Meade Lightbridge Observing report as of 24.07.2009

[Doc]

Meade Lightbridge 16" f4.5 FL1829mm

24.07.09

No moon

Seeing mag 4.2

Started observing at 23.00 hrs.

Started in Vulpecula and of course the Dumbbell Nebula. M27 was the first planetary nebula to be discovered. It lies 1250 light years from Earth and gets it's name from the hour glass shape it exhibits. Tonight was no dissapointment it looked fantastic in my 21mm Hyperion at x87 . When I inserted the Baader O111 filter M27 came alive. The shape and structure was very evident and you could see exactly where it's name came from. Tonight was definetly the best I have ever seen it.

Next stop was over to one of my favoutites the Double Cluster in Perseus. This is made up off two very close clusters of stars called NGC869 and NGC884. Together they cover about 60' x60' in area and are awash with so many different colours and sizes of stars. In my 21mm it's an amazing sight and with this eyepiece they just fit into the same field of view. Ngc869 looks the brighter of the two with a three bright blue stars while all the red stars are in Ngc884.

Just to the left of the Double Cluster is NGC957 an open cluster 11x11' in size and shining at mag 7.6. The cluster consists of around 50 very dim stars. I estimate about mag 12. A fantastic sight in my 32mm TAL and as far as I can see a pretty much overlooked open cluster.

Staying in Perseus I went hunting for the Little Dumbell or Butterfly Nebula M76. This is one very hard nebula to see, it is about 5x3' in size but is only mag 10 in brightness. I knew I was in the right area but just could not find it. I then decided to try the O111 filter and give the "blinking technique" a go as described by Carol. After a while I could detect a very slight mottling of the background area and decided to put the O111 on the eyepiece adapter and see what happens. Of course all the sky and background stars turned green but the the M76 emerged slightly, the actual shape could not be made out but the mottling of the sky was evident.

Over to Pegasus next and onto M15. It is perhaps the densest of all the globular clusters in the Milky Way. It is also the only known globular cluster to contain a planetary nebula. M15 contains over 100 variable stars, which ranks it third for variables. It also contains 9 known pulsars. This cluster is 40,000 light-years distant, and with a visual magnitude of 6.2. In my 21mm Hyperion at x87 it makes a wonderful sight. It's very bright and large and has a much brighter and compact core. When my 8mm hyperion was inserted at x228 the cluster exploded into at least 80 stars but it's core still remained intact.

Next onto M2 it is a globular cluster of stars located in the constellation of Aquarius. This cluster is located about 50,000 light-years from Earth. It is believed to be about 175 light-years in diameter. M2 is one of the brightest and largest globular clusters in the sky. In my 21mm I could detect a very bright cluster with a extremely dense compact core, around the outer edges of this globular I could detect a ring of seperarte stars maybe mag 12 in brightness. By inserting my 8mm Hyperion a similar reaction to M15 occured, it felt like I was submerged in stars but the core still remained intact.

Next was my sole purpose for observing tonight and I waited until 00.30 to see Neptune. I had a quick look at Jupiter and it's four moons but used Jupiter as a starting point for my star hopping adventure via Mu Capricorn to Neptune. In fact it turned out pretty easy and Neptune was easily found. At only 2.5' in size and shining at Mag 7.8 it looks like a star in my 21mm Hyperion. But I increased the magnification to x228 by inserting my 8mm hyperion and the star like object turned into a disc with a slight hint of blue/green. Tried the 6mm ortho and at x304 it was just to much and the view was a bit hazy. The best view came at x146 with my 12.5 ortho the disk at this mag was unresolved but with this eyepiece I could just make out a couple of little pinpricks of light. One was very close to the disc, I estimate 3' away but I cannot be sure if this was actually a individual pinprick are a part of the disc, it was very hard to tell. The other pinprick was in the three o'clock position and at least 20' away from Neptune. It was fading in and out with seeing but I observed it for at least 15 minutes. At the time I had no idea how far Triton, one of Neptunes moons was away from it's parent. The next day I downloaded the Trition Tracker from SkyandTelescope website and it does show Triton at about the same place as I saw a pinprick of light so I'm at least a little more happy with my observation and a little more confident I saw Triton. It gives Triton's magnitude as 13.5 which is possible in my scope.

Next over to Delphinus and to a really small Globular Cluster known as Ngc 6934. It shines at Mag 8 and has a size of 6'. In my 21mm hyperion it was unresolved, even in the 8mm hyperion at x228 it remained so, maybe a few of the outer stars but very hard to tell.

It was by now 01.20 and I headed for Lacerta and a large open cluster called NGC 7209. it shines at mag 6 and covers an area of 25'. It is irregular in shape but has many bright stars. Quite a little gem and easily overlooked.

My last object of the night was the Cocoon Nebula IC5146 in Cygnus. It's bright at mag 7 and covers an area of 12'x20' but tonight it did not appear for me. I tried the blinking method and also directly attached the O111 filter but to no avail. In normal vision it lies in a wonderful part of the sky. My 16" scope shows so many stars it's unreal and to take all this in is very hard to do. It looks great in my Baader Hyperion that does show coma so what will it look like in a 26mm Nagler, just say I cannot wait.

Session ended at 01.45.

[Sam]

Great report Doc. The Little Dumbbell is quite tricky - I reckon it looks like a dog bone. M15 and M2 are lovely sights too. I had my LB oout last night two and checked out some of the same sights - do you think the OIII filter is worth getting?

Sam

[Doc]

IMO Sam No it's not worth getting.

I have only tried my one form a polluted back garden and it's good but not that good. It takes alot of getting used to.

It's true it does show great detail on certain objects but these are all tinted green and it's not natural to see objects in this colour.

As far the blinking technique I have seen a couple of nebs appear but again for the cost, I don't know.

When I try it at a dark site with a wider field eyepiece like say Nagler 31mm I might think differently.

[Sam]

Thanks Doc, I might give it a miss then.

[ashenlight]

Fantastic report Mick, I love all the extra details you put in, makes for really entertaining reading Your Neptune viewing sounds amazing, it must have been such a wonderful sight to see it change into a small disk

[Talitha]

Great report, Mick. Odd that your O-III tints the nebulae green.. everything's white in my Lumicon.

[Doc]

White I don't understand mines all green. And I mean it turns the whole night sky green.