Lyra planetaries

[Nyctimene]

No, not M 57. When I had set up the 13.1" Coulter Odyssey and was warmed up with Albireo and M 56, the Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas pointed me to the nearby planetary nebula NGC 6765, with 13.1mag not easy under 5.6 NELM skies and in astronomical dawn. The 26 mmf ES LER didn't show it; switching to the Seben zoom and increasing the magnification revealed slowly a slightly uneven disc, almost Jupiter-sized, almost round, with a faint star adjacent N. With 250x mag and a UHC filter, the planetary was directly visible, and I glimpsed several times a brighter nucleus-like structure. No colour visible. Researching later in the Interstellarum Deep Sky Guide, U. Glahn's drawing (27" scope!) showed a very interesting object with a complicated bipolar structure - worth another try with the 18" under better conditions. Next was Minkowski 1.64 (PK 064+15.1), 12.9 mag, 2° N of Beta Lyrae (Sheliak), a smaller, round disc, evenly bright; no structure or central star visible (has been reported with 13" at 220x (SAC database)). The faint galaxies 6688 (13.9 mag) and 6692 (14.2) were elusive in the brightening sky, so I finished after 1.5 hours at 02.45 CEST with the clusters 7789 (Caroline's Rose) and 457 (Owl cluster). It's astonishing, what this old scope still shows - with the  primary mirror's original  coating of 1987 (still in good condition; always stored cool and dry; never dewed up). Another midsummer night well used; warm;  the blooming lime tree's scent and fireflies as a bonus.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

[jetstream]

Great report Stephan, that scope is sure proving its merit! I'm going to observe these soon now I think! Thanks, Gerry

[John]

Very nice report Stephan

I might have a go for some of those with my 12 inch dob tonight.

[DeepSkyBagger]

Hi Stephan,

I caught the two planetaries you mention in 2014 with my 12" Newtonian (2014 was a good year for me, observing-wise).

NGC 6765 - I found that it was not easily visible without the OIII filter in place. The OIII filter reveals a fairly large but dim disc. x375 shows an elongation, but the best view was obtained with the Or6mm eyepiece (x250) with the OIII filter. With this the elongation was clear and there were two tiny twinkles involved in the main section of the nebula. A fainter, detached section could be seen paralleling the main section.

M 1-64 (I have it listed as PNG 064.9+15.5) - Very small and very faint. Almost stellar. Not visible without the OIII filter, and quite hard to detect even with it. Elongation was suspected. In the 4mm eyepiece (x375) without the OIII filter the object was barely visible, and appeared like a fuzzy star. After much viewing at x150, it became just visible without the filter.

I haven't seen either of the two galaxies you mention - too faint for my poor skies, but I have seen other galaxies in Lyra, namely NGCs 6646, 6675, 6702, 6710, 6745 and 6792. 

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by DeepSkyBagger