NAN & Eastern Veil

[Special K]

Just in from a very pleasing look at the North American Nebula in the little frac, 31mm EP plus O-III filter. For a small scope the big advantage is the wide field of view and this is particularly useful on the NAN. I seem to be struck by different aspects each time I view this and tonight it was the way the east coast section was really coming through loud and clear. As my eyes improved, the Central America feature became stronger.   What is also interesting is viewing without a filter, I can't see the Nebula per se, but there is a tremendous gap in the background stars. It's cool to pan outward to normal star fields to compare with this void. 

Its been such a long time since I've viewed the Veil and tonight I was really impressed with the Eastern Veil again. I can fit the whole complex into the FOV and the Eastern side in particular gives a globe like feel. 

Its nice to get back to these things with renewed efforts!  10-midnight is prime time at zenith. 

[FenlandPaul]

Sounds like a nice session, Kevin.  We were in the same part of the skies!  Seeing the whole Veil complex in a single field is really remarkable.

Paul

[Stu]

Great stuff, two of my favourite objects. I love the view with a widefield refractor under a dark sky and an OIII. Somewhere around 650mm or below is fab for fitting the entire complex in with something like a 31mm 82 degree eyepiece.

I enjoy seeing the Veil like this as much as I do close up/higher mag views with more aperture.

[jetstream]

Great report Kevin!

One eyepiece I won't be without is the 42mm LVW, with its difficult eye placement and all. In my SW120ED/90mm f7.5 it reins king on the NAN as well as the Veil in the 120ED.