| Observer: | Tom Campbell |
| Location: | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95 30' W Lat: 37 55' N) |
| Equipment: | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces: | 1.25" Plössls (25mm, 15mm, 10mm, 6.5mm, 4mm) |
| Time: | 9:45pm - 10:45pm CDT |
| Transparency: | Clear |
| Seeing: | Stable |
| Weather: | Temperature in the upper 80s. There was little to no breeze. |
Tonight, the weather was a bit cooler than it had been, and the sky was clear except for a few small clouds hugging the horizon. Although there was still a lot of humidity in the air, the cooler temperatures meant that I wouldn't break out into a sweat just by stepping outside.
As the twilight neared an end, the faint glow of the Milky Way beckoned to me. I knew that the nearly full moon would be rising soon, but thought I'd take advantage of the hour or so of darkness I had available to me.
| NGC 6819 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 9:45pm CDT |
| Mel 223 | RA: 19 41.3 | Dec: +40 11 | Mag: 7.3 |
 |
This small cluster is about 1/3 the distance between Delta (d) and Beta (b) Cygni. The cluster is rather compact, and at 49X with direct vision, it appears as an oblong smudge; using averted vision brings out several individual stars. The more magnification you use, the better the cluster appears as more and more stars become visible. At 122X, the cluster resembles the letter W. It contains two not-quite-parallel lines of stars. Between them, at the closer end, are several more clumps of stars. At 188X, about 20-25 stars are visible, mainly grouping in pairs and triples. 305X revealed a few more stars, but didn't really improve the view much. |
||
| Cat's Eye Nebula | Draco | Planetary Nebula | 10:10pm CDT |
| NGC 6543 | RA: 17 58.6 | Dec: +66 38 | Mag: 8.8 |
 |
I had to use 122X to be able to positively identify this planetary when sweeping through the field for it. 188X provides a nice view in my telescope. The oval shape is unmistakable, and is reminiscent of the Ring Nebula in Lyra. The nebulosity appears to be a fairly consistent brightness throughout, with little variation noted. A fairly bright star in the same field acts as a visual companion to the Cat's Eye, making focusing much easier. Dropping the magnification back down to 49X reveals that the nebula is a brilliant aqua color. |
||
| y Psi | Draco | Double Star | 10:15pm CDT |
| 31 | RA: 17 41.9 | Dec: +72 09 | Mag: 4.9, 6.1 |
This double appears as a pair of headlights, with one component being about a magnitude fainter. Both stars appear to be white and have a fairly wide separation, easily split at 49X. One of the interesting features of this double is the presence of a faint blue third star in the same field, which forms an oblong triangle with the pair. To me, they appeared like two eyes and a long pointy nose of a cartoon rat. |
|||
| NGC 6940 | Vulpecula | Open Cluster | 10:30pm CDT |
| Mel 232 | RA: 20 34.6 | Dec: +28 19 | Mag: 6.3 |
 |
This is a large, but mostly faint open cluster. It's fairly loose and easily resolved at 49X. At 81X, even more stars are visible and the cluster takes up nearly the entire field of view. The cluster is somewhat oblong, and it appears that there are a few brighter stars sprinkled in the foreground. |
||
The glow of the moon could now be seen reflected on a few of the horizon clouds, and the Milky Way was quickly getting washed out. Time to pack it in for the night.