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Jeremy Perez
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/12/04
Posts: 1660
Loc: Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
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Re: Wading Through Some Summer Planetaries
07/31/08 05:34 PM Attachment (24 downloads)
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NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula
This observation was made from my back yard under transparent (~5.8 NELM) skies, but with a fair amount of reflected residential glare. I wasn't sure how much I would see, but this planetary nebula turned out to be a great visual treat. It bore a noticeable aqua color and was elongated at a position angle of about 30 degrees. The brighter portion of the core was vaguely lumpy, but not concentrated at the center. Its contour was roughly shaped like a parallelogram with slight hints of hooklike shapes at the northeast and southwest ends. The western side also had a subtle rounded extension. A larger, fainter halo appeared to surround it all. I was not able to detect the central star at any magnification. I tried the UltraBlock filter, but contrast was already very good, and it didn't help in my opinion.
My observation shows only hints of structure from the inner portions of the nebula. I overlaid a Hubble photograph to produce a rollover comparison, and tried to scale it to what appears in my sketch. I did not pick up the outer spindled ends of the nebula, but did notice some of the contours closer to the core. The Hubble image has been beautifully optimized to pick up as much detail as possible, but relative brightness does not compare well to the visual experience. Follow this link to the Misti Mountain Observatory - Astronomy Pages to see a photograph that is somewhere between the visual view, and the Hubble view.
The full report, comparison rollover graphic, and larger sketch can be found here: NGC 6543
Some other comparison sketches of NGC 6543 can be found here:
Wes Stone
(note that his north marker is off by 90 degrees--The whisp of IC 4677 is actually on the west side of the nebula.
Kiminori Ikebe
Markus Dähne
Serge Vieillard
Daniel Restemeier
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