STARLOG

COSMIC DONUTS

AUGUST 15, 2018

I've been doing a lot of outreach this summer. With Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars all big and bright in the evening sky, it has been an excellent opportunity to introduce the public to the wonders of my hobby.

In between outreach events, I've also been working on my afocal astrophotography skills on these same planets. When I look at my early attempts at this several years ago, I've advanced a long ways. I have a lot more to learn before I can ever really call myself an astrophotographer, but at least my planetary photos are starting to resemble what I can see through the eyepiece during moments of good seeing.

As fun as all this was, however, I've been missing those quiet nights under the stars, casually running through an observing list and seeing what new delights I might find. In fact, my last visit to the back yard with my telescope was over two months ago! It was a work night, but I was way past due for another observing session.

On one of the astronomy forums I frequent, a few people were talking about the oddness of NGC 6645. I thought I'd start there. But its location is in the heart of the Milky Way. To find it, I'd have to do a bit of starhopping. Messier 25 was right along the path, so I decided to make a quick stop.

M25	Sagittarius	Open Cluster	9:20pm CDT
	This cluster is somewhat sparse, with several bright members. It is very wide, filling the view in my 18mm eyepiece. In the center is a little P-shaped asterism, with part of the straight line missing. The more I stare at it, the more stars I see. There is also a bit of fuzziness like dozens more stars are just beyond being resolved. Several of the brighter stars are yellow, but most of the members appear white or blue-white.
NGC 6645	Sagittarius	Open Cluster	9:30pm CDT
	At 136X, this cluster is faint but fairly large. It almost fills the field with this eyepiece. The cluster consists of many pairs and short strings of stars. In the middle of the cluster is a circlet of stars with almost nothing between. This makes the cluster resemble a great cosmic donut.
NGC 6638	Sagittarius	Globular Cluster	9:40pm CDT
	This cluster is faint and small, but easy to find because of nearby Lambda Sagittarii. From my backyard, it is completely unresolved, even with averted vision, and resembles a planetary nebula. There seem to be a few spokes coming off of it, but nothing definite.
NGC 6369 (Little Ghost)	Ophiuchus	Planetary Nebula	10:05pm CDT
	This nebula really lives up to its name. It is extremely faint and difficult to even see with direct vision. Using averted vision, it is barely visible. It is rather large but no details nor even the overall shape could be discerned.

I looked up and noticed Mars was big and bright in the south, beckoning me to take his picture. It was starting to get late and I was at a good stopping point on my list so I obliged.

Saturn didn't want to be left out, so I grabbed a quick shot of her also.

I considered photographing Jupiter, but he was already sinking dangerously close to the housetops and his great red eye was facing away so I packed up and went inside before he noticed me.