There were about eight of at IHOP and we enjoyed great skies.  NELM was about 6.5-6.8, but seeing was above average.  I spent most of my time at objects high up in the sky, many in the Dobson hole.  Fortunately my 22” has very smooth bearing surfaces, so tracking is not an issue eve at high powers.  Yes, I do not have any tracking on my 22” scope and never had tracking for 25+ years using a 16”+ class Dobsonians.   Only scope with tracking is my 30” scope, which is pretty much required for something that big and long.

Anyhow straight to my observing comments from my night observing on September 11, 2010.  Pretty much straight out of my notebook.  This is only a partial list, a list of interesting and somehat challenging objects.

All objects listed here are in my downloadable observing guides.  Enjoy and hopefully you will try of these objects.

Equipment used:
22” f/4 reflector with no tracking
20mm Pentax XW finder eyepiece
12.5, 9 and 7mm Baader Genuine Orthoscopics
10 and 6mm Zeiss ZAO-II Orthoscopics
7.5 and 5mm Takahashi LE
TMB 1.8x ED barlow
Lumicon O-III filter

NGC 6833  (19h 49m 46.7s  +48° 57’ 38”   size 2”   mag 13.8p)

(22” – 255 and 383x) – Immediately picked up as a bright stellar planetary.  The O-III filter brings it slightly brighter than the 10.4 magnitude star located 2.8’ ENE.  North of a pair of 15^th mag stars.  Very rich star field

Minkowski  4-17  (20h 09m 02.0s  +43° 43’ 42”  size 28”   mag 14.5p)

(22” – 115, 255, 306 and 383x) – Picked up at 115x as a considerably bright round glow with defined edges.  Annularity detected at 306x.  O-III filter helps, but not as much as expected.  0.5’ across.

Kohoutek 3-74  (20 08 43.1  +42 30 05   size 20”  mag 16.1p)

(22” – 255, 306 and 383x) – Very faint, small round glow visible only 75% of the time with averted vision with the O-III filter.  Not visible at all without the filter.  Defined edges and even surface brightness. 0.4’ across.

NGC 6884  (20 10 23.8  +46 27 38   size 6”   mag 12.6p)

(22” – 306, 383, 552 and 690x) – Some elongation detected at 552 and 690x.  Suspected spikes at ends.  O-III really brings this nebula out.  0.3’ long and PA = 135.  Still direct vision without filter.

Minkowski 1-75  (20 04 44.1  +31 27 20   size 42”  mag 16.0v)

(22” – 184, 255, 306 and 383x) – Very faint 3:2 elongated glow.  Diffuse edges.  Even surface brightness.  100% averted vision with O-III and not seen at all without filter.  0.3x0.5’ and PA = 150

Kohoutek 3-46  (19 50 00.3  +33 45 53   size 30”   mag 16.4p)

(22” -  184, 255, 306 and 383x) – not detected at all, tried both the UHC and O-III filters.  Lies in a very rich star field including a wide 9.8 magnitude visual double star about 1.3’ due west of the “missing” nebula.  If anyone see this, let me know and share your observations.

PK 75+4.1  (20 04 16.4  +39 35 30   size 28”   mag 16.0)

(22” - 184, 255, 306x) – not detected at all, tried both the UHC and O-III filters.  Very rich star field.  If anyone see this, let me know and share your observations.

Kohoutek 4-55  (20 45 10.2  +44 39 10   size 27”  mag -)

Kohoutek 3-79  (20 53 13.8  +53 45 42   size 12”   mag 17.8)

(22” – 255, 306x) – detected 25% of the time as an extremely faint small round glow with O-III filter.  Seen at 306x.  0.2’ across.  Flat Cassiopeia asterism to the east.  No visible at all without the O-III filter.

PK 80-6.1  (21 02 18.7  +36 41 40   size 1.0x0.5’   mag 13.5)  The Egg Nebula

(22” – 306, 383 and 690x) – Beautiful view at 690x.  The NNE lobe is about twice as large as the SSW lobe.  The lobes look like two triangles pointed at each other.  NNE lobe is 15x8” and the SSW lobe is 8x5”.  Since this is a protoplanetary, very little response to the filter.

(22” – 184, 255 and 306x) – Very faint irregular glow detected at 255x with O-III filter.  Appears much like fainter version of the Cork Nebula (M-76), a long flat dumbbell.  1.0x0.4’ and PA = 135.  Even surface brightness.  No central star.   O-III filter helps, but less than average.    I did not attempt, actually forgot, to observe without filter, so I have no data there.

UGC 1817  (02 21 31.3  +14 11 55   size 2.4x0.2’   mag 14.6p)

(22” – 184, 255 and 306x) – Very faint thin glow with ill-defined edges.  Lower than expected surface brightness, goes to show how misleading the listed magnitude can be.  But that is all we got when it comes to listed data.  Practically disappears at 306x.  PA = 150 and 1.6’ long.  Nearby galaxies, MCG+2-7-1, is very faint, round glow with ill-defined edges.  Even surface brightness.  About 0.2’ across.  A couple very faint 16^th and 17^th magnitude stars lies on the south and north edges respectively.  MAC 0221+1411, very faint, very small round glow.  Even surface brightness and 0.1’ across.

UGC 1999  (02 31 52.4  +19 09 14   size 3.1x0.4’   mag 14.6)

(22” – 184, 255 and 306x) – Faint thick glow with no central brightening and ill-defined edges.  Even surface brightness.  PA = 90 and 1.3’ long and 0.3’ thick.  A 14.4 mag star lies 1.5’ ESE from the center.

UGC 2082  (02 36 16.3  +25 25 26   size 5.3x0.8’   mag 13.7b)

(22” – 184, 255, 306 and 383x) – Considerably faint thin glow with slightly brighter elongated center otherwise even surface brightness throughout the halo.  Diffuse edges.  A 15.3 magnitude star lies on the NW tip near the end.  A 14.6 magnitude star lies 0.7’ SW of the center and a 15.3 mag star lies 1.0’ north of the center.  PA = 135 and 2.4’ long.

NGC 1110  (02 49 09.3  -07 50 26   size 2.8x0.5’   mag 15.0)

(22” – 184, 255 and 306x) – Faint thin glow with somewhat diffuse edges.  Even surface brightness with no central brightening.  PA = 15 and 2.0’ long.  Lies in a field of 5 bright 11-12^th magnitude stars, two on the south and three on the north side.

UGC 3137  (04 46 16.1  +76 25 10   size 3.5x0.3’   mag 15.1p)

(22” – 184 and 255x) – Faint thin glow with diffuse edges.  PA = 75 and 2.2’ long.  No central brightening.  A 13.2 mag star lies 1.4’ SW.

UGC 3326  (05 39 31.6  +77 18 38   size 3.5x0.3’   mag 15.3p)

(22” – 184, 255 and 306x) – Faint long thin streak with a slightly brighter thin center.  Well defined edges.  PA = 30 and 2.5’ long.  A mag 12.4 star lies 3’ due west from the center.  A 14.8 mag star lies 1’ east from the center.