape or structure even with the OIII. Does anyone have experience with this one? Do dark skies help, or do you just need 25" of aperture?

Wha a night though, kind of makes up for the almost total cloud cover since November, even got a eek at the spring galaxies!

Barry

[Mike73]

No idea about the Medusa nebula Barry but completely agree Intergalactic Wanderer being a cool name for an object!

[Bart]

Mike

How are you getting on with your Sumerian? It must be great viewing there in Cornwall with a 16".....

My wife and I have many found memories of a week spent wandering around Cornwall staying in B&Bs many years ago in our yoof!

Good luck, that scope looks beautiful, never seen one in the flesh.

Barry

[acey]

I'd never heard of the Medusa Nebula but Wikipedia tells me it's the object catalogued as Abell 21 or Sharpless 274. The fact that it's in those catalogues rather than the NGC/IC tells me that it was missed by all the professional visual observers of the 19th century, and was also missed by the earliest photographic surveys. That doesn't mean it can't be seen with modest amateur instruments, but it does tell me that it's going to be very tough - so well done on seeing it.

The Veil Nebula is easy as long as the sky is dark enough - it was found by Herschel and its pieces have various NGC numbers. The "intergalactic wanderer" (NGC 2419) was also discovered by Herschel, and is also easy - I've viewed it from my light-polluted back garden with an 8-inch. According to Wikipedia it was previously thought not to be in orbit around the Milky Way, which explains the nickname, but is now thought to be in orbit after all, hence it's not really intergalactically wandering.

The Abell planetaries are a popular observing challenge for those with larger apertures and dark skies (though all 24 have been apparently been observed with 13" or less). Here are some links:

http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/Projekte/AbellPN_E.htm

http://www.stathis-firstlight.de/deepsky/abell_sumary.htm

http://www.astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In.Deep.Space/abelltable.htm

http://www.stathis-firstlight.de/deepsky/abell_honeycutt.htm

http://www.reinervogel.net/index_e.html

[Mike73]

Mike

How are you getting on with your Sumerian? It must be great viewing there in Cornwall with a 16".....

My wife and I have many found memories of a week spent wandering around Cornwall staying in B&Bs many years ago in our yoof!

Good luck, that scope looks beautiful, never seen one in the flesh.

Barry

The Sumerian really hasnt seen alot of action to be honest but you cant do nothing about the weather! Hopefully that will change just in time for those long awaited spring galaxies.

Clear skies!

[rory]

congrats on your find bart. sounds like a real faint one .