[sac-forum] August Call

From: "acrayon" <acrayon@xxxxxxx>
To: "SAC Forum" <sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 11:59:38 -0700
Now is the time for us to submit observations for the month of August.  As in 
the past, here’s the list straight from the prior newsletter.  Please submit 
your observations to me by July 23rd in order for me to complete the column and 
get it to the editor to meet our publication deadline.  Thanks a lot.

For August we will meander around the upper reaches of the summer skies 
starting with two show-pieces.  First is M 27, the Dumbbell, a well know 
planetary nebula.  It easily fulfills its description of very bright and very 
large.  Next is the, relatively, nearby M 57 another magnificent planetary 
nebula.  Yes it to is bright and pretty large for a planetary.  What other 
descriptions can you add for both of these planetaries?  What about the central 
star in the Ring?  Now we’ll move on the Cepheus and spend some time here on a 
variety of objects as we work our way northward.  The first is NGC 6946 a late 
type spiral galaxy, one of the nearest spirals that has a good bit of detail.  
How many stars can you count down to, say, 14th mag?  No wonder it is on the 
110 Best of the NGC and Herschel 400 lists.  While there take a look at the, 
very, nearby galactic cluster NGC 6939, which contains about 80 stars in an 8’ 
area.  Count what you can see in your telescope and give a magnitude range.  
Going a little more northward is another galactic cluster NGC 7142 that is also 
considered rich and compressed with 100 stars.  It is also on the Herschel 400 
list.  Nearby is another galactic cluster NGC 7129 that is faint, larger and 
involved in faint nebulosity.  Inching more northward is the popular NGC 7023 
that includes a 7th mag star in a faint complex of nebulosity.  NGC 188 
requires a big jump to the north.  It is rich, larger and faint containing 20 
stars with brightest at 12th mag.  This is the nearest galactic cluster to the 
north celestial pole.  Speaking of the NCP take a look at NGC 3172, the nearest 
NGC to NCP. It is named Polarissima Borealis, yet if faint and round.


AJ Crayon
Phoenix, AZ..
[sac-forum] August Call

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