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Dain
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/24/05
Posts: 1596
Loc: N.Y. Adirondack Mnts. NGC 4565...
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Hi All.
Last night I got in a good couple of hours of observing here at the home front since seeing and transparency were on par at 1am. One of the objects of the night was the Eskimo Nebula- NGC 2392 in Gemini. I'm always amazed by this PN for how bright it is, with ease of detecting the central star. Very easy to pick up in my 8-inch dob at just 49x. Previous notes remind me that this little fella sits very close to a bright mag.5 star making it very easy to locate as well. Something I noted is that this PN reminds me of a small bright globular cluster with very bright central nucleus fading almost equally to the edges except for one side of the edges being a tad brighter. At high power (244x), the central star appears to break away from the nebulosity and the neb sort of takes on a granular appearence. Quite a sight. Of course, it was still a bit low at 2am so I think I may wait until a bit later on in the season to catch more notes and get an OIII on it and see what the differences are .
I'm real excited to catch the stellar PN NGC 2371-72.
Any other observations of these fine planetary welcomed.
Clear Skies to All.
--------------------
Best,
Dain
Adirondack Mountains (my true dark sky site)
@ Cedar River Flow
Local Site
Clear Skies?
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tatarjj
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 04/20/04
Posts: 1134
Loc: Austin, TX
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Umm, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you describe NGC 2371-72 as stellar, you couldn't have seen it. It's a decently large, bipolar PN.
Great observation of NGC 2392 though!
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John T.
Austin, TX
25" f/4.2 Dob
18" Obsession #701
4" Stellar Vue Achromat
8X56 Binos
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8279
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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I think a picture is worth a thousand words (and here is the drawing I did of it in my 10 inch):
--------------------
David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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Dain
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/24/05
Posts: 1596
Loc: N.Y. Adirondack Mnts. NGC 4565...
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Quote:
Umm, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you describe NGC 2371-72 as stellar, you couldn't have seen it. It's a decently large, bipolar PN.
Great observation of NGC 2392 though!
Stellar = Outstanding,excellent;grand performer. 
Thanks for taking the time to read my observation anyways.
--------------------
Best,
Dain
Adirondack Mountains (my true dark sky site)
@ Cedar River Flow
Local Site
Clear Skies?
|
Dain
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/24/05
Posts: 1596
Loc: N.Y. Adirondack Mnts. NGC 4565...
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David,
Very nice sketch! 
That's almost identical to my observation but as I mentioned, the nebulosity had somewhat of a granular appearance that I was detecting. Not sure if this was the case with your past observations aside from the sketch or..? Tonight may be another night to get to observe it so I'll have to get another look at it.
As always, again, fine job on your sketches, sir!
Clear Skies to All.
--------------------
Best,
Dain
Adirondack Mountains (my true dark sky site)
@ Cedar River Flow
Local Site
Clear Skies?
|
Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4115
Loc: Ireland
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Dain --
Here's a couple for you:
Quote:
NGC2392 Eskimo 1/11/2008 20:40 UT; Pickering 5, NELM 6, SQM 20.5
406mm SCT @ 500x
Big snowball with obvious central star. N side slightly dimmer, with a slightly brighter ring about 1/3 of the way out from the center. OIII really brings out inner ring, including trademark pinched shape (to NNE). Lots of detail in inner ring, but the clown mouth didn't really stand out much in the outer ring.
Quote:
NGC2371 II-316 12/22/2006 21:00 UT; Pickering 5, NELM 5.5, SQM 20.7
406mm SCT @ 375x, UHC
Readily apparent dumbbell with averted-vision central star at 500x (8.8 UWA). Much smaller than DSS image suggests (both lobes of dumbbell are in central oval of DSS image). Eastern lobe brighter.
Increased brightness in 17T4 (260x), but no central star. UHC gives nice contrast boost, but also loses central star in T4s, and completely overpowers 8.8 UWA.
Cheers,
-- Jeff.
--------------------
Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-100 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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Dain
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/24/05
Posts: 1596
Loc: N.Y. Adirondack Mnts. NGC 4565...
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Jeff,
Excellent sketch my friend. 
I really like how you got part of the parka..thats pretty neat. I guess I can visualize the whole Eskimo better then Clown Face when visually observing, but seeing the great Hubble photos clearly looks like a 'clown face' to me. Definitely an interesting Pn that I always come back to and for some reason I always seem to get a little bit of a different view each time on this one. Interesting!
Any difference with an OIII?
In regards to NGC2371-II, I've never taken any notes on this one so I'm exicited to finally getting it logged into the book.
