Found Pease 1! And tested some nice eyepieces (16 August 2009)

Again a nice & clear sky, the 3rd in a row. I don’t need to work tomorrow so no worrying about staying late.

I have tonight also the opportunity to test some eyepieces (thanks to Hubert). I have an Astrolan ultrawide 30mm (80°) which provides me with a FOV of 1,2°, as well as a 9mm Nagler T6 and 4.8mm Nagler (the discontinued version) 

It’s not totally dark when I’m starting to test them. But that’s ok as I’m doing some side by side comparison. 

1. The first object was M13:

Astrolan 30mm (68x) vs. Pan 24mm (84x)
- A great FOV with this Astrolan (1,2°), much larger than the Pan (46’). But of course at the expense of a smaller magnification
- I have astigmatism with the Pan, but even more with the Astrolan. However, it disappears completely when I’m putting my glasses on.
- A bit of (vignetting). Don’t know how to translate in English 
- Good eyepiece for starhopping (see later in this report)

9mm Nagler vs. 9mm Celestron Plossl (225x)
- Nagler is providing sharper stars than the Plossl
- But the Plossl  goes slightly fainter!
- The FOV of 35' is just great

9mm Nagler vs. 9mm Celestron Plossl combined with Powermate 2,5 (563x)
The Nagler provides again sharper stars, but also here the Plossl goes fainter.

4,8mm Nagler (422x) (not compared with another eyepiece)
Sharp images, even at this power! Comfortable FOV of 20'. This is a great eyepiece!

Note 1: while testing I did not know this was a discontinued version and that the 5mm Nagler T5 provided a twice as large FOV. In fact, it's good I did not know, because it provides an unbiased opinion on this 4.8mm eyepiece. 

Note 2: I found on Cloudy Nights quite some remarks on the short eye relieve of this eyepiece. I don't recall having been confronted with this issue during my testing. It's true however it's impossible to observe through this eyepiece with glasses.

4,8mm Nagler with Powermate 2,5x (1055x)
Stars are small discs.

2. Next test was to find Pease 1 in M15
I have found Pease 1 (with Blinking Technique!) with the following eyepieces:

Celestron 9mm + Powermate 2,5x: blinking worked well because I do not have reflections on the filter as I can bring it real close to the eyepiece.

Nagler 9mm + Powermate 2,5: blinking more difficult as with this eyepiece I cannot bring the filter close to its edge, due to the firm eyecaps. I have reflections on the filter which makes it difficult to blink. I had only success when putting a dark cloth over my head.

Nagler 4,8mm: “easy” (everything is relative, so I mean in fact easier than with the 9mm and Powermate) 

3. Ringnebula (M57):
Nice image at 422x (4,8mm Nagler). Still able to observe it at 1055x but it becomes more difficult due to inaccurate tracking. Stars are little discs. Could see a star of mag 15.6 close to the edge (not visible at 422x) and maybe the central star. 

4. Little Dumbell (M76)
Here the 9mm Nagler gives a better view than the 9mm Celestron Plossl. I can see a bit more details on the nebula, and this time I see also a fainter star, which is not viewed with the Plossl. The 9mm Nagler (225x) gives a better view than the 16mm with Powermate (316x). 

5. Starhopping with Telrad and Astrolan 30mm 82°
I’m not used to starhop, so I admit I’m not good at it. However, I also know it’s always a little moment of joy when you found a DSO by your own means. I decided to give it a try by using the Telrad and the Astrolan with it’s 1,2° FOV. Without finder it’s of course a bit harder, reason why I limit myself to the obvious Messiers.  

I did not use starhop charts or an Atlas, only the constellation charts in the “Nigh sky observers guide” have been used. 

I have been able to find M13 (that’s really not difficult), M92, M56, M57, M29, and M15. I had to cheat a bit with M92 and M15: I did not found it immediately, so I used the ArgoNavis to locate, and then looked at the Telrad to find its position (aha, it's there!). Then I tried again only with the Telrad, and it worked. I repeated it a few times to save it well in my memory. I intend to try it during my next observation session.

