by Robert Leyland
After several weeks of non-observing, my last trip out had been so bad I didn't log anything, I grabbed an opportunity to observe before the holiday. It was not the nicest evening for observing, a bit unsteady, with M4 in a swimming pool early on.
Dave Silva joined my about 8:30, and together we tried to make the most of it, despite the conditions.
The night was marred mainly by my post observing adventures, involving a flat battery, a two mile walk at 3AM, and call to AAA for a restart. I need to leave sticky note reminders to myself, to not leave my spare battery behind, and to bring a phone!
| Observer | Robert Leyland |
|---|---|
| Date | 3 Jul 2002 |
| Time | 2230-0130 PDT (UT -7, or 0530-0830 4 Jul 2002 UT) |
| Location | Lake Sonoma CA, 38°43'N 123°02'W Elev ~1400 (Lone Rock Flat) |
| Weather | 17°C Temp, 40% Humidity |
| Seeing | LM 6+, transparency 8/10, steadiness 6/10, breezy |
| Moon | third quarter |
| Equipment | 17.5" F5 Dob, 5" Newtonian, 9x50 finder scope, Pentax XL EPs |
I started off in Cygnus, with the Veil nebula, NGC 6960, 6992 et al. Completely awesome with an OIII filter, I traced around the edges of the supernova remnant in both the 17.5" and 5". I could almost see both major components in the 5" FOV at low power, and the eastern veil was visible unfiltered, even in the small scope.
A bit of scanning in the finder showed NGC 6811, as a smudge, faint and unresolved in the 5", but a large collection of 100s of comparable brightness stars in the big scope.
I used a UHC filter in both the 5" and 17" to view the North America Nebula (NGC 7000), and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5067,5070). The wide field view from the 5" gave the best results, allowing me to see the full shape of N.America, with strong contrast in the 'Gulf of Mexico' region. The 'East coast' had lots of knottiness, while the 'West Coast' was much more diffuse.
The Pelican nebula is much dimmer, and looked better in the 17" with an OIII filter, I could make out the neck and head of the pelican clearly, but the body was just a diffuse mess.
I spent several minutes just perusing the area around gamma Cygni with a UHC filter and my naked eye. While I couldn't see the Veil nebula, the NA nebula shows up as a bright region adjacent to Deneb, and across the center of the Swan, past Gamma, is another bright glowing region. In the telescope many little knots of nebulosity are clear all around gamma, and extending several degrees South. It might take a while to catalogue them all :-)
Having viewed a Pelican in the Swan, I went looking for more birds, the Eagle and the Swan in Sagitarius too (M16 and M17). Both are bright in the 9x50 finder, and the Swan has a distinct check-mark shape in the 5". I didn't spend long on the Eagle as I did on the Swan, as with a UHC filter and at 100x the Swan is delightful, and I took the time to roughly sketch the region in my notebook. Next time, bring pencils as sketching in pen doesn't do it justice.
Strong contrasty dark regions inside a curl form the neck, then a sweeping bright region, forming a wing, leads away from the neck, with a large diffuse glow extending several degrees behind the body, provide the characteristic shape of a Swan at rest in the water.
It really looks wind swept, like sand on the beach blown around small pebbles, the stars provide some protection from the wind blowing the dust back off the body of the Swan.
Some bulges and glowing patches show 'below' the Swan's body also, mixed in with a small cluster of stars.
Near the neck and leading area of the body are numerous distinct and tight curlicues, knots and bumps. Similarly just above the 'head' is a faint star protecting a knot of nebulosity, where a crest might be on another kind of bird.
Looking closer at the body/wing area, and tracing along from the dark neck region, the wing appears twisted though 180°, like a strip of pasta, it narrows down, and then flares out before getting lost in the trailing area.
Following the body is an obviously brighter patch off the end of the wing, somewhat like a bow wave, followed by more diffuse dimmer glow for some distance.
Truly an awesome sight.