Coyote, 12 July 2007

by Carter Scholz

I had my new homebuilt Highe-style 12.5", which I'm still shaking down. I'm nearly certain now that there's some astigmatism in the primary, though I'm aware that the effect could be due to a stressed secondary or misalignment. I need to get an expert opinion about it. Apart from this, which only becomes a real problem over 200x, it performs well.

Jupiter was impressive, showing all kinds of detail north of the equator. I counted 6 or 7 distinct bands or sub-bands in the best moments of seeing. Looks like a lot of turbulence going on.

I've been going after faint globs, but had no joy tonight. I spent a lot of time looking for Palomar 11 in Aquila with the help of a DSS photo. I confirmed the star field, and had the sense of something there in the right place, but only about 10% of the time. Not willing to claim it.

In Cygnus the Crescent Nebula (6888) showed lots of detail. In the past (in 8") I've only seen the brighter arc that crosses one of four stars in a lozenge, but I could see the full extent of a slightly flattened ovoid perhaps 20' across, covering the whole lozenge and more. An OIII filter brought out extensive mottling.

From there I had to spend some time in the Veil. At 47x with an OIII, it was possible to follow the thinning arc of streamers from 52 Cygni around to where it brightens again in 6992, to get a sense of the entire extent. And as long as I was taking an eye candy break, I hit up all the naked-eye Messiers in Scorpius and Sagittarius. Outstanding nebular detail in the Lagoon and the Trifid. Then back to my list.

6857, a smallish fairly dim PN in Cygnus, about 3' across, involved with 3 stars which makes it harder to discern. OIII helps. 125x.

IC1396, a huge open cluster in Cepheus, easy binocular object that wouldn't fit in my widest field of view. Somehow I'd never logged this. Cepheus is a cool place to hang out. 7235, OC, about 10 stars mag 8-10 resolved against a faint triangular glow. Delta is always worth a look, a beautiful double, greenish-gold and bluish.

From showy Stock 23 (Pazmino's Cluster) in Camelopardalis, I went to IC289, PN, quite small and dim, about 2'. At 73x the OIII filter almost obscures it. Visible without filter at 125x. Stephan's Quintet continues to elude me. Nearby 7331 is easy, but it looks like I need a DSS printout to show me exactly where to go from there.

A last look at M31 and companions, then headed home. It wasn't Lassen, but it was a lot better than nothing.