Even more small planetaries

Alvin Huey

Bill, Shneor and I setup behind the Observatory to shield the red airport lights. There were about 20 other SVASers on site.

The skies are actually pretty good for this site, which normally averages between 6.0 to 6.2. We had decent seeing but excellent transparency. Bill and I were going over my limiting magnitude chart of the bowl of the Little Dipper. We were able to get a mag 6.7 and 6.8 star. The temperature stayed at 52-53 degrees all night ‘till we left at 2AM. Humidity sat between 30 to 35% all night.

I’ve decided to observe more obscure planetary nebulae. Many of the ones I pre-selected happen to be very small.

Anyhow here is my list of pretty raw observations, straight out of my logbook.

The stats below are in this format (RA, Dec, magnitude, magnitude of the central star, size and constellation)

PK 31-0.2 (18 50 24.6 -01 40 22 - -* 25” Aquila)
22” (287 and 460x) – Field was easily located, but the nebula was not seen with or without the O-III filter.

Minkowski 1-66 (18 58 26.3 -01 03 46 13.2p -* 10” Aquila)
22” (287 and 460x) – Bright, very small round disk. Initially located by blinking at 177x in a very rich star field. Examining at 460x showed a round disk but did not see the central star. A 10.4 magnitude star lies 1.6’ Responds well to O-III filter.

Kohoutek 3-51 (20 02 36.4 +17 36 50 14.7p -* 15” Sagitta)
22” (287 and 460x) – Considerably faint, very small round disk. Blinked with O-III filter at 177x to quickly locate this in a very rich star field. A 12.9 magnitude star lies 30” SW and a ~14th mag star lies 30” NE. No central star at any magnification. Responds well to O-III filter.

IC 4997 (20 20 08.8 +16 43 52 10.5v 2” Sagitta)
22” (287 and 460x) – Very bright and stellar. Lies in a fairly rich star field. Blinked at 287x to locate it. At 460x, it still appears stellar. A 9.9 magnitude star lies 1.1’ SW. Responds very well to O-III filter.

Henize 1-7 (20 19 38.63 +27 00 08 13.5p -* 5” Vulpecula)
22” (287 and 460x) – Bright stellar planetary with was located by blinking with O-III filter. A 30-60 right trail of 12-13th magnitude stars lies just north.

IC 5217 (22 23 55.7 +50 58 00 11.3v 15.4* 8x6” Lacerta)
22” (287 and 460x) – Bright, almost stellar. At 460x, it appeared as a bright round disk. Responds well to O-III filter.

Minkowski 2-53 (22 32 17.6 +56 10 26 14.8p 21.2* 23x17” Lacerta)
22” (287 and 460x) – Fairly faint 2:1 elongated even surface brightness patch. 20” across and PA = 90. No central star. A 9.6 magnitude star lies 2.7’ NE. Responds well to O-III filter.

NGC 7094 (21 36 53.0 +12 47 19 13.4v 13.6* 97x90” Pegasus)
22” (287 and 460x) – Fairly bright round disk with a darker center. West side is brighter and some detail was visible. The central area is not completely dark. The central star and another star were seen in the dark part of the annulus. The central star is visible even with the O-III filter. Responds well to O-III filter.

IC 3568 (12 33 06.1 +82 33 48 10.6v 11.4* 15” Cepheus)
22” (287 and 460x) – Very bright round disk. Very high surface brightness with no detail. At 460x, the central star could not be picked off. It forms a very nice “double” with a 14.6 mag star The separation is just 5” between the west edge and the star. Responds well with O-III.

PK111+11.1 (22 19 33.9 +70 56 05 - 15.1* 8.8’ Cepheus)
22” (128 and 177x) – Extremely faint arcing glow between two 12th magnitude stars. Best at 128x. Responds equally to O-III and Ultrablock filters. About 5’ long. Extrapolating the center from the arc, there are three very faint stars of about 15 to 16th magnitude. The middle star is the central star

PK 118+2.1 (00 07 20.5 +64 57 21 - 2.1’ Cassiopeia)
22” (128, 177 and 287x) – Field was easily located, but the nebula was not seen with or without the O-III filter.

PK 119+0.1 (00 19 58.8 +62 59 01 14.7v 22.3* 50x20” Cassiopeia)
22” (287 and 460x) – This is an interesting nebula in a rich star field. Without the O-III filter, I can see a very faint thin streak strattling across four equal brightness stars with three being collinear. The east star is bent about 15 degrees. About 40” long and PA = 80. Popping the O-III filter, the nebula pops out and is very bright. It completely covers the four stars.

Vyssotsky 1-1 (00 18 42.4 +53 52 18 12.6v 14.1* 5.0” Cassiopeia)
22” (287 and 460x) – Bright stellar planetary in a fairly rich star field. A tight string of four 12-15th stars lies just 1’ west. Blinked with O-III to confirm.

PK 119-6.1 (00 28 15.7 +55 57 54 12.3v 16.5* 5.0” Cassiopeia)
22” (287 and 460x) – Very bright, very small round disk. Blinked with O-III to confirm. A string of 11 to 12th magnitude stars leads away from the PNe to the NW. Responds very well with O-III filter.

Sharpless 2-176 (00 31 53.6 +57 22 33 - 18.1* 12’ Cassiopeia)
22” (128 and 177x) – Field was easily located, but the nebula was not seen with or without the O-III filter.

Wein 1-1 (00 38 54.6 +66 23 47 21.9p 21.0* 24” Cassiopeia)
22” (287 and 460x) – Field was easily located, but the nebula was not seen with or without the O-III filter.

PK 121+0.1 (00 40 21.6 +62 51 25 15.4v -* 40” Cassiopeia)
22” (287 and 460x) – Very faint round glow. About 20” across. A string of faint to very faint stars lies less than 1’ east. Responds well with O-III filter.