A few H400 open clusters

I don't normally go out when the moon is up, but we've been so devoid of observing nights so far this fall that I figured I should give it a try. I picked some Herschel 400 open clusters to go through, thinking they'd withstand the light pollution best.

The seeing turned out to be excellent, while the transparency was even worse than expected.

NGC6633 9/11/2008 21:50 UT; Pickering 8, NELM 4.5, SQM 19.1
APM 16" Mak-Cass, 31T5 w/ AP Telecompressor (~0.8x), 100x

Fairly large with perhaps 40 brighter members, elongated roughly 4:1 NE-SW, with a small clumping of 6 bright members to the W.

NGC6755 9/11/2008 22:00 UT; Pickering 8, NELM 4.5, SQM 19.1

Clouded out.

NGC6756 9/11/2008 22:00 UT; Pickering 8, NELM 4.5, SQM 19.1

Clouded out.

NGC6802 9/11/2008 22:00 UT; Pickering 8, NELM 4.5, SQM 19.1

No show. This was at the edge of some high clouds, but I'm not sure if it was clouded out or just washed out by the moon.

NGC6834 9/11/2008 22:10 UT; Pickering 8, NELM 4.5, SQM 19.1
APM 16" Mak-Cass, 17T4, 235x

A line of 5 brighter stars from ENE to WSW, surrounded by a diamond of perhaps 60 dimmer members.

Moon washes out background horribly at 100x, and 150x, and moderately even at 235x.

NGC6882/6885 9/11/2008 22:20 UT; Pickering 8, NELM 4.5, SQM 19.1
APM 16" Mak-Cass, 26T5, 150x

A loose scattering of perhaps 20 brighter members with a few dimmer members toward the center. Very bright companion field star to ESE.



Mostly a pretty disappointing night, but the sketch turned out all right. Next time I might be more careful to pick targets farther from the moon and see if that helps any.

-- Jeff.

Nice report Jeff and another excellent sketch.

Thanks, Paul!

great job

I looked for some clusters too, end of summer.

I remember 6755 and 6756 are little knots of very close stars.

6802 at the end of the coathanger is just like a tiny cloud

Good stuff,
I also had a look at a few clusters last night, although not as organised yourself.
It was very clear last night thankfully.

Coldfield --

Dang; I didn't know I was at the end of the coathanger (one of the problems with GoTo -- you lose all context). I should have popped an eyepiece in the rich field piggyback and had a look.

Dave --

Yeah, I had hoped to go out again last night but it was still cloudy here at midnight when I gave up. This morning was good though and I've got a cracker of a solar sketch to post once I get it scanned.

Michael also came up in the afternoon and we exchanged some views through different solar equipment (PST, Herschel wedge, and SF70). I should have taken a picture, but it didn't occur to me at the time....

Cheers,
-- Jeff.