Observer: Mark G. Birkmann
Your skills: Intermediate (some years)
Date/time of observation: 6-24-2001, 15:50 to 16:30 UT (12:50 to 1:30 CDT)
Location of site: New Haven, Missouri (Lat ~38, Elev ~700 feet)
Site classification: Rural
Sky darkness: 4 <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Seeing: 3 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Moon presence: None - moon not in sky
Instrument: 40" f/5 dob
Magnification: 858x
Filter(s): none
Category: planetary nebula
Class:? + 6
Constellation: Ophiuchus
Data: mag 13.2 (IR) size 30" x 60", central star mag. 15.6
Position: RA 17h 05m 37.9s DEC -10 08' 33"
Description:
On this night a small bright central region was seen from which extended
two long, thin, and faint areas of nebulosity oriented north and south.
To the west of the center of the pn another faint area of nebulosity was
seen. No color was noted at any power. Surprisingly, even though
the seeing was poor, the best view was at 858x using a meade 6.7 uwa and
a paracorr. The orion ultrablock did little, if anything, to improve
the view. When I later compared my observation to a photograph
I determined that the small area of nebulosity west of the central region
is probably a faint star made to appear nebulous by the poor seeing.
Likewise, the central star may have been blurred to form the nebulous central
region. The faintest star visible in the 6' field of view was a little
north of the pn and was vmag 15.05. This was probably due more to
the very poor seeing than to the poor transparency.