Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

As a follow-up to the above, I again observed this object on 9-19-15 under good conditions and I note the Observer's Guide actually lists NGC 6842 separately under BOTH constellations, replete with descriptions. I doubt that happens very often...

I was observing in front of my home last night (9-5-15) with my 16" f4.5 dob and a 14mm ES 100AFOV eyepiece and I was able to pull in many planetary nebula with the aid of a lumicon 0111 filter. Despite moderate light pollution and high ambient lighting conditions, I could still see the milky way above me and Cygnus was particularly well placed for observation.
As a challenge object for my observing conditions, I chose NGC 6842, a faint but rather large planetary nebula noted by most references at visual magnitude 13.10. Of interest is the fact that volume 2 of "The Observer's Guide" classifies this planetary as being in Cygnus while my sky commander computer pegs it in Vulpecula. Some sources on the internet classify it in the latter constellation while others note it on the border between the two:
http://dso-browser.com/dso/info/NGC/6842
and:
www.phu/~ozprof/6842c.htmys.ttu.ed
One other source I read on the net noted this object initially had errors of position in its classification which I suspect explains its dual constellation identity theft. Anyhow, when I eyeball it looking up, it appears to be clearly within Cygnus although most sources on the internet classify it in Vulpecula.
Any opinions on the true location of this object?

Before the summer triangle and Cygnus give way to the winter constellations, I observed numerous objects in front of my home on the nights of 10-2/3-15 with my 16" scope in conditions of excellent transparency and good seeing. If you've got the aperture and the seeing for relatively high power, try observing 12th magnitude NGC 7048 which, according to the "Observer's guide", has a slightly elongated appearance. I could discern this immediately in my scope and it makes this planetary appear similar to a faint galaxy in its structural appearance in the eyepiece. In my case, I used a 14mm ES AFOV 100 along with a paracor and a Lumicon 0111 filter. For more detail:
http://dso-browser.com/dso/info/NGC/7048/planetary-nebula?lon_deg=71&lon_min=14&lon_sec=34&lon_hem=W&min_alt=20&hour=0
Try different eyepieces on this one to detect the elongated nature of this object. It's well worth the effort...

A challenging object for DSO observers in moderately lighted polluted skies is NGC 6742, a fairly large but at magnitude 13.4, a fairly dim planetary nebula currently well-placed for observation in Draco. It took several attempts for me to locate it in the field of view of my 16" f4.5 dob in front of my light polluted home but I managed to pull it out of a photon fog with a ES 24mm 82AFOV eyepiece and a Lumicon 0111 filter. I spent most of the night on Saturday evening(10-10-15) enjoying the views of planetary objects with the aforementioned combination of eyepiece/filter usage but changing over to a 10mm Ethos once the object was identified.
The challenge for observers on NGC 6742 is the low surface brightness, pegged by the DSO browser app at 20.82:
http://dso-browser.com/dso/info/NGC/6742/planetary-nebula
At least one imager notes this object is "quite difficult to capture":
http://www.myastrostuff.com/pncollection/ngc6742.htm
Nice to know they have their challenges, too!

I wasn't able to get to the LAAS site this week either so I set up the 16" dob in front of my home on Saturday evening(11-14-15) and I enjoyed good transparency and seeing to the point that I could penetrate down to about 14 magnitude. Currently well-placed for observation is IC 289, a 13.3 magnitude planetary in Cassiopeia. Pick it up wither either a 0111 or NPB filters in low power eyepieces and then try switching to high powers once you locate it. More info:
http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/oct/NGC_289.html
Next, try for NGC 7094 in Pegasus, it's large but faint at magnitude 13.4:
http://www.skyhound.com/observing/archives/sep/NGC_7094.html
Use an 0111 filter or an NBP to see it, especially under less than optimum dark sky conditions.
Next, go for IC351 in Perseus, a bit brighter planetary than the others at mag 12.0:
http://dso-browser.com/dso/info/IC/351/planetary-nebula
These should keep you busy between all of the other winter galaxy delights up there, especially when you want to give your filters some "eyepiece time".

