A Good Night of EAA!

[Xio1996]

Hi Everyone,

I had a great night (morning 😄?) of EAA fun and wanted to share some snapshots of the session. Each of the snapshots below is the final image of the observation, cropped and maybe resized in GIMP.

As usual my trusty Celestron CPC-800 and Altair Astro 294C camera did not let me down. All images were shot at 1000 gain, dark, flat and blended background removal.

The session started at 21:13 (BST), after the clouds rolled over, with a look at the impressive globular cluster M2 in Aquarius. While in the area I travelled north to view M15. Both clusters are of a similar size but with M2 being more condensed.

22 September 2023 20:13:44 (UTC) - Subs: 54, Exp (s): 8.0, Total Exp (s): 432.0, Alt: 35.8°, Az: 155.3°, Airmass: 1.7, App Mag: 8.0

Globular cluster M73, low-down in Aquarius (Alt 26 deg). I believe this is the faintest globular cluster in the Messier catalogue.

22 September 2023 21:33:44 (UTC) - Subs: 29, Exp (s): 4.0, Total Exp (s): 116.0, Alt: 26.2°, Az: 189.7°, Airmass: 2.3, App Mag: 9.7

Next up was a favourite target. Big, bright and structured the impressive planetary nebula M27. I have been trying to measure the light curve of the variable star V0571 Vul. This star lies many light years behind M27 and is a Mira type. It has dimmed quite a lot now and try as I might, I did not manage to get ASTAP to measure this very faint star through M27's nebulosity. 

22 September 2023 22:00:54 (UTC) - Subs: 73, Exp (s): 12.0, Total Exp (s): 876.0, Alt: 53.3°, Az: 231.6°, Airmass: 1.2, App Mag: 7.9

This is my light curve so far of V0571 Vul, but I was really hoping to measure the star down to minimum in November 🙁

It is still visible as a faint red smudge in the image.

Moving on from globular clusters, my next target was the planetary nebula NGC7048 in Cygnus. A lovely red-ringed sphere in a rich starfield. I'm not sure which is the central star of this planetary?

22 September 2023 23:27:08 (UTC) - Subs: 83, Exp (s): 8.0, Total Exp (s): 664.0, Alt: 67.6°, Az: 271.6°, Airmass: 1.1, App Mag: 11.3

Another planetary, NGC 7008 (Cygnus) appears to be wrapping itself around a pair of adjacent stars 😄. There is some nice structure in this object, a really enjoyable view.

23 September 2023 00:24:37 (UTC) - Subs: 75, Exp (s): 8.0, Total Exp (s): 600.0, Alt: 59.3°, Az: 297.4°, Airmass: 1.2, App Mag: 12.4

I finished the EAA session in the early hours of today by viewing IC5146, the Cocoon Nebula. A Triffid 'like' nebula, with lines of dark gas and clouds criss-crossing the object. IC5146 sits at the end of the dark nebula Barnard 168 and there is a hint of this nebula dimming the stars from the nebula diagonally down to the bottom right corner.

23 September 2023 01:08:20 (UTC) - Subs: 100, Exp (s): 12.0, Total Exp (s): 1200.0, Alt: 58.2°, Az: 283.2°, Airmass: 1.2, App Mag: 10.4

I immensely enjoyed my EAA session, filled with colour and structure that was impossible to see in my visual astronomy days (with the same telescope)!

Please finds the full list of objects observed, in the AstroPlanner screenshot below . 

Clear skies and have fun!

Pete

Edited September 23, 2023 by Xio1996

[LaurenceT]

Thank you for a very detailed report, excellent images.

[knightware2]

Wonderful images - thank you for sharing!

Regarding your image of PN NGC 7048. My info says the central star is mag 19.12. I would think the central star is the very dim star adjacent to the small bubble in the center of the nebula.  Just an opinion, not a confirmed fact. I really like the image!

- Phyllis

[PeterC65]

Great images and an interesting report to read. My last three sessions have been visual and now I'm hankering after getting back to EAA (and I have some new filters to test). Thanks for sharing.

 

[Xio1996]

3 hours ago, knightware2 said:

Wonderful images - thank you for sharing!

Regarding your image of PN NGC 7048. My info says the central star is mag 19.12. I would think the central star is the very dim star adjacent to the small bubble in the center of the nebula.  Just an opinion, not a confirmed fact. I really like the image!

- Phyllis

Hi Phyllis,

Thank you for the information on the central star. Magnitude 19.12 wow! I believe Celestron specify 14.2 as the limiting visual magnitude of the CPC-800. I guess that is the power of EAA!

Have fun.

Pete

[Martin Meredith]

Excellent images and detail! 

[Paul M]

That's great report of a very productive session.

All your images are excellent, but if I had to choose one as a favorite, it would be the first of your planetaries in Cygnus, NGC7048, very nicely captured.

[RobertI]

Outstanding captures and interesting write up. 👍