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NGC6818 (Planetary Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 10:49:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1281
Small blue disk, even and featureless, maybe a little darker at the center, about 30" in diameter, no central star visible
NGC6563 (Planetary Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 09:50:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1279
An almost circular patch about 1' in diameter, no structure noted at 262x and OIII filter
NGC6565 (Planetary Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 06:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1277
Small!! A star that will not quite focus, slightly green, brighter at the center with a very small halo
M27 (Dumbell Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Vulpecula)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.astroclubul.org/emilneata)
Instrument: 60-mm refractor Location: Craiova, Romania
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Jan 25 00:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1171
Round, evenly spread light. In the north and south, with averted vision, some dark intrusions are visible.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.astroclubul.org/emilneata)
Instrument: 60-mm refractor Location: Craiova, Romania
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Jan 25 00:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1169
M 57 is very difficult with a 60mm refractor. At 36x it is easily mistook for a star. The central hole is visible only with averted vision, very difficult.
NGC6445 (Planetary Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.geocities.com/deep_sky_astronomy)
Instrument: 150-mm Dobsonian reflector Location: Craiova, Romania
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Wed Nov 10 03:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1100
NGC 6445 (Little Gem Nebula) in Sagittarius is small and pretty faint. It has a round shape, and gets brighter towards the center. Close to the nebula, in the west, I've seen a bright double star.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Horsham, Pa., USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed Nov 10 00:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1090
This night was very crisp and cold. Thanks to Daylight Savings ending, it was extremely dark by 6:30 PM. There was little wind and the seeing was just about as good as I have seen it. After allowing 30 minutes or so for the scope to cool down, I viewed M57. The Ring was beautiful! On previous observations, I could not use power beyond 75x due to either wind or seeing conditions. Tonight's viewing held steady at over 200x! The view was the best I had ever seen of the Ring. The hollow center was not only easily visible w/ direct vision...it was also very large. The elliptical shape was even easier to spot tonight than other nights when viewing with 75x. A truly wonderous sight that I will return to again and again.
M27 (Dumbell Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Vulpecula)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Horsham, Pa., USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Tue Oct 12 02:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1073
After reading alot of articles about the Dumbell Nebula, I figured I would target it tonight. Anyone with an EQ Reflector may know the difficulties of trying to view an object near the zenith point. I had very high hopes after reading articles about how much brighter it is than the Ring Nebula (M57), and how much larger it is. One article I read had claimed this planetary to be "the best of all the planetaries". The only good thing I have found about this particular nebula is that it can be spotted easily in binos (as small as 50mm I have read). Using the stars in Lyra and the last star in the point of the cross of Cygnus, I found it immediately in my 70mm binos. It actually looked better in the binos than my 6" scope at the lowest power. "Disappointment" is probably the only word I can use for this. Perhaps I need a MUCH larger aperature telescope but it was faint and without much structure. Pale green and barely visible as an "apple core" I had to use averted vision just to make out the shape. No detail was within despite similar viewing throughout this week and last week of other objects that were fainter and yeilded much more detail. I think I will steer clear of this object until I get a lager telescope (like the 200" Polomar Reflector).
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra, Est. RaDec zenith)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Horsham, Pa., USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Oct 6 02:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1069
Tried to recap yesterday's excellent viewing oppurtunity tonight. Unfortunately, there was severe light pollution, zodiac perhaps. Spotted the nebula once again at 30x. Afterwards I switched to 75x and once again made out the shell and hollow center. There was considerable wind tonight, and it was alittle difficult to keep the image "jitter free" for more than 4 seconds at a time. I tried employing my 2-3x Barlow with the 25mm eyepiece (30x). Adjusting the Barlow to 3x for a total of 90x, the image lost structure to the light pollution as well as the bouncing from the wind. Went back to 75x and viewed for about 5 minutes before packing it in, Also viewed M31 (see M31 observations). Rather dissapointed tonight with the conditions, but so far I have had a couple of excellent days this week.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Horsham, Pa., USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Tue Oct 5 02:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1068
Tonight's viewing was even better than last night's. The sky was exceptionally clear and there was little, if any, atmospheric turbulance. I was viewing straight up towards the zenith. My target was M13 in Hercules and M57 in Lyra. Hercules was found in a matter of minutes. At 30x it was about dime-sized in my eyepiece. I could make out a few more stars tonight than I did the previous weeks. Looking around the eyepiece I could actually pick up a few, if ever so dim, stars on the outskirts of the cluster. After seeing as many individual stars as I could I moved on to M57 in Lyra. The view of M57 was magnificent! Spotting it at 30x, the small circular ring appeared unusually bright. However it was hard picking out the hollow middle at this magnification. Changing my eyepiece to my 20mm was also not allowing me enough power to make out the nebula. Again, I changed to my 10mm (75x) eyepiece. The view was perfect! Appearing as a smoke ring about dime-sized, I could clearly see the hollow middle. I could even make out that it was ever so slightly elongated. I tried my 3.7mm eyepiece but all detail was completely lost as a very faint smudge. I went back to the 10mm and marveled at the sight for another 15 minutes. It was one of the few objects I have seen (besides planets and the Orion nebula) that actually looked alot like what is shown in magazines. All that was missing was the parent star (a 15" scope is needed to see that). Truly a beautiful object that I will visit again (when it's alittle further from the zenith)
NGC7293 (Planetary Nebula, in Aquarius)
Observer: Giorgos Koronis (e-mail: giorgos.koronis@lies.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Parnon mountain, Greece
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Sun Jun 20 01:00:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1027
The famous Helix! A huge object.At 28x (32mm erfle) with an O-III filter the annular form is visible.A cool sight!
