Observation report 10-10-18

[PaulB]

Good morning everyone.

Before you read this report I want to make an observation.

I was attending the IAS yesterday. Whilst I was there spending some money. I noticed a  number of Astro-retailers, were now focusing on selling Astro Imaging equipment rather than traditional visual observing equipment. I was sorry to see CCD and EAA equipment for sale, together with telescopes and filters aimed at the CCD imager. And not the large Dobs and Newtonian's we use. In fact, I didn't see any of these telescopes other than Refractors.

I bought a 1.25" Omegon visual OIII filter and an 18mm Ultra Flat eyepiece from Altair. The filter wasn't easy to find amongst all the CCD filters available.

Is this a sign of the times?

I am a CCD and DSLR imager, but I am currently the Worm that turned. And have started looking through a telescope again. That telescope is a Celestron C9.25 with a 2" Altair Prism diagonal.

I now have a modest selection of good eyepiece's.

24mm TV Panoptic
18mm Altair Flat Field
13mm Baader Hyperion
9mm Altair LightWave

Omegon OIII filter and Orion UltraBlock SCT filter.

Here is a brief report of observations made on Wednesday. The conditions were not perfect. The skies were brighter than normal so the NLM was +3.8. Eyepiece used- 24mm and 13mm with Orion UB filter on the scope.

57 Peg Yellow primary with a considerably fainter secondary. The secondary was very difficult to see. But with averted vision, it was visible during moments of steady seeing. 24mm then 13m ep used
Whilst making this observation Pegasus was still low in the East.

NGC 7331 With the 13mm. NGC 7331 was easy to see and identify. This was one of the first galaxies I found when I had my first goto telescope mount. and it still looks good. Only better now that I have more aperture.

NGC 7332 this one was difficult. It is a faint galaxy that really needs a darker sky. But I was able to observe it comfortably. I saw a bright core that gradually faded. At M+11 I was surprised to see it in my suburban sky.

NGC 7662 Blue Snowball Nebula. 13mm ep this was big, very bright and round. It looked like a planetary nebula through my eyepiece. And shining a brilliant white.

NGC 6826 The Blinking Planetary Nebula. This was another easy object to visually see using the 13mm and filter. It was smaller than the previous object but still quite distinct. 

NGC 6891 Over the border in Delphinus. I found this little gem. NGC 6891 was small, bright and round in the 13mm. I last saw this object in the middle 1990's. So it was nice to go back and look at it with a modern eyepiece and more aperture.

NGC 7026 In Cygnus NGC 7026 was very small and faint. But despite the size. This magnitude 12 planetary was seen without averted vision. It was elongated in the 13mm. There is a magnitude 7 star very close to this nebula.

Whilst the telescope was pointed in this area. I homed in on NGC 6992. This time I used the 24mm Panoptic and was very surprised to see a long, but faint grey band of nebulosity. 

I also tried but failed to see NGC1, which Owen mentioned in the latest Astronomy Now.

I can honestly say. I enjoyed the evening at the eyepiece. And it made me realise how much I enjoyed visual observing. It was after all. What I did before getting into this digital malarky.

-- 
Regards
Paul A Brierley
Observing Director Macclesfield AS.
 

[Kn4fty]

Great report! Thanks for sharing!

[wookie1965]

Cracking report some gems there.