I arrived at IHOP, our usual TAC-Sac site, at about 7pm right behind
Shneor with his 22” reflector. Jake Burkart arrived about 30 minutes
later with his 11” Celestron GPS, then Randy Muller with his 18”
Starmaster about 15 minutes later. A couple named John and Melissa with
their 8” Orion reflector arrive shortly after Randy. Lastly, Marsha
Robinson with her 14.5” Starmaster arrived at about 8pm.
Jake and I took some random pictures of the storm clouds to the east. I
continued with shots of my telescope at sunset and the setting sun.
The conditions were good to start with the summer thunderheads lying low
to the east and north-east. There was smoke from a fire to the south
and nothing elsewhere. As the sun went down, transparency appeared
promising as we saw Polaris and the Big Dipper while it was still bright
twilight. The seeing was good at about 7/10. As the night progressed
the transparency deteriorated to the south and southwest. It was
unfortunate as I was looking for my stuff in that region.
I’ve decided to continue with my Abell Planetary survey.
Location: IHOP
Date: 08-14-04
Observer: Alvin Huey
22” f/4.1 equipped with a Paracorr
Eyepieces used are 35mm Panoptic, 17mm Type 6 Nagler, 13mm Type 1 Nagler
and 9mm Type 1 Nagler.
UHC and O-III filters used.
Transparency started as 7/10 ended at 5/10 at South and SW region, but
remained high at 8/10 at zenith to north and east. Seeing varied from
8/10 at the beginning to 5/10 as the night wore on.
I took off at 1am.
Abell 44 RA:18h 30.2m Dec: -16º 45’ Size: 63x39” Mag: 17.2p
Transparency: 7/10 Altitude: about 30º
22” f/4.1 (203x) – Featureless faint slightly oval disk with a 12.4
magnitude star on the west edge. It is barely visible with averted
vision without any filters. The O-III filter shows it a little better
than the UHC, but both filters shows this planetary with direct vision.
A pair of 12.4 magnitude stars lie about 1.5’ south and a 11th magnitude
star lies 2.5’ south forming a very flat trapezoid. Estimated size is
about 1 x 0.75’ with position angle of about 100º.
Abell 51 RA: 19h 01.0m Dec: -18º 12’ Size: 64x58” Mag 15.4p
Transparency: 7/10 Altitude: about 30º
22” f/4.1 (203x) – Extremely faint round patch with even surface
brightness. No central star seen and no stars across the surface of the
nebula. This object requires averted vision and either the O-III or UHC
filters to brig it out. Even though, I could not hold it 100% of the
time, maybe about 75% of the time. A collinear set of 15th and 16th
magnitude stars lie due west with the first star being 45” distant.
Estimated size is about 0.75’ across.
Abell 60 RA: 19h 19.3m Dec: -12º 15’ Size: 88x77” Mag 15.7p
Transparency: 7/10 Altitude: about 30º
22” f/4.1 (203x) – Extremely faint round patch of about 1’ across. This
disk does not show any detail and no stars are on the surface. Both UHC
and O-III filters shows this as a 30% averted vision object. Additional
magnification does not help with this one.
Abell 65 RA: 19h 46.6m Dec: -23º 08’ Size: 134x34” Mag 15.2p
Transparency: 7/10 Altitude: about 30º
22” f/4.1 (203x) – Faint, even surface brightness oval smudge. No
central star seen. The UHC and O-III filters really brings this nebula
out. Estimated size is about 120 x 45” with a position angle of 135º.
This nebula lies east of a nice smattering group of five 10th to 12th
magnitude stars.
Abell 66 RA: 19h 57.5m Dec: -21º 37’ Size: 295x241” Mag 14.9v
Transparency: 6/10 Altitude: about 30º
22” f/4.1 (75x and 155x) – This planetary is a very large and very faint
round patch with many stars superimposed on the surface. I did not
count them, but more than five, including a 13 and 14th magnitude stars
lying on opposite ends in a N-S line. None of the stars are in the
center of the nebula, so no central star for this one. The surface is
an even surface brightness with no features.
Abell 41 RA: 17h 29.1m Dec: -15º 13’ Size 16x7” Mag: 17.2p
Transparency: 6/10 Altitude: about 30º
22” f/4.1 (203x and 293x) – This very small and faint planetary shows a
elongated disk with an estimated size of 15” x 7”. Its position angle
is about 170º. I didn’t see a central star. I could see this nebula
without any filters, but the UHC and O-III helped a little, not much!
The surface brightness is rather high compared to the typical Abell
planetary.
Abell 42 RA: 17h 31.5m Dec: -08º 19’ Size: 60x57” Mag: 17.8p
Transparency: 5/10 Altitude: about 30º
22” f/4.1 (203x) – I didn’t see it. Probably due that the transparency
deteriorated quite a bit in that part of the sky. The LM was about 5.0
towards that section.
Abell 45 RA: 18h 30.3m Dec: -11º 37’ Size: 302x281” Mag: 12.8
Transparency: 5/10 Altitude: about 30º
22” f/4.1 (75x and 155x) – I didn’t see it. Probably due that the
transparency deteriorated quite a bit in that part of the sky. The LM
was about 5.0 towards that section.
Abell 79 RA: 22h 26.3m Dec: +54º 50’ Size: 59x49” Mag: 15.8p
Transparency: 8/10 Altitude: about 70º
22” f/4.1 (203x and 293x) – This planetary showed an uneven round smudge
that is much brighter in the west end. An annular structure was only
suspected with the O-III filter. On the bright west segment, lies a
12.4 magnitude star. Estimated size of the entire nebula is about 50”
across. The western bright part is about 20x10” across with PA = 20º
Abell 80 RA: 22h 34.8m Dec: +52º26’ Size: 161x114” Mag: 15.2p
Transparency: 8/10 Altitude: about 70º
22” f/4.1 (203x and 293x) – Only the west end of the annular nebula is
visible with averted vision. It is a very faint elongated patch of
about 45x15” with a position angle of 45º. A 13th magnitude star is
superimposed about a third of the way from the south. I could hold it
only about half of the time with an O-III filter.
Received on Sun Aug 15 22:36:06 2004