Conclusion
So here is my eyepiece conclusion: 
- Astrolan 30mm (82°): fine eyepiece if you don' suffer from astigmatism. Otherwise it's OK when wearing glasses (which is not always possible when there is a lot of humidity in the air). It’s also a great eyepiece to starhop. 
- the cheap Celestron 9mm eyepiece is not bad compared to the Nagler 9mm. The Nagler is a bit sharper and provide some more details on a nebula. But the real “plus” of the Nagler is the field of view of 35'. Replacing the Celestron Plossl just for the quality of the image is maybe not worthwhile, unless you’re aim is to get the larger FOV or when you are obsessed by pinpoint stars.
- The 4,8mm Nagler is a great eyepiece. Unfortunately I have not been able to benchmark it with another one so I cannot judge if the premium price is justified. But I can imagine that at that power a larger FOV of 20' is real advantage and worthwhile over a traditional eyepiece. As stated previously I did not had an issue with the short eye relieve. If I have the opportunity I should compare this 4.8mm Nagler with the still active 5mm Nagler T5.  But honnestly, not knowing this 4.8mm was an discontinued version I was pleased with the view it gave me.

Great evening, and I can add Pease 1 to my observation list!

Addendum: observed the folllowing night once more with the 4.8mm Nagler, and indeed, it's a short eyerelief. Not really an issue when there is no condensation, which is  quite rare in our regions.

Perseids (Aug 11, 2009)

One night before its peak I’ve observed the Perseids with my 14 year old son. We are lying on the long chairs in the garden, looking towards east and north and hoping to catch those falling stars.

This is some real quality time to spend with the kids. It’s a ritual I try to do with my kids since some years, with relative success, either due to the weather, either due to the willingness of the kids to participate.  

Tonight we talk a little bit about the stars, I look if he still recognises the constellations (he remembers the summer triangle), we see some satellites (and planes too) and of course we are all excited when we see a meteor. We haven’t seen a lot of Perseids tonight. During the half hour we watched (from 21:00UT to 21:30UT) I’ve seen 6 and my son 5. I’ve seen a bright long one with glowing light and sparkles of light. 

The next night with the maximum is completely clouded. 

A very rare event: Jupiter occults a bright star (45 Cap)

Tonight there is a very rare astronomical event on the menu. Jupiter occults 45 Cap, a star of mag 6.0. 

The Electronic Bulletin van de BAA is giving the following info: 
Jupiter will occult the bright star 45 Cap (HIP 107302) on the night of 2009 August 03/04 (Mon/Tues). The star is visual magnitude 6.0 and, for European observers, will be the brightest star to be occulted by Jupiter for the next 100 years.

And yes, we are lucky, the sky is clear so no doubt we will see this event. Unfortunately the seeing is terrible, one of the worst I’ve ever seen, which has been reported too by other Belgian observers. The 4 main moons of Jupiter were all visible as well as 45 Cap, which is the closest to Jupiter. I started observing at 22Hr15UT which is around 40 minutes before the occultation. At around 22:50UT the tension is increasing, the star is getting real close to Jupiter. Then suddenly it’s gone and in the next 30 seconds I had the impression it pupped up a few times (difficult to say due to the seeing): a fist one (quite sure), a 2nd one (not sure) and a 3rd one (sure). 2 flashes have been reported by other observers too. The star reappeared 2 hours later but I have not observed this.

Rendez-vous is made again in 100 years!

A frist try to Pease 1

More than 1 month I have not been observing. During July there were a couple of good nights, but could not find enough motivation to get the scope out. This year has been very tough (I’m working in automotive). But after a good week of holiday I’m ready to watch the stars again!

The sky conditions of tonight are not very good. There are high clouds and it’s not very transparent. NELM is around 5.0. I have no descriptions of what I observed, except of the search to Pease 1 (planetary in M15) and Jupiter.

