First new object in 2023: NGC2022

[John Baars]

Clear at 7 p.m. Temperature below 0 degrees Celsius. Out the telescope goes to the backyard. 8 p.m. Check again: lots of drifting clouds. In between it is clear, with occasional long veils. I hesitate, shall I go ahead? Try anyway, then.

Seeing is certainly not good though the telescope is at sort of equilibrium, still good enough for some bright double stars. Some exercises with the 140mm Maksutov and the Alt/Az mount. Deliberately no goto this time; that takes some getting used to again. Looking up everything manually and keeping it in the field of view. Jupiter and Mars of course, Orion Nebula, the doubles Castor, Rigel and Alnitak: obligatory fare. After M35 and Eskimo Nebula and very vaguely NGC2420, it was time for my two objects of the evening. First, a not particularly incisive attempt at NGC2023, a faint reflection nebula around a star of magn. 8, near the Horsehead Nebula. Veil clouds keep passing by, hindering greatly. The attempt fails.

Then it was time for NGC2022. A small planetary nebula ( 30X30 arc sec.) between Betelgeuze and the head of Orion. Magnitude 11.6. That seems dim, it is, but because it is so small it should be doable at high magnification even from the city. ( I told myself) In itself not a difficult star hop, there are plenty of "pointer" stars. Arriving in the area I expect nothing, there is also "nothing" at 140X and half a degree field of view. A bit back to 80X and then I see a very small triangle of stars I noticed in Stellarium too. Time for the better magnification work. And at just over 220X, with averted vision, I do indeed discern a small faint round blur. Gotcha! No further details are visible, but at least this one is in the bag. Filters were not used. That's something different in the beautiful constellation of Orion! Not really easy with the modest aperture I have, but the little planetary nebula loomed nicely anyway. By now it is 10 p.m. and my cold feet beg me to go inside. Not without reluctance I obey.

Map from Stellarium.

[Unitron48]

Sounds like a very successful session, John. Really enjoyed reading your report. Congrats on hunting down and capturing NGC2022!!!

Dave

[Lady Fraktor]

A good job of seeing NGC2022.
It can be fun hunting for these smaller objects trying different magnifications.
Good you could get out again, we just received another 20 cm of snow so still cloudy!

[helicon]

Nice catch John of NGC 2022!

And good job of detecting the small disk without a filter and under light polluted conditions.

Certainly worthy of today's VROD!

[Unitron48]

Sounds like a very successful session, John. Really enjoyed reading your report. Congrats on hunting down and capturing NGC2022!!!

Dave

And congrats on another VROD recognition!!

Dave

[Makuser]

Hi John. A very nice observing report using your 140 Mak-Cass telescope on alt/az mount. And catching NGC2022 after Jupiter, Mars, and some doubles was a nice treat. Thanks for your well written and interesting report John and congratulations on receiving another TSS VROD Award today.

[jrkirkham]

Thanks for posting your entertaining and encouraging report. I guess we all smiled at the irony of starting this year out with finding NGC2022 and looking toward NGC2023. It was a fun read and certainly worth the VROD.

[John Baars]

Thanks for your kind words and the VROD!
I feel honored.

[Bigzmey]

Nice catch John and congrats on the VROD! I have yet to see my first target in 2023.

Checking my notes, I have observed NGC 2022 in 2016 from the Anza location. It was a bluish fuzzy dot at 108x in ES 127mm APO triplet, like in your case no filters needed.

[Ylem]

Nice session John, and yes it can be hard to keep things in view with a Mak on an alt-az manual mount.

Congratulations on the well deserved VROD!

[kt4hx]

Very nicely done on NGC 2022 John. Its smaller angular size yields a mean surface brightness of about 10.4, which helps in your brighter skies. Particularly with higher magnification as you found out. Congrats on the VROD my friend.