The summer-like warmth is over in West Sweden, a cold front has passed. Before going to bed, I noticed there were holes between the slowly running clouds, grabbed my 80mm refractor, eyepieces and the chair and went to the back yard. The sky was really transparent, for the first time after two weeks of constant haze.
Last Monday I tried to find the Footprint nebula, first with the help of Pocket Star Atlas, then Uranometria 2000.0, then Millennium Star Atlas - all in vain. All I could see was a double star. Today I studied some photos, including DSS plates, and knew exactly where to look. At 190x with Nagler zoom I could see a 'third' star where the nebula should be, but only at times. Barlowed 4mm Burgess planetary (280x) provided a stable view plus, at times, I could see the 'Draco head' asterism that confirmed the find. I was surprised how the extra high power showed much dimmer stars - I could see up to 30 stars in M29 and steadily hold the 13m star next to M57.
Dmitri
Last Monday I tried to find the Footprint nebula, first with the help of Pocket Star Atlas, then Uranometria 2000.0, then Millennium Star Atlas - all in vain. All I could see was a double star. Today I studied some photos, including DSS plates, and knew exactly where to look. At 190x with Nagler zoom I could see a 'third' star where the nebula should be, but only at times. Barlowed 4mm Burgess planetary (280x) provided a stable view plus, at times, I could see the 'Draco head' asterism that confirmed the find. I was surprised how the extra high power showed much dimmer stars - I could see up to 30 stars in M29 and steadily hold the 13m star next to M57.
Dmitri
