Exploring in Lacerta

[Size9Hex]

Splendid conditions last night. I visited Lacerta, following in the footsteps of an excellent Sue French tour. I’d heard of Lacerta, but couldn’t have told you where it was, less pointed it out. It’s faint for sure, most of the main marker stars around mag 4.5. Looked more like a rat I thought, scurrying through a nice rich region of the Milky Way. So many stars here when line up the scope and step up!

Two planetary nebulae, Merrill 2–2 and IC 5217. Stellar in appearance, hiding in busy star fields. Fascinating in both cases that they were revealed as the single bright survivors in the view when an Oiii was introduced. Very different to the more famous nebulae with their visual spectacle, but somehow quite compelling.

Off the beaten path, there’s an awful lot of variety and beauty in the open clusters. It’s great hunting them down. You never know what you’re going get. King 9, IC 1434, IC 1442 and NGC 7209, 7243 and 7245. Faint sparkly patches, barely resolved. Long, bright, tangled stellar chains. The massive and the miniature. Pitchforks, broaches, pond skaters, grains of rice.

I (almost) finished with another punt at NGC 7076 / Abell 75, a mag 14.5 planetary in Cepheus that has been pretty uncooperative. Discovered by Herschel. I’m 50:50 on whether I got it, beating previous “definitely not" efforts. Has anyone else seen this one?

By now, Orion was up. What an absolute treat to see M42 again. It’s blooming spectacular!

Hope everyone else managed to turn off Bake Off and get some good viewing in too! ?

[cloudsweeper]

Great Paul - very eloquent and enthusiastic account!

Doug.

[Paz]

Great report. One of my personal favourite objects is in Lacerta, BL Lac, labeled as a variable star but in fact is a Blazar.

[Size9Hex]

9 hours ago, Paz said:

Great report. One of my personal favourite objects is in Lacerta, BL Lac, labeled as a variable star but in fact is a Blazar.

Nice one thanks. Another one for the list to look at! ?