Background Image - The Horsehead Nebula (IC434 + B33) and Flame Nebula (NGC2024) Complex.  Courtesy of Derrick Farley

The Webb Deep-Sky Charter Committee Publications Membership & Subscription Rates Members Websites Astro Links Dates for your Diary Updated 22nd July 2010
Handbooks & Observing Guides Latest CDs

Price Lists

UK    US   AUS

DSO 151 Editorial

The Webb Archive DVD

 1968 - 2008

   Quarterly Journal

  1-100 Index

QJ & DSO

Index 1968 - 2010

Book Review

Index 1968 - 2010  

Double Star Section

Double Star of the Month

Double Star of the Month (Archive) Double Star Section Circulars -DSSCs Deep-Sky Sketches Contact Us Join The Webb Deep-Sky Society Yahoo Discussion Group >>>>>>>> Click to join The Webb Deep-Sky Society Yahoo Group

THE WEBB DEEP SKY SOCIETY BULLETIN BOARD

Date for Your Diary - The 2010 AGM will be held at Cambridge IoA on Saturday 4th December >>>>UK Price List Updated 22/07/2010                                                                                                      
*****  A SUSPECTED NEW PLANETARY NEBULA DISCOVERED  *****
Location of Suspected New Planetary Nebula
Click on chart for a larger version

A suspected new planetary nebula has been discovered by Matthias Kronenberger on the DSS prints. The best position seems to be 2 12 27.86 +47 27 10.1 (J2000) with a size of 1.0 x 1.5’. The nebula appears as two lobes of nebulosity aligned roughly N-S on the blue image, which are fainter on the red image and invisible on the infrared image. The blue central star is obvious when comparing the blue and red images. The nebula is marginally recorded as a 25-micron-only IRAS faint-source 'reject', IRAS Z02091+4712.  This object was previously catalogued as a galaxy and is listed as the galaxy ZOAG G136.85-13.22 in SIMBAD and the galaxy HFLLZOA E135 in NED. The discovery note is reproduced below along with the first visual observation.

In the course of an ongoing survey of the DSS for unknown PNe and clusters I came across a new and comparably bright planetary nebula candidate that does not seem to be catalogued in any of the 'classic' resources (Strasbourg/ESO, Kohoutek, VIZIER, SIMBAD, MASH/IPHAS etc.). The coordinates of the candidate, (J2000) 02 12 27.9 +47 27 10, place it in NE Andromeda, about 15' W of the double star Struve 228; its size is approximately 1.0' x 0.5'. An interesting and unusual feature of the PN candidate is its pronounced bipolarity; this bipolarity may also be the reason why the candidate was overlooked by previous surveys despite its relatively high brightness. In fact, the candidate does not look much different from an interacting pair of galaxies on the blue and red DSS plates and has been catalogued as such previously. However, unlike galaxies, the object disappears completely on the DSS-IR plate (generally a sign for a line emitter), and exhibits a very blue stellar source in its geometric center.

Last Thursday, Uwe Glahn, Ronald Stoyan and myself made an attempt to observe the object visually. The observation took place at the Bielerhoehe in the Silvretta mountain ridge in western Austria (altitude: 2.000 m). Skies were brilliant, with SQM readings up to 21.70. After an unsuccessful attempt with my 15", we tried the PN candidate with Uwe's superb new 27-inch Dobson (see http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/ATM/27_Newton/Bau.htm for details - in German !). With OIII filter, a faint, 2:1 elongated glow was visible just N of the tip of a short, SW-NE running chain of stars mag 13 and fainter. The best view of the PN candidate was at 419x where both lobes of the PN candidate could be seen; while the N lobe appeared as a faint but distinct roundish glow about 30" NW of a 15 mag star, the S lobe was less distinct and did not exhibit more than a very faint, ill-defined haze.

A sketch of the object based on this observation can be found here: http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/Zeichnungen/Kn.htm The preliminary ID of the object is Kn J0212.4+4727.

 

DOUBLE STAR DRAWINGS IN LEO - Courtesy of Jeremy Perez

 

Jeremy Perez from Flagstaff, Arizona (USA) has been kind enough to provide some excellent drawings of a selection of double stars in the constellation of Leo. His website 'The Belt of Venus' contains details regarding the tools and techniques used to create these drawings together with a wealth of other information related to his strong interest in astronomy.

Clicking on the image on the left will enable you to select the areas circled in red to view his individual double star drawings.  Jeremy's website can be found here.

