Really excellent session with a notable "first"

[John]

I had a superb evening last night with my 12 inch dobsonian. I'm sure others were enjoying the warm, clear, dark skies as well.

I spent 4 hours mostly as a "space tourist" visiting and gawping at the many showpiece deep sky targets in Hercules, Cygnus, Lyra, etc, etc. 

I won't list all the many targets I observed but there were a couple that stood out during the session:

- In Hercules I managed to see the very distant galaxy NGC 6196 and traces of a couple of the other NGC and IC galaxies in this faint and far off group. They are close to Messier 13. I think I've spotted 6196 before but I've not had traces of the others in the group. High magnifications (300x-400x) proved the key to teasing these faint patches of light out of the background sky.

- In Lyra, late in the session, when the constellation had risen high in the sky and my eyes had become dark adapted I spent over an hour studying the planetary nebula and the surrounding stars at very high magnification (454x) to see how faint I could get. For the first time I managed to get several clear glimpses of the central star in the Ring Nebula which is around magnitude 15 I believe

Previously the faintest star that I have managed to see was magnitude 14.7 but last night I broke the mag 15 barrier for the first time. I had wondered if my mirror coatings, being 10 years old now, might prevent going any "deeper" but last night things came together very nicely

This was the magnitude guide that I was using. I don't know how precise the brightness figures are but it gives some idea at least:

 

And, yes, at 400x plus the Ring Nebula really does look that large in the field of view !

In in all a great session and a target achieved that I've tried for, unsuccessfully, many times before

 

 

[Epick Crom]

Congratulations on glimpsing the central star of M 57 John! I'm yet to "discover" this object ( M57). Can't wait to see it. Enjoy the warm weather!

[Stu]

Nice one @John! Finally got it 👍👍👍

[JeremyS]

Great result @John 👍🏻

[RobertI]

That’s a great spot John, you must be chuffed. 🙂

[Chris]

Congratulations John, fantastic! Mirror coating good for a while longer then