NGC6772 (Planetary Nebula, in Aquila)
Observer: Giorgos Koronis (e-mail: giorgos.koronis@lies.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Parnon mountain, Greece
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jun 19 22:50:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1025
A very faint but large planetary in Aquila.Very faint at 51x (18mm SWA eyepiece).Better seen with an O-III filter.
NGC6572 (Planetary Nebula, in Ophiuchus)
Observer: Giorgos Koronis (e-mail: giorgos.koronis@lies.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Parnon mountain, Greece
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jun 19 21:20:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1022
A fluorescent green planetary nebula.Stellar at 45x(20mm plossl) a tiny disk at 91x(10mm plossl).Interesting object.Its color is striking!
M27 (Dumbell Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Vulpecula)
Observer: David Moorhouse (e-mail: climber@world-net.co.nz, web: http://www.binoscope.co.nz)
Instrument: 16-inch binoculars Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun Jun 13 12:30:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1016
This observation was taken through a 16" binocular under truely dark skies.Moving on to the dumbbell nebula, it was quite fortuitous that this object was low to the horizon and I needed to be seated before looking through the eyepiece, as if I was standing on a ladder I would surely have fallen off backwards with amazement. In the past I have only seen the dumbbell nebula as a blurry apple core shaped object that was a dim and relatively indistinct object. Changing from 12 inch to 16 inches of aperture has made a huge difference to what is visible in this nebula. Now not only the core but the fainter outside edge is of the nebula where easily visible, with binocular version one of the huge benefits that you get is not only the increase in contrast but more importantly greatly enhanced shaped recognition. We were able to see texture in the surface of the core, several notches and irregularities were easily visible on one edge of the nebula. Today after going back and looking at a photograph of the dumbbell nebula afforded little improvement on what I was able to see with my own eyes.
NGC6058 (Planetary Nebula, in Hercules)
Observer: Giorgos Koronis (e-mail: giorgos.koronis@lies.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Kalamata, Greece
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun May 23 22:10:00 2004 UT Obs. no.: 1003
I observed this faint planetary in Hercules using a Meade 8.8 UWA eyepiece (103x).Field identified with the help of Cartes du Ciel software.It was a small faint and feauterless round disk, better seen thru an O-III filter.
NGC3242 (Planetary Nebula, in Hydra)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 16-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Tue Mar 11 03:00:00 2003 UT Obs. no.: 782
What a great first object for the new 16"!! At 310x, it was fantastic! There was a large outer halo with a football shaped ring inside the halo. It was extending pretty much east west. Inside the bright football shaped ring was a darker central region. Inside the darker central region was the central star. What a great object!!
NGC2392 (Planetary Nebula, in Gemini)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 16-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Tue Mar 11 02:00:00 2003 UT Obs. no.: 783
This was truly my best view of the Eskimo Nebula. At 310x, it showed its trueform. What a beautiful aqua color!! Inside the outer halo was a brightring that was a pear shaped that was wide at the bottom and narrowed towards the top. Inside the bright oval ring was a darker area, but still brighter than the outer halo. Right in the center was the bright central star. There was some brighening in the lower portion of the inner ring that could have been construed as a smile. The central nose....oops star,looked like a big clown nose. With a little imagination, it looked like a clownface.
