Chillin' with the King

[StarSapling]

Due to the wind, I had to observe from the west side of my house.  From that location my view of the sky is pretty much limited to the northwest where Cepheus was well placed, so I grabbed the appropriated SkyAtlas chart and had a go at a few objects located in that constellation.  I did not do any research before hand, so I had no idea what to expect from the objects I chose to pursue from the chart.  It turned out pretty well though.

Jan. 2, 2016 - Oracle, Arizona - seeing fair - trans fair - obs fair/poor (irritable & impatient)

120mm f5 refractor

Cepheus:

NGC7139 - P.N. - 60x - not detectable

NGC7142 - O.C. - 60x - Medium sized, dim roundish patch of haze - with averted vision, a handful of stars resolved across surface - 94x - outline lost, but a few more stars were resolved across surface.

NGC7129/NGC7133 - Neb. - In same field as NGC7142 - 60x - Small, but conspicuous nebulosity surrounding a triangular group of four stars - perhaps a hint of dark mottling - another smaller, fainter patch of nebulosity surrounding a pair of faint stars to the west.

NGC7023 - Neb. - 94x - Dim, but easily detectable, small, roundish nebulosity surrounding a star - somewhat more extensive on the southwest side - more abrupt drop off of light on northeast side - hints of structure?

NGC7354 - P.N. - 94x - Small, circular patch of nebulosity - slight brightening towards center - a couple of nice doubles in same field to north.

NGC6951 - Gal. - 60x - Barely detectable, small patch of nebulosity - perhaps oval shaped with long axis oriented roughly southwest/northeast - a faint double in same field to the southwest.

[Stu]

Nice report StarSapling [emoji106]

[Paul73]

Nice writup. Thanks for a reminder about a less visited part of the sky.

What sort of NELM have you got there? And was there a moon?

Paul

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Eye grabbing,cool title to a good report!

 Cepheus doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves,despite being home to a whole host of interesting objects across the board,and being circumpolar in the N. hemisphere to boot.

[laudropb]

Very interesting report. If the sky ever clears I will have a look for myself.

[StarSapling]

Nice writup. Thanks for a reminder about a less visited part of the sky.

What sort of NELM have you got there? And was there a moon?

Paul

No moon at the time.  I'm not sure about the NELM last night, but would guess it was close to 6.  I'm also located at an elevation of 4,500 feet,  Thirty years ago, it used to be inky black around here, but Phoenix (90 miles to my northwest) and Tucson (50 miles to my southwest) have grown significantly since then.  Also, my neighbors have become afraid of the dark and leave their outdoor lights on all night.  Too bad, it was nice being able to step out the door to an excellent dark site.