[sac-forum] Draco & Sagittarius

Despite the weather doing what it is, here's an observing list for the next 
week or 10 days - straight from the SAC Newsletter

Call for Observations
 

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.


AJ Crayon
Phoenix, AZ

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