Pease 1: Pease 1 is a little planetary nebula in M15. You need a good finder chart to catch this object. Luckily there is a good website where you find all the required www.blackskies.org/peasefc.htm or www.sterrenkunde.nl/deepsky/bestanden/artikel-m15.pdf

It’s a 3-step approach to find it. First you need to find the 4 trapezium star, which is not difficult at 311x. Step 2 is to locate a triangle east of this trapezium and continue you path to a faint stars towards the north of the globular. The triangle is still easy, but finding this faint star becomes more challenging, but still doable. For step 3 you need to pump the power to 500x: we need to go from this star a small 28” to the nebula. Not easy because there are a lot of stars and due to the high power they are all like little discs. I could see “something”, a disc maybe somewhat larger than the stars but I’m not too sure it’s the planetary. When looking at observations from other people I conclude this is not yet Pease 1. But at least, I’m more prepared for the next try as I’ve walking around in the region …

Jupiter: I’ve never seen Jupiter as well as during this evening: amazing lot’s of details in the belts with all kind of structures, color differences etc. Besides the 2 main belts I could see some other ones. The red spot was also visible, but unfortunately the impact was still “behind” the planet.

A good mix of galaxies, planetaries and open clusters

While I’m slowly finishing the Herschel II list, I decided to go for a new challenge, the Fred 200 planetary list. Fred H is a Dutch astronomer who has extensive experience in drawing planetary nebula’s. He has seen 280 planetary nebulas with a 20cm scope (from Holland!). To honor this achievement a list of 200 of those objects has been compiled by his Dutch peers and called it to his name: “Fred’s 200 planetary nebulas”.

You can find this list here.

One of the reasons I selected this challenge is to observe something else than galaxies. The last 5 to 10 sessions has been almost exclusively dedicated to galaxies. It’s time to get some variation in the program. This does not mean I will exclude galaxies, as one of the aim of tonight was … yes, a group of galaxies, Seyfert’s Sextet.

Date: May 30, 2009
Location: Boutersem
Equipment: Obsession 18”
Eyepieces: 24mm; 16mm, Powermate 2,5x
Nelm: 5.0
Seeing: good
Time 22:30Hr UT to 00Hr00UT. Clouds appearing at 0:00.

I have a difficult start. The batteries of the Argo Navis do not seem to give any power. In the dark it’s difficult to see that one of the wires is disconnected … Next issue, the Servo Cat does not power up. This happens now and then, it’s one of the cables in the box which is not well plugged in.

OK, we are ready to go. M5, the globular in Serpens Caput is the first on the list. This is a beautiful global, maybe even nicer than M13.

Next is Seyfert’s Sextet:
NGC 6027 – Seyfert’s Sextet – group of galaxies in Serpens Caput
Really difficult. Also because the moon is still disturbing a bit. At 124x I can see with a lot of effort an oval spot of 2’. At 316x the B component of the group is clearly visible. Maybe I have seen the A component too, but this is not sure. The group is located in between two 14th magnitude stars.

NGC 5921 – galaxy in Serpens Caput
At 211x NGC 5921 is an oval of 2’ with a bright core. Could not see the bar.

Time for 2 objects in Hercules from Fred’s 200 list.

PK 51 +9.1 (Hu 2-1) – planetary in Her
Hu 2-1 is a mag 12.2 object with a size of 2”. In other words, it’s tiny. It’s easily visible at 124x as a stellar object. It reacts positively with an UHC filter. At 211x it’s bright, white and a very faint disc is visible. The centre looks brighter, could this be the central star?

PK 53 +24.1 (Vy 1-2) – planetary in Her
This planetary is of magn 12.3 and is 4”6 small. It easily visible as a bright star at 124x. Did not look at 211x.

Cygnus is now high enough in the sky, a good moment to finalize the 5 open clusters from the HII list.

NGC 6991 – open cluster in Cyg
NGC 6991 is one of those objects in the Dreyer catalogue of which the location is not well defined. On the NGCIC project 2 locations, close to each other are mentioned. So I’ve been looking at both of them. The first location is a few minutes west of mag 5.6 star (HR 8020). Strange enough there is almost nothing to see there, even at high power. It’s just an area with a few stars, not even concentrated. The 2nd location is South West of this bright star. Here indeed a loose group of 20 stars, in an area of 15’ is visible. This group contains 2 short chains of 3 stars.

