Since I am unable to do much in the way of deep sky observing right now because of being in recovery mode from surgery, I dug up the below notes from ten years ago in my archives. This was from our home backyard using my Zhumell Z10
dob (I still have it!). Our skies then were a strong
Bortle 5, but have over the succeeding years degraded to a
Bortle 6. Anyway, in looking at my notes I see how my notation and writing have evolved from more of a narrative style to a more formal presentation in the vein of an observing guide. Funny to look back so many years to see what I was up to at that time.
Anyway, here we go from many moons ago!
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With the promise of another “partly clear” night, I staged my equipment on the patio earlier in the evening, and headed out for observing about 2300 local time. Unfortunately, I was greeted by a proliferation of high thin clouds. So at least initially, it appeared that I would have to work around those for targets of opportunity from my observing list. Setting up the Z10 and my regular compliment of gear, I proceeded to Aquila to hunt down a triplet of open clusters highlighted earlier by my friend JG. Star hopping from mag 2.7 Tarazed (Gamma Aquilae) to mag 5.3 Phi Aquilae; I tracked down these three clusters. Though I found them unimpressive in the eyepiece, I like to chase down ignored objects because you never know what you will find.
I first found
NGC 6840 at 69x as a small, loose grouping divided into two sections by a lane void of noticeable stars. Increasing to 114x, I found the lane more pronounced between a line of stars to one side and vaguely circular or boxy group of stars to the other. Moving on to
NGC 6843, I had to push up to 142x to make any sense of this one. About all I could discern was a gently curving line of stars with a small amount of haze behind them, presumably from dimmer, unresolved stars.
NGC 6837, likewise at 142x presented about 5 to 6 stars in a somewhat hockey stick pattern, with some background haze. Had I not been specifically looking for them, I feel I would easily slip past them without even realizing a cluster was in the field of view. There is not a lot of consistent magnitude or dimensional data for these clusters, but they are all faint, I would judge 11th to 12th magnitude.
I then headed to Lyra with a list of eight galaxies to attempt. Despite being near the zenith, I was only able to find one of them, the brightest of the lot. From Vega, I hopped northeast through the double-double (Epsilon Lyrae) to 4.4 mag 13 Lyrae, then northwest for just over 2° to sweep up the faint glow of
NGC 6703. This magnitude 11.3 lenticular galaxy has a surface brightness of 13.1, and at 69x presented a small, dim, roundish haze. At 89x the core was noticeably brighter, while at 114x, the outer halo became more extended. Putting in the 8.8mm, giving me 142x, and using averted vision, the core took on a fleeting stellar appearance. Nearby
NGC 6702 was not seen.
Still dodging clouds, and spying Capricornus showing above some nearby houses, I decided to revisit
Messier 30. Sighting in on 3.7 mag Zeta Capricorni, I quickly moved just over 3.5° to the east-southeast to 5.2 mag 41 Cap, and mag 6.9 M30 was just west of this star. At 69x it was small, but quite bright. It exhibited a tight, bright core with an extended outer halo. I noticed a stream of stars coming out from the core. At 89x I detected a second string of stars coming out from the core, and noted some resolution of outer stars. It was a very pleasing sight.
Moving into Aquarius, and sighting on mag 3.3 Skat (Delta Aquarii), I hopped about 7.7° to the southwest and found the very subtle, large glow of the Helix Nebula,
NGC 7293. It was so subtle at 69x that it I had to use the UHC filter to confirm its presence. Though it has an apparent magnitude of 7.3, its surface brightness is about 13.3. At 17.6’ in size, it is quite large for a planetary nebula, thus its light is so spread out leading to its dim appearance. I tried using more magnification, but honestly didn’t note any significant detail in this object. It remained a large, roundish, dim glow. The filter definitely made it stand out better against the background sky glow.
By this time the southern area of my sky had started to cloud up so I headed north. Needing just three more
Messier’s to finish the 110 certificate, and with Andromeda-Perseus gaining elevation in the northeast I headed to the open cluster M34. Spotting the 2nd magnitude stars Almach (Gamma Andromedae) and Algol (Beta Persei), I sighted the Rigel Quickfinder just over halfway to Algol. I was rewarded with
Messier 34 in the middle of the
FOV. At 69x, this splash of stars showed a few close pairs and some lines of suns running through it. I noted about two dozen stars in this cluster. That puts me at 108 logged, with the two remaining objects to be completed later this fall or winter. While in the area, I spotted
Messier 31 naked eye and swung the Z10 to its location. M31 was quite bright and extended, with the main dark line visible.
Messier 32 was likewise bright, showing a small glowing globe. Even
Messier 110 was there, easily seen with brightness in its core, and oval in shape. I dropped in the 24mm and all three fit nicely into the
FOV, making a very nice sight indeed.
Going back to the 18mm (my mainstay
DSO hunting
EP), I headed to Aries seeking out the mag 10.3 spiral galaxy
NGC 772. With a surface brightness of 13.8, it showed a dim oval with very slight brightening in the core at 69x. Increasing to 89x brightened it slightly, as did viewing it at 114x to 142x. However, no significant details were revealed.
Pisces was my next stop. The recent supernova SN2013ej in the face-on spiral galaxy
Messier 74 was my primary reason this time around. I spotted mag 3.6 Eta Piscium and centered it in the
FOV. Moving slowly to the ENE, I quickly swept up the faint round glow of the galaxy, with its visual magnitude of 9.4 and surface brightness of 14.1. At 69x it showed a bright core, with a dim halo around it, and a few stars superimposed upon its small disk. Orienting the finder chart for the supernova to match the view I had through the eyepiece, I was able to easily identify the SN as well as a few of the nearby stars plotted on the chart. Using 89x steadied the stars a bit and also brought more out in the surrounding halo of the galaxy’s arms. Viewing at 114x and 142x enhanced the core and surrounding halo, with the Type-II supernova being a steady beacon at around an estimated mag 12.5. It was quite interesting to be viewing a star around 30 million light years distant, and contemplating the age of this cataclysmic event and the time it took for the light to reach our eyes.
The clouds were starting to become more prevalent, so after a couple more items it would be time to call it a night. Spotting Triangulum, I headed to mag 3.5 Metallah (Alpha Trianguli), and then slid about 4.2° to the west-northwest and saw M33 ease into the
FOV. At 69x, it was a fairly bright and large rounded diaphanous glow, with a brighter core. Viewed at 89x, the brightness of the halo increased, as did the core. I tried using my narrow-band nebula filter (Orion Ultra Block) and noticed some brightening in the galaxy’s halo, indicative of the H-II star forming regions in the arms. The primary one,
NGC 604 was particularly bright east of the core.
Looking around, I noticed the famous variable star, Mira, in Cetus, I then directed my gaze to its northeast to 4th magnitude Delta Ceti. Aiming the scope at this star, I then swept just under a degree to the southeast to pick up the magnitude 8.9 galaxy M77. With a surface brightness of 12.9, this nearly face-on spiral was a small, bright roundish glow with an intense stellar core, indicative of Seyfert galaxies. A mag 10.8 star lay just southeast of the visible galactic disk. Using increased magnification intensified its overall brightness, particularly of its core, but no other details were seen.
With the increase in clouds and everything being drenched in dew, it was time to pack up the gear. There was some new stuff, and some old stuff; there were also some early Perseid meteors in the mix. Though the night was somewhat challenging having to dodge clouds here and there, and the humidity was somewhat problematic from time to time, it was still another fun night under the stars. Until next time, happy viewing!
