Wizard neb and more

[jetstream]

Finally a half decent night to observe, avg trans with SQM going 21.6 and M33 teased me flicking in and out a few times naked eye. Scope: 24" f4.1 dob/21E,17E,10BCO/PCII Lumicon UHC.

Speaking of M33 is showed another spiral arm easily tonight in addition to the dual skewed arms, a great nice sight.

@Ships and Stars , I wanted to give you a heads up on the Wizard nebula- it was really easy tonight and distinct with the 21E/Lumicon UHC. The "left" side (in EP) showed as a roughly triangular patch of nebulosity mixed in with a bunch of stars- in the middle a Vg dark rift, almost funnel like followed by a large patch of nebulosity drifting up and to the right. The 21E was used with the Paracorr II and the Wizard fit the FOV very well. You will see this object no question with your 20".

As well as the underwhelming Cocoon neb which did show a bit of structure with the UHC.

A real prize tonight was seeing the Blue Snowball, NGC 7662, actually the prize was the bright, sharp, not quite complete annular ring- fantastic! and what color!The 10 BCO/PCII brought this to life.

So much more...M31 gave up more dust lanes just "above" the bright, hazy glob near the one end, well worth trying to see. Tonight with the 21E/PCII the structure showed well and easily.

The fantastic Little Dumbell, M76 is a show case object, I'm really getting into planetaries these days.

All in all a pretty dang good night!

[Littleguy80]

4 hours ago, jetstream said:

The fantastic Little Dumbell, M76 is a show case object, I'm really getting into planetaries these days.

Excellent report, Gerry. I observed the little Dumbell through our clubs 12” dob. It had little “hooks” of nebulosity that appeared almost like spiral arms of a galaxy. I’d never seen that feature of M76 before. It was very neat. 

I’ve been thinking about having a go at the Cocoon this season. Do you have any experience with your 10”?

[jetstream]

5 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Excellent report, Gerry. I observed the little Dumbell through our clubs 12” dob. It had little “hooks” of nebulosity that appeared almost like spiral arms of a galaxy. I’d never seen that feature of M76 before. It was very neat. 

I’ve been thinking about having a go at the Cocoon this season. Do you have any experience with your 10”?

Thanks Neil it was great to observe again. The Cocoon... it is actually a hard object and I've used the 1.25" Hb with success on it in the 10" as well as the UHC.  Some say the Hb is the preferred filter to detect it and in the 10" it will appear as a small hazy glow at the end of a long dark neb- but the filters escp the Hb hurt the dark lane.

I cheated ....I used the Sky Commander and it put me right on it lol!

M76 is great! Love those hooks and the 17E/UHC really made this one strut its stuff.

Whats your plan for filters and eyepieces? A good tight UHC offers more mag range IMHO than an Hb.

[Ships and Stars]

11 hours ago, jetstream said:

Finally a half decent night to observe, avg trans with SQM going 21.6 and M33 teased me flicking in and out a few times naked eye. Scope: 24" f4.1 dob/21E,17E,10BCO/PCII Lumicon UHC.

Speaking of M33 is showed another spiral arm easily tonight in addition to the dual skewed arms, a great nice sight.

@Ships and Stars , I wanted to give you a heads up on the Wizard nebula- it was really easy tonight and distinct with the 21E/Lumicon UHC. The "left" side (in EP) showed as a roughly triangular patch of nebulosity mixed in with a bunch of stars- in the middle a Vg dark rift, almost funnel like followed by a large patch of nebulosity drifting up and to the right. The 21E was used with the Paracorr II and the Wizard fit the FOV very well. You will see this object no question with your 20".

As well as the underwhelming Cocoon neb which did show a bit of structure with the UHC.

A real prize tonight was seeing the Blue Snowball, NGC 7662, actually the prize was the bright, sharp, not quite complete annular ring- fantastic! and what color!The 10 BCO/PCII brought this to life.

So much more...M31 gave up more dust lanes just "above" the bright, hazy glob near the one end, well worth trying to see. Tonight with the 21E/PCII the structure showed well and easily.

The fantastic Little Dumbell, M76 is a show case object, I'm really getting into planetaries these days.

All in all a pretty dang good night!

Thanks Gerry! This is perfect, first-hand information here. Good to hear you got both with the UHC! You don't want to see our weather forecast here however, I've already had two flood alerts in three days for our general area, bleh. 

Your report gives me hope though!

Like you, I quite like the planetaries as well. 

Glad to hear someone is getting some action in!

[Littleguy80]

51 minutes ago, jetstream said:

Thanks Neil it was great to observe again. The Cocoon... it is actually a hard object and I've used the 1.25" Hb with success on it in the 10" as well as the UHC.  Some say the Hb is the preferred filter to detect it and in the 10" it will appear as a small hazy glow at the end of a long dark neb- but the filters escp the Hb hurt the dark lane.

I cheated ....I used the Sky Commander and it put me right on it lol!

M76 is great! Love those hooks and the 17E/UHC really made this one strut its stuff.

Whats your plan for filters and eyepieces? A good tight UHC offers more mag range IMHO than an Hb.

Thanks Gerry. I was thinking of starting with the APM 20mm and Hb and experimenting from there. I have the TV 25mm Plossl and then the ES82 30mm if I feel I need more exit pupil. I hadn’t considered the UHC so that’s a very helpful tip. I should have remembered that from the Flaming Star neb last winter. Which UHC filter do you use? I’ve only ever used Astronomik‘s in both 1.25” and 2”. I’ve not tried other brands so I can only say that it seems to work well when used with the right targets. 

Edited November 23, 2019 by Littleguy80

[jetstream]

7 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thanks Gerry. I was thinking of starting with the APM 20mm and Hb and experimenting from there. I have the TV 25mm Plossl and then the ES82 30mm if I feel I need more exit pupil. I hadn’t considered the UHC so that’s a very helpful tip. I should have remembered that from the Flaming Star neb last winter. Which UHC filter do you use? I’ve only ever used Astronomik‘s in both 1.25” and 2”. I’ve not tried other brands so I can only say that it seems to work well when used with the right targets. 

I lucked out a few years ago and got excellent copies of Lumicons OIII and UHC, both top notch. Later on, with the company in transition or whatever I did not luck out and paid big money for a sub par Lumicon 2" Hb...

You will see the Cocoon for sure with your 10"/20 APM/Hb if conditions allow.

[Jiggy 67]

On 23/11/2019 at 03:12, jetstream said:

 

A real prize tonight was seeing the Blue Snowball, NGC 7662, actually the prize was the bright, sharp, not quite complete annular ring- fantastic! and what color!The 10 BCO/PCII brought this to life.

 

The Blue Snowball is a lovely object. I had my first look at it last week and it blew me away, though it was only a very small bluish disc through my 8”. Bet yours was a much more detailed view