NGC 6997 – open cluster in Cyg
NGC 6997 is an open cluster of the HII list. Here also there is some confusion on its precise locations. Some catalogues are inverting NGC 6997 with NGC 6996. So here again I observed the 2 spots: The most northern one (+45°28’) is a very small group of 10 stars in an area of 5’ (84x). The other one (at +44°37’) is a group of 20’ with 20 stars. Most of them are of the same brightness.

NGC 7067 – open cluster in Cyg
Is this an open cluster? At 211x I can see 10 stars west from a bright triple star (SAO 50808, the primary is of magn 9,41). But this does not look like a concentration of stars. The area contains a bright double star. After checking the DSS picture I conclude I’ve probably not been looking at the right location. I will log it as not seen.

NGC 7082 – open cluster in Cyg
Observed when clouds are appearing. This is a group of 50 stars (probably more if there were no clouds). The edges of the group is not easy to define because this group is just a little be more concentrated than its surrounding field. The 2 brightest stars are yellow. North, perhaps already out of the group, is another bright yellow star. I think I’ve seen a faint red star too, but this is not sure as the group is fading away behind the clouds. These colors are not mentioned in the 11 observation in dslog, so is this just imagination or is it a side effect due to the clouds?

HII: observed 347 out of 400

No galaxies this time !

It is, for this region, again a very clear night with NELM probably better than 5,5. Also the seeing is excellent tonight. The aim of today is to do the 2 open clusters of HII in Vulpecula, combined with the showpieces.

Date May 29, 2009
Location: Boutersem
Equipment: Obsession 18”
Eyepieces: 24mm; 16mm, Powermate 2,5x
Nelm: 5.5
Seeing: excellent.
Time 23:30Hr UT to 01Hr00UT. Clouds appearing at 0:00.

NGC 6793 – open cluster in Vul
Observed at 124x and 211x. NGC 6793 is a loose cluster of 10 bright stars in an area of 10’. 2 distinct groups are visible with each a triangle made up of 3 bright stars. The most northern star of the northern triangle is a double star.

NGC 6800 – open cluster in Vul
Observed at 124x. This cluster does not stand out well from its surroundings. There is a light concentration of stars in an area of 15’. A ring of 10 bright stars and 20 faint stars are forming the edge of his cluster. An obvious “void” at the centre of this object.

After those 2 HII objects I spend the remaining of the time observing showpieces in the typical summer constellation.

First in Scorpio because it’s culminating. M80 and M4 are splendid globulars.
In Ophiuchus I looked for M10, M12 and M14. Next time I’ll prepare a list with some other objects in this large constellation.

Observing with an 18” in Cygnus is a wonderful experience. I’ve had amazing views of the Veil Nebula. Lot’s of details and structure were visible on both segments. Pickering triangle was easy to see.

Also the Crescent nebula provided awesome views with details and structure.

NGC 7008 is one of my favorite planetaries in Cygnus. The 2 nodules give it an irregular shape. Brightness is irregular. Two stars are superimposed on the object.

Another nice planetary is NGC 7048. It’s a grey disc which is slightly elongated. Did not see the superimposed star.

The next planetary is NGC 6894, which is also a terrific object to observe. It’s a grey ring with a darker centre. The northern edge is slightly brighter.

The blinking planetary (NGC 6826) is chooses to end this beautiful observation session. This planetary is nicer to observe without filter. The central star is obvious. The blinking effect is always a nice effect to look at. Interestingly, the nebula did not fade completely away, while it did with my 20cm scope (as far as I remember though).

Going further with Herschel 2 in Virgo

I have to rectify what I said, I thought I’ve seen all HII objects of Leo and Coma, but in fact I missed 1 galaxy in each of these 2 constellations. Luckily I found it by accident, so I can hunt this tonight.

Date March 30, 2009
Location: Boutersem
Equipment: Obsession 18”
Eyepieces: 24mm; 16mm, Powermate 2,5x
Nelm: 5.0
Seeing: moderate
Time 21:00Hr UT to 22Hr30 UT

NGC 3705; IC 698; IC 2853 – galaxy in Leo
At 124x this is a large galaxy of 4’, rather faint and with a bright stellar core. At 211x a core of 2’ is visible with a stellar nucleus. A bit further to the west is NGC 3692, a rather elongated galaxy of 3’ long and less than 1’ wide. Elongation is 1:5. It has no core and I can see it only half of the time. SW of NGC 3705 is a group of IC galaxies. I could only see IC 698 at 211x while moving the scope, and IC 2853 at 316x which I’ve during 3 different moments.