 

Infrared Image of UKS 1

 

Image Courtesy of Steve Crouch, Canberra, Australia

UKS1 Infrared Image - Courtesy of Steve Crouch

Click on image for a larger version

Catalogue and alternative designations UKS1 (UK Schmidt 1)

Type Globular cluster

Position 17 54 27.7, -24 08 44

Constellation Sagittarius

Camera and Telescope STL6303E and 31.75 cm Ritchey Chretien

Focal Ratio F9

Exposure Details LRGB = 70:60:70:70 All binned 1x1 with Astrodon NIR filters. Red is assigned to a band peaking at about 850nm, Green peaking at about 830nm and Blue at 750nm.  The luminance is "visible blocked" with zero response shorter than 700nm. 

Description UKS1 was discovered on infrared plates taken by the 48" UK Schmidt telescope.  It has the incredible visual magnitude of 17.3 but still has been glimpsed in very large Dobsonians.  It has long been called the faintest globular in the milky way but recently discovered globulars in the 2MASS survey are even fainter.  The following description is from the 2MASS image caption. This cluster, in the Galactic bulge and near the Galactic center (l=5.1°, b=0.8°), is quite reddened and in a very crowded stellar field. Ortolani, Bica, & Barbuy (1997, A&AS, 126, 319) present optical photometry of the cluster and find that the extinction is nearly 11 visual magnitudes, that the distance to the cluster is 7.4 kpc (24,124 light years), and that the cluster may be metal-rich. Near-infrared photometry was previously obtained for the stars in the cluster, along with those for 19 other bulge clusters, by Minniti, Olszewski, & Rieke (1995, AJ, 110, 1686).

JULY 2010 - DOUBLE STAR OF THE MONTH

Located close to the head of the Dragon, mu Dra (17 05 20.12 +54 28 12) is a long period binary system, first found by William Herschel in 1781. With a period of 672 years, the apparent separation of the two stars ranges from 2".0, which last occurred about 40 years ago, and 5".7. At the present time it is almost 2".4 apart at position angle 5°. With components of magnitudes 5.66 and 5.69 the star is easily visible to the naked-eye and is an excellent target for small telescopes so it is included in James Mullaney's One Hundred Showpiece Double and Multiple Star list, where he gives the colours as yellowish-white. Sissy Haas also notes the stars as goldish-white, but Smyth sees them only as white. There is evidence for a spectroscopic companion to B which may be bright and wide enough to be resolvable in the optical, and there is a mag 13.7 star at 12" may also be part of the group. The system lies at a distance of 90 light years.

Nu Scorpii (16 11 59.27 -19 06 53) is the southern equivalent of the Double-Double in Lyra, although the brighter pair is more difficult to divide than its northern equivalent, and as a consequence at least 150-mm is needed to see the four components clearly. The wide pair catalogued by Herschel as H V 6 consists of white stars of magnitude 4.2 and 6.0 separated by 41". In 1846 Mitchel, using an 11-inch refractor in Cincinnati, resolved the companion into two stars about 1".3 apart. Burnham then discovered that the primary was also double with his 6-inch Clark in 1873 when the separation was around 0".6. Since that time both pairs have slowly widened and the current values are 1°, 1".3 for A and 55°, 2".3 for B. This is a physical system of high multiplicity since A is double again at the sub-0".1 level and there is also a spectroscopic component of 5.5 day period. The writer has measured both bright pairs from the UK with 20-cm but it needs a night with very steady air to do this.

Bob Argyle

 

Warning - Bank Charges

If you intend to purchase a DVD and/or publication from The Webb Deep-Sky Society via bank transfer and you are outside the UK then please check what the bank will charge for this transaction.  We know of a least one bank abroad that charged 90% of the cost of the item to use their services. 

JULY 2010 - PICTURE OF THE MONTH

NGC 7023. 'The Iris nebula'

Image Courtesy of Rob Hodgkinson Middlehill Observatory

 NGC 7023 'The Iris nebula' - Image Courtesy of Rob Hodgkinson

Click on image for a larger version

Catalogue and alternative designations: NGC 7023 - The Iris nebula

Type: Reflection nebula

Position: 12 59.6, -70 53

Constellation: Cepheus

Camera and Telescope: SXVF H16, Atik 16HR, TMB 152 William Optics ZS80FD

Exposure Details: Luminance. 20 x 8 minutes. Atik 16HR (inner nebula) 15 x 1 minute. Atik 16HR (core only) 25 x 8 minutes. SXVF-H16.(outer nebula and star field) Red. 12 x 6 minutes Green. 12 x 6 minutes 40 seconds Blue. 12 x 8 minutes. RGB captured with a William Optics ZS80FD & Atik 16 HR. 16HR data registered to the SXV data using Registar. 16 HR luminance data captured on 18/09/2009 SXV luminance & 16HR RGB captured on 25/09/2009

Total imaging time: 10 hrs 23 minutes.

