ngc278 and other targets

[Piero]

After a windy afternoon, the first part of the evening was quite quiet. Again, at 9.30pm a few lights in the neighbourhood were switched off (possibly kids going to bed?) and the sky became noticeably darker as my SQM recorded. It was a nice evening with some challenging targets. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to observe the nice Little Dumbell or to attempt C17/C18 as I hoped because of the clouds coming from East after 10.10pm. It will be the next time.  

How does NGC278 look like in the smallest telescope you used to observe it? 

 

Date 05/10/2016
Time 21:00-22:15
Location Cambridge, UK
Lunar Phase Waxing Crescent 27%
Temperature 10C (ENE 14 km/h)
Seeing 3 - Moderate seeing
Transparency 5 - Clear
Darkness 19.45; 19.73

NGC7662 And Pln Neb 15x, 28.8x, 40x, 72x +/- UHC
Blue snowball. Easy to find as it is closed to the naked eye stars: Lambda, Kappa, and Iota And. Bright target (8.30 mag). 1800 ly away. It was visible at 15x without filter and appeared like a faint dot. At 40x and even better at 72x, it showed a circular shape. The colour was grey. An UHC filter helps a bit but it is not required. At 72x, I had the impression to recognise a soft ring shape with averted vision.

NGC7686 And Opn CL 15x, 28.8x 40x
It is close to NGC7662 (Blue snowball) and easy to find from the line Kappa-Lambda And towards Lambda And. It's a little open cluster without major details. Two bright stars surrounded by some dimmer stars and other very dim stars. I think I counted about 10-15 stars.

M31 And Galaxy 28.8x
Andromeda Galaxy. I used this as a pointer towards NGC278, NGC185, and NGC147. At 28.8x its core was bright and the very core was much brighter. In the second part of my session, there was enough extension to detect how large this target is.

NGC278 Cas Galaxy 28.8, 40x
SB: 12.20. From M31, move towards Omicron and Pi Cas. The correct position is not difficult to find from Omicron Cas. Not sure if I saw this threshold target for my 60mm. If I did, it appeared like a faint smooth dot (so not exactly as defined as stars are) and located near a star. It was only visible with averted vision and the detection was impossible to hold. The trick was done by moving gradually from direct vision to averted until the most sensitive part of the rods allowed the detection. To me it worked at about 20 degrees away from direct vision. Still, I was not able to hold the image.

[Tzitzis]

Blue Snowball sounds fun Pierro. I have to try it but alas no dark skies here.

Can't wait to get to Athens to get some observing. Night sky is full of treasures this time of the year  

[FenlandPaul]

Great report, Piero.  The Blue Snowball needs to go on my list!

[Davesellars]

Nice session and write-up, Piero!  I seem to remember I attempted NGC 278 once but this one eluded me at the time or didn't know what to look for....  SkySafari has it as mag 10.85 size 2.3 arcmins.  A quick look at images it seems it has a very bright central core and since this is going to be pretty small I'd imagine you'd see a less defined stellar-like object.  Sounds like you got it though!

[YKSE]

Nice report! I got my best week this year too

[Piero]

10 minutes ago, YKSE said:

Nice report! I got my best week this year too

Eagerly waiting for your report then!  

[mdstuart]

Yes that NGC 278 is a bright one. I can see it with direct vision in my 25 x 100 binoculars.

It is a small blob in the binoculars though.

Enjoyed reading your report as always.

Mark

[Piero]

26 minutes ago, mdstuart said:

Yes that NGC 278 is a bright one. I can see it with direct vision in my 25 x 100 binoculars.

It is a small blob in the binoculars though.

Enjoyed reading your report as always.

Mark

Thanks Mark for letting me know this!  It makes me think that there is a chance I actually spot it!

Even if  just faint undefined dots, it is always amazing to be able to catch targets Mly away! And this is distant 38.5 Mly according to wikipedia.