By now you know the drill - regardless of weather. Time to put
together an observing list for the next couple of sessions and I have a
list that is a good starter. Here it is - For August we are
normally battling summer
monsoon weather, but perhaps it will surprise us this time. OK, what’s the constellation? Draco
of course and here are the objects,
mostly galaxies of course. NGC5965
is first and can be found a little over 2.5° southeast from iota
Draconis. While there see if you can pick out 13th
mag NGC5963. Starting again from
iota, swing about 2° northeast to NGC5982/85 a pair of 11.1 mag
galaxies. Again, while there, can you
see 13th mag NGC5981.
The next hop is 37’ southeast from 5th mag SAO16848
to NGC6015. Now we start a northward
trek for the next
three beginning with NGC6543, perhaps the showpiece of Draco. This magnificent planetary can easily be
found by sweeping about 3° southeast from omega Draconis.
Going back to omega swing 1° 42’ northeast
to 10th mag NGC6503.
The last of our northern trek takes us to NGC6643, which
may be
easily found by sweeping 1° 48’ almost due north from chi Draconis. The last object for us to view is NGC6832. The SAC database has this listed as an
asterism. This observation will give us
an idea what is meant by asterism. It
is just a little more than 1° 12 arc-minutes northwest of 5th
mag
SAO32112. Enjoy and clear skies, aj |