Catching up: September 18 report and sketches

I'm horrifically behind on scanning my sketches, but better late than never:

NGC7026 Cheeseburger Nebula 18/09/2012 20:30 UT; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
400mm Mak-Cass @ 625X

Direct vision at 150X. Non-stellar, but very small. Averted-vision dark lane becomes apparent at 350X. Some loss of detail at 480X, but image scale starting to make up for it at 640X, where it takes on more of a twin silver-dollar pancake shape.

NGC7027 18/09/2012 20:50 UT; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
400mm Mak-Cass @ 625X

Brighter and larger than Cheeseburger. Gives up a double-snowball shape even at 160X, although most pronounced above 350X. NW snowball has a bit of a bite taken out of it at 640X, giving it a more boxy appearance.

NGC7640 18/09/2012 21:20 UT; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
400mm Mak-Cass @ 250X

Not much more than a bit of grainy ghosting at 160X, but not hard to locate. There's either an off-center stellar core to the SSE or a foreground star. 4:1 elongation NNW-SSE. Grainy appearance quite beautiful; looks more like a pancaked globular than a galaxy.

Clearer at 260X, although slightly less extended. Off-center object almost certainly a foreground star. Grainy texture no longer in evidence, however, and the beauty is gone.

NGC7013 18/09/2012 21:41 UT; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
400mm Mak-Cass @ 350X

Not as bright as DSS image would lead one to expect. Quite small at 160X. Very poor condensation with perhaps a 2.5:1 or 3:1 elongation N-S.

Abell 46 PK055+16.1 18/09/2012 22:11 UT; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
400mm Mak-Cass

Tried 75X (5.2mm exit pupil) up to 480X (0.9mm exit pupil); UHC from 75X to 350X; and OIII from 75X to 160X. Not seen.

M1-79 PK 093-02.1 18/09/2012 22:35 UT; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.6
400mm Mak-Cass

Not seen. This one looks reasonably bright on the DSS image, so I probably just need better seeing to separate it from the stars.

Here's to hoping 2013 gives clearer skies than 2012 did,
Jeff.

Thanks Jeff, great sketches and notes (as always).

Mike

Thanks, Mike. I've got a couple more sessions to post once I get them scanned.

Cheers,
Jeff.

Hi Jeff. Are you scopes SCT or Apo refractors? Did you use both? Great drawings, though.

Aubrey.

Hi Aubrey,

Those sketches are all through a 16" Mak-Cass.

I have a 5" APO which rides piggy-back for bigger targets which won't fit in the Mak-Cass's field, but most of my sketches are through the Mak. (Older ones are predominantly through a 16" SCT which preceeded it.)

Cheers,
Jeff.

Hi Jeff - great to see you and your sketches back here.

You may have detailed this before, but do you have any references for Pickering, NELM and SQM?

And what brand of Mak-Cass is the 400mm?