My first planetary nebula

[Lee M]

A fairly short session this evening but alot more comfy than the wind ravaged one a week ago.

I'd sketched out a star hop using Stellarium a couple of weeks ago from Merak (B UMa) down to M108 and on to M97. It didn't go especially well then so time for another bash tonight. A couple of failed attempts & I realised I was overshooting. Grasped the scale of what i needed to be looking at in the finder scope and it all fell in to place. M108 was, well, fuzzy and eliptical but very satisfying to see it there on the end of a little dog leg of stars. So on to M97 - the Owl nebula. A nice little fuzzy ball but not screaming 'owliness' . Having treated myself to the SW UHC & OIII filters recently I gave them a go. The image with the OIII was too dark. I still had the moon low in the sky behind me & it simply wasn't dark enough for that to work. The UHC did seem to show me a slightly more extensive object or it might have been just more time at the EP.

I visited a few recent acquaintances such as the Beehive & M51 before some broken high cloud rolled over. Time to call it a night. Very pleasant not to be frozen to the core and satisfying to find a couple of things without TLaO holding my hand.

Lee

[rory]

congrats. i was out for an hour or so last night and just could not get these two at all ! although ive seen m97 before ,m108 would have been a new object.i think there was some high thin cloud .

you should try the clown face nebula ,also known as the eskimo nebula. just off the knee of the twins ,so an easy hop and not too faint either.

i shall go back to m108 and try again .

clear skies..

[Stu]

Nice one Lee. M97 can be a tricky one to spot and needs dark skies to look at all Owly :-). I've only ever seen it as a grey oval, no eyes!

Cheers

Stu

[Double Kick Drum]

Congrats on finding M97. It is not the easiest for a first planetary nebula.

There are a few which are brighter, most of which are also smaller.

Clear skies!

[Lee M]

you should try the clown face nebula ,also known as the eskimo nebula. just off the knee of the twins ,so an easy hop and not too faint either.

i shall go back to m108 and try again .

clear skies..

Cheers Rory. I did have a go at the clown face / eskimo a couple of weeks ago. Having seen the owl now I'm sure I didn't find it so I'll have another try at that soon.

Lee

[Lee M]

Sorry, cheers too to Stu & DKD.

It's a nice little confidence booster & also suggests the little observing site I've found can do the job especially later in the evening.

On the downside it means I won't be able to blame LP for not finding things

I'll know it's 'more practice required'.

Lee

[Stu]

Well if you found M97 then there are plenty of less difficult objects around so you are off to a very good start :-)

Stu

[scarp15]

Nice one, certainly as your sky is dark enough to observe the owl nebula, it makes for a good aspect to a session, to keep the filter on and tour the current brighter planetary nebulae, to include the Little Dumbell, Blue Snowball, Eskimo, each of these benefiting from high power once located.

[mjpfc]

The Blue snowball is good without filters as it is bright enought for you to see its marine blue colour.

Later on when the summer triangle comes round again the Ring and Dumbell are on view.

Small through it is, the Ring is just what it says on the tin, and the Dumbell is large enough without a filter

but with either of the filters you are using it extends all over the FOV.

Good hunting

Mick

[cotterless45]

Well done, the Owl's a hard one and you'll need the Moon out of the way. There's quite a few planetaries around , the Esquimo is well placed at the moment in Gemini. If you're up early , Cygnus and Lyra are rising in the northeast. You can pick up the Ring and Dumbbell nebulae,

Nick.

[Lee M]

Cheers for the tips everyone.

Lee

[m_j_lyons]

Congratulations! The Owl is a nice object once you've found it...but it can be challenging to find the first time...especially in a smaller scope. There's a lot of planetary nebulae objects out there. Happy hunting.

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