[sac-forum] Call for Observatioins

I know the weather isn't cooperating with us and I'm not trying to twist the 
knife, really I'm not :)), but I thought it worthwhile to post the observing 
schedule anyhow.  I've included the current one, Draco, because I need the 
observations in about a week or 10 days for the newsletter.  You've already 
seen Sagittarius, but Cygnus is the new one.

The next month's selection will be Draco.  There is quite a bit here to choose 
from, especially since it crosses many lines of Right Ascension.  Here we will 
keep to the region around the head of the dragon and find them all, save one, 
galaxies.  The magnitude range for the galaxies is 9.9 to 12th.  The first 
selection is NGC6140 a nice elongated barred spiral.  Next jump is to NGC6340 a 
nearly face-on early type spiral.  There are other galaxies in the field.  Can 
you count and identify them?  The Draco Dwarf, UGC10822 and a member of the 
Local Group of Galaxies, is next and its magnitude is listed as 9.9. Beware 
this can be misleading because its size is 33.5'X18. 9'and that gives it a low 
surface brightness.  You might try to ferret out some detail with averted 
vision while waiting for a moment of good seeing.  Continuing on our way finds 
NGC6412 a barred spiral with some detail.  Again, try to get as much out of 
this one as you can.  Our last galaxy is NGC6654, at 12th mag.  Not clear, to 
me, if it has some faint stars involved or bright HII regions.  What do you 
think?  Finally comes an asterism named after Fr. Lucian Kemble called Kemble 2 
and located at RA 18h35.0m Dec +72° 23'.  It is 7th mag, 30' and forms a 
''Mini-Cassiopeia'' like asterism.



The September selection is Sagittarius, up for its third appearance.  Most of 
the objects will be from the Messier Catalog, but not all.  We will keep with 
some of the lesser-viewed globular clusters and save the more popular ones for 
another time.  Our search begins with M 69 that has stars from 14th to 16th 
mag.  What is smallest telescope that can see the well-resolved nature of this 
object?  On July 22, 1995, just 15' west of southwest of where Comet Hale-Bopp 
was discovered is the next selection - M 70.  Still within the body of the Tea 
Pot asterism is the very bright M 54.  Now moving more towards the east is M 
55, the brightest globular cluster so far.  Continuing to the northeast part of 
the constellation is the planetary nebula NGC6818, often called the Little Gem 
Nebula.  Can you detect it's slight elongation of 22"X15"?  The last entry is 
nearby, NGC6822 also known as Barnard's Galaxy and a Member of the Local Group 
of Galaxies.  It has a surface brightness of mag 14.5 but is still viewable is 
telescopes smaller than 8".  Look for the bright HII region.

 

For October the observations will come from the Swan Cygnus and will start with 
the cluster NGC6819 that has over 100 stars from 11th mag.  Should be quite 
pretty.  Next is a selection from Sky and Telescopes' Deep Sky Wonders authored 
by Sue French.  It's an asterism called the Fairy Ring that is a gathering of 
pretty faint stars, including some doubles and interesting stellar colors.  It 
is located at R.A. 20h 04.1m Dec +38° 14' is round and about 20'.  Let us know 
what colors you see.  Nearby is NGC6888 a 10th mag nebula that should be large, 
pretty bright and elongated.  The next nearby entry is an open cluster NGC7044. 
 This Herschel 400 entry is large, rich and faint with stars from 15th to 18th 
mag.  Moving 1.5° almost due south of Gamma (g) Cygni is Berkeley 86 and its 30 
stars from mag 9.5.  The last of the Herschel 400 entries is NGC6910 in the 
Gamma (g) Cygni nebulosity.  It is another open cluster with about 50 stars and 
should be easily found.  Last is M 39  This bright, large, loose cluster should 
be easily found.


AJ Crayon
Phoenix, AZ

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