March 13, 2010: Late Winter Observing and Planetary Nebula at Dark Sky Ranch

Peter Natscher

Late Winter Observing and Planetary Nebula at Dark Sky Ranch

Dark Sky Ranch, Willow Springs – Panoche Road J-1, California
Owner: Kevin Ritschel

Yes, it was below freezing both outside and inside my SUV as I finished up observing at 1:30am (25°F, 80% RH). By midnight, heavy frost covered all our telescopes, tables, and paper charts outside and more ice formed on the 'inside' of my vehicle's windows. Only my Kendrick dew equipment powered by a dedicated 12V-18Ahr battery kept me in business observing 'til I tired out by 1:30am. By early dawn, I became impatient with lying in my sleeping bag inside of my SUV and still feeling the frigid air on my exposed face, so I got up and quickly packed up the ice-covered scope and accessories thinking about Starbucks coffee 45 minutes away in Hollister. Richard had to scrape the ice off of my SUV's windshield while I rubbed more ice off from the inside of the glass so that I could drive out safely at 8am - thanks so much, Richard!

Also, thanks Kevin for inviting me to your Deep Sky Ranch for a wonderful time of observing in awesome late winter weather and with the company of a great astro-group!

Highlights of my observing were deep sky objects from the Jay McNeil 450+ planetary nebula list, downloaded from Doug Snyder's www.blackskies.org home page (a planetary nebula site).

St 3-1 Mon PN 14.2 10" 07 07 23 -03 06 16 PN G217.4+02.0
24" 6mm 432X Small circular disk gray in color with uniform illumination. No central star seen. OIII shows brighter disk with a sharp edge. This planetary is set in a nice field of galactic stars.

NGC 2346 Mon PN 12.5 1'x0.7' 07 09 55 -00 49 31 PK215+03 1 M1-10 Butterfly Nebula
24" 6mm 432X The brighter central part of this bi-polar planetary nebula with its embedded mag. 11.1 central star was easy to see. No color was seen. The two opposing radiating wings were only beginning to be hinted with averted vision.

NGC 2371 Gem PN 11.2 1.2' 07 26 15 +29 28 12 Gemini Nebula
24" 8mm 324X Set in a rich starry field appearing as a gray mottled oval disk with two broad disconnected ansae. The central disk contains a lot of irregular detail and a magnitude 14 central star. Overall, a very complex nebula exhibiting fine details and worth taking time to examine.

M 3-3 Mon PN 14.8 15" 07 27 06 -05 23 17 Minkowski 3-3 PN G221.7+05.3
24" 6mm 432X Small evenly illuminated gray round disk without detail. No central star seen. A small white sharp disk embedded in a rich starry field; requires 300X to distinguish.

We 1-6 Mon PN ? 62" 07 17 24 -10 11 00 PK 224+01.1 Weinberger, 1977
24" 8mm 324X Very faint circular area in group of 6-7 magnitude 12 stars. Noticed with averted vision.

NGC 2610 Hya PN 13.5 50" 08 33 53 -16 11 17 PN G239.6+13.9
24" 8mm 324X Large round disk with even illumination and soft edges, no central star seen. Located adjacent to a striking magnitude 6 star.

Frosty Leo Proto-Planetary Nebula Leo PN 10.5 10" 09 39 54 +11 58 52 IRAS 09371+1212
24" 6mm 432X Very small blue peanut shaped proto-planetary nebula. Two round lobes attached making a interesting elongated shape. 1' SSE is NGC 2958 GX.

Peter Natscher
Monterey, California
24" f/3.7 Starmaster