Friday October 8th. Myself, Kevin and Norman.
This was a reasonable session with intermittent misty clouds, the NELM down to 6 and a bit. A welcome outing!
Supernova
SN2004et at mag. 13 was readily located in NGC 6946. This magnitude 9.00 face-on galaxy showed plenty of mottled spiral arm detail. NGC 6939 a nearby open cluster is a good contrast.
Western wonders
NGC 6781 a planetary nebula at 11.40 in Aquila is a showpiece for big telescopes, a bright large smoke ring. M92, 27, 71, 76, 57 followed plus the obscure globular cluster Palomar 13, a ghost at 13.8.
Cygnus clusters ‘n clouds
The area between Deneb and M39 received a detailed inspection, another eye-opener! There are dense Milky Way patches, open clusters and glowing nebulae all offset by dark, dark nebulae. An excellent example being the rich open cluster IC 1369, B 361, a deep dark nebula and a dense star field in the area of the non-existent IC 1363. A bright planetary NGC 7026 is also nearby.
Galaxy groups
Some interesting galaxy triplets were next on the menu. NGCs 7769, 7770 and 7771 are just north of phi Pegasi at ~12.5 ish. NGC 7436 is in a field of half a dozen objects. A repeat visit is needed to pick off the remainder. NGCs 181, 183 and 184 are quite difficult with epsilon Andromedae blindingly occupying the FOV.
Binocular bonanza
A few goes with the Thurstan’s 11x80s were a delight! They provided excellent views of the Milky Way objects from the alpha Perseus Moving Cluster past the Double Cluster with Stock 2 and ICs 1805 and 1848 filling the field with stars and nebulae. Then on through Cassiopeia and Cygnus.
A rewarding experience.
by Paul