finished the H2 and more from the Peak

I went to Fremont Peak last night with my 20-inch.  Primary mission: the last 16 objects on my H2 list.  I powered through those fairly quickly, kind of ignoring other interesting objects in the area, just to finish it up.  Seeing was very good but transparency was average, with some moisture in the air.  SQML around 21.1-21.3.

NGC 5493: Bright, round core brightens to a stellar nucleus.  Core elongated 3:2 with faint halo, NW-SE.  The core is twisted from the major axis.


NGC 5506 & 5507: 5506 is to the south, and is much elongated, and pretty large, fainter than 5507 but still rather bright, with an even surface brightness, 5:1 E-W.  5507 is to the north, has a bright round core with stellar nucleus and faint halo which is elongated 2:1 SW-NE.


NGC 5566 & 5560 = Arp 286: 5566 is very large and bright, 4:1 SW-NE, with a long bright core running twisted along the major axis -- it's not in the same line as the faint, tapering halo.  To the NE from the tip is a small, faint, round galaxy with two stars forming a triangle -- this is NGC 5569.  5560 to the NW in the field, is smaller but still bright, with a bright round core and stellar nucleus, but a long tapering halo pinched 4:1 WNW-ESE.  These are all apparently interaction


NGC 5668: Irregularly round, slightly misshapen oval glow, fairly large, even surface brightness.  Two bright foreground stars on the eastern side.


NGC 5750: Bright core, stellar nucleus, oval shape, slowly fading halo.  3:2 W-E


NGC 5690: Nice edge on, 5:1 NNW-SSE, moderately large and faint, with star on SE tip -- better to keep very bright star to west out of field.


NGC 5638: Round bright nucleus and less bright but prominent core, with very faint halo fringe, oval NW-SE .  Another very faint galaxy next to it to north, larger much more diffuse, noticed & brightens with averted vision = NGC 5636.


NGC 5775: Large and bright, bright elongated core and quasi-stellar compact round nucleus, with gradually fading mottled halo to tips, 4:1 NW-SE.  To the WNW is a more round, fainter galaxy whose core brightens with averted vision, and has an irregular oval halo which is more bright on the north side with some small foreground stars superimposed.  = NGC 5774.



This next series of Herschels seem to have all been discovered during one sweep; they are all in a narrow band in UMa:

NGC 5448: Bright 4:1 stellar nucleus and bright core, fading tips WNW-ESE.  Mottled halo.


NGC 5480 & 5481: 5481 is smaller but with a stellar nucleus and bright round core, thin halo.  5480 is larger, more diffuse but still pretty bright, small intense nucleus and oval mottled core & halo, 3:2 N-S.


NGC 5520: Small bright elongation 2:1 WSW-ENE, stellar nucleus and fading halo.



STF 1829: Near equal brightness white, well separated [P.A. 151 SEP 5.5 MAG 8.1,8.63]

NGC 5602: Stellar nucleus and very faint round core, with 3:1 elongated halo NNW-SSE, brightened with averted vision.

NGC 5660: Even surface brightness, mostly oval but mis-shapen; mottling throughout; stellar nucleus with averted vision. [Face on spiral]

NGC 5582: Small, fairly bright, stellar nucleus, round bright core and elongated tips 3:2 SSW-NNE

NGC 5541-1 & 5536: 5541-1 is small, faint, 2:1 SW-NE of even brightness.  5536 is faint and small, oval N-S.  

NGC 5603A: 5603A is brightest in a trio: moderately bright but small, round, with a bright core.  NGC 5598 was next brightest, also small and round, and UGC 9216, extremely faint small round glow

NGC 5899.  Last one!  Large bright edge on, with brighter core and just stellar nucleus, steadily tapering tips, 3:1 NE-SW.  Halo is much mottled.  5893 is very diffuse, small, and round; on the opposite side is 5900, a faint edge on 4:1 NW-SE with small brighter core.  There's a bright orange star in the west of the FOV 

Having thus finished the H2, I wanted more free-range observing.  I had read it might be possible to find, or at least identify, small stellar planetary nebulae using a direct vision spectroscope.  I searched around and found a grating fitted to a 1.25" cell which could be screwed into the eyepiece.  I wanted to see if it would really work.  I picked a small PN in Lyra, Sp 4-1.  I found it first the normal way, using an OIII then watching it blink.  I then used the grating -- but I could still see the star images of bright stars, which will give me some confusion if I use it to search.  I used it on Vega which was very bright.  Then the Double Double, which if I rotated the grating would split into to spectra lines per double.  One needs to be able to resolve the star to see the spectra, and actually the grating acts like a filter to see the doubles more cleanly.  I'm not really sure I can use this to sweep and find PN as Pickering did 130 years ago.  Will need more time to play with it.

Being in the neighborhood I decided to chase down various DSOs around Vega:

MCG+6-41-6: Small, very faint, slightly elongated with an irregularly bright core.

NGC 6685: Very faint, small, stellar nucleus, slightly elongated N-S.  With IC 4772 to the north, extremely faint, round and very small.

NGC 6675: Moderately large and bright, brightens with averted vision, especially the central part.  No distinct core or nucleus.  Oval with diffuse edges.  3-2 NW-SE.


NGC 6663: Very faint, irregularly bright, irregularly shaped oval patch.  Near STT 356.


