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 | 8:30pm - 11:00pm CST (02:30-05:00 UT) |
| Transparency | Clear (8/10) |
| Seeing | Stable (8/10) |
| Weather | Temperatures in the lower 50s, dropping as the evening progressed. There was a slight breeze with occasional gusts. |
| CEPHEUS | NGC-7160 |
|---|---|
| CYGNUS | NGC-6834, NGC-6910, NGC-7008, NGC-7044, NGC-7128 |
| ERIDANUS | 32, 55, NGC-1084, NGC-1407, NGC-1535 |
| PERSEUS | NGC-1444 |
Once again, I was blessed with clear skies. After having overcast skies for nearly three weeks, I learned my lesson and took full advantage of them this time. I noticed that Cygnus (The Swan) had made its western turn and would soon be leaving us. I decided to try to finish off my Herschel 400 list of Cygnus entries before the beautiful swan nose-dived into the Sun.
| NGC 6834 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 8:30pm CST |
|---|---|---|---|
| CR 407 | RA: 19h 52m 12s | Dec: +29° 25' | Mag: 7.8 |
| At 125x, this cluster fits nicely in the field of view. It looks somewhat like a Y, having three small strings of stars which branch off from a triangle of stars in the center. It's not very impressive at low power, looking like a Y with a bit of haze around it. | |||
| NGC 6910 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 8:45pm CST |
| CR 420 | RA: 20h 23m 6s | Dec: +40° 47' | Mag: 7.4 |
| This cluster is easy to find, being located right off of Sadr (Gamma Cygni). It can easily be seen at 49x, but the best view is at 122x. THe cluster is Y shaped, with a bright star near the base of the Y. If you look at the cluster upside down, it looks like a headless man running and holding his head (the bright star) in his hand. The second bright star of the cluster is the man's back foot. About a dozen stars are seen. A bit away from the back foot is a small string of three or four stars. I'm not sure whether these stars are associated with the cluster or not. | |||
| NGC 7044 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 9:10pm CST |
| RA: 21h 13m 0s | Dec: +42° 29' | Mag: 12.0 | |
| At 125x, this cluster reminds me of a Pleiades shape consisting of 5 stars. Four stars form nearly a square, and the fifth star is at an angle off one of the corners. There's a bit of nebulosity throughout, which is no doubt unresolved stars. With this aperture, the cluster isn't very impressive. | |||
| NGC 7008 | Cygnus | Planetary Nebula | 9:30pm CST |
| RA: 21h 00m 33s | Dec: +54° 33' | Mag: 13.3 | |
| This planetary is a bit unusual. Two stars are on the extreme edge of the nebula, giving it an overall triangular appearance. 125x gives a pretty good view of it. With the O-III filter in place, the nebulosity is about the same brightness, but the two stars almost completely disappear. Interestingly, the filtered view still gives the appearance of a triangular nebula. | |||
| NGC 7128 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 9:35pm CST |
| CR 440 | RA: 21h 44m 0s | Dec: +53° 43' | Mag: 9.7 |
| This is another small open cluster in the middle of the Milky Way. I'm starting to hate these things, because the entire field of view looks like an open cluster, and it's hard to tell which little knot of stars is your actual target. This cluster, however, appears as a little ringlet of stars. 188x provides the best view. There's one really bright star one one side of the ring, and the center of the ring is nearly devoid of stars. A couple of the stars appear to have companions. | |||
| NGC 7160 | Cepheus | Open Cluster | 9:45pm CST |
| CR 443 | RA: 21h 53m 48s | Dec: +62° 36' | Mag: 6.1 |
| This cluster is fairly bright, with two stars of similar magnitude really standing out on one end. The cluster appears elongated perpendicular to the two stars. The stars have widely varying magnitudes, so it is difficult to discern where the cluster begins and ends. 125x provides a nice view. A third bright star in the cluster forms an isosceles triangle with the brighter pair. | |||
| NGC 1444 | Perseus | Open Cluster | 10:05pm CST |
| CR 43 | RA: 03h 49m 27s | Dec: +52° 39' | Mag: 6.6 |
| This little cluster is nearly hidden by a bright foreground star. At 188x, the foreground star is dimmed enough to make out some of the cluster members. I could detect 6 or 7 in a parallelogram shape. One of the corners of the parallelogram is right next to the bright star, and a couple of stars are visible within the parallelogram. This cluster isn't very impressive. | |||
| 32 | Eridanus | Double Star | 10:20pm CST |
| RA: 03h 54m 17s | Dec: -02° 57' | Mag: 5.0 | |
| This is a nice-looking double. It can be split at 49x, but the view at 122x is much nicer. The brighter component is pale yellow and the slightly fainter secondary component is a pale blue. The soft pastel colors look warm against the cold backdrop of space. | |||
| 55 | Eridanus | Double Star | 10:30pm CST |
| RA: 04h 43m 35s | Dec: -08° 48' | Mag: 4.7 | |
| The best view of this double is at 81x, although they can be split at 49x. These two stars are about the same magnitude. One is a real pale yellow and the other is a real pale blue. Both components are even paler in color than 32 Eri. | |||
| NGC 1535 | Eridanus | Planetary Nebula | 10:45pm CST |
| Cleopatra's Eye | RA: 04h 14m 16s | Dec: -12° 44' | Mag: 9.6 |
| This planetary nebula is nearly perfectly circular. The inner part of the nebula is bright, and a wide outer ring is much fainter. Although slightly bluish at low power, no color could be detected at higher magnifications. With averted vision at 305x, it appeared somewhat mottled, but the central star couldn't be detected. This is really a decent-looking planetary. | |||
| NGC 1407 | Eridanus | Elliptical Galaxy | 10:55pm CST |
| RA: 03h 40m 12s | Dec: -18° 35' | Mag: 10.7 | |
| This galaxy can just barely be detected, being somewhat washed out by the skyglow from a nearby streetlight. The best view is at 81x. No details at all could be seen, but with averted vision, the core appears stellar. | |||
| NGC 1084 | Eridanus | Galaxy | 11:00pm CST |
| RA: 02h 46m 0s | Dec: -07° 35' | Mag: 11.3 | |
| This galaxy looks slightly elongated. The best view is at 122x. No stellar core could be seen; rather it looked like a slightly irregular fuzzy patch with no details. | |||
Orion was now above the trees and I started to point my telescope in that direction when a fast-moving cloud bank suddenly engulfed half the sky. I waited around for about 20 minutes, hoping it would pass on through, but it looked like it was there to stay for a while, so I reluctantly called it a night.