Last night I was out observing with members of our local astronomy club. Many of the people present had never looked through a telescope before, and therefore much of the time was spent with show objects. Telescopes available were two Portaballs (My old 8-inch sold to one of the club members and my present 12.5-inch).
The demo objects included M57, M15, Perseus double cluster, M13, M27, M71, Veil nebula, M31, M37, M81/82, Albireo and others. The Veil nebula with the O-III filter turned out to be the object that impressed these people the most.
The other people left after about two hours, and then I decided to spend some time with fuzzyball observing on my own. I started with M74 which actually is not a fuzzyball in the 12.5-inch, but reveals a faint spiral pattern and even a hint of condensations in the spiral arms.
Afterwards I observed NGC6946 in Cepheus, where it also was possible to make out the spiral arms. To get most detail in the galaxies I used my 9mm Nagler giving a power of 167x. At low magnification, both M74 and NGC6946 looked rather featureless.
After this I had a look at NGC1023. This galaxy is very bright, but for some reason I often forget to observe it (probably because there are so many other goodies in the region. At 167x I could make out a faint star a small distance west of the core, and something looking like a star or condensation at the eastern end of the halo. I still think I haven't seen a good photo of NGC1023, so if anyone can provide me a link I'll be very grateful.
After observing these galaxies (in addition to some other fuzzies in the region) I observed some interesting planetaries. NGC1514 on the Taurus/Perseus border is a very nice planetary which deserves more attention than it gets. Without a filter it is a bit difficult to detect. It appears as a star with a hint of nebulosity around. This is one of the objects where the O-III filter almost works like magics. With the filter and 167x magnification it lookes like a star surrounded by a delicate glass sphere containing some elusive condensations. A very beautiful sight.
Further north, in Camelopardalis is another planetary with a similar appearance. NGC1501 is, however, a brighter nebula, while the central star is less prominent. I prefer to observe NGC1501 without a filter.
Going back to Perseus I finally succeeded in locating IC2003. This planetary is probably among the more seldomly observed objects. It isn't actually a challenge to detect, and can probably be seen in a small refractor. But it isn't a show object either, since it is very small, and looks like a star at low magnification. I used the blinking technique with the O-III filter to locate it. I have tried this several times before without finding it, so this was my first sighting of IC2003. At 167x it appeared as a small greyish disc.
After observing this planetary I decided to go home. Orion was still to low in the sky, but I look forward to meeting the winter constellations again.
Inge S
The demo objects included M57, M15, Perseus double cluster, M13, M27, M71, Veil nebula, M31, M37, M81/82, Albireo and others. The Veil nebula with the O-III filter turned out to be the object that impressed these people the most.
The other people left after about two hours, and then I decided to spend some time with fuzzyball observing on my own. I started with M74 which actually is not a fuzzyball in the 12.5-inch, but reveals a faint spiral pattern and even a hint of condensations in the spiral arms.
Afterwards I observed NGC6946 in Cepheus, where it also was possible to make out the spiral arms. To get most detail in the galaxies I used my 9mm Nagler giving a power of 167x. At low magnification, both M74 and NGC6946 looked rather featureless.
After this I had a look at NGC1023. This galaxy is very bright, but for some reason I often forget to observe it (probably because there are so many other goodies in the region. At 167x I could make out a faint star a small distance west of the core, and something looking like a star or condensation at the eastern end of the halo. I still think I haven't seen a good photo of NGC1023, so if anyone can provide me a link I'll be very grateful.
After observing these galaxies (in addition to some other fuzzies in the region) I observed some interesting planetaries. NGC1514 on the Taurus/Perseus border is a very nice planetary which deserves more attention than it gets. Without a filter it is a bit difficult to detect. It appears as a star with a hint of nebulosity around. This is one of the objects where the O-III filter almost works like magics. With the filter and 167x magnification it lookes like a star surrounded by a delicate glass sphere containing some elusive condensations. A very beautiful sight.
Further north, in Camelopardalis is another planetary with a similar appearance. NGC1501 is, however, a brighter nebula, while the central star is less prominent. I prefer to observe NGC1501 without a filter.
Going back to Perseus I finally succeeded in locating IC2003. This planetary is probably among the more seldomly observed objects. It isn't actually a challenge to detect, and can probably be seen in a small refractor. But it isn't a show object either, since it is very small, and looks like a star at low magnification. I used the blinking technique with the O-III filter to locate it. I have tried this several times before without finding it, so this was my first sighting of IC2003. At 167x it appeared as a small greyish disc.
After observing this planetary I decided to go home. Orion was still to low in the sky, but I look forward to meeting the winter constellations again.
Inge S
