Jove and a pink pillow

[RobertI]

Beautifully transparent so I thought I’d try some DSOs with the 102ED - almost went with the C8, but didn’t really want the additional hassle. The Veil was beautiful as always with the Oiii - both east, west and Pickering wisp clearly visible. I then spent some time on my nemesis the Crescent, and could eventually make out a very faint oval glow with a brighter corner with the Oiii. Pretty much the same as previous attempts. Why this is called a ‘bright nebula’ is beyond me! Then onto NGC7027 sometimes known as the Pink Pillow nebula. I found it using the blinking method with the Oiii filter. At low mags it didn’t look much but when I zoomed in to around 200x I could make out a clear oblong shape with ill defined edges - unexpected! I then failed to find the Catseye and the Blinking planetaries which was disappointing. Before packing away, I thought I’d have a go at Jupiter and was amazed to see how good the seeing was. In went the binoviewers and I was treated to five minutes of wonderful photographic like detail, with textures I just don’t normally see. The seeing went wobbly again so I thought it was a good time to stop while I had some good memories. 

Edited September 19, 2022 by RobertI

[Kon]

Nice session and report. Likewise, I was disappointed with the Crescent last year when I first observed it. The blinking is worth retrying. Don't use a filter as you can have it come and go with averted vision; with your OIII it's directly visible.

[Nyctimene]

19 hours ago, RobertI said:

I then spent some time on my nemesis the Crescent, and could eventually make out a very faint oval glow with a brighter corner with the Oiii. Pretty much the same as previous attempts. Why this is called a ‘bright nebula’ is beyond me!

Congrats for spotting the Crescent. Compared to it, the Veil is easy. It's almost always visible only with averted vision and O III in my SQM-L 21+ skies, even with the big dob. To locate it is not as easy as well. Look for a trapezium of 6 - 8 mag stars (HD 192536; HR 7752; HD 192766 and HD 192422). The last one is very close to the variable star RS Cyg, which glows in distinct orange colour. When you have found it, you can be sure to be on the right track. 20 arc min to the SW the three stars that are embedded in 6888 are now easily to locate. You'll need dark skies and good transparency and a low to medium power eyepiece. Hth.

Stephan

Edited September 19, 2022 by Nyctimene

[RobertI]

2 hours ago, Kon said:

Nice session and report. Likewise, I was disappointed with the Crescent last year when I first observed it. The blinking is worth retrying. Don't use a filter as you can have it come and go with averted vision; with your OIII it's directly visible.

Thanks! I’m pretty sure I have seen this neb before a while ago so I was perplexed to not have found it. I will get some detailed finder charts and try again!

[RobertI]

2 hours ago, Nyctimene said:

Congrats for spotting the Crescent. Compared to it, the Veil is easy. It's almost always visible only with averted vision and O III in my SQM-L 21+ skies, even with the big dob. To locate it is not as easy as well. Look for a trapezium of 6 - 8 mag stars (HD 192536; HR 7752; HD 192766 and HD 192422). The last one is very close to the variable star RS Cyg, which glows in distinct orange colour. When you have found it, you can be sure to be on the right track. 20 arc min to the SW the three stars that are embedded in 6888 are now easily to locate. You'll need dark skies and good transparency and a low to medium power eyepiece. Hth.

Stephan

Thanks Stephan, and a useful description of the area. I found a really good finder chart for the crescent which helped me find it first time, and I know the starfield fairly well now which I think really helps me to know where to look and what to look for. What I really want to do is take my C8 to a really dark site and see if I can do better. There’s still some time left this year!