first chance for DSO hunt, sort of...

[YKSE]

First clear night forecast for DSO  after white summer, even though it was kind of windy (6-7m/s), I took the change to my dark site. Gusts were well over 10m/s when I was there. The sky could change from crystal clear to almost full cloudy in 10 minutes.

SQM reading 20.8 to 20.9, transparency very good when clear, Milky Way shone brightly.

Starting at NGC 6741, a tiny (8"x8") planetary nebular in Aquila, tried 110x to 220x, with and without filters (UHC, OIII), there was just no positive ID.
Next up was NGC 6751, another PN in Aquila, bigger size 20.5"x20.5" made it clearly easier, direct vision(DV) in 110x even without filer, UHC made nebulosity clearer in about 140x.

On to NGC 6765, PN in Lyra, even  larger but quite faint (mag 13.0, surface brightness 11.8), hinted in 110x  without filter in AV, OIII filter brought it out better. Too much mag (around 140x) sort of killed it even with OIII.

Gusts became so often, it was difficult to hold a productive view through ocular.

Out with the 10x50 Pentax bino, looked at M57, yes, it was there, almost in averted vision. so a 10x50 bino for Messiers in doable latitude is a reasonable project
Spended many minutes in scanning Milky Way with the bino, yes, this is space walk for me, viewing numerous stars in relaxed way just doesn't exist in cyclops.

@swamp thing, Nick(@cotterless45) and others have mentioned that seeing the Veil naked eyes, so I made this 1x bino( 2" EPs' nosepieces) with OIII and UHC filters, had a look at Cygnus, surely the Veil was there! both Easter veil and Western Veil, with Pickerings triangle only in averted vision.

Two new NGCs was not a great start for the season, but it was A start.

[faulksy]

4 hours ago, YKSE said:

First clear night forecast for DSO  after white summer, even though it was kind of windy (6-7m/s), I took the change to my dark site. Gusts were well over 10m/s when I was there. The sky could change from crystal clear to almost full cloudy in 10 minutes.

SQM reading 20.8 to 20.9, transparency very good when clear, Milky Way shone brightly.

Starting at NGC 6741, a tiny (8"x8") planetary nebular in Aquila, tried 110x to 220x, with and without filters (UHC, OIII), there was just no positive ID.
Next up was NGC 6751, another PN in Aquila, bigger size 20.5"x20.5" made it clearly easier, direct vision(DV) in 110x even without filer, UHC made nebulosity clearer in about 140x.

On to NGC 6765, PN in Lyra, even  larger but quite faint (mag 13.0, surface brightness 11.8), hinted in 110x  without filter in AV, OIII filter brought it out better. Too much mag (around 140x) sort of killed it even with OIII.

Gusts became so often, it was difficult to hold a productive view through ocular.

Out with the 10x50 Pentax bino, looked at M57, yes, it was there, almost in averted vision. so a 10x50 bino for Messiers in doable latitude is a reasonable project
Spended many minutes in scanning Milky Way with the bino, yes, this is space walk for me, viewing numerous stars in relaxed way just doesn't exist in cyclops.

@swamp thing, Nick(@cotterless45) and others have mentioned that seeing the Veil naked eyes, so I made this 1x bino( 2" EPs' nosepieces) with OIII and UHC filters, had a look at Cygnus, surely the Veil was there! both Easter veil and Western Veil, with Pickerings triangle only in averted vision.

Two new NGCs was not a great start for the season, but it was A start.

what a brilliant report, glad you got out. i think swampthing has mentioned the north american neb naked eye not the veil. might be wrong though

[PeterW]

Veil is prett thin, North America yes.

peter

[YKSE]

1 hour ago, faulksy said:

what a brilliant report, glad you got out. i think swampthing has mentioned the north american neb naked eye not the veil. might be wrong though

Thanks Mike, I'll try NA when I get the chance.

35 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Veil is prett thin, North America yes.

peter

Yes, Peter, it's thin, therefore Cygni 52 was a good help in locating Western Veil,  thereafter the brighter Eastern veil.

[John]

Great report !

The best I can do with the Veil is to pick out the eastern segment with 11x70 binoculars and no filters. That takes about the darkest nights I get here to achieve.

Without any magnification the individual segments of the Veil would appear small although the eastern segment is around 1 degree so possible naked eye I guess if other things fall into place and you know just where to look.

 

 

[estwing]

wonderful stuff...so much on offer at the moment.....so little spare time!...clear,darker skies!

[YKSE]

4 hours ago, John said:

Without any magnification the individual segments of the Veil would appear small although the eastern segment is around 1 degree so possible naked eye I guess if other things fall into place and you know just where to look.

Good point, John.

I do use magnification to 2-3° as a rule of thumb for hunting faint fuzies, and it has worked very well so far in my dark site, therefore I was kind of puff that I could see those small PNs with much lower mag, e.g. 6751 (20.5"x20.5") in 110x was just 38', and there was no other faint fuzzy in the nearby 1° FOV. Possibly the transparency was excellent (it was good, I've never seen MW that bright naked eye), or I had picture of Veil in my head Need to ckeck it again though when I get a chance.