Cave Nebula

Has anyone seen the Cave Nebula in Cepheus? I could barely see the nebulosity with my 15" Obsession with 22 Panoptic and my OIII filter. It makes me wonder if Sir Patrick Moore really viewed this elusive object. Even the Flaming Star Nebula in Auriga seemed brighter than the Cave Nebula. It seems the Cave Nebula would be a better target for CCD imagers than visual observers in my opinion. Any other thoughts about this nebula?

Clear Skies,

Debbie

Debbie,

I've seen only a hint of it in my 13" w/enhanced coatings and OIII under very dark skies. Perhaps he observed it from the Chilean Andes? Sometimes I think that Sir Patrick Moore is something of a sadist considering the extremely low surface brightness of some of the objects in his so-called Caldwell catalog. This is one of them.

Happy DSO hunting,
Doug Scobel

Ah, yes, the Caldwell Catalog, which started out as just as a list of objects that Moore mentioned to the folks at S & T and which eventually turned into a money making enterprise and a rather bogus deep-sky list. The Cave Nebula is an extremely difficult object to see visually and I strongly doubt that Moore, who is known as a great observer of the moon but not of the deep-sky, has ever seen it through a telescope.

See http://members.aol.com/anonglxy/lingmoor.htm for a discussion on the matter.

Dave Mitsky