CAPRICORN
by Steve Coe                                 13" f/5.6 unless noted


NGC 6903  Faint, small, elongated 2X1 in PA 45, somewhat brighter
in the middle at 135X.  A 10th mag star is on the NE edge.

NGC 6907  Pretty faint, pretty large, round and somewhat brighter
in the middle at 100X.

NGC 6908  Did not see from a dark site on a clear evening, I
rated the night 8/10 for seeing and 8/10 for transparency.

NGC 7099  M30 Bright, large, much brighter in the middle.  I
counted 45 stars at 220X.  This nice globular is easy in the 11X80
finder. It is elongated 2x1 E-W and there are several nice chains
of stars on the south side.  There are many faint stars that
form a background glow.  Sentinel 13" 7/10--easy in 11X80,
100X--bright, pretty large, resolved, elongated 2X1 in PA 90,
bright middle.  330X--22 stars resolved, much brighter middle,
several chains of stars curve out from core, mostly on north side.

Sentinel 8/10 11X80 obviously non-stellar.  100X-28 stars counted,
several nice chains of stars to south side of core, bright, pretty
large, much brighter middle, elongated 1.8X1 in PA 90.  220X--44
stars resolved, nice view, cluster is about 30 percent of the
view, a "beard" of stars is prominent now to the south of core,
the faintest stars are right at the limit of the 13".
330X--resolved 50 stars, averted vision does NOT make it bigger,
but really fills in the stars in the background.

NGC 7103 + 4  Both extremely faint, small and little elongated.
They are tough at 100X.

NGC 7105  Faint, small, elongated 3x1 in PA 135.  It is somewhat
brighter in the middle and there are 7 stars involved in a
grainy glow at 165X.

NGC 7122  The notes from the Herschel catalog say this is a
nebulous star of 10 to 11 magnitude or a very small cluster.
At 100X I can split a double star at this location that is
separated by about 10 arc seconds.

NGC 7131  Extremely faint, pretty small, not brighter in the
middle at 100X.  Rocking the telescope tube helps some, but
it is just a dull glow.

NGC 7158  Is given as a triple star in NGC 2000.  Sure enough,
there is a triple with two members about 9th mag and one 11th
at this location.  They are separated by about 30 arc seconds in
a straight line at 100X.  This multiple star system must have
been included in the NGC because of its appearance at low
power, using 60X this group is nebulous.  It is marked as a
galaxy on Uranometria 2000.

Palomar 12  Did not see on an evening I rated 6/10.  At a later
date and at a much better site it was extremely faint, small and
round at 100X.  Sliding in the Barlow lens to raise the magnification
to 200X made this dim object disappear.  There is a triangle of 11th
magnitude stars to the SW, they form a 30-60-90 triangle and are
easily split at 100X.






Double Stars in Capricorn


Sigma   Easy split at 100X,  light yellow and light blue

Pi     Elongated at 100X,  Split at 200X,  white and blue

Omicron   Easy at 100X,  blue-white and blue

South 763  Easy at 100X,  light yellow and light blue

h 3003  So split at either 200X or 270X, notched but never
        a clean separation on a night I rated 6/10 for seeing.


Red star in CAP

R CAP   100X, 13"  not much, light OR, pretty faint star

RT CAP   Nice light orange in a pretty rich field at 100X.
         color better at 220X.
         Sentinel 22Dec95 RT Cap and Venus, 60% illuminated
         Venus is approx. 10 arcmin from lovely, dark OR *
         100X in 13", nice view of "Christmas Star"