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Witch Head nebula


jetstream

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Another on the list to confirm was IC2118, the Witch Head nebula. The sky is very clear and dark with the heat wave bringing a nice -20c to observe in tonight with the 200mm f3.8. A few warm ups included the Pleiades and its structure, M78 and Barnards Loop then over to the California nebula with all these showing well.

The UHC used on the California was peeled off for a wander back over to Rigel and the nearby area. The first few tries concentrated on the area adjacent to Rigel with not much happening, however as the tries accumulated I was drawn over and over up a bit higher near Cursa. The attention now riveted on this area revealed a very faint billowy patch next to HIP 23893- now into my routine I went back and forth to this spot and everytime the patch (very faint) came into view.

Some have described the Witch Head as not too hard an observation...doable in binoculars, well... I cannot say I saw the whole nebula but for sure I got a chunk out of it. Its not easy.

The evening finished with a few galaxies in UMa and the finale brought the Leo Triplet into view with the Docter 12.5mm UWA. All other observations were with the Lunt 20mm HDC.

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1 hour ago, jetstream said:

Some have described the Witch Head as not too hard an observation...doable in binoculars

Great catch.  A sign of a really good sky (and observer).

Doable in binoculars doesn't mean that it is 'easy', more best with a larger FOV.  I have observed this using a 92mm f5.5 TMBand Nagler 31mm combo  About 5 degrees FOV and x16 magnification.  Only once from the UK.  Otherwise at altitude on the Canary Islands.

Cheers

Paul

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Nice report Gerry, the Witch's head is one I have looked for a few times with my 10.5x70 and I feel I have seen it, I think I would be sure if they were on a tripod and stable, I can pick up the loop and even feel i have seen this naked eye, but then I was far fro sure.

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31 minutes ago, alan potts said:

Nice report Gerry, the Witch's head is one I have looked for a few times with my 10.5x70 and I feel I have seen it, I think I would be sure if they were on a tripod and stable, I can pick up the loop and even feel i have seen this naked eye, but then I was far fro sure.

Thanks Alan!

Some have compared the Witch Head to Barnards Loop and the California nebula for level of difficulty but I find the Witch Head harder than the other two by far. I have little bino experience so I have no reference myself. After seeing the section I did I would think the binoculars would have to be mounted as you say. Tonight I'm going to put the 15" on IC2118 to try.

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37 minutes ago, jetstream said:

Some have compared the Witch Head to Barnards Loop and the California nebula for level of difficulty but I find the Witch Head harder than the other two by far.

Definitely way harder than Barnard's Loop and the California Nebula from UK latitudes, and probably anywhere else for that mtter  :)

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I might have to tap out here lol!

there are so many shades and shadows around its mind boggling to figure out, espc as I only see parts of many nebs visually. Beats me about SH2-278, but I did see the Lower "c" section of Barnards Loop, Sh2-276c as well as the Meissa neb up top last night. That one is huge and I could tell when I was in the faint milky haze and where the edges were using my highly valued UHC.

I shall now look for SH2-278 tonight with the 15", unless I just do some easy observing...I really wish the Eridanus Loop would come and grab my eyeball so I could move on to something else. I'm thinking NV just might make things easier. I don't know about anyone else but this takes me a long time to decipher the sky with manual dobs.

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Another night to observe the Witch Head nebula and the 15" shows it good, even better tonight using the 30mm ES 82. This combination shows the nebula well for such a faint object and the hour meter is starting to rack up on it which also helps. I'm glad to get this one out of the way. A couple of hours were spent on it and other targets until the transparency went south.

All in all a really rewarding pursuit the Witch Head was. The 30mm ES 32 really pulled it out.

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39 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Really,to see it visually is incredible...theres not much showing in a 6 min sub.

Any filters used?

 

Any filter will kill it visually, at least the ones I have. The 30ES opened up the exit pupil enough to make a real difference and also the increased image scale with the extra focal length helped. I have also seen IFN- have you imaged this stuff? The one near Vega, double double is the one I've confirmed primarily. Of course having a NELM of 6.8 also helps :)

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I posted a couple of years ago suggesting that I'd 'suspected' it in Leica 8x42 bins from my sometimes SQM 21.9 site. Really hard to be sure, but I'd been imaging it and knew the area from that. Trouble is, it is so hard to know how much the image influences the brain. But I find your report entirely credible based on my own humble efforts. (I don't have great eyesight or consistent visual observing experience.)

Olly

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