Clusters And Starfield In Cygnus

[cloudsweeper]

Commenced about 10.30, aligning the 8SE on Arcturus and Vega.

NGC 6871 open cluster - several stars, loose array, centred on two close pairs.

IC 4996 open cluster - similar to the above, centred on a close group of three stars.

It was however not very dark, so I returned to these after midnight and the difference was quite pronounced.  Many more stars were visible, but NGC 6871 was marginally more attractive for having more fainter stars on show.  An increase of mag to x85 was beneficial.

I then targeted the Cygnus Star Cloud (Tulip Nebula, Sharpless 101) by hopping there from Eta Cyg, having used designation SAO 069116 for the GoTo, but I could only see a few of the brightest stars, and no concentration of stars or nebulosity.  However, moving 2 deg north, there is a pleasing starfield centred on six bright stars in a line with a slight bend half way along it.

To finish, I entered M 57 the Ring Nebula into the handset.  GoTo put it dead centre in the EP (giving x48 @ 1.34 deg), and the ring was clearly seen - especially using AV - and focus was aided by the many close stars in the region.

A very enjoyable session, despite the fairly light and cloudy sky.  An FOV full of stars never fails to delight!

Doug.

[alan potts]

Nice report, even though I am a long was south of you it does not get dark here until 9.45 and dawn shows up at about 4.50am, a bit better than Norway I imagine.

 

[PeterW]

Have a go around gamma Cygnus, there is quite a bit of bright and dark nebulae. The tulipnis quite small, maybe try for the crescent as well.

 

cheers

 

peter