Telescope Reviews: An August Tour

An August Tour
Aug 11, 2006

It’s only two days after full moon, but it started out tonight with very clear skies early before the moon came up. I set up several binoculars and my Megrez 80 in anticipation of a good night. Until about 11:30, I was not disappointed.

I started out as soon as I could see the first star, Vega. It was only about 8:00pm. Using my Megrez 80, I zeroed in on the Double-Double. I had some low power eyepieces but quickly changed out to 8.8 Meade UWA for 57x80 and a 1.5° fov. I kept this eyepiece in for the rest of the night.

E1 Lyra, the north component, could only be seen as pointed, but the more equal magnitude e2 component could be seen at moments like a clean split. This is really very low magnification for me to see this 2.3” pair. A nice way to start!

I was headed over to see M11, but along the way I stopped at several Ophiucus doubles. 70 Oph was a pretty pair 4.2-6.0/4.4” The primary slightly north preceeding looks yellow. The secondary south following looks blue or blue/white (it turns out it's not). 67 Oph is 4-9/55”, easy to see with that large separation. The PA is nearly identical to 70 Oph. 61 Oph is one of my regular binocular doubles fairly even at 6.0-6.5/21”. While here I slowly moved south over the broad cluster Cr 350 and then further down to M14.

Near Beta Oph is the broad loose open cluster IC 4665, This sort of lost context in the scope at 57x80. It spanned the entire fov. 4665 looked much better in the Garrett 20x80s. While still in the area with the 20x80s, I move east to find IC 4756. This was outstanding tonight. Even larger than 4665, 4756 needs a wide field view for best effect. The 20x80s were seeing maybe 100 faint stars all mag 9-10-11. Just up to the right NGC 6633 showed off a different appearance of a bright star mix. Alya is just below and left of these two clusters, and I usually view them all when in the area. Alya at 4.5-5.0/22” is similar to 61 Oph. Both of these were seen also in the 10x60 Mariner.

M11 had a few stars resolved in the scope at 57x80. There is the bright pair just SW below the cluster, and the one very bright star on the cluster south end. M11 fans out to the north and I could see maybe 4-5 stars resolved with averted vision, but many unresolved specks of faint background stars. In the 20x80s, M11 was not resolved at all and it did not have the same irregular shape as in the scope. But in the binoculars, M11 takes on a more diffuse glow, seeming brighter than in the scope.

I spotted the double HVI 50 while looking at M11. Half a degree NW, this is easy at 114”. For a more challenging double, I turned the 20x80s to Aquila. Not far from Altair is a faint even double, h 1458. I tried this with several binoculars last week and found it easy with 25x100s, at best difficult with 16x70s and not seen with 15x70s. Although fairly wide, it’s 8.5-8.5/16.3”, so it’s not an easy double. This time with the 20x80s, it was fairly easy. Looking right at it, it would take a few seconds for vision to show both components, but then they would easily stay in view.

I moved the scope up to M13. Almost directly overhead, it was at first difficult to acquire. I had the Megrez 80 mounted on a simple alt/az UA Microstar on a surveyor’s tripod. I like this combination more and more as I use it. I was using a Stardust chair at the scope all night. very comfortable. Even at 57x80, M13 was not resolved at all. But it was large and very bright with even a brighter core. It was much brighter than M11. I referred to Uranometria to get a bearing on the nearby galaxy 6207. After a while of trying, 6207 was not seen at all. (I looked up some old notes on 6207 and found that it was not seen at 44xBT100 in mag 5.4 skies. I have seen it only twice, both times with my 6" refractor at 120x and 136x.) Before leaving the area, I turned the scope to 75 Herc, a very nice double at 4.6-5.6/4.1”, seen easily at 57x.

Back at M11 again, I followed a string of stars down to Aplha Scu and then over to M26. M26 was pretty faint. Cluster NGC 6664 near alpha Scu was just barely seen as a few faint stars. Globular 6712 was spotted, but it looked like just a ghostly spot, smaller than M26.

Now moving south to the area just above my tree-line, I was using the 20x80s and easily spotted M16, M17 and M18. M24, the Star Cloud, was just skirting the tops of the trees and would present itself several times between openings in the top limbs. I did see M25, but missed M23. The Star Cloud took on a much more cloud like appearance in the 10x60s.

