M27 outer halo and more from home

Observed again with the 20-inch and PVS-14.  Went back to the Dumbbell for a closer look, and some other objects:

M27 Dumbbell Nebula: While searching the internet for images of M27 to write the last report, I noticed some deep images showed a cloudy outer shell around the Dumbbell.  I didn't notice it that session because I didn't know it was there, and it's subtle enough to escape all but the most attentive observing.  I purposely tried to see it this time, with success.  With the 3nm Ha filter, it appeared while changing gain from high to low, but once seen I could hold it, adjusting the gain for the best and most contrasty view.  It appeared as a very faint lion's main-like cloud, a faint mottled nebulous contrast change with the rest of the sky.  There was a fainter sky gap in between the cloud and the apple-core shaped Dumbbell nebula proper--giving some sense of separation, but it did feel connected to the main nebula.  The outer halo moved with the scope, so I knew it wasn't a hot-spot in the PVS-14.  It did not make a quite uniform circle around the whole nebula, it was extremely faint on the whole southern side, and brighter on the northern.  This image, while in color and a much closer image scale -- and more detailed -- gives a general idea of what I saw. 

M57 Ring Nebula: Central star seen unfiltered high gain, but only hazily seen (through nebula) otherwise.  Different filters give more complexity to the ring itself, such as the sharper, brighter southern edge, the fainter but very subtly mottled norther section, and the faint diffuse extensions (breakouts?).  I remember the ring has an outer shell too, but didn't see it.

NGC 6743: A ringlet of stars near a bright one, hardly separated from the rest of the field.   

M 56: Small oval cloud of lumpy, not quite resolved faint stars, with several brighter stars superimposed and a loose spray, especially to the west, which could be field stars.  

NGC 6765 Small, non-stellar, elongated like a galaxy with a spray of faint nebula on the southeast side.  Seen with Ha and dual band.  The "spray" on the southeast side is the brighter section of halo which, in deep images, goes around the inner elongated halo of the planetary nebula. 

NGC 6813 Appears like the core of an elliptical galaxy, bright slightly elongated small non-stellar brightness, with a nebulous wedge shape coming from it to a nearby star to the NW.  There appears to be a dark cut-off or nibble in the southeast rim of the bright "core."  Planetary nebula, seen in dual band and Ha filters. 

Sh 2-92 Very faint, vague cloudy haze, no defined edge, oval shape if anything.  Relatively brighter to the south with much fainter extensions to the north, nearly the whole FOV, so a bit less than 1-degree in size.  There are some faint stars clustered in front of it so one night think it's a very faint open cluster..  shows with all the Ha filters.  Vogel: "Sh 2-92 is ionised by the Wolf-Rayet star WR 127, a binary star with an O9V companion, at a distance of 3700 parsecs according to one source. Avedisova adds a second ionising star, the O7 Ib supergiant HD 332755 and gives a larger distance estimate of 4740 +/- 100 parsecs. 

NGC 6842: Small, faint, slightly stretched out of round NE-SW, seen with all the Ha filters -- though no central star when filtered. It seems very ring like, with a defined, if soft edge, and thicker / brighter doughnut on the outer perimiter, and slightly fainter surface brightness to the middle.  

IC 4954 & 4955 Seen best with dual band, it is a fairly small wedge-shaped cloud, with some very faint surrounding nebulosity (which might be background) taking nearly the whole FOV.  For some reason it reminded me of a car burning oil and the bluish cloud that would come from the tailpipe.  A detail I did not have the magnification to see is the dark lane in 4954.  These are reflection nebula surrounding open cluster Roslund 4, which is around 30 stars split in two groups illuminating the gas and dust around them. 6500 light years away and approximately 4 million years old. 

NGC 6894 Beautiful fat ring planetary nebula, well seen in all Ha filters.  Dark center but with no central star, defined but soft edges, mostly even surface brightness but feels subtly mottled or highlighted with some brighter sections around the ring. 

Since outer halos have become a theme of this post, I will noted I found that NGC 6894 also has one, as captured in deep images.  As one internet source says, "Presumably this gas comes from the halo of the planetary nebula, which hit the interstellar medium. Notably, these streaks of glowing gas are parallel to the galactic plane. It is believed that they aligned along the galactic magnetic field."  So now I can make it a goal to see this one too.

deep sky from home

It was clear but seeing was only average at the start of the night, improving as it wore on.  I opened the 20-inch and continued observing deep sky objects with my PVS-14.  Really satisfying session.  Started around 9:30pm and closed at midnight.  38x and 1-degree TFOV.

NGC 6735: Ring of 7 brighter stars with a bright one as "diamond," some fainter concentrated in the area. 

NGC 6760:  Globular, appears as a fairly large and bright dusty faint ball, irregularly round with loops and wings coming off the core as if blown by winds. 

