Best North Somerset Skies for a while

[John]

It's been a super night here, the best for quite a while. The Moon rose late so did not interfere with much of this session.

I was using the 12" dobsonian again and it was a pretty decent night for hunting down some more DSO's which is something I've really started to get a taste for this year

Most of the searching and viewing reported here is done using a 21mm eyepiece which gives me a reasonably dark background sky at 75x but a 1.3 degree chunk of sky to scan.

I did the "usual suspects" to get a feel for the seeing conditions and very nice they all were too . This lot included M57, M27, The Veil (which was really stunning with the O-III filter ) and the M31, M32, M110 galaxy group in Andromeda.

I then moved into Pegasus and found the magnificent M15 globular cluster. What a feast for the eyes this one is at 200x !. Looking at my Pocket Sky Atlas I noticed a rather lonely galaxy in Pegasus, NGC 7177. Despite the relative lack of brighter stars to "hop" with I managed to pick this one up situated between Epsilon and Iota Pegasi. Nice little puff of hazy light.

On to Aquarius now and the 2nd wonderful globular cluster of the evening, Messier 2. The 12" scope really presents these brighter globulars well and I spent some time on this one. 

Now to the Dolphin of the sky, Delphinius.  I managed to find some nice objects here. NGC 7006 is a faint (mag 10.6) globular cluster that I'd not managed to find last time I observed this area. It's not in the M15 / M2 league but a nice dense patch of faint stars all the same. NGC 6891 is a planetary nebula but a really tiny one and easily overlooked. It's mag 10.7 and I needed around 150x to confirm that the fuzzy star that I'd seen was actually this little nebula. Finally in Delphinius I found another planetary nebula, NGC 6905. This one is a little larger - about the same apparent diameter as Jupiter and is really worth finding !. With around 200x magnification the nebulous disk of light was sandwiched between two relatively bright stars and showed definite uneven brightness on one side. I boosted the magnification even further to 318x and I was delighted to be able to pick out the central star of this planetary which, at a reported magnitude of 14, is the faintest object I've managed to see from my back yard  I didn't need averted vision either, once I'd picked the tiny point of light out. NGC 6905 has been called by some the "Blue Flash" nebula but I can't say I saw any blue or any flashing. It's a nice planetary though 

OK, moving from a Dolphin to a Dragon now and the constellation Draco which curls and winds it's way around the sky. I'd actually pre-planned a target here (very unlike me !) and that was NGC 6543, the famous "Cat's Eye" planetary nebula. This object was quite bright, small and rather irregular rather like a ghostly potato !. With a bit more magnification and my DGM NBP filter (a UHC type filter) I could see a little of the eliptical halo around the central brighter area. With the filter removed the central star of the nebula was quite easy to see. Once I'd examined the Cat's Eye I moved on to another portion of the Dragon's anatomy to find some galaxies. NGC 6643 and 6340 are pleasent enough spiral galaxies though not too spectacular. NGC 6503 was more interesting however, a nice fat cigar of a galaxy that was much more apparent in the eyepiece as well as being larger and better defined.

Last stop for this session was the Queen of the night sky, Cassiopeia. I'd actually strayed into Andromeda at this point to have another look at the M31 group now that it was higher in the sky. Just "over the border" in Cassiopeia I noticed in my Sky Atlas a line of 3 galaxies that I'd not (as I recall) observed before. I found NGC 278 reasonably easily. Much more challenging this evening was NGC 185 which is one of M31's dwarf neighbours. I found it quite hard to pick out this faint patch of light despite it's supposed magnitude of 10 or so. I realised why when I pulled back from the eyepiece and found that the Moon was rising up behind some trees and it's glow was starting to brighten the background sky in the area I was searching for galaxies in. I gave up on finding the similar but slightly fainter NGC 147 - that one will have to wait for another night when the Moon has other business to attend to elsewhere !

Definitely a super night and the best deep sky one for a few weeks

[MarsG76]

You have a object packed night extravaganza... great report.

[alan potts]

Great report John, sounds like you had a really good time. I must try some of those targets out I don't think I have ever seen the cat's eye probably because of the number of real ones we have around here, dam pests but do keep the rats and mice down I guess.

Alan

[estwing]

Super read John sounds like you had a cracker....never tire of looking into globs,truly wonderful ......

[Special K]

Great report, John. Glad you got a decent sky to work under. That's a nice mag on M15. Such a treat, that one!

[andrew63]

That's a good night John - the sort you don't want to end ! andrew

[John]

That's a good night John - the sort you don't want to end !

Yes indeed Andrew, but this morning .....

Luckily I'm retired so I can take it easy this morning.

[YKSE]

A great read

Looks like the weather is improving, I might get a chance tonight or tomorrow tfor those faint fuzzies

[laudropb]

Lovely report John. I am still waiting for a decent sky to go fuzzie hunting. Thanks for posting.