Moving higher in the sky, with the 20x80s, I found Cr399, the Coathanger. Then in quick order, I viewed Albireo, Stock 1, M27 and M71. I also viewed all these with the 10x60s. Nearby naked eye stars showed the sky at mag 5.0.

I put the scope on M57. At 57x, I could just make out the darkened center of the Ring, but it was still pretty small.

With the 20x80s, I viewed M29 and thought I could see a small faint portion of the North America nebula.

Below Cygnus was Lacerta. I went back to this area to note any differences from recent observations. 7209 stood out quite well this time in the 20x80s. It was pretty large and there were numerous faint but resolved stars. 7243 did look like it was separated into two parts. Before moving south, I looked up to catch M39 and the nearby cluster ngc 7082. Then south, once again I saw 4 of 5 components of 8 Lacerta. Here I turned to Uranometria for an exact placement on the galaxy 7331. The spot is easy to identify. The galaxy was not to be seen.

I turned the 20x80s to find ngc 7662, the Blue Snowball. The string of stars 16,19,17 And makes a distinct asterism that makes it easy to find 7662. BTW, I previously reported the fov of the Garrett 20x80s was 2.9°. I noted that the stars 16-17 And spanned exactly the field of view and when I later measured that span on two different charts, it came up to 3.15°, the stated fov. 7662 was visible in the 20x80s, but very small and looking like not much more than an out of focus star. I put the 25x100 Oberwerks on 7662 and it took on a much more prominent extended object appearance, noticeably different than any surrounding stars.

Also with the scope at 57x80, I viewed Gamma Delphinus. Here I could see both gamma 9.6”, and just to the south the closer Stf 2725 5.8”, both resolved in the same fov. In the 20x80s, I could see Gamma resolved, but Stf 2725 was only elongated. Stf 2690, 16.7" in the tail of Delphinus was easily seen with the 20x80s. The globular 6934 to the south was noted. Again the extremely faint globular 7006, off the tip of Delphinus, was not seen.

I also had the 25x100s set up and moved over to use those for a while. Cassiopeia was rising over the house and Cepheus was well up high. Before the moon came up, things looked pretty good. I started on NGC 7789 off the NW corner of Cas. It was just a very faint glow, not easy to see. I found M52 by panning around and then moved right up to Cepheus. The two clusters in the little triangle at the SE corner were both seen. 7235 was a small faint patch. 7261, in the middle of the triangle was much more difficult and was only seen averted. Following my charts, just off SW of Eta Cep I located the area for the ngc cluster 6939 and galaxy 6946. I could barely make out 6939 with averted vision. 6946 was not seen.

I moved back down into Cassiopeia and found a few obscure open clusters. The first was easy. NGC 129 is midway between Beta and Gamma Cas. Also in this same area I saw NGC 225. These next two, Stock 24 and ngc 136, were suspected as hazy spots.

I moved the 25x100 down to view the Owl cluster. NGC 457 was more visible tonight. I counted 28 stars in the 25x100. Nearby cluster 436 was also seen. In a sketch I made several years ago of NGC457, I plotted 42 stars at about 80x in a 5” scope.

Dropping down into the area visible just above my rooftop, with the 25x100s I viewed M103, Tr1, NGC654, 663 and 659. 659 was just a ghostly spot, not seen well. I also saw Stock 2 869/884, Sttf 26, Mrk 6, Mel 15 and NGC1027.

It was getting close to midnight and the moon was streaking light thru the trees, putting areas of the yard in bright light. The sky was getting much brighter and some of the faint objects I had seen earlier were either more difficult or no longer visible. Another cool August night gave a lot of nice views, but I was tired and had seen enough. I hope we have a few more nights like this over the weekend. The moon will be coming up later and the deep sky conditions just keep getting better.

Thanks to a number of suggestions in this forum recently that prompted me to view some of these objects. I’ve seen some and not seen some. But, I have hopes of better skies and finding some of those I’ve missed.

edz

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Edited by EdZ (08/13/06 12:29 PM)