more obscure nebula

Reviewing the Finkbeiner layer in Aladin, I noticed two relatively small clouds located off the plane of the Milky Way. One is in Hercules near planetary nebula NGC 6120, and the other is near Alpha Aquarius. I've yet to figure out if there is a designation for these but decided to try for them the next opportunity I had.

I observed Friday night 9/8 on top of a ridge in the California Central Coastal Range. Transparency was off and a weather system churned over the Pacific; indeed, there were lightning flashes beyond the coastal hills, and some cloud bands streamed slowly from the southeast to the northwest. SQML was 21.09, and I tried to make the most of the night before the clouds came in.

I used both a NP-101 and a 60mm f/6 refractor for the observations. It turns out both of these were best seen with just the 60mm & Ha filter (3nm in this case). I printed star field finder charts and images from Aladin, adjusting the pixel scale to exaggerate the nebula brightness.

The Hercules nebula was very faint, but immediately seen when flipping from unfiltered to Ha filter in my filter wheel. It lay west of a distinctive "U" shaped asterism of 5 stars. The brightest section overlay an elongated triangle of near equal stars, and fainter grey-scale changes to the background sky extended down to a large trapezium asterism. It is around 1.8-degrees E-W and 1.4-degrees N-S.

The Alpha Aquarius nebula was considerably fainter, larger, and more tenuous. I called it very extremely faint, and I couldn't see it without flipping between filtered and unfiltered several times and panning the scope around to make sure it moved with the sky and not the scope. It is very diffuse, no visible edge, and feels mottled. It is around 4-degrees NW-SE by 2.5-degrees NE-SW. I only saw the main body of the nebula; the Finkbeiner image shows a parenthesis of nebula around this, but I did not see these.

I continued through the night observing various LBN objects in Aquila, with the NP-101, many of which rivaled these two nebula for faintness. Having mostly finished observing the Sharpless Catalog, I plan to make the LBN my next project.

Strottner-Drechsler-Sainty 1: 60mm, Ha+OIII dual band, OIII cloud near M31: This was surprisingly easy with the wide field!  Very faint, but obvious, elongated cloud around 2-degrees SE of the galaxy, running parallel to it and bordered on one side by a lazy "L" asterism, the brightest star of which is Upsilon Andromedae.  Discovery image attached, it is the blue-green elongated cloud. 

LBN 92: LBN 030.54+00.41 = Sh2-66: With the 4-inch and Ha, It was faint, irregularly round, diffuse edge, with several bright stars intermingled with one near the center.

LBN-94: LBN 030.66-00.65 = Sh2-67: In the same FOV, it is slightly larger and more oval shape, more diffuse, also with a centrally located star.

LBN 99: LBN 032.38+01.93 -- HII Region = Sh2-69: Faint, small in this field, with a small concentrated mass with a wing or comma shape coming off the northern end and swinging east.  

LBN 100: LBN 032.44-15.40 -- HII Region: 40'x12': Large, 3:1 oval shape, with many stars intermingled, moderately brighter in the middle.  This seems to be one part of a larger structure, which I did not see as I did not pan around.  

LBN 101: LBN 033.83-14.72 -- HII Region. 180'x90': Large, very faint mottled greyscale change filling the field, seems centered on a large loose cluster of faint stars.

LBN 103 = SH 2-71 -- Planetary Nebula: Small, round, hazy ball with soft edges, brightens with averted vision.  Not enough image scale to see the detail shown in photographs.  

LBN 104 LBN 036.57-01.81 -- HII Region = Sh2-72: In the same field, appears as a curved glow, diffuse and large.  The image here from stellarscenes.net shows LBN 103 as the bright red glow near center, and LBN 104 as the red diffuse glow just left of center.  

LBN 108: LBN 039.55-16.65 -- HII Region. 150'x50': Very large, fills the 4-degree field, very faint and vague but with noticeable, if diffuse, edges.  

LBN 110: LBN 040.46+02.46 -- HII Region: Sh2-76: Extremely weak oval glow, between two equal magnitude faint stars

LBN 111: LBN 041.37-18.83 -- Molecular Cloud.  Pretty large, extremely faint, irregular shape, in a box of stars.  

LBN 113: LBN 041.84-18.59 -- HII Region 70'x20': Faint but easily seen, large, area full of mottled nebula.  Can't find a good picture!

LBN 114: LBN 042.59-23.34 -- HII Region. 85'x30'.  Very faint, large, elongated through a field of bright stars.  Another I can't find a good image of.

LBN 115: LBN 042.75-21.54 -- HII Region:  35'x10', Fairly large, very faint, no clean edge.  No good image.

LBN 116: LBN 042.97-17.43 -- HII Region: 140'x80'.  2:1 elongated large cloud, faint, faintly mottled, soft edges.

LBN 119: LBN 043.64-21.66 -- HII Region: 140'x10'.  Long, thin faint stream of nebulosity, fills most of the field.

LBN 120: LBN 043.96-23.21 -- HII Region:  30'x35' Large, nearly round, with diffuse edges, in a large triangle of stars.  

LBN 122: LBN 044.95-20.39 -- HII Region: 42'x12': Large, diffuse, faint elongated nebula appears to be mingled with a large loose open cluster of faint stars.  

LBN 123: LBN 045.51-20.67 -- HII Region: In the same field, just above LBN 123, it is smaller, rounder, and a bit brighter.  

LBN 124: LBN 045.60-22.06 -- HII Region:  Fairly large, faint.  

LBN 125: LBN 046.20-21.45 -- HII Region:  Elongated faint nebula, fairly distinct edges.