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CalStar
2008 September 26 and 27
Planetary Nebulae
Planetary Nebulae
Overall, this was the best CalStar skies I’ve seen. I setup between Bill Porte and Marsha Robinson, the only TAC-Sac observers at CalStar as far as I know. I was close to Pete S, Mark W and Rich N and few others. Best of all, I finally got to meet Dr. Planetary Nebulae, Kent Wallace. He was right next to me with his 20” Starsplitter reflector. He has many stories to share to us all…and we had some good views through his scopes. I did not record them, but do remember some PNe’s we looked at through his scope. They include the Raspberry nebula (IC 418), Magic Carpet nebula (NGC 7027), Spare Tyre nebula (IC5148/50), Campbell’s Star (Henize 2-438), Jones 1, etc.
There are many daytime activities I will not attempt to write about. I had a great time meeting quite a few TACos in person, naming a few; Greg Claytor, Mark Johnson, Kent Wallace.
My daughter, Evelyn, had a lot of fun despite that she didn’t hang out with any kids.
Anyhow, I’ll put out this first part, the planetaries I observed.
I also observed a number of Shakhbazian groups, Dwingaloo 1 and a Palomar Globular. See the other report for the observations.
Keep in mind that these are pretty rough notes as I pretty much just copied what I wrote on my observing notebook here.
On Friday night, NELM was about 6.6 and seeing was 3/5 for first half and 4/5 after midnight. Saturday night, NELM was a little better at about 6.8, but seeing was pretty poor at 3/5. I observed the first five on Friday night and the rest on Saturday night.
Equipment used:
22” f/4 reflector with no tracking20mm Pentax XW finder eyepiece
10, 7.5, 5 and 3.6mm Takahashi LE
13 and 8mm Ethos
Lumicon O-III filter
Minkowski 3-30 (18 41
14.8 -15 33 39 mag 14.6p mag* 17.9
size 17”)22” (287 and 460x) – Bright, small round glow with well-defined edges. About 0.3’ across. Responds well to O-III filter. An 11.7 and 14 th magnitude double star lies 0.3’ ENE from the center. Removing the O-III filter reveals an extremely faint star on the north edge.
IC 1295 (18 54 37.2
-08 49 33 mag 15.0p mag* 15.5 size 120x90”)22” (287x) – Very bright, very slightly elongated patch with a slightly darker center. “Double” central star. A 12.6 magnitude star on the SW edge and an extremely faint star on the NW edge. Lies in a rich star field. About 1.5’ across. PA = 90. Responds well to O-III filter.
Henize 1-3 (19 48
26.4 +22 08 34 mag 16.0 mag* 11.6 size
12”)22” (287 and 460x) – Very faint, very small round glow. Barely visible without O-III filter and responds very well to it. 0.2’ across. Not sure of the listed magnitude of the central star magnitude of 11.6 as I did not detect the central star.
Minkowski 2-48 (19
50 28.6 +25 54 27 mag 16.5p mag*
- size 29x13”)22” (287 and 460x) – Very faint, 2:1 elongated small patch with well-defined edges. PA = 90. About 0.5’ long and PA = 75. Forms a trapezoid with three 14-15 th magnitude stars. No central star. Responds well to O-III filter.
Henize 1-6 (20 17
21.5 +25 21 44 mag 14.9p mag* -
size 24”)22” (287 and 460x) – Considerably bright, small round even surface brightness glow. Well defined edges, but the SE edge is soft. No central star. 0.3’ across. Responds well to O-III filter.
PC19 (18 24 44.6
+02 29 27 mag 12.1p mag* - size 14”)22” (177 and 287x) – Considerably faint, very small glow. This PNe is confirmed at 177x by blinking with O-III filter. Two 15 th magnitude stars are to the SE and one to the NE. The PC catalogue was created by Peimbert and Costero.
RCW 181 (18 54
56.9 +06 02 41 mag - mag*
- size 5.1’)22” (177 and 287x) – Not detected. Tried using UltraBlock and O-III filters. The RCW list was created by Rodgers, Campbell and Whiteoak as a list of H-alpha emission regions in the southern Milky Way. The entire article is here.
Kohoutek 3-34 (19
24 02.9 +25 18 47 mag 15.8p mag* - size
10”)22” (287 and 460x) – Blinked with O-III filter to find it. Very small, considerably bright, almost stellar disk.
Sharpless 2-80 (19
11 30.9 +16 51 35 mag 8.2 IR mag* 11.1 size 1.8’)22” (177, 287 and 460x) – Not detected. Tried using UltraBlock and O-III filters.
PK 51+1.1 (19 19
18.8 +17 11 45 mag - mag*
15.1 size 20”)22” (287 and 460x) – Extremely faint, round glow with a bright central star. Blinking showed very small improvement. I’m not sure if I actually observed this object. Need to try again.
Henize 1-5 (20 11
56.1 +20 20 04 mag 16.2p mag*
11.3 size 40”)22” (287 and 460x) – Very faint, round glow with a very bright central star. Responds well to O-III filter. It appears as a faint round glow over a vB star. About 0.4’ across.
NGC 7139 (21 46
08.6 +63 47 31 mag 13.3v mag* 18.7 size
86x70”)22” (287x) – Considerably faint, round, even surface brightness glow. Well defined slightly brighter edges. No central star. 1.0’ across.
Minkowski 2-51 (22
16 03.8 +57 28 33 mag 13.5v mag*
20.4 size 72”)22” (287 and 460x) – Considerably bright, slightly elongated even surface brightness glow. Well defined edges. PA = 0. 1.0’ across and 0.7’ wide. Responds well to O-III filter
Minkowski 2-52 (22
20 30.9 +57 36 18 mag 14.0p (15.3v) mag*
- size 14”)22” (287 and 460x) – Considerably bright, almost stellar. Blinked with O-III filter to locate it.
PK 111+11.1 (22 19
33.9 +70 56 05 mag - mag*
15.5 size 8.8’)22” (177 and 287x) – Not detected. Used both O-III and Ultrablock filters.
NGC 7354 (22 40
20.1 +61 17 06 mag 12.2v size 24”)22” (287 and 460x) – Bright round even surface brightness glow. Very faint central star. 0.4’ across.
NGC 246 (00 47
03.6 -11 52 20 mag 8.0p size 240x210”)22” (177, 287 and 460x) – Very bright, mottled surface, very well defined edges. East edge is diffuse. 3 stars, including the central star, are on the halo.
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