[sac-forum] Call for Observatioins
- From: "AJ Crayon" <acrayon@xxxxxxx>
- To: "SAC Forum" <sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:43:21 -0700
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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