Since it was clear last night, I decided to use my new 6" AP refractor and do a little deep sky observing. The 6" is a new telescope for me. It is a 1987 vintage 6" F/8 triplet, on a G-11 mount that has all the encoders and so on. The images through this telescope are pretty good, although there is some color around brighter objects. When the seeing has been good, I have seen quite a bit of detail on Jupiter. It does take this instrument some time to cool down, the three lenses have a combined thickness of about two inches! Of course I have a JMI moto-focus on this telescope as well as a JMI NGC max computer. I mainly purchased this telescope for the mount but have been generally happy with the optical quality.

The first object on my hunt was the planetary nebula NGC 6445, that looked round and of even brightness. It is magnitude 11.2 or so and I thought I might have seen a hint of a central "hole" with a 10.5 mm TV Plossl (116X). Next was NGC 6589, a nebula patch of magnitude 10 or so. It was small and elongated with the 10.5 mm and there were two stars of even brightness within the nebula. The globular cluster M28 was partially resolved at 116X and there were several streamers or arms visible. Next I tried for NGC 6626 and hunted in vain for 5 minutes until I realized that I was into the depths of the "tree nebula", a most scary proposition! After my failure, NGC 6638 was somewhat easy. This globular cluster was small and dim, but with a hint of a fainter glow around the central portion. NGC 6642, yet another globular showed a stellar core, and was small and faint.

About this time I decided to go into the observatory lounge, er... my kitchen for a steak sandwich and a diet coke (ahh, the joys of observing at home). After donning another layer of clothing to face the brisk weather (OK, I put a jacket on), I returned to the observatory (I went back to my telescope in the driveway). Next object was M17, the Omega or Swan nebula. With the 10.5 mm, there were many knots or dark patches in the lower portion of the nebula. The "Omega" section was easy and the area between the Omega and the lower bar was milky or hazy. I looked at this object for about 20 minutes before it was eaten by the now annoying tree nebula (I'm going to annoy it with my 16" chainsaw). The globular cluster M72 was bright but somewhat small. By this time my environmental neighbors had decided to turn their lights off so it became noticeably darker. I decided to do a little galaxy hunting. NGC 7184 was very small and dim. NGC 7293, the Helix nebula was well placed so I examined this object for some time. I did not see for sure the "central hole" at 50X, so I switched to the 10.5 for a better look. This did not help and the central hole was not seen for sure. Rounding out the evening were the galaxy NGC 7457 at magnitude 11 and 7469 at magnitude 12.4. Keeping in mind that the supposed magnitude limit for a 6" telescope is around 13.5, and I am about 10 miles from ever energy efficient San Jose, I thought I did quite well.

For those who might be wondering where my report about Jupiter is, the seeing was terrible and it looked like an annoying boiling blob, even at low power! I was able to see a magnitude 5.5 star in the little dipper, my limiting magnitude constellation. This constellation lies toward the north, where most of the light pollution is.