NGC 6749 Faint irregularly round cloud, with bright star in middle but faint dusty looking otherwise.  It is supposedly the most difficult NGC globular to observe visually but is a piece of cake with NV.  From a CN article: "NGC 6749 is an aging halo cluster on an as-yet undetermined orbit which presently is plunging the cluster through the Milky Way. According to the Harris catalog, N6749 is presently 5 kiloparsecs (16,300) light years from the Galactic core and 7.9 kpc (25,750) ly from us. At only 2.1 degrees below the Galactic plane at +32.6° Galactic longitude, it lies in the interarm region between the Scutum/Centaurus Arm and the Sagittarius Arm (of which our Orion Spur is a part). Between Earth and N6749 is a thick 2,000 light-year star forming region where our Galaxy’s bar structure turns sharply left to begin the Sagittarius Arm. After that, light from N6749 passes through an additional 10,000 ly of spiral arm star formation, dust, infalling cloud gas, shock fronts emitting in the IR, plus supernova and magnetic turbulence on its way to our eyepieces. Much of N6749’s original light has been absorbed by dust on the way. N6749 is being tidally disrupted by the passage, but we don’t know how gravitationally weakened the cluster has become because astronomers haven’t yet determined its path and original composition. The fate of N6749 is not unique—NGC 2298 Puppis has lost 85% of its stars to tidal stripping and likewise may not survive much longer."

Sh 2-71 = PN G035.9-01.1 Appears immediately when flipping to 7nm Ha, irregular oval N-S, with a dark elongated center and brighter knots along the western and easters sides which look like flower petals.  The northern end appears to be blown out with hazy nebulosity, and the southern end sprouts a hooked foot-like appendage, likely split by dark nebula. 

NGC 6755 Large, loose concentration of stars barely separated from the dense background.

NGC 6781 Appears right away flipping to 7nm Ha, round with definite but soft edge, fat tire shape with a darker interior, and a weaker, broken blowout on the west side of the ring with nebulosity spilling out from it.  Very nice! 

Abell 53: Small, slightly out of round thick ring nebula with a dark center.  The ring has a defined edge and is slightly thicker/brighter on the south side. 

NGC 6804 Small, irregularly round.  The central star is not sharp, rather it is a brightening in the fog.  Surface brightness is fainter from the central star's glow to the bright ring, with the northern part of the ring appearing to slightly fracture from the rest of the structure.

Sh 2-80: = WR 124 = Merrill's star.  Bright star with round, heavily mottled nebula around it, bifurcated into two butterfly wings.  A nearby fainter star has a small sheet of nebulosity hanging from it.

NGC 6802 Elongated oval of faint stars within a trapezium asterism of brighter stars.  Four loops of stars coming out from the main grouping at each quadrant make it look like a cloverleaf asterism.  There's a brighter central star in the middle of the group. 

NGC 6793:  A density of a few stars in a dense field.

NGC 6820 & 6823: The open cluster is not much to speak of, a oval concentration of stars with a couple bright in the middle.  But the surrounding nebulosity is spectacular!  Rosette-like, shot through with dark lanes and vast sweeps, and a very prominent long dark elephant trunk pointing into it!  At the base of the trunk are two more smaller ones emerging from the dark dust.  Amazing.

M27 = Dumbbell.  Lifetime view.  Apple core is obvious but the knots and bright streaks, twists, and flows within it make it three-dimensional, like the broken shell of an egg.  Two blowout zones with nebula escaping, one side has more nebula escaped than the other, it extends further from the core.  Either side of apple core is sharply defined and appear to be bow shocks.

NGC 6885: Large congregation of faint stars around a single bright star.  It's a very dense field, certainly because of NV, and not well separated from the field as a result.  I speculate that without NV the OCs are more separated and thus "discovered" as open clusters, whereas with NV much of them are not as separated and might not have been noticed as open clusters.  

NGC 6905: Appears flipping to 7nm Ha.  Small, round and mottled but getting pulled and stretched in opposite directions NNW-SSE.  Central star appears offset to the east, and the halo is slightly brighter on that side. 

NGC 6950:  Very week loose concentration of a few stars.  How is this an open cluster? 

NGC 7006: Small, bright, concentrated core with wisps of faint stars radiating out.

NGC 7025 is a small elliptical galaxy with a bright round core and faint 3:1 arms orientated NE-SW.  It is set at foot of the toadstool asterism (French 1), which is pointed SW in the below image. 

NGC 6934: Some brighter stars in the intense core make a semi circle.  Spikes of stars radiate out from the core.

NGC 6852: Small, thick ring with a dark middle, best seen with Ha+OIII dual band filter.

flat galaxies and more from home

Had a really excellent night going after flat galaxies and other things from home, using my 20-inch and night vision.  I finished up most of the flats which precede the summer Milky Way, so I spent some time poking around Cygnus.  Light pollution and lights from my own house didn't matter, it was no difficulty to have a satisfactory deep sky session from my backyard.  Magnification 38x and TFOV 1-degree.