Before going to Coma I wanted to have a look at 2 Arp’s in Cancer.

Arp 89 (NGC 2548) – galaxies in Cancer
I have seen only NGC 2548 with certainty. It’s an oval of 2’x1’ with a bright core. Maybe I have seen PGC 24469 one or two times as an elongated spot, but it is not totally sure (which means I don’t log it).

Arp 167 (NGC 2672 – 2673) – galaxies in Cancer
The 2ND Arp in Cancer for tonight. At 124x I can probably see 2 different spots with a faint core. At 211x 2 distinct objects are visible? A large bright, round galaxy of 2’ with bright core (this is NGC 2672, and a smaller, also round galaxy, located north of the big one (NGC 2763).

Let’s go back to Herschel II.

NGC 4237; 4262; IC 781 – galaxy in Coma
NGC 4237 is at 124x an oval of 2’ x 1’ with a faint core. This is an easy object. It’s located north of a light orange but bright star. 40 SE is NGC 4662, a small but bright galaxy of 1’. It contains a bright core. Going in NE direction we come along IC 781, which I could see only 10% of time at 211x.

We continue with HII in Virgo

NGC 4235; 4224; 4233 – galaxy in Virgo
NGC 4235 is at 124x a nice elongated nebula of 3’ x 1’, with tapered ends. No core. I could not see NGC 4246. To the north is NGC 4224, another HII object. It’s an oval of 2’ x 1’ without core. It forms a (gelijkzijdige) triangle with 2 bright stars. Even more north is a 3rd HII galaxy, NGC 4233. At 124x this is a spot smaller than 1’ with a faint core.

NGC 4168; 4193; 4189– galaxy in Virgo
Ngc 4168 is an almost round nebula of 2’ with a faint core (124x). Even at 211x I could not see NGC 4165. To the east is NGC 4193 an elongated spot of 2’ also without core. Now going to the north we find NGC 4189. This a nebula of which I could not define its shape. It’s 2’ big, has no core, and I could see it only 10% of time.

NGC 4124 – galaxy in Virgo
An easy target at 124x. It’s an oval spot of 3’ x 1’, without core.

NGC 4073; 4045; 4077 – galaxy in Virgo
A FOV with 2 HII objects. NGC 4073, the first one, is visible during 80% as a small spot of 1’ (124x). The 2nd HII, NGC 4045 is located to the west. At 211x it’s a spot of 1’ with a faint core. To the south of NGC 4073 is NGC 4077, visible at 211x. It’s a small spot visible half of the time.

NGC 4241 – galaxy in Virgo
This one is difficult at 124x. I can see a spot of 2’ during 40% of time, without core . At 211x it is continuously visible. I could not see IC 3115

NGC 4267; 4305; 4306; IC 775 – galaxy in Virgo
NGC 4267 is at 124x a spot of 2’ with a bright core. It’s continuously visible. Going east we find 2 faint galaxies which I could see only at 211x: NGC 4305 and NGC 4306 were visible 10% of time. I could not determine the elongation direction. At the other side of NGC 4267 is IC 775, which is a round spot (at 211x) of 1’. Located west of bright star.

NGC 4294; 4299 – galaxy in Virgo
Again 2 HII in same FOV. These are 2 difficult objects which I could see only 30% of time at 124x. NGC 4294 is 2’ x 1’ large. Elongation direction is NW-SE. NGC 4299 is 1’ and is round.

NGC 4313 – galaxy in Virgo
At 124x NGC 4213 is a nice galaxy of 4’ x 1’. No core.

NGC 4339; 4333 – galaxy in Virgo
NGC 4339 is a round spot of 2’ with a moderately bright core. NGC 4337 is visible at 211x during 20%. It’s smaller than 1’.

These were the last Herschel objects. I ended the observation session with the show pieces of the season.

HII: 269 out of 400