A few clusters; no Abell PNs; sketch of the Veil

Last night turned out to be clear, but with poor transparency (NELM 5.5, SQM 20.5; my better nights are NELM 6 with SQMs in the 20.9/21.0 range).

I started out with a few open clusters to give myself time to fully dark-adapt.

NGC6755 9/23/2008 20:35 UT
16" Mak-Cass, 31NT5, AP Telecompressor

Not sure what the cluster is here: there's a sparse grouping of about 40 brighter stars in a rough triangle about 15' on a side, and a much smaller, tighter and dimmer grouping to the SSWW, about half-way out from center. Smaller grouping unresolved bar 4 brightest members, even at 335X.

NGC6756 9/23/2008 20:45 UT
16" Mak-Cass, 17NT4

Very small and very dim, with 3 direct-vision members and perhaps 15 in averted. Dimness actually adds some interest to this one though. Small unresolved patch near the ENE edge.

---

My observing list had been prepared a few nights ago when the transparency was better, but had never been executed due to getting clouded out). It wasn't really ideal for tonight, but I thought I'd give it a go.

Abell53 PN (PK 040-00.1) 9/23/2008 20:55 UT
16" Mak-Cass

Struck out.

Abell43 PN (PK 036+17.1) 9/23/2008 21:10 UT
16" Mak-Cass

Struck out.

Abell46 PN (PK 055+16.1) 9/23/2008 21:30 UT
16" Mak-Cass

Struck out.

---

Well, this was going nowhere. I also had Palomar 11 on my list, but at an altitude of 20° this was never going to happen. So I decided to change gears and sketch some eye-candy.

NGC6992 (part of the Veil Nebula complex) 9/23/2008 21:50 UT
16" Mak-Cass, 31NT5, AP Telecompressor, Lumicon OIII

I didn't get as much definition in the detail here as I usually do (I suppose due to the transparency), but the main body was plenty bright and the sketch turned out well.

---

At this point I had run off the bottom of my prepared list, so I just had my mount (an Astro-Physics 1200GTO) suggest a few others in the area:

NGC6760 9/23/2008 22:10 UT
16" Mak-Cass, 17NT4

Dim circular glow brightening to center. No stars resolved at 235X, although hints of graniness. 335X enhances graniness, but still no stars.

NGC6778 9/23/2008 22:20 UT
16" Mak-Cass, 17NT4, Lumicon UHC

Small moderately bright planetary. Responds well to UHC even at 335X, although 450X unfiltered offers a very similar view. Best resolution tonight at 235X, where boxy, eared shape most prevalent (similar to Turtle Nebula, but with the barest, fleeting hints of a minima to center).

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Apart from a lack of pictures to go with it, thats a pretty cool report Jeff.

Seanie --

I tried an on-site link that time thinking it might work, but I guess not. The URL to the sketch is:

www.irishastronomy.org/media/kunena/atta...y/images/NGC6960.jpg

-- Jeff.

jeyjey wrote:

www.irishastronomy.org/media/kunena/atta...y/images/NGC6960.jpg

Nicely done, simple yet perfect.

The Veil is a wonderful object to look at with decent aperture and narrowband filters really make a *significant* difference. I took a look at it last night myself in the 16" SCT and again it didn't diappoint. However, I think I prefer the wider angle view in the 16" dob, which is much faster and gives a much wider area of sky & nebula. Perhaps I need a very wide angle low power eyepiece for th SCT.
While I was observing last night, I took a decent look at M57. Using adverted vision, I could see the central star and using Brian's Skiff's photometry chart of stars near M57, I reckon I got down to mag+15.7.
The double cluser was great as always and I've never seen M15 as nice.
Probably because of major objects like the double cluster, I sometimes overlook the other stuff nearby. In the Cassiopeia region, M76 and M103 were fantastic. Wonderful objects in their own right and well worth a look. The colour of the stars in M103 was amazing and M76 looks exactly like a mini-dumbbell.

Excellent Veil sketch , love to see more.

I had the pleasure of seeing but not sketching the Veil through Michael's 16inch scope. What a view , what a target

See ye all in Birr

Deirdre Kelleghan
PRO IFAS