Telescope Reviews: short view log & ngc7635?

Skies were pretty crummy/hazy here last night but I was suffering from the need to get out my scope so i did, here in my suburban driveway. I started with M31 and ran thru a bunch of open clusters in Cassiopeia. I decided to hit a few targets I hadnt seen in a long while and moved over to the Blue Snowball/ngc7662.

Ngc7662/ Blue Snowball: (in AND) Super bright. Easily visible with some structure at 300 & 400x, with & without the NPB filter. Showed as an annular but not really round with uneven patches of brightness along edge of ring. Center was slightly darker. No central star seen.

I'd forgotten what a nice target this was!...Then, Moved over to M52 - I havent looked there in at least a year...

M52: (in CAS) Pretty nice open cluster. Fair size with uneven spread of small stars. Resolved ~ 100*

I thought I was doing pretty well considering the conditions so I came in to peek at Stellarium and see if there were other targets nearby and saw ngc7635/bubble neb right next to it.

ngc7635/Bubble Neb: (in CAS) hmmm...Nothing there until adding NPB filter. very faint/low surf brightness. Had to stay at EP and pan around to finally see something??? It appears to be a large neb, as i noticed darker areas outside the region while panning in. More obvious at 56X than 92X. Definitely brighter section appears to include small bright star just off even brighter nearby star (sorry I lost my sense of direction up at zenith). Larger portion to 'right' was dimmer and small to left was brighter. Possible patches of brighter neb out away from the included star but not vis in direct, avert only. No bubble seen.

I guess my ? is.... (I didnt go look it up yet. I wanted to get other impressions before I searched more detail)... What does this look like in an 8"? I really got the impression it was larger than I could truly resolve. The shape was irregular, tending 'lengthwise' above the brightest star nearby, sometimes giving a hint it may extend down to it. But no bubble???? Others impressions please.
Steve
edited to include constellation IDs - noticed in another thread this is preferred

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DSO 8" f6 DOB w/ 8x50 RACI & 2"Crayford
1958 Sears Discoverer 76mm Refractor
GSO SV 30mm 2",21mm Hyp,13mm Strat,BO/TMB 6mm&4mm
1.25"Filters: DGM-NPB, 25%ND
1.25" plossls: 25mm,20mm,15mm,9mm
Orion 2X Shorty Barlow
Garrett Gemini LW 11x56mm binocs
cheap $10 green laser pointer(hongkong express)

"What is that burning in the sky? Tell me y'all..." Jeff Beck/Jan Hammer

Edited by stevek (09/24/08 12:01 PM)