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NGC 2022 - Planetary Nebula


DarkerSky

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Had an exceptionally transparent sky last night and no lights from the neighbours. Took full advantage to hunt down NGC 2022 Planetary Nebula in Orion with my 16" lightbridge. My LM was about 5.0, and to be honest I was prepared for disappointment, but the PL came into view surprisingly easily once I'd star hoped to the right location. In x70 I 'suspected' it. At x148 it was a beautifully small round glow of light - slightly extended towards an oval(ish) shape. Must have spent a good couple of hours teasing what I could out of it with various eyepieces and my OIII filter.

With averted vision I grabbed a darkened central area to the PL. Likened it to a polo mint. Also got hints of a limb brightening with my OIII on the southeast side. Overall the PL was a joy to observe.

edit: There was a sketch with this post but I've removed it as it had some bad light grading across the image. I am having to photograph sketches as my scanner isn't working. Will add the sketch once I've had a chance to re-photograph it :D

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Your garden seems a little better then mine at LM 5 but you still done great in finding this elusive Ngc2022, below are my last 2 views for you to compare. Remember these views were from a light polluted back garden as well about LM 4.2

According to CduC Ngc2022 is a planetary nebula in Orion and is approx 0.5'x 0.4' in size and has a magnitude of 9.2, in my 28 Uwan this little object is impossible to make out, but by placing the 16 Uwan and O111 filter in the focuser the planetary becomes visible, but is still a very hard object to see, no shape and be made out and no colour was seen. By removing the Baader O111 filter the object disappears, so in theory it is invisible without a O111 filter.
First of tonights objects is a planetary nebula in Orion called Ngc2022, with a magnitude of 9.2 and a size of 0.3'x0.47' it's a rather difficult object to locate. I would say the magnitude is much more like mag 12. Invisible in my 28 Uwan and only just detectable in the 16 Uwan. Appears as a small round and faint ball, no structure or colour is detected. Even by placing the 7 Uwan in giving me x261 no structure becomes visible. On my last observations of this object I could not detect it without the use of a O111 filter this time I could, but tonight the sky was alot better so maybe this has a lot to do with it.
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To tell you the truth Mick I was absolutely brimming with excitement just after that moment of realizing that I'd actually found it. I was tromping around in my snowy garden going "yes!!, i've found it!!" :)

It's an object i've never seen before, and only ever tried once previously to track down with my 8.5" scope. Definately the highlight so far with my LB...although i'm sure there will be many more to come :D

Here is the sketch...

NGC2022black.jpg

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Have you seen Ngc2372 yet It's down as two seperate objects in Herschel's 400 but I can only see one PN there.

Over to Gemini next and another little planetary nebula called Ngc2372, it appears that Herschel gave the nebula two separate numbers Ngc2371 and Ngc2372 but as far as I could see there is only one nebula at this location. This is a very dim nebula at mag 13 and is 0.9'x1.3' in size. It takes magnification very well and I was allowed to detect two very faint lobes when using the 7 Uwan at x261. Best view was with the 16 Uwan at x114 where I could make out a clear oval smudge, no colour was detected and no central star was seen.
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No, not even searched for it as yet. Another one to add to the list!

Could be a worthy target from a dark sky locale. I was hoping to get up to my dad's in North Wales this side of xmas, but that's not going to happen now. LM from his garden is better than 6

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