FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Visual observation of McNeil's nebula in 16" dob.

["Michael Wiles" <mwiles@xxxxxxx>]

Joe,

So are you saying that given better conditions, the nebula would be a pretty 
easy object in your 16"?

It's on my observing list for next weekend at Sentinel, but frankly, I wasn't 
expecting to see it in only 15" of aperture.

In related news, I'll start.  Who's in for Sentinel next weekend?

Mike

-----Original Message-----
   >From: "Joe Larkin"<joeclarkin@xxxxxxxxx>
   >Sent: 2/15/04 10:14:34 AM
   >To: "az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"<az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
   >Subject: [AZ-Observing] Visual observation of McNeil's nebula in 16" dob.
     >The conditions last night (Evening of 2/14/04) at Vekol Road were far
   >from optimal. It started out cloudy and graduated to hazy with clear
   >patches in the late evening.
   >
   >Jon Christensen and I were the only ones out there. He was set up for
   >photography with a Tak 210mm (I think) F3 Newt Astrograph with Ross
   >corrector and ST-8 Camera.
   >
   >I had my new-to-me 16" dob and a printout of the finder chart
   >provided by Tom Polakis.
   >
   >As the thicker clouds cleared out, I observed the M78 area. M78 was
   >of course easy, and the brighter parts of NGC 2071 and 2067 were not
   >too difficult. But the conditions weren't good enough to spot the
   >nebula. 
   >
   >Jon wanted to try for the nebula with his setup. I helped him by
   >pointing his scope at M78. He took some very short exposures to find
   >the correct field and the new nebula jumped right out, even under
   >adverse conditions! 
   >
   >The skies were getting better so I did some other mostly casual
   >observing. I spotted IC 2003, a bright but small round planetary in
   >Perseus. Maybe 7", round, and perhaps a bit blue. Spotted it at 90x
   >pretty easily, but was better at 145x. I also tried for, but didn't
   >spot, NGC 1465, a small edge on galaxy in Perseus. The transparency
   >still wasn't great.
   >
   >Conditions improved a bit, and I went back to the M78 region. More
   >nebulousity was visible including NGC 2064. This whole region
   >contains a lot of complicated nebulousity. 
   >
   >I thought that higher power might help, so I put in a 7mm UO Ortho,
   >yielding about 300x. I a nebulous spot in what I thought was the
   >correct location. However, I couldn't spot the 15 magnitude double
   >nearby. I did see one star, but not a pair. I then realized I was
   >spotting the star with the comma shaped nebulousity that can be seen
   >at the very edge of the finder image on the bottom right. Guide
   >version 6 shows this nebula as HH24.
   >
   >From there I moved back to the correct area but didn't conclusively
   >see anything. The power was too high and the field too narrow to be
   >sure I was looking at the right spot.
   >
   >I put in my 14mm Meade UWA. This gave half the maginfication and a
   >much large field because of the 84 degrees apparent field.
   >
   >At this power I could see M78, NGC 2067, and HH24 in the same field.
   >I spotted the correct part of the field by using HH24 and the bright
   >star near NGC 2067 and 2064. I still couldn't see the 15 mag double,
   >but I did see a small nebulous patch in the correct location. Jon was
   >able to confirm this, but found it easier at lower power using a 22mm
   >Panoptic. 
   >
   >I think that transparency was never quite perfect and it would have
   >been a bit easier with better conditions. The nebula was harder to
   >spot than HH24. HH24 wasn't bright but there was clearly nebulousity
   >around a star. The wide pair of stars to the lower left of HH24 on
   >the finder chart were of comparable brightness to HH24, but showed no
   >nebulousity.
   >
   >Jon took a few exposures of the new nebula while I was looking for it
   >visually. He took some exposures with colored filters so hopefully he
   >can make a decent color composite, but the sky wasn't totally
   >cooperative.  
   >
   >
   >
   >Joe Larkin
   >
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