Finding A Few Faint Fuzzies

Observer: Tom Campbell
Location: Iola, Kansas (Long: 95°24'W Lat: 37°55'N)
Equipment: Discovery DHQ 8" dobsonian
Eyepieces: 1.25" Plössls - 25mm (49x), 15mm (81x), 10mm (122x), 6mm (203x)
Filters: 1.25" O-III Narrowband
Time: 10:15pm - 11:30pm CDT (03:15-04:30 UT)
Transparency: Clear (8/10) [Bright Moonlight]
Seeing: Stable (8/10)
Weather: Temperatures in the low 60s. There was no breeze.


Observing Summary:
CYGNUS: NGC6888
DRACO: NGC6503
PEGASUS: NGC7217


Saturday night's sky was beautiful, and I set my telescope out to observe, but random clouds kept appearing overhead, and blocking the view of the constellations I was trying to observe in. So, after a few hours, I abandoned my post and hoped for another chance this weekend.

Luckily, Sunday night's sky was also beautiful. It wasn't quite as transparent, but it was cloud-free, which made up for it. Tonight's targets were a few from various projects I'm working on. They were near the limits of my backyard viewing conditions, but I hoped I could bag a few of them.

NGC 6888 | Cygnus | Nebula | 10:25pm CDT
Crescent Nebula | RA: 20h 12m 01s | Dec: +38° 23' | Mag: --

Using an O-III filter brought out this nebula in my backyard sky. Its shape resembles the letter C, and three bright stars are embedded within it. 88X provided the best view of this ghostly arc, but no real detail could be discerned.


NGC 7217 | Pegasus | Spiral Galaxy | 10:40pm CDT
| RA: 22h 07m 52s | Dec: +31° 22' | Mag: 11.0

From my backyard, this galaxy appeared really faint. Even at 122X, the galaxy appeared fairly small and its shape was difficult to determine, but was somewhat round. Using averted vision, a stellar core would sometimes pop into view.

NGC 6503 | Draco | Spiral Galaxy | 11:15pm CDT
| RA: 17h 49m 28s | Dec: +70° 09' | Mag: 10.9

This galaxy was difficult to find. I missed it the first time because it was lost in the glare of a fairly bright field star nearby. The best view was at 88X, and the galaxy appeared elongated and cigar-shaped, but not quite symmetrical. The center of the galaxy was a bit brighter than the edges, but no stellar core was discernable.

There were some other slightly fainter galaxies on my list, but they refused to show themselves tonight. I'll have to save them for another day.

Paint the Sky With Stars

Tonight's observing plan was to simply observe the Perseid meteor shower. I grabbed my recorder, portable CD player, my reclining lawn chair, and set up shop on my patio. My musical selection tonight was Enya's "Paint the Sky With Stars" CD. I hoped that the Perseids would do just that.

I observed pretty diligently from about 10:15pm to 12:30am CDT. My dad came out and watched with me for a while, allowing me to go inside and get a warmer jacket (who'd have thought, in August!). I added his counts to mine for the 5 minutes I was indoors.

There weren't as many Perseids as I had hoped, but what they lacked in quantity, they more than made up for in quality. Several of them were brighter than Vega. Most appeared white, but I did see two yellow meteors and one red one.

Here's my detailed report, broken up into 15-minute segments:


10:15p-10:30p
2 meteors

The first meteor I saw tonight was bright and red, streaking north to south low in the eastern sky. A good omen, I hoped.
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10:30p-10:45p
5 meteors

The first meteor in this time segment was also bright, but white, passing through Ursa Minoris.
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10:45p-11:00p
2 meteors

Just before 11:00p, a nice bright yellow meteor zipped across the low northern sky, going northeast to northwest.
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11:00p-11:15p
4 meteors
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11:15p-11:30p
3 meteors
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11:30p-11:45p
3 meteors

A few clouds are coming in from the north. They are fairly thin, but show up brightly from my town's skyglow.
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11:45p-12:00a
3 meteors

By midnight, the clouds had moved off, leaving the sky clear once again.
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12:00a-12:15a
1 meteor

The one meteor during this time period was worth the wait. It started out as a medium-bright meteor heading south, but quickly began to brighten into a yellow fireball, finally disappearing behind some trees in the south. It's long trail remained visible for several seconds afterward.
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12:15a-12:30a
3 meteors
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TOTAL: 26 meteors / 2.25 hrs = 11.5 meteors/hr