My observing buddy Bob Kirschenmann and I enjoyed an unusually splendid sky last night (for the Midwest in November.) While looking at the raspberry planetary in Lepus (IC 418) I noticed on the Keppler and Sanner deep sky cards the indicated location for Abel 7. I figured if it was on the cards it was probably within the reach of large aperture dobs--so--I put in the OIII filter and began what looked like an easy star hop to it from a bright star in the northwest corner of Lepus. I found the little nearby galaxy without too much difficulty. I noted that it was said to be quite large on the card, 700 X 700 arc seconds. I found some "faint nebulosity" in the area but hunted to the point of frustration for the planetary. Today I signed on and found Tom Polakis' excellent blacksky site with the entire gallery of astrophotos of the Abell planetaries. With averted vision looking at my monitor I think I saw Abell 7 in the photo gallery. I found another web site with a photo of it that had a line drawn to what looked like, well, nothing, on the photo.
Have others had a go at this planetary with any more success than we had? I really shouldn't include Bob in the failure to find this, he was down on the short ladder at the 12.5 finder without any OIII filter--he clearly didn't have a chance.
We did hunt down the "integral sign galaxy" and the other adjacent face on galaxy. They form a sort of miniature version of M81 and M82. Couldn't say I was able to see the warped ends of the integral sign galaxy. Bob wanted to nickname it the "copay" galaxy because of the twist he put his knee into on the ladder in order to see it--he figured medical attention might be necessary if he held this position for very long.
M42 was splendid and colorful, Bob found the horsehead in the big scope and in the 12.5 finder with aid of H beta filter.
Have others had a go at this planetary with any more success than we had? I really shouldn't include Bob in the failure to find this, he was down on the short ladder at the 12.5 finder without any OIII filter--he clearly didn't have a chance.
We did hunt down the "integral sign galaxy" and the other adjacent face on galaxy. They form a sort of miniature version of M81 and M82. Couldn't say I was able to see the warped ends of the integral sign galaxy. Bob wanted to nickname it the "copay" galaxy because of the twist he put his knee into on the ladder in order to see it--he figured medical attention might be necessary if he held this position for very long.
M42 was splendid and colorful, Bob found the horsehead in the big scope and in the 12.5 finder with aid of H beta filter.
