2024-09-27

• Condition: E6
• Location: Home, Spearfish: 44.49, -103.87

I started off attempting Tr 35. It seems to be a bit more tricky than expected. After verifying that I was looking in the right place, prolonged viewing only got me a 'hint' of a small patch of noise that could be mistaken for a very dim galaxy. I could only resolve maybe one or two stars, but I wasn't confident enough that I saw it. I may need darker skies for this one.

08:52PM

• Target: NGC 6802, Collinder 400[1]
• Const: Vulpecula
• RaDec: 19h30m +20°15
• Type: Open Cluster[2]
• Scope: AT102ED
• Setting: 55x
• Class: III 2 m
• Image: ../images/2024-09-27_NGC6802.jpg[3]

Located right off the west tip of the coathanger asterism (Col 399). Some brighter stars are easily seen. Dimmer stars began populating the area between the brighter stars as my eyes began to dark adapt.

[1] NGC 6802, Collinder 400 (ID)

[2] Open Cluster (ID)

[3] ../images/2024-09-27_NGC6802.jpg

09:12PM

• Target: M 27, Dumbbell Nebula[1]
• Const: Vulpecula
• RaDec: 19h59m +22°43
• Type: Planetary Nebula
• Scope: AT102ED
• Setting: 110x, Orion Ultrablock Filter
• Image: ../images/2024-09-27_M27.jpg[2]

Stunning. For some reason I always seem to overlook M 27 on my list of favorites, but I'm going to have to stop doing that! I was able to get so much detail from prolonged observing with AV. There seemed to be a slight bias of brightness near the north and south ends of the circular shape, I tried to capture that as best as I could in the sketch.

[1] M 27, Dumbbell Nebula (ID)

[2] ../images/2024-09-27_M27.jpg