At it again !

[John]

Another lovely clear night with the Moon keeping out of sight until the early hours

So out went the 12" dobsonian again, cooling as we had supper. I had a little challenge in mind tonight following this post from scarp15 (Iain) yesterday:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/249882-observing-the-central-star-m-27/

Before I tackled the inner depths of the Dumbbell I had a peek at some clusters and a planetary nebula while the sky darkened more fully:

Ophiuchus:

M14 - a rather faint, small and sometimes overlooked globular cluster.

Scutum:

M11 - the glorious "Wild Duck" cluster. As well as the V-shape the very rich patch of stars here seems to form all sorts of angles to the eye. Fascinating open cluster

NGC 6712 - another faint but condensed misty patch type globular cluster. Nothing to write home about but it's being typed up here instead !

M26 - a nice little group of stars. Rather tame in comparison to M11 in this constellation of course but nice enough.

NGC664 - a lovely curved spray of stars with the much brighter star Alpha Scuti in the same field of view to set it apart.

Aquila:

NGC 6751 - a planetary nebula known to some as "The Glowing Eye". Not glowing too brightly this evening but it's nearly as large as Jupiter's disk so well worth a look. It's a mag 11.9 object but seems a little brighter than that might suggest.

Ok, now to Vulpecula to examine M27, the Dumbbell Nebula at high power to see if the magnitude 14 central star can be picked out. Success !. At 265x and 318x the central star peeks coyly out of the central region of this very large planetary nebula. I could also see 3/4 other stars across the nebulosity and another couple hanging around at it's fringes.

Having winkled out the M27 central star I get all confident and have a crack at the fainter one in the centre of M57, the lovely Ring Nebula in nearby Lyra. The constellation is high in the sky now, and the nebula is close to the zenith. I pile on the magnification and study the distinctive form of this object at 454x. This is a much tougher challenge because the central star here is mag 14.8. After much use of averted vision to varying degrees as the nebula drifts rather rapidly across the field of view, I'm just starting to see a very faint point of light popping into view now and then. I can't hold it steadilly but I feel that there is really something there. I think I got it but I'll need to try it again when I have the scope at a darker sky location sometime.

I move the scope downwards and find the Snakes Tail......

Serpens Cauda:

M16 - a lovely cluster of stars in a distinctive shape with a big bonus - use the UHC or O-III filter and the form of the Eagle Nebula is clearly seen looking tonight rather like a smaller version of M42, the Orion Nebula. Lots of contrast variations across tthe nebulosity. I can't make out the famous Eagle shape with it's outstreached talons that the images show but I can see where that feature is within the nebula.

Down a little further and into....

Sagittarius:

M17 - the wonderful Omega or Swan Nebula. A bright nebula with an unusual elongated shape even without a filter, the O-III filter really enhances the "swan" neck and head and also shows a more subtle curl of nebulosity just behind the tail end of the formation. A really spectacular emission nebula and another with a cluster associated with it, this time NGC 6618.

NGC 6818 - a nice little planetary nebula known to some as "The Little Gem". It's a sort of oval shape and well defined but on the small side.

Aquarius:

A nice little haul of objects here:

M72 - a small globular cluster but one thats showing some resolution into stars even at 75x.

M73 - categorised as an open cluster but really just an association of 4 stars in a loose vaguely triangular group. It's an asterism (line of sight formation) really as these stars are not connected to each other.

NGC 7009 - a planetary nebula known as "The Saturn Nebula". Tonight it looked to me rather lemon shaped but distintively blue in colour. Using averted vision revealed an uneven fainter halo of light around the brighter central core. Just to the north of this object I noticed a very faint star which I believe is magnitude 14.4. Thats faint for my skies.

M2 - I've seen this before but I can't resist using 265x under these nice conditions to really show the resolution of this bright and dense globular cluster. A top drawer object

It's about now that I remember that Neptune is currently in Aquarius so I have a little change from deep sky wonders to search for this distant gas giant. It's visible in my 50mm finderscope along with several other "candidate" stars but checking them out at 265x reveals the clear pale blue / green Neptunian disk albeit just 2.4 arc seconds in apparent diameter at present. It's nicely defined though and I've seen some faint stars tonight so I jack the magnification right up to 454x. Neptunes disk is still nicely defined but I also spy a tiny dim point of light right next to it. I check Stellarium and Cartes Du Ciel and I'm certain that I'm seeing the Neptunian moon Triton. It's around magnitude 14 and the separation between it and Neptune is around 15 arc seconds or so, about the same as the apparent diameter of Saturns disk. I'm dead chuffed - thats a first for me

I rounded this great session off with some lovely views of the M31 / M32 / M110 galaxy group in Andromeda and was just able to pick up M33 in Triangulum with my 10x50 binoculars.

Low in the East a pinkish yellow crescent Moon is rising over Bristol with the twinkling Aldebaran and M45, the Pleiades preceeding it. A taste of dark Autumn skies to come, hopefully

Some excellent observing tonight and I'm particularly pleased to have seen Triton at last

[Dave In Vermont]

Goodness!

If this were a road-race, you'd of won!

Nice to see someone has clear skies.

'ta,

Dave

[cotterless45]

Snap ! Packed in as cloud rolled in and a good view of the Pleiades ,

Nick.

[FenlandPaul]

What a fantastic night, John - thanks for posting. Can't wait to get the dob out again.

[estwing]

nice read John and thanks for sharing a great night...well done on your haul over the last couple of nights

[Stu]

Fabulous night John, great stuff. Hoping to crack on with a bit more serious observing soon, just been grabbing half an hour here and there recently.

Great range of objects seen, ones to note for future sessions

[laudropb]

Very good and interesting report. You certainly have made the most of your clear skies. Still clouded out here so I am very envious. Thanks for sharing.

[Piero]

Wonderful report and writing, John.

I recently had the pleasure to observe m16 from a dark sky and I cannot help agree with you about the similarity with m42. As you said a small version of it.