Some tough targets (for me)

[Jiggy 67]

I had a reasonable window tonight of about 3 hours with a clear sky and not bad seeing and transparency. The Moon is on its way back but at about 25% and setting reasonably early I decided to have a go at some of the more obscure and difficult planetary nebula with the 8" reflector. When I say difficult, they may not be too some but they are to me under my heavily light polluted skies so I have to plan for these targets. 

Now, I use GoTo which I accept, to some extent, is cheating. I would love to partake in the challenge of star hopping, but in my skies, that would be very difficult, I could do it but, I suspect that I would spend more time hopping than observing. Tonight though incorporated a bit of both GoTo and star hopping, because, although GoTo can be accurate, it's not perfect, often only getting your target in the field of view, and when it points to a pinpoint object, amongst many other pinpoint objects, you cannot be sure that you are on the exact pinpoint object you want to be on.  Planetary nebula are a case in point because often, they are a pinpoint object. In my skies all of the following were pinpoint objects and if I'm honest, I may have got them, but I may not have got them. Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken

NGC 2022

PN in Orion. This was difficult. A very small bluish dot that appeared as a disc rather than a star. I did get fleeting glimpses of a halo around it. 6.5mm Morpheus (x153 mag) and UHC filter showed it but 4.5 Morpheus (x222 mag) was best.

Jonckheere 320

PN in Orion. Another really difficult one. This is where I combined star hopping techniques with GoTo. GoTo took me to the correct area, I'm sure of it but with a 17.5 Morpheus (x57 mag) the nebula could have been any one of a number of objects. By comparing the view from Sky Safari with the view through the eyepiece (which took a good 20 minutes) I narrowed it down to a very small bluish dot, I think it was the nebula because it just didn't strike me as a star

Kembles Cascade

My eyes were hurting so I needed a break

For both of the following I had to refer to Sky Safari star map to confirm that I was actually looking at the correct object by comparing the stars around the object.

IC 2149

PN in Auriga. Small but visible as a disc with 9mm Morpheus (x 111 mag) Higher power didn't appear to assist with this planetary but at 9mm it did appear to ave a blue tint

NGC 2371

PN in Gemini. This is supposed to resemble the Dumbell Nebula....and I'm sure it does in dark skies with a big aperture, alas not to me!! Again, by using the star map on Sky Safari, I'm pretty sure I got right onto it but I could only see the central star, which was very faint, with no nebulosity. I tried a UHC AND OIII filter but to no avail

Anyway, despite the fact that there absolutely no WOW moments, it was nice to get out and push the scope, GoTo......and Sky Safari to it's limits

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Very nice report... and using GoTo isn't cheating to any extent. It's called being modern. 😉

I had the frac and AZGTI out tonight before the sky turned milky and then cloud covered. Though Point & Track was used the most. Technology is great when it works. 😀

[Epick Crom]

Nice report Jiggy👍. I can tell you love your Planetaries! Nice haul of objects you got there!