NGC 6804
Moon’s been bright and up all night. But these days, the waning Moon is fixing to rise later and later every night until, on the 22nd, Moon disappears. Unable to contain the average amateur astronomer in me, I headed out last night to do some average amateur astronomy before Moon rose, around midnight. The easiest and least annoying part of Heaven for that time in these parts for viewing in a telescope is from the neighborhood of Cebalrai (How am I supposed to pronounce that?) in Ophiuchus to Tarazed in Aquila.
The big drawback to average amateur astronomy in these parts right now is that at 11PM the temperature is in the mid 90s. Yes. The evening heat plus the humidity is stifling. A mostly white average amateur astronomer like me suffers a lot in this kind of heat. Especially since, these days I am fatter than usual. Mercy!
Nevertheless, there I was, engulfed in stifling heat, humidity and light pollution, a fat, old, mostly white boy practicing average amateur astronomy. The sky was free of clouds, always a good sign given the circumstances. Skipping most of the rest of the bs, consider NGC 6804 located just west or maybe southwest of Upsilon Aquili. NGC 6804 is a 12th magnitude planetary nebula (pn). As such, considering all my scopes, and given the miserable light pollution, only the 10" Great Red Tube might allow me a visual shot at this mysterious yet naked feature of my night sky.
Well, turns out I probably espied NGC 6804 for the first time. However, I shall need to replicate all that tonight to be happy with my tentative results. Yet the probability is high that NGC 6804 shall be added to the fairly famous list of Planetary Nebulae Visible in the Polluted Skies over Austink.
OK. I only espied NGC 6804 by employing 63x plus an OIII filter. Otherwise, under all other conditions, that pn was invisible. The fact is, even with the efficacious gear in place, that pn was almost invisible. The only reason anybody can find that sucker at all under the miserable conditions I operate is there’s an asterisk pointing to a finder friendly star that makes it an easy star hop.
I also tried for the nearby NGC 6803. But that one is star-like, so, unaware of its stellar nature, I didn’t know what I was looking for. Try again tonight.
The big drawback to average amateur astronomy in these parts right now is that at 11PM the temperature is in the mid 90s. Yes. The evening heat plus the humidity is stifling. A mostly white average amateur astronomer like me suffers a lot in this kind of heat. Especially since, these days I am fatter than usual. Mercy!
Nevertheless, there I was, engulfed in stifling heat, humidity and light pollution, a fat, old, mostly white boy practicing average amateur astronomy. The sky was free of clouds, always a good sign given the circumstances. Skipping most of the rest of the bs, consider NGC 6804 located just west or maybe southwest of Upsilon Aquili. NGC 6804 is a 12th magnitude planetary nebula (pn). As such, considering all my scopes, and given the miserable light pollution, only the 10" Great Red Tube might allow me a visual shot at this mysterious yet naked feature of my night sky.
Well, turns out I probably espied NGC 6804 for the first time. However, I shall need to replicate all that tonight to be happy with my tentative results. Yet the probability is high that NGC 6804 shall be added to the fairly famous list of Planetary Nebulae Visible in the Polluted Skies over Austink.
OK. I only espied NGC 6804 by employing 63x plus an OIII filter. Otherwise, under all other conditions, that pn was invisible. The fact is, even with the efficacious gear in place, that pn was almost invisible. The only reason anybody can find that sucker at all under the miserable conditions I operate is there’s an asterisk pointing to a finder friendly star that makes it an easy star hop.
I also tried for the nearby NGC 6803. But that one is star-like, so, unaware of its stellar nature, I didn’t know what I was looking for. Try again tonight.
posted by ray pistrum at Monday, July 13, 2009
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