Observation Notes: This was an early experiment with the dual scope rig, and there's probably another 5 or 6 hours of data that didn't get used that was gathered with the SXV on the William optics scope.

Further images from Rob's Middlehill Observatory can be found here

 

Globular Clusters NGC 7006 & NGC 6712 - Courtesy of Dale Holt

 

NGC7006 Sketch Courtesy of Dale Holt

NGC6712 Sketch Courtesy of Dale Holt

Click on images for a larger version and observation sketches.

Dale's Observation Notes

NGC7006

"On Saturday night/Sunday morning (2010.7.18-01.30UT) I had one of those sessions! You know the kind where nothing comes together or goes to plan and you spend more time fiddling that you do, doing! It was these kind of sessions which initially prevented me from progressing with Deep Sky Video cameras for ages. I kept getting frustrated and feeling if it doesn't work instantly I might as well go straight back to the eyepiece. Anyhow I was out under clear skies at the weekend, I had camera trouble, with the latest Watec that is. I suspect that this is relating back to when the multi pin controller cable got wrenched out a month or so back. I ended up running just one camera the old 120N through the 20". 

I wanted to pick up and sketch a Planetary nebula that Lee McDonald had brought to my attention after I sketched a nearby GC in Scutum (NGC6712) a few weeks back, IC1295 [See below]. I didn't get the 20" and camera to show it to me, I don't know why? It should have been well within my grasp! It also wouldn't show me other planetaries that my old 14" working with the same camera had shown off nicely in the past. I gave up after an hour or 2 and will try again on another occasion. I ended up viewing a few globulars and sketching one that I hadn't recorded before, although I had observed in visually many times in the past. NGC7006 is a lovely little star ball, small and very distant and difficult to resolve. Placed off of the nose of Delphinus the Dolphin I see it as a ball that the great sea mammal has punted into the sky with its long nose. At least I got something for my records in return for losing 3 hrs beauty sleep :) Pax stellarum to all, Dale"

NGC6712

"I got a little Deep Sky observing in, around and after the midnight hour on Saturday night (2010-6-04-23.30UT). My target list was short to match the shortness of the dark window I would get, just M7 & NGC6240 the 'Rumpled Starfish' galaxy in Ophiuchus. I didn't see either!  M7 was too low for me, literally down in the weeds and the sky was too hazy & bright with scattered light for NGC6240 especially as I was working with the 6" refractor and Watec camera. I ended up spending a few hours when I could have been sleeping messing around with scope alignment, camera wiring and 'going to' objects that were simply too low for my location. I did pick up one object, a globular, no surprise there for this time of year! in Scutum NGC6712, I had previously observed this cluster but had not made a sketch. I put that to rights on this occasion and have attached it for your interest."

Location Chippingdale Observatory, NE Hertfordshire, UK

DSO 151
DSO 151

 

 

In this Issue

Faint Galaxies Behind M44

Ronald J Morales

NGC 7000: History, Data & Observational Results

Wolfgang Steinicke

NGC Galaxies in the Hunting Dogs

Martin Griffiths

Working with the NGC/IC Project

Malcolm J Thomson FRAS

Observing Polar Ring Galaxies and their Lookalikes

Al Lamperti

A Book Review

Deep-Sky Video Astronomy

by Steve Massey/Steve Quirk

Reviewer - Nik Szymanek

 

Jeff Young's recent comparative study of NGC 40 showing how

 magnification and image scale can reveal its subtle detail.

 
NGC40 Sketch Courtesy of Jeff Young
Click on sketches for observational details

OBJECT OF THE SEASON

The Webb Deep-Sky Society Nebulae & Clusters Section Director Wolfgang Steinicke has requested observations for the following deep-sky objects:-

Object of the Season (Spring 2010): Globular Cluster NGC 5053 in Coma Berenices

Details will shortly be published in DSO151 and the results are scheduled to be in DSO 153

Object of the Season (Summer 2010): Carbon star V Aql in Aquila

Details will shortly be published in DSO152 and the results are scheduled to be in DSO 154

Observations should be sent to: steinicke-zehnle@t-online.de
Wolfgang Steinicke, Gottenheimerstr. 18, D-79224 Umkirch, Germany.

 

A Globular Cluster NGC 5053 in

Coma Berenices Click here for details

Carbon Star V Aql in Aquila

Click here for details

The low surface brightness globular cluster NGC 5053 in Coma Berenices (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) Carbon Star V Aql in Aquila - Image from Guide 8
Click on individual images for larger versions

If you have any comments or problems with this page or any other Webb Deep-Sky webpage then please contact the Website Administrator

The Webb Society is registered under The Charities Act 1960 - Registered Charity No. 288384  © 1996 Webb Society except where stated.