| Observer | Ron B. |
|---|---|
| Date/Time | 07/19/01 10:00pm – 12:30am PDT |
| Location | semi-rural Alpine, CA (near San Diego, CA) |
| LM | 5 |
| Seeing | fair |
| Temp | "chilly" :-( |
| Telescope | 4" (102mm) Tele Vue 102 APO refractor |
| Eyepieces and magnification | 3mm Radian (293x), 4mm Radian (220x), 5mm Tak LE (176x), 8mm Radian (110x), 30mm + Barlow (60x), 30mm Ultima (30x) |
| Filters | None! |
I went out to observe Mars first (as usual), but seeing and the dust storm was not encouraging. I also observed M27 and M71. The highlight tonight was NGC 6826, the Blinking Nebula). As far as I can tell from searching the Web, no one has logged its observation with a 4" refractor! The smallest instrument that I could find an observation log was with a 4.5" reflector. This has now become my *favorite* planetary nebula because of its brightness and its central star is so easily seen!
NGC 6286, Cygnus, Mag 8.8 (magnitude 11 central star) Ideally positioned at the zenith. First PN that I can see central star so clearly. At 30x, hint of unfocus star near the set of stars to the north that forms an arc. Looks green. A nearby bright double star to the west is used for focusing. At 60x, definitely a PN, pin- point central star can be seen with averted vision, still a tiny disc. Round shape at 110x, pin-point central star with averted vision. See why it's named "blinking" because it disappears (though not completely) with direct vision (but this is true of any dim object I thought). Still bright at 175x but harder now to see the central star. At 220x, PN now looks oval with central star now looking like a "nucleus". Unbelievably, 293x was the *best view* (making the PN looked almost like the picture, only the PN is more blurred. Central star is now clearly seen (more nucleus looking). Still bright. 352x proved too much and too hard to focus. Here's the link to the picture.
http://www.starlightccd.com/walter/picturebook/ngc/6826a.htm
NGC 6781, Aquila, Mag 12.0 Not sure why I picked this PN, some web page said that it is reminiscent of the Owl Nebula. Well, not to me (and I have seen the Owl through my TV-102)! I couldn't even see it at 30x and 60x! Bagged it at 110x best view, very dim but large with averted vision. Couldn't have seen it without very detailed chart tonight. Went back to 60x and 30x and I could see it the 2nd time around. Note how the TV-102 was still able to bag this PN at the 4" 12th magnitude threshold. Really looked like irregular oval smoke. Can see stars within the nebula by using the Ron B's "close-then-open-eye" trick, which indicate that the nebula is not opaque. Too dim at 176x but can still be seen. This object is too dim to be fun for TV-102.
Here's a picture of how it should look like.
http://24.28.154.250/AstrophotoPages/DeepSpace/ngc6781-08192000-ComboFinal.html
I also attempted the Bernard's Galaxy (NGC 6822), but failed to locate it (I got so confused) because I did not print out a good enough starhopping chart tonight :-(.