NGC 6646: Moderately large, fairly bright, round-to-oval, brightens with averted vision.  IC 1288 to NE, small elongated 3:1 N-S, brighter in middle.


UGC 11228: Just stellar nucleus and very small faint oval halo

NGC 6672: Very small fairly faint haze, not clear.  [I seem to have described some very faint stars instead of a galaxy; NGC Project states this designation is for a triple star.]

STF 2380: Very wide separation, 2 delta mag, yellow
18H 42M 55.42S +44° 55' 30.9" P.A. 8 SEP 25.5 MAG 7.28,8.7 SP G8III DIST. 138.12 PC (450.55 L.Y.)

NGC 6703 & 6702: 6703 is Brighter, with bright core and diffuse halo, mostly round -- spiral? in an arc of stars.  6701 is smaller, fainter, round, with a brighter core and elongated halo with averted vision.

NGC 6711: Fairly faint, need averted vision to notice it.  Small. Seems to have two brightenings in the diffuse oval halo SE-NW.  -- it's a face on spiral which accounts for the brightening -- arms.


UGC 11376: Very faint, averted vision needed; small oval glow.

NGC 6742: Fairly uniform small smoke orb, a little brighter on the south side.  No central star.  A little better with OIII

STF 2450: Bright yellow and fainter yellow orb for B.  2-3 delta mag, ~5".  A,BC
P.A. 299 SEP 5.2 MAG 6.5,9.51

NGC 6732-1 & -2: Two glows.  One to south (-1) is brighter and slightly elongated W-E; other is faint and very diffuse, no core.


Watson 2, open cluster: Seen as a clump in the 80mm finder.  In the scope it is a poor small group a half a degree large.  Seems a double is in the middle of a group of stars forming a square and some others scattered, all similar brightness no nebulosity.  Orange star makes the SW corner of the square.  Not listed in Archinal's Star Clusters

STF 2368: Near equal white, close, ~1".  Hair split at 205x.  Could be 3x.  PA SSE is a faint green-blue star further south.  AB
P.A. 320 SEP 1.9 MAG 7.63,7.77

UGC 11292: Extremely faint small glow with star superimposed; oval very diffuse.

STF 2348: Very pretty yellow-orange A and yellow-blue B, well separated.  AB,C.  Six stars in the system
P.A. 271 SEP 25.7 MAG 5.5,8.65

UGC 11202: Excessively faint glow, small oval with some stars involved.

HU 674: Split with seeing at 333x, near equal white. (!! 0.47", first under 0.5")
P.A. 208.6 SEP 0.47 MAG 7.68,8.63
After a break I decided to go Gamma Cygni and have a look around, using the detail star chart in Interstellarum.  A number of very close pairs, and some exotic planetary nebula.

STF 2606: Close pair 2 delta mag. (!! AB 0.67")
P.A. 146.6 SEP 0.67 MAG 7.74,8.43

KjPn 2: Nearly stellar, blinked with OIII as a bloated green star.

KjPn 1: Stellar, blinks strongly with OIII.  Wish I knew how to use the grating (I was too tired to try to pull it out and test on this object)

KjPn 3: Stellar, green with OIII and blinks slowly, disk like

[According to Steve Gottlieb, the observations of KjPN 2 & 3 above are the first visual observations he knows about!  Which is very cool!  I had not doubt at the time of observation, but feel it is necessary to reobserve to make doubly sure.].

STF 2663: ~5" equal magnitude white [AB seen, there are 5 visible; P.A. 324 SEP 5.4 MAG 8.2,8.66.  There is another double to the south!! very delicate, 3 delta mag, ~3"  Frustratingly I can't find it in Aladin...

Kro 76: Plotted as an open cluster, but is it just a double?  Orange and very faint 4 delta mag B, PA to the south, ~2-3", plus another extremely faint due west about 6"

Abell 69 PN: Greyscale change only, large and very diffuse round, no central star, seen with OIII only


Crescent Nebula = NGC 6888: Nice, with NMB filter and OIII, but not as bright as I remember seeing it from Willow Springs.  Bright orange star in middle.

h 606: Wide separation equal magnitude yellow-white pair.
P.A. 228 SEP 44.2 MAG 7.98,8.12

NGC 6874: Large open cluster, fills half degree field, generally triangular shaped, rather rich with a wide range of brightness.  Nice.



h 1470: Pretty yellow & blue pair, wide separation. Alberio-like
P.A. 340 SEP 28.6 MAG 7.4,9.23

STF 2609:  Very strange!  Two parallel rods at all powers (205x, 333x, 533x, 667x), so it can't be an optical defect?  They look like two staples in paper, next to each other.  I broke away and came back, since I should not be seeing this sort of thing?  They are parallel to each other, run N-S, and each rod has a small brighter disk at each end.  One rod is slightly longer and slightly brighter than the other, and it seems to have a dark line running the major axis of each rod.  I even tried the SA100 grating on this, and found two star images but with the two spectra as with a double star.  I viewed this from 2:30-2:50am -- no other star image looks rod like.  I cannot explain this.

19H 58M 34.37S +38° 06' 20.8" P.A. 21 SEP 1.9 MAG 6.69,7.64 SP B5IV DIST. 440.53 PC (1437.01 L.Y.)