Sketches of Stephan's Q, NGC7331 & some fleas, + a few others

Two nights in a row here:

Sunday night showed mediocre seeing and transparency. First up was a sketch of the Cat's Eye prompted by another thread here. (Well, first up was about 40 minutes of vacuuming dead flies, but I assume you all don't want to hear about that.)

NGC6543 Cat's Eye 2 Oct 2008, 22:40UT; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.5
16" APM Mak-Cass, AP1200GTO

Like many planetaries, this one looks completely different in the eyepiece from photos. I wasn't able to make out any of the internal shells, but several of them condense to show a brighter crescent to the NNE somewhat surrounding the central star. There are also wisps of much dimmer material, most prominently to the SW and NE.

I then spent about an hour trying to see Gyulbudaghian's Nebula (actually a Herbig-Haro object). I don't know why I keep at it -- this was my fourth attempt with no luck.

Next up was Stephan's Quintet, but I wasn't able to make out anything beyond the two brighter components. It was then that I discovered that I didn't have my dew heater cranked up enough, and the center of my corrector was a bit fogged so I called it a night.

Monday showed considerably better seeing and marginally better transparency. I returned to the Cat's Eye first, but even in Pickering 7 I was unable to resolve any of the internal shells. So I went back to Stephan's Quintet.

HCG92 Stephan's Quintet 3 Oct 2008, 21:10UT; Pickering 7, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
16" APM Mak-Cass, AP1200GTO

The pairing at the center showed itself first, with a fairly obviuos bi-polar nature, but poor condensation. The more elongated member to the SE was also fairly easy, with a more marked condesation. These members were somewhere between direct and averted-only, but from there it got much more difficult.

I originally sketched the SW member as a star, but study of it at 450x revealed that it never resolved as tightly as other field stars of similar magnitude. It is very dim, with a semi-stellar core.

The NE component nearly alluded me. No condensation what-so-ever, quite small and considerably dimmer than the others. Not holdable in averted-vision, but there perhaps 50% of the time, and easily re-acquired once I had found it a couple of times.

A chart of the field would have helped greatly here, but I still don't trust myself not to have averted imagination, so I don't like to bring charts out.

With reasonable success on Stephan's, I thought I'd see how many of NGC7331's fleas I could find.

NGC7331 3 Oct 2008, 21:45UT; Pickering 7, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
16" APM Mak-Cass, AP1200GTO

NGC7331 is quite bright with a well-condensed, elongated core. The brightest and most extended flea to the ENE shows itself first; the other two I captured have semi-stellar cores and took 450x to differentiate from dim field stars.

Well-pleased with how that went I tackled one more.

NGC7332 and NGC7339 3 Oct 2008, 22:10UT; Pickering 7, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
16" APM Mak-Cass, AP1200GTO

NGC7332 slightly brighter than 7331, but 7339 considerably dimmer. 7332 shows a well-condensed core while 7339 shows no core at all. Both of similar size and proportions, with 7332 perhaps being a bit more pinched at either end.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Super sketches Jeff.

Deirdre Kelleghan
PRO IFAS

Fantastic sketches and report Jeff.
I've noticed that the larger aperture opens up doors to so many more objects.
With that in mind, I just ordered these observing handbooks: www.faintfuzzies.com/

Michael.

Thanks, Dee and Michael!

I've got Alvin's Arp book, which has some great stuff in it. I've also talked to him a few times on CloudyNights -- nice guy.

The Hicksons and Abell PN books looked a bit more focused on finder charts for those star-hopping, so I never got them. But I'd be curious to see what you think of them.

Do you have Kepple and Sanner's NSOG?

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Yea, I have those Jeff. Excellent books, although I'm concerned about bringing them out and getting the pages covered in dew. From reading the CN review, I think (hope!) Alvin's books are more appropriate for actual use next to the scope.

Dave L:
Wnile we are talking about NSOG, here is a useful link for you.
It contains the top 400 objects from the NSOGs.
I understand you are putting a list together for yourself from the book.
www.skymap.com/smp_target_lists.htm#kands
Extract the zip file and there is a word file in there.
Hope this is useful.

Michael.