Yesterday was what I was anticipating!!!! It was 3 days after a storm had swept through and after doing volunteering work that afternoon, I came home and headed out to my favorite dark sky spot out on Forest Road 006, Top of the World. I had the Ascent loaded and ready so all I had to do was change and head out.
The drive out was wonderful as the afternoon shadows increased. I got out there and was alone, typical for this time of the year. The temperature was already 28 degrees and I knew I was in for a cold evening. I had planned to observe from 6:30 pm to around 10:00 pm and load up and drive home. After setting up and sitting back and enjoying that wonderful transition from day to dusk, then twilight and finally night, I knew it was going to be great. Several high altitude jets had flown over leaving hardly any contrails. The air was smooth and no wind! I ended up this evening observing from 6:30 pm to 12:00 am when I loaded up and drove home.
This night was dedicated to Abell Planetary Nebula so here we go. I did observe several Messier's but won't include those sketches yet as I need to upload them. All observations were done at FR 006 Top of the World on Forest Land south of Vernon, Utah. The telescope is my 17.5" truss dob. My Paracorr II was in the finder on all observations. Finder eyepiece was the 22mm T4 Nagler.
1. Abell 77 PK 97 + 3.1; Planetary Nebula in Cepheus. 8:15 pm; 22mm T4 Nagler, 10mm & 7mm Pentax XW; OIII filter. Hint of this PN in the 22mm Nagler. Easy to see in the 10mm and 7mm Pentax with the OIII filter. Small, faint blob and round in shape.
2. Abell 75 NGC 7076 PN in Cepheus. Faint planetary nebula and elongated moderately. It is large and visible and barely visible without the filter. Two stars imposed on the PN and with the 7mm Pentax the central star I believe is visible.
3. Abell 4 or PK 144-15.1, PN in Perseus. 9:00 pm. This is a hard to view PN without a filter. Took averted vision with the filter. The UHC filter was better than the OIII on this PN. Galaxy PGC 2201233 was visible I believe with averted vision, as it came and went.
4. Abell 2 PK 122-4.1 PN in Cassiopeia. 9:30 pm. In the 22mm Nagler was easy to see unfiltered as a large PN. Not quite round but close. OIII filter gave some hints of details.
5. Abell 81 IC 1454 in Cepheus. Visible unfiltered next to 2 stars in 7mm Pentax. Round with some diffusion on the outer portions. Small hole inside with UHC filter is visible. OIII provides more contrast but no inner hole. Nice and fun PN.
6. Abell 82 PK 114-4.1. PN in Cassopeia. I used the 26mm Nagler on this one and observed using the 26mm Nagler, the 22mm Nagler and the 14mm Pentax. In the wide field view the PN appears to me as nebulosity around the stars. In the 14mm with the OIII filter a large planetary is easily seen with a diffused outer portion.
7. Abell 83 PK 113-6.1; PN in Cassipeia. Found the field in the 22mm and in the 14mm Pentax with OIII filter this PN comes out and is aided by using averted vision. 10mm Pentax XW and OIII filter made it just a little bit easier to observe. Averted vision is a help with this object. It is always there, just teasing it seems.
8. Abell 84 PK 112-10.1 PN in Cassoipeia. 14mm Pentax XW and OIII filter shows a large elongated planetary nebula. It is elongated to me E-W with the eastern edge having a little bit more contrast and is brighter. Middle portion is bright also. It is irregular and I enjoyed sketching this one A LOT ! Fun!!!!
I'll post up the galaxies I observed also in my next post. The Abell Planetary Nebula's are proving to be a nice and a fun challenge. Some have some great views, others are just those faint smudges but there are there. I love observing Planetary Nebula and what they represent; stars in or just larger than the mass of our own Sun that are at the end of their lives. It makes me wonder if they had worlds with civilizations on them and what happen to them as their star expanded and then the outer shell was release from the white dwarf!?
When I left the temperature was 17 degrees F but with not wind, and bundled up in my merino wool layers and my parka and bibs for hunting I was warm and snug! So glad I made it out last night. BTW, I also sketched M41 the Orion Nebula and will share that as well. I really like what I did with that as it was the last object I observed and sketched for the night. I need to work on my stars, in the cold they are not as round as I would like but that is also lack of practice. Hope you find time to get out and look up!
