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Planetary nebula with visible central stars

Littleguy80

By Littleguy80
in Observing - Deep Sky

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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I've enjoyed reading reports and discussions on seeing the central star in M57. This is well beyond what my scope is capable of but I would very much like to see some planetaries with visible central stars. Could anyone recommend some good targets for smaller scopes please? My scope is 130mm aperture. I'm happy to go for some challenging targets :)

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John

John

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The Dumbell Nebula, M27, might be viable with your scope. I've just about managed to see the central star in that one with my ED120 refractor.

The Blue Snowball (NGC 7662) in Andromeda might be worth a try - that has a mag 13 central star. The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) in Gemini has a 10th mag central star so thats a really good candidate.

I'm sure there are others as well - I just can't think of them offhand !

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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14 minutes ago, John said:

The Dumbell Nebula, M27, might be viable with your scope. I've just about managed to see the central star in that one with my ED120 refractor.

The Blue Snowball (NGC 7662) in Andromeda might be worth a try - that has a mag 13 central star. The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) in Gemini has a 10th mag central star so thats a really good candidate.

Thanks John :) I've looked at M27 a number of times but have never thought to look for the central star. Similarly have seen the blue snowball but was more caught up in picking up the colour than looking for the central star. The Eskimo Nebula is a new one on me so looking forward to trying that.

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Stu

Stu

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Probably mentioned in the lists, but try the Blinking Planetary. It has a lovely greenish colour to it. When you look directly at it you just see the central star, then flick your eyes away and the Nebula 'blinks' into view. Quite a fun object.

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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1 minute ago, Pondus said:

Yes it is. I`m into open clusters and I have used their : Top 125 most beautiful open clusters as a guide.

 

Rune

Another nice guide. I was looking at the Wild Ducks last night. Very pretty. I can't tell if there's nebulosity in there or there's just that many stars that it has a cloudy like effect. Either way, beautiful to look at. I love the double cluster too. Open clusters isn't something I thought I'd be that interested in but I've really come around to them

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Probably mentioned in the lists, but try the Blinking Planetary. It has a lovely greenish colour to it. When you look directly at it you just see the central star, then flick your eyes away and the Nebula 'blinks' into view. Quite a fun object.

Good call, Stu. I did find it a few months back but didn't spend a lot of time observing it. It was more of a test of my OIII filter on that occasion. Will give that a revisit too :)

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Pondus

Pondus

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In general I feel open clusters are slightly underrated (?).  They come in all sizes from smallish tight M37 up to Hyades or Coma,

besides lots of open clusters  benefits Shorter focal length Scopes.

 

I`m off topic here. Sorry

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Stu

Stu

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7 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Either way, beautiful to look at. I love the double cluster too. Open clusters isn't something I thought I'd be that interested in but I've really come around to them

I could (and do!) spend ages looking at the Double Cluster. Particularly in a refractor, the lovely pin point stars, especially the tiny ones on the limit of visibility are wonderful to view against a dark sky.

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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2 minutes ago, Pondus said:

In general I feel open clusters are slightly underrated (?).  They come in all sizes from smallish tight M37 up to Hyades or Coma,

besides lots of open clusters  benefits Shorter focal length Scopes.

 

I`m off topic here. Sorry

No apologies needed. I'm yet to see M37 but it's definitely on the list. Agreed. As a beginner using the Turn Left at Orion as a guide on things to see, the diagrams for open clusters don't make them look particularly interesting objects. You really have to go and take a look to appreciate them

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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8 minutes ago, Stu said:

I could (and do!) spend ages looking at the Double Cluster. Particularly in a refractor, the lovely pin point stars, especially the tiny ones on the limit of visibility are wonderful to view against a dark sky.

I enjoy the different colours in the stars with the Double Cluster. I have a real love of red giants. The colours in stars is something I hadn't anticipated being able to see when I got my telescope

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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56 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

I enjoy the different colours in the stars with the Double Cluster. I have a real love of red giants. The colours in stars is something I hadn't anticipated being able to see when I got my telescope

Did you check out that link for Coldfield, Neil? There's one for red stars:

http://users.skynet.be/fc219947/redstars/redstars.html

Your wish is my command! :D

Dave - (who is getting back in his old lamp now...)

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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1 minute ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Did you check out that link for Coldfield, Neil? There's one for red stars:

http://users.skynet.be/fc219947/redstars/redstars.html

Your wish is my command! :D

Dave - (who is getting back in his old lamp now...)

Dave, you're answering questions I haven't got round to asking yet! Most impressive! Do I still have all 3 wishes left or am I down to 2? :headbang:

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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54 minutes ago, Martin Meredith said:

In case you want more, here's a list of planetaries organised by the magnitude of the central star. 

PNcstarMagI.pdf

I've never looked at these ordered this way and there are some surprises. The PNs with brightest central stars are not necessarily the best known examples.

Martin  

Thanks Martin. That's an ideal reference point for my quest! I should be able to figure out almost exactly where the limit of telescope/observer is :) 

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jetstream

jetstream

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On 2017-07-28 at 05:04, Littleguy80 said:

I'm yet to see M37 but it's definitely on the list

One of the very best IMHO- and when you view it crank up the mag using a widefield. Once done warming up on M37 wander over to the Flaming Star neb and spend time with the UHC there under dark skies.

The Eskimo neb is a must see and really up the mag on this one as well. This show case neb will show a 2 toned green with fine filaments under the right conditions.

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