UGC 10227 (Corona Borealis) = MCG 6-35-37. 16h 08m 58.6s +36°36'38" 15.3p 2.3 x 0.2'

Very small scale, but I can easily see the elongated wing like arms of the galaxy.  Near a bright star and centered with two brighter stars forming a triangle, I can even tell the correct PA nearly N-S.  Not enough magnification to see the twist in the arms.

UGC 10297 (Hercules) = MCG 3-41-144 16h 15m 28.8s +18°54'18" 15.0p 2.0 x 0.2'

Near a bright star, easy bright round core and elongated wings, N-S.  

UGC 11320 (Hercules) = MCG 4-44-10 18h 40m 48.0s +23°41'02" 14.9p 1.9 x 0.2' 

Small but still easy to pick out even in the dense field, bright round core and extended arms -- which are the giveaway to tell it's a galaxy vs the stars which are only round.  PA E-W.

NGC 5777 (Draco) 14h 51m 19.2s +58°58'41" 14.1p 3.1 x 0.4' 

Very faint, barely a whisper, brighter elongated core, medium size compared to the previous.  PA NW-SE.  Did not see UGC 9570 next to it. 

NGC 5981 (Draco) 15h 37m 53.3s +59°23'29" 13.9b 3.1 x 0.6'

Brighter than NGC 5777, but similar in appearance and PA.  Round core is pinched at either end and the pinches extend into very faint long arms.  NGC 5882 is a bright elliptical in the same FOV to the SE.

UGC 10561 (Draco) = MCG 10-24-55 16h 46m 36.5s +62°49'22" 15.1p 2.4 x 0.2' 

Very small at low magnification, compact stellar core with faint spikes for arms, PA NW-SE with a bright star just off the SE tip.

UGC 11455 (Draco) = MCG 12-18-3 19h 29m 57.6s +72°06'47" 15.0p 2.6 x 0.3'

Difficult, very small, stellar core, arms glimpsed with averted vision and by adjusting the gain high to low to contrast it with the background.  Did not see MCG+12-18-2.

UGC 11435 (Draco) = MCG 9-32-1 19h 23m 51.6s +55°59'15" 14.9p 2.0 x 0.3'

Very extremely small, very dense filed, very slight faint arms, PA E-W.

This was my last observation of the night, but to group it with the others:

UGC 11964 (Pegasus) = MCG 3-56-19 22h 15m 28.8s +19°13'12" 14.5 1.9 x 0.1

Incredibly difficult because of how thin it is, very extremely faint, seen only with averted vision and adjusting the gain, unfiltered, it appears as a tiny sliver of barest of contrast change.  I think I only saw the relatively brighter elongated core region.  NGC 7241, on the other hand, was large and bright in comparison, fairly uniform in brightness but heavily mottled especially its southern half.

IC 5146, Sh 2-125 Cocoon Nebula: Irregularly round mottled cloud with a bright star in the middle, dark lanes shot through radially, and one side is nearly cut-off entirely, forming a foot-like appendage.

M 39: A wealth of loose bright stars, against a background of dense fainter stars.

NGC 7082: Unimpressive group of four brighter stars forming a rectangle, with evenly spread fainter stars throughout.

NGC 7062: Wedge-shaped, medium sized cluster, framed with brighter stars but a dense concentration of faint stars forming the point of the wedge.

NGC 7048: Best seen with the Ha+OIII dual band filter.  Beautifully crisp edge, nearly perfectly round with subtle mottling on both sides, almost ying-yang symbol like, and a very small but well seen blowout at the northern end.  Sits atop two stars like lollipop, 

NGC 7039: Four brighter stars forming a mis-shaped square, and a dense clumpy stream of fainter stars flowing through it, very pretty. 

Sh 2-112: I love this nebula for all its dark lanes and sweeps of nebulosity.  Generally round cloud sitting on a nebulous background sky, it looks very windblown, forming streaks and billows and giving depth to the scene, and trifurcated on the lower end by crinkly dark nebula.

Sh 2-115: Faint, subtle, wide expanse of very mottled nebulosity. 

M 29: Butterfly cluster-like, inward facing parentheses of three stars in each arc, with a few brighter and fainter stars scattered within and without. 

Sh 2-104: Rosette-looking medium sized mottled cloud, with a central dark region, streaked and wisped arms like a face-on spiral galaxy, with stars intermixed, and hairy edges.  There's a prominent hook of nebulosity on the western side, which sprouts out of the central region, goes beyond the edge, and hooks south.

Sh 2-101: Appears something like an awkwardly shaped bent mushroom cloud, with a thick faint stem and a very bright, mottled flattened cloud dome.  It is the Tulip nebula, and the top of the dome has to elephant trunk like dark nebula shooting halfway into the dome.

Ced 174: Faint, subtle large streaked wing of nebulosity, N-S, with a dark center area like a knitting needle.

NGC 6940: Moderately large oval loose concentration of moderately bright and faint stars in a very dense field.