Finally got the scope outside of my house-- Mt Pinos was out of the question at 5 above zero.
Anyway, check out the "peanuts" a double-lobed planetary, NGC 2371-2, located in Gemini:
http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/feb/NGC_2371.html
Skyhound pegs it at mag 13 but the Observer's Guide has it at 11.3 and I think the latter is more accurate. A UHC or 0111 filter will help but I detected it without any filter in my 16" dob, despite high ambient lighting from my neighbor's holiday lights.
Another fun and interesting target in Orion is planetary nebula NGC 2022:
http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/jan/NGC_2022.html
The thing looks like a freaking egg in my scope. I got hungry looking at it!
While you're in Orion, look for the "eyes" in M78/NGC2068:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_78
You're not the only one looking up!
Happy holidays...

Instead of freezing and becoming a statue at the LAAS site in Lockwood valley on Saturday night, 1-28-17, I observed in front of my moderately light polluted home and, to my surprise, I had a pretty decent night.
First up, observations in Lynx were great! Check out the galactic rocket ship known as NGC 2419, a globular cluster which has a true space velocity greater than the escape velocity from our galaxy at its location. It's looks like a comet face-on without a tail and it lies beyond the Magellanic clouds:
http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/feb/NGC_2419.html
After chasing down this one, I chased after a bear as well. The bear-paw galaxy, NGC 2537, is a neat object in Lynx, definitely better under dark sky conditions but still impressive in my 16" scope with broadband filter and a 10mm ethos eyepiece:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2537
Pop up the power and light up your scope with the photons from NGC 2683, a fine edge-on galaxy with a magnitude of 9.8:
https://dso-browser.com/deep-sky/3629/ngc-2683/galaxy
A bit more challenging is NGC 2782, an 11.6 magnitude galaxy with a stellar nucleus:
https://dso-browser.com/deep-sky/3733/ngc-2782/galaxy
Looking for halos? Check the Abell 779 galaxy cluster. The brightest member, NGC 2832, at magnitude 11.9, appears brighter than that at the eyepiece:
https://dso-browser.com/deep-sky/3789/ngc-2832/galaxy
I rounded-out the evening with fairly decent view of Thor's Helmut in Canis Major and now that Ursa Major is climbing back into the sky, my perennial favorites, M81 and M82 were beautiful in the view...
Happy hunting!

"Variegated" is how the Observer's Guide describes this fascinating galaxy in Coma Berenicies. I'll put it another way: this one looks like it's exploding right in front of your face! At 10th magnitude, it's fairly obvious and under dark transparent skies with a decent size scope, you'll see a lot of detail:
https://dso-browser.com/deep-sky/object/5612/ngc-4559/galaxy
Check it out!

Nice pickups for my 16" f4.5 dob running with a lumicon 0111 in front of my moderately light-polluted home included a late summer object for this time of year, NGC 7048 at mag 12.1 in Cygnus:
https://dso-browser.com/deep-sky/object/8238/ngc-7048/planetary-nebula
and IC289 at 13.3 magnitude in Cassiopeia as a nice winter find:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_289
Both popped nicely into view with a 14mm ES 100 AFOV eyepiece. Lumicon sure makes a good 0111 filter that pares the pollution down to the point that some of these objects approximate the views without an 0111 in darker skies. 

Checking Vol 1 of "The Observer's Guide", I was a bit surprised to see two different recommendations for viewing this object. First, the use of a UHC filter for 12" and 14" scopes and second, the use on an 0111 filter with and" and "18" scopes. IC 405 is an both an emission and reflection nebula and evidently lends itself to the effective usage of either filter.
Rising over a nearby hill adjacent to my home, Auriga was a bit low in the horizon on Saturday November 10th but I decided to give it a go in my 16" truss dob with an 0111 filter in place with a 14mm ES 100 AFOV eyepiece. I noted extensive nebulosity immediately without much need for averted vision. The expanse of nebulosity really does seem to "flame" up around the object. I'll certainly check it out again next month with Auriga riding higher in the sky and hopefully from a dark sky location as well.
https://dso-browser.com/deep-sky/object/598/flaming-star-nebula/ic-405/diffuse-nebula