Short session: one lonely Arp

Conditions started off decidedly mixed: poor transparency (NELM 5) but good seeing (Pickering . Sadly, I didn't have a single high-magnification target on my list, so I spent a bit of time hunting through my Pocket Sky Atlas, but most of the PNs in the area I already had sketches of. So I went back to my list of Arp Peculiars.

The first two were too low to my S horizon (where my worst light pollution is), so I decided to come back and get them next year when they're a bit higher. By now I had frittered away the first hour, but the transparency had improved slightly.

Arp112 12/26/2008 22:30UT; Pickering 8, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.4
16" Mak-Cass

Quite dim and small; both NGC7805 and 7806 circular; SW member slightly larger with semi-stellar averted-vision core; NE member with much more difficult stellar core visible perhaps 20% in averted. In a sparse neighborhood with quite dim field stars (several in my sketch are mag 15+).

It's interesting that the transparency was sub-optimal yet I recorded 3 stars on my sketch that are about as deep as my instrument goes (15.0, 15.1, 15.3).

The remaining Arps on my list were again too low by now, so I changed track and centered up the Bubble Nebula for a sketch. About the same time mother nature centered up some cloud-cover, so it all came to a spluttering halt.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Hi Jeff, a nice observation there, at least you can get down to mag 15.3, but with those easterly winds at the moment, it's usually quite hazy.

Keith..

Keith --

Yeah, the last couple of nights (which were supposed to be clear) were partly-to-mostly cloudy as well. I'm itching to get a crack at Arp65, 74 and 145, but it looks like I'll be waiting for next year for them to come back around again at a decent altitude.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.