by Tom Campbell
| Observer | Tom Campbell |
|---|---|
| Location | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95°24'W Lat: 37°55'N) |
| Equipment | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces | 1.25" Plössls - 25mm (49x), 15mm (81x), 10mm (122x), 6.5mm (188x), 4mm (305x) |
| Time | 9:30pm - 11:30pm CDT (02:30-04:30 UT) |
| Transparency | Clear, but somewhat hazy (7/10) |
| Seeing | Stable (8/10) |
| Weather | Temperatures in the upper 80s. There was a light to moderate breeze. Lightning flashes were occasionally seen on the northern horizon, but they didn't affect viewing. |
| SATELLITES | ISS |
|---|---|
| CYGNUS | NGC-6826, NGC-7062, NGC-7086 |
| DELPHINUS | Gamma |
| PEGASUS | M15 |
| SAGITTA | M71 |
Last night's skies were absolutely gorgeous, but I was stuck inside working on a computer until 10:00p, so I didn't bother to set up. When the clouds started drifting away late this afternoon, I was hoping for a repeat performance. Luckily, it was. I wasn't going to let a second opportunity pass me by, so out came my gear.
| Freedom | Space Station | 9:30pm CDT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISS | Mag: -0.3 | ||
| The International Space Station was scheduled to fly overhead tonight, so I grabbed my binoculars and found a good vantage point from which to observe it. I spotted it just above the trees in the southwest, and followed it until it disappeared behind some houses five minutes later in the northeast. It was a bright yellow glow of light. In binoculars, it appeared like a backwards-flying kite, with rounded corners. | |||
| NGC 7062 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 10:40pm CDT |
| CR 434 | RA: 2123.2 | Dec: +4623 | Mag: 8.3 |
| This open cluster is fairly faint, best found at low power as a loose conglomeration of stars. The overall shape reminds me of a Christian fish symbol. All of the stars in the fish-shaped string appear to be of similar magnitude. This is somewhat unusual in appearance, because the cluster members are fainter than the surrounding field stars. The best view is at 125x, where it nearly fills the field of view. I could detect about 12-15 stars that I knew for sure were in the cluster. | |||
| NGC 7086 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 10:45pm CDT |
| CR 437 | RA: 2130.5 | Dec: +5135 | Mag: 8.4 |
| This open cluster is also fairly faint. I was able to find it by mentally forming a right triangle with M39 and Deneb. NGC7086 lies about half the distance away from M39 as Deneb does, and perpendicular to that line. The stars are perhaps slightly brighter than those of NGC7062, but they are a little more spread out. The best view seems to be at 125x. The stars are congregated fairly nicely. About a dozen stars are visible with direct vision, and averted vision brings out another dozen or so, popping in and out of view. The brighter stars loosely resemble a heart shape. | |||
| Gamma | Delphinus | Double Star | 10:55pm CDT |
| 12 | RA: 2046.7 | Dec: +1607 | Mag: 4.3 |
| Due to a recent discussion on the internet, I thought I'd give this pair another look. There has been some debate as to what colors the stars actually appear to different people. I saw the brighter star as bright yellow, and the slightly fainter secondary was a pale blue-white. This makes for a beautiful double star. Although fairly close, even 49x revealed a clean separation. | |||
| M 15 | Pegasus | Globular Cluster | 11:00pm CDT |
| NGC 7078 | RA: 2130.0 | Dec: +1210 | Mag: 6.3 |
| I saw the head of Pegasus peeking over the horizon, so I thought I'd take a look at M15. To me, it seems that Pegasus is stretching his neck out longingly to get a taste of M15, like it is a celestial hedge apple. At 188x, the stars begin to resolve nicely. The middle is a bright unresolved spot, nearly triangular in shape. The outer edges resolve into dozens of faint pinpricks of stars. The edges are a bit more irregular than other globulars, but it is still pretty impressive. | |||
| M 71 | Sagitta | Globular Cluster | 11:05pm CDT |
| NGC 6838 | RA: 1953.7 | Dec: +1847 | Mag: 8.4 |
| This is one of the stranger looking of the Messier globulars. It looks more like a smudge than a sphere of light. At 125x, a few individual stars can be resolved here and there. There's no real central brightening of the cluster, it's closer to looking like a cone of smeared light. | |||
| NGC 6826 | Cygnus | Planetary Nebula | 11:25pm CDT |
| RA: 1944.8 | Dec: +5031 | Mag: 9.8 | |
| This planetary nebula has a stellar core, appearing slightly blue-white. The fuzzy nebula shell is not quite round. The best view is offered at my maximum magnification, 305x. With averted vision, a bit of detail can be seen in terms of varying brightnesses of nebulosity. My O-III filter brightens the nebula and dims the surrounding stars, but it doesn't really add any details, so I prefer the unfiltered view. I really like this planetary in this telescope. | |||
The sky was quickly starting to grow brighter due to the rising Moon, so I packed it in for the night.