[AZ-Observing] IC 1296

IC 1296 is a real challenge object and those back East have tussled with it 
lately, calling it impossible or glimpsed in very large aperture in good 
seeing only. Dave Kriege sees it with a video camera but not visually in his 
25". Arizona clear dark skies help a lot. Bill Ferris sees it in his 18" at 
7000 ft.  Both Peter and I saw it in our 25 and 20" scopes Sat night at 
Antenna site. Steve Coe saw it immediately in my scope before any of us 
eventually got a handle on it, but I don't know if he was kidding or not. He 
centered it and described it, like it was a piece of cake. It may be that he 
has tracked it down in the past and knew what to look for.

IC 1296 is 4' WNW of M57 (p.a. 303). Argo Navis reports it as 15.1 with a 
surface brightness of 15.2. Luginbuhl & Skiff (p 165) has it at mag 'z' 15.4 
(taken from CGCG). Megastar shows it as 14.8 (p). Uranometria doesn't show it 
inthe first edition, but the 2nd edition shows it as a pimple on the edge of 
M57. It is not in the SAC database. It has a very easily recognizable asterism 
to help confirm it: it is inside a hexagon of stars with a star in the center 
right next to it, so the location can be positively known. It's just a matter 
of waiting (camping), and then you either see it or you don't.

Jack 


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