Three nights in a row under dark sky!

[YKSE]

Got lucky with weather when the Moon was out, humidity were low all three days, dew heater was not used at all, new gel battery arrived in time and worked clearly better than the old jump start battery. Here's a short summary:

12/8: Much more cloudy than forecast, C8

Clear sky forecast, but at least half of the sky was cloudy all the time, fast moving high clouds was not helping.

NGC6818, a small (20”)planetary nebula with good surface brightness, could be seen in some 140x in direct vision,

Open cluster 6882 was another easy one when the clouds left a gap there.

13/8. About 3 hour's observation under partial high clouds before the clouds took over, C8 and 80ED

Started at mag 19.3 for low globulas in Ophiuchus, NGC6287 could be picked up in averted vision with 31mm in 68x, while 6293 was treed out, 6342 could be seen in averted vision in 68x, the 1' sized brighter 6401 could be seen in direct vision in some 150x, while same sized fainter 6517 needed 114x in averted vision. Turning to even smaller(0.8') 6540 in Sagittarius just about 5deg above horizon, I neeeded to zoom in and out repeatedly in about140x-180x to pick it up in averted vision.

The sky had darkened to 20.5, and continued to 21.0 around 1 o'clock. Now to the galaxies in Hercules! There're actually a group of galaxies very close to M92, using the same zooming-technique, the 13.9 mag NGC6323 could be seen the edge-on shape in averted vision, the faintest galaxy I've managed with C8. The brighter ones, 6329, 6332, 6336 could be seen in direct vision while zooming.

The wind changed its direction, clouds rolled back in (as forecasted though), it became mostly clear again half an hour later, during the time, I got sight of two meteor and scanned the patchy clear sky with 8x40 bin, M31 among others.

Moving on to NGC7203(Helix nebula), cloudy, not a single star visible there, had to put it on the list for next time.

Slewing up to the old favorite NGC6992 with OIII, the Eastern Veil was really bright, with 6995 and IC1340 under it as brightest.

Replacing C8 with 80ED, 40mm Aero's 4.5 deg FOV framed the whole Veil nicely.Image was dimmer than seen through 120ED the other day, but NGC 6974 and 6979 between the witch broom and Eastern Veil were still visible. Turning to NGC7000, North American nebula which I saw barely in C8 in backyard, here 80ED showed much better detailed, OIII filter gave clearly better contrast than UHC, while UHC showed slightly more nebulosity.

Slewing to a new target, NGC7380, Wizard nebula discovered by Caroline Heschel, a very nice open cluster without OIII filter, the brighter part of nebula gave its appearance with OIII.

14/8 Good transparency for most of the 4 hour's work, C8 and 120ED

Milky way visible when it was only mag 18.3 (brighter than in my backyard), the trusty C8 was first up as usual, aiming at NGC6309(box nebula) in Ophiuchus, it was hinted in 31mm in 68x, zooming in 140-180x gave better size change in direct vision, neither UHC or OIII helped on this one. NGC 6445, a planetary nebula, could be bagged in 200x without filter.

Comet Jacques location had been updated in Synscan's user objects all three days, sky condition was best this time, The bright-faint pair of stars near theta Lyrae pointing practically right to it, stella size with cometic tail visible in 68x, the tail was much bigger in averted vision than in direct vision.

The sky had darkened to 20.9 from earlier 19.8, moving on to Lacerta and Pegasus, open cluster 7209, with many evenly bright stars gave a very pleasing view, while 7296 with many faint stars showed very nice shape. Face-on galaxy 7217 was easy in direct vision.

Back to Eastern Veil, it was visible in C8 without filter! so were NGC 6992 and IC1340 too. replacing C8 with 120ED, 2.9deg FOV with 40mm Aero was not enough to frame the whole Veil, but with OIII it gave better view of overall picture, its 5.3mm exit pupil produced noticeable brighter image than 31mm's 4.1mm. Following observing were all done with  120ED with 40mm Aero in focuser.

IC 5070(5067), Pelican nebula, which couldn't be seen in backyard with C8, now showing quite good nebulosity in 120ED with OIII, the nearby IC5068(HII region) showed bright patches of its long shape too.

Moving on to Cassiopia, IC1795(NGC896), it was about as bright as Western Veil in OIII, then the neighboring IC1805 (Heart nebula), the central nebulosity around the bright stars in Heart nebula was bright with OIII, dark regions above this center nebulosity showed good contrast. IC1848(Soul nebula), only the brighter patches of nebulosity visible with OIII.

IC1396(Elephant Trunk nebula), OIII gave better contrast, especially on eastern boarder, while UHC showed bigger size of the nebula.

A picture of Veil nebula in stardiagonal view:

All in all, 22 new DSO and a comet, and some old friends.

Thanks for reading.  

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report! Some very nice objects captured. No luck here alas, but maybe Wednesday will be better

[xtreemchaos]

lovely report mate,i really enjoyed reading it.thanks for posting. charl.

[John]

Wonderful report Yong !

Thats a really useful guide to the portions of the Veil Nebula complex as well - I'm going to have to borrow that

I'm going to have to look up Comet Jaques as well !

[alan potts]

Great report Yong, I dare not tell you my nights in a row count at the moment though it is horrible to-day so thats the end of it for a few days. It is only 28 degrees and i feel cold.

Alan

[cotterless45]

Great report Yong ! Always a treat to read under our clouds,

Nick.

[YKSE]

Thanks everyone, the weather here seems to paying back somewhat for all those cloudy days in last month, need to prepare for a few days' trip this week too before the half Moon.

[laudropb]

A very nice report. So enjoyable to read. Thanks for sharing.

[Special K]

Three nights in a row is very fortunate indeed and to time it with a new moon is fantastic. Nice list of targets for sure

[Piero]

A lot to learn from your report! Really great stuff!

Thanks for posting!

[Stu]

Lovely report Yong, some great targets there. I've had my Edge 8" out under some dark skies this week, mag 20.68 was best sky I saw though, I envy you your 21!

I had the C8 and Tak 100 side by side which is great for the different perspectives of each object as you were also finding.

[YKSE]

A very nice setup, Stu, it does sound to be a bad news for my wallet, as I'm of lazy type, really enjoy the goto function, which means at least a AZ-EQ5

[Stu]

A very nice setup, Stu, it does sound to be a bad news for my wallet, as I'm of lazy type, really enjoy the goto function, which means at least a AZ-EQ5

I have the AZEQ6 and its a great piece of kit, I'm sure the 5 would do you very nicely.

Away from home I'm fully manual on the Giro-WR