NGC2022 (Planetary Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:40:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 751
After star hopping to its location at low power, and being unable to distinguish it from other field stars, I was able to see a faint disk at higher power.
NGC7662 (Planetary Nebula, in Andromeda)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Wed Nov 13 01:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 717
Blue Snowball: Thanks to some advice I got in an email(thanks Fiske), I was able to locate theposition of the Snowball immediately in the binocs. I had trouble locating thisbefore because of its high position in the sky. At 59x, it clearly showed itselfas a small powdery blue disc without any detail. At 157x it appeared to have aslight darkening in the center. Maybe an illusion, I'm not sure. The darkeningin the center didnt hold. It came and went with averted vision. Maybe I was holding my breath....(a joke) I detected a slight brightening along the bottomsouth to south east border. I tried 314x, but the seeing was awful and I couldnot detect anything. The seeing is awful tonight. I'd like to check this oneout on a night of good seeing for sure. The moonshine was hitting inside my tube, which didnt help matters. I tried the OIII filter, but it didnt seem tomake a difference.
NGC7293 (Planetary Nebula, in Aquarius)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Nov 7 03:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 713
I decided to see if I could view the Helix Nebula from my light polluted back yard. I had to use binoculors to just get oriented since it is in Aquarius which is a fairly dim constellation. It lies within a pattern of 5 stars easy to see in binocs so it was pretty easy to find. I used an OIII filter to confirm its position. The dimensions are about 16x28 arc minutes so you cant miss it. I couldnt make out any real detail and it was fairly faint, but I was able to note the slightly darker center. When I removed the OIII filter it became completely invisible. My feet were getting cold so I decided to pack it in for the night without studying it to carefully.
M27 (Dumbell Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Vulpecula)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Nov 6 01:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 714
I spent some time observing M27 with medium to high magnification tonight. I had no specific goals in mind, but never really tried high magnification on the Dumbell before long enough to make any observations of note. At 157x with the OIII filter I was noting detail in the neblosity when I noticed a star popped and out of view in the lower lobe with averted vision. With that, I removed the filter to see how many more I might pop into view. Of course, I lost detail and brightness in the neblosity but the central star popped into view as well as 1 star in the upper lobe. At 314x I was able to detect 4-5 stars in the lower lobe along with the central star and 1 star in the uppper lobe. All required averted vision.
M27 (Dumbell Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Vulpecula)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Oct 23 01:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 704
With a bright moon in the sky, I felt like doing some comparisons with the OIII filter. The nebula was easily noted as faint grey spot showing no detail without the filter. With the filter the dumbell shape became obvoius, but the moonlight shining in the tube was awfully distracting, but a noticable improvement was noted. I can't wait till the November 4th new moon!!!!!!!!Paul
NGC6826 (Planetary Nebula, in Cygnus)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Sep 29 02:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 709
This one took a couple minutes to find for the first time. The Blinking nebula is so small, you can pass it off as a star at low powers if you arent careful. The blue color stood out very well. I found it at 59x and then moved straight up to 157x. It appears as a blue disc with averted vision, but when looking straight at it, the disc fades and the brightness of the central star takes over with no filters. I tried the OIII filter and the nebula did not fade at direct vision and it seemed to conceal the central star. Nothing too exciting, but fun to observe for a few minutes.
M76 (Barbell Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Perseus)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Sep 29 02:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 708
The Little Dumbell was easily found in Perseus without any filters in my suburban backyard. All I could note was a small grey area roughly 3x2 archminutes in size standing on end. With the OIII filter, M76 stood out much more clearly. I was not able to observe the central star. I started at 59x and moved up to 118x with much improvement. M76 stood out well at 157x. I tried higher magnifications without much success tonight. I would have to say somewhere between 120x and 150x is ideal for this object on this night.
M57 (Ring Nebula) (Planetary Nebula, in Lyra)
Observer: Paul (e-mail: paul_ohstbucks@msn.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Lee's Summit, MO, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Sun Sep 22 04:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 700
This was my very first observation with my new telescope!! Being I was in my light polluted back yard, I didn't know what to expect. Put it this way, I wasn't disappointed. Obviously, this object stands up to light pollution very well. At 59x, the ring was very sharp and the center was obvious. At 118x, M57 showed detail in the texture of the ring, and was my favoritemagnification. The central area was so well defined, I tried averted vision for about 20minutes hoping to see the central star.(no luck) I later learned that a much higher power is necessary to glimpse the allusive star along with much darker skies. Happy viewing!!Paul
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