Grand Tour

NGC 7008 - "Fetus Nebula"

It seems it has been an unusually long viewing lull for Spring and Summer: weather has conspired against us, month after month! Even this first week in August our temperature has been two to three standard deviations below average. Of course, cooler in August in the Anza Borrego Desert is a good thing. When I arrived at Little Blair Valley Saturday, it was a balmy 95º with 5% relative humidity.

August is a great month. We are staring at the galactic center at the end of twilight. There is so much to look at, one hardly knows where to start. Indeed, I had gone through the usual ritual of pre-planning what to look at. I started with M22 – always a favorite – and started exploring less obvious objects. There's a much smaller globular cluster, NGC 6638, a little over a degree to the SW. Between the two is a near stellar planetary nebula, NGC 6644.

This is the point at which all of my careful planning generally goes down the drain. It is so much easier to look at the page in Uranometria 2000 for nearby objects of possible interest. It was just about this time my my pal Paul Alsing pointed out that the Argo Navis has a tour mode that will automatically take you on a tour, given a starting point. I vaguely knew this, but didn't really see the utility. However, I started over at M22 and instructed a tour of globular clusters of magnitude 13, or greater. This took me on a grand tour of interesting globulars, with my notes:

• 6642. Small and concentrated.
• 6638. Larger with a more concentrated center and a halo
• M28. Big by comparison to the previous 2.
• Palomar 8. Wow! Just a faint blob. Odd shape.
• 6717. Small, irregular shape. This is also known as Palomar 9.
• 6553. Even haze with a brighter star on one end.
• 6544. A little better formed. Appears to be next to an open cluster.
• 6624. Nice concentration with a circular halo.
• M54. Brighter, more concentrated. Almost looks like a galaxy.
• 6540. Very interesting. Looks elongated. Faint. I wouldn't have picked this out as a GC. (Djorg 3)
• M70. Looks like like there is a detached portion, which is probably a single bright star.
• M69. Medium size globular.

My notes don't do this justice. A dozen different globulars beyond my regular, it about 30 minutes: some big and bright, some relatively obscure. My breath was taken away!

Cat's Eye and NGC 6552
From the Capella Observatory

In fact, I had to take a little breather to compose myself. With an 18" scope, there are always people interested in seeing the big showpieces, like the Veil Nebula. While in Cygnus, I couldn't pass up NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula. While pointing north, how could we pass up the Cat's Eye Nebula, right by the North Ecliptic Pole; of interest is the faint galaxy in the immediate vicinity, NGC 6552.

I was ready for another tour: this time of planetary nebulae in Cygnus brighter than magnitude 13. This is a much shorter list, but the objects were both more challenging and interesting:

• 7026. "Cheeseburger Nebula." Next to a bright star. Some structure. Two lobes.
• 7048.  Larger, faint PN. OIII brings out a lot of definition. Circular with a hint of ring.
• 7027. Characteristic OIII glow. Fat stellar. Possibly elongated.
• 7008. Complex. Large glow with two lobes, one of them brighter. I later learned that the others had also been looking at this and were calling it the "Fetus Nebula." I see I had checked it off in past years, but I don't remember it being such a fascinating object.

No doubt about it: the Argo Navis tour mode is a new favorite tool. It is amazing how the time flies when on tour.