Clear Skies to All!
--------------------
Best,
Dain
Adirondack Mountains (my true dark sky site)
@ Cedar River Flow
Local Site
Clear Skies?
|
David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8279
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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|
Quote:
David,
Very nice sketch!
That's almost identical to my observation but as I mentioned, the nebulosity had somewhat of a granular appearance that I was detecting. Not sure if this was the case with your past observations aside from the sketch or..? Tonight may be another night to get to observe it so I'll have to get another look at it.
As always, again, fine job on your sketches, sir!
Clear Skies to All.
I didn't see much granularity to it, but the southern side of the parka "hood" seems just a hair brighter. I use my OIII filter to help "tone down" the bright central star and make the inner somewhat triangular shell stand out a bit more. The OIII tends to make the outer shell and inner one sort of blend together somewhat, rather than being more distinct. The best view I have ever gotten of the Eskimo Nebula was at a whopping 720x in my 10 inch. Then, detail inside the inner shell was visible with averted vision, although it took some study to bring it out. Clear skies to you.
--------------------
David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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tatarjj
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 04/20/04
Posts: 1134
Loc: Austin, TX
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Quote:
Quote:
Umm, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you describe NGC 2371-72 as stellar, you couldn't have seen it. It's a decently large, bipolar PN.
Great observation of NGC 2392 though!
Stellar = Outstanding,excellent;grand performer.
Thanks for taking the time to read my observation anyways.
Oh! Hahaha! Well then, for future reference, avoid using "stellar" to describe something that looks good- stellar means star-like when describing DSOs!
--------------------
John T.
Austin, TX
25" f/4.2 Dob
18" Obsession #701
4" Stellar Vue Achromat
8X56 Binos
|
Dain
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/24/05
Posts: 1596
Loc: N.Y. Adirondack Mnts. NGC 4565...
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|
Wow, David...720x in the 10" is pretty impressive! What a sight that must of been. Hopefully if the skies stay cooperative tonight, I can get in another observation and see if it differs from last night. Thanks again for sharing your observations of this object.
Clear Skies to All!
--------------------
Best,
Dain
Adirondack Mountains (my true dark sky site)
@ Cedar River Flow
Local Site
Clear Skies?
|
Dain
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/24/05
Posts: 1596
Loc: N.Y. Adirondack Mnts. NGC 4565...
|
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Umm, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you describe NGC 2371-72 as stellar, you couldn't have seen it. It's a decently large, bipolar PN.
Great observation of NGC 2392 though!
Stellar = Outstanding,excellent;grand performer.
Thanks for taking the time to read my observation anyways.
Oh! Hahaha! Well then, for future reference, avoid using "stellar" to describe something that looks good- stellar means star-like when describing DSOs!
John,
Oh, I know! 
I noticed that I shouldn't have put that in there just after I responded to your last post. My bad.
--------------------
Best,
Dain
Adirondack Mountains (my true dark sky site)
@ Cedar River Flow
Local Site
Clear Skies?
|
Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4115
Loc: Ireland
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|
Quote:
Jeff,
...
Any difference with an OIII?
Dain --
In general I find that magnification works better with the Eskimo than either a UHC or OIII. Here's another observation from a couple of years ago:
Quote:
NGC2392 Eskimo 4/7/2007 11:06 UT; Pickering 8, NELM 6, SQM 21.0
406mm SCT @ 625x
Magnification seems to work better than filtration -- OIII improves the view up to about 300X, but best views were to be had with no filter and above 500X. 860X also turned in a nice view, but inner shell was starting to wash out.
I had pretty good seeing that evening (Pickering 8), but I'd use at least 500X or 600X even when the seeing was poor. At those magnifications the filters tend to reduce the surface brightness too much.
You also mention the inner and outer shells (ie: the Eskimo's "parka"). The first few times I observed the PN I saw only a uniform shell and assumed that the outer shell was too dim for me to get visually. Observations a year or so later (with much more magnification) showed that I was actually seeing both shells, but that at low magnifications they weren't well-differentiated and tended to blur into a single entity. So I'd guess that you are seeing the "parka", and that with a bit more magnification you might see the inner shell (the "face") separate out.
Cheers,
-- Jeff.
--------------------
Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-100 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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skyward_eyes
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/12/06
Posts: 2101
Loc: Arizona
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I like the Eskimo as well. I found my best combo is a 6 Radian with an OIII filter in my 16", this gives me about 300x, I can see the central star easily but also make out the inner shell and outter shells easily. On stable nights I will push up to around 600x and they view gets even better.
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