SERPENS
by Steve Coe
13" f/5.6 unless noted
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NGC 5904 (M 5) Bright, large, round and much, much brighter in the middle at 220X. There are a few dark areas and many beautiful chains of stars. I counted 57 stars in the Northwest quadrant. This lovely globular has always been a favorite.
13" near Jacob's lake on North Rim of Grand Canyon.
10/10 trans, 7/10 seeing, Super Milky Way showing off. M 5 is fabulous
at 330X, blazing core, curved chains of stars out from core. In moments
of good seeing, there is a stellar nucleus, even with the 6.7mm.
An Owl is hooting in nearby pine tree, lots of fun.
18" f/4.5 at TSP NW quadant shows 58 stars, lots of layering of different mags of stars, nice view.
Cherry Rd. S=6 T=8 13" 11x80 obviously a globular,
even in finder, round with much brighter middle.
100X--very bright, very large, extremely compressed middle, much much
brighter middle and extremely rich. A great cluster, even at low power.
Double star 5 Ser in field, split white-light blue.
150X--almost resolved to the core, 3 levels of brightness with outer curved
chains of stars and a blazing core. The curved arms make it look like
a jeweled scarab.
220X--Wow, best view. 77 stars counted in NE quadrant means that well
over 250 stars are seen across the entire face of this globular. The is
a delicate triple star of 13th mag, the stars form an isocoles triangle
right at the center of the core. Averted vision really fills in the faint
members.
330X--a little too much power for this object, it now completely fills
the field of view and the cluster aspect is lost.
6" f/6 S+T=6 Eagle Eye Rd. 14mm--bright, large, irregularly round, much, much brighter middle, 22 stars resolved with nice star chains out from the core. 8.8mm--nice view, 28 stars resolved and a blazing core, averted vision really makes it grow.
NGC 5921 Pretty bright, little elongated, bright middle, bar structure with averted vision at 165X.
NGC 5936 Pretty faint, pretty small, round, brighter in the middle at 100X. There is a lovely yellow-blue-blue triple star in the field of view.
NGC 5951 Faint, large, little brighter in the middle, very much elongated (4 X 1) in PA 0 at 100X. At low power it is in the field of NGC 5953 and 5954.
NGC 5953 and 5954
This is a contact galaxy pair and the two galaxies could just barely
be split into separate objects at 220X.
I was able to pick out this system at 135X.
This observation is for the entire system of both galaxies. Pretty faint,
pretty small, elongated 2 X 1 in PA 45 and brighter in the middle at 220X.
The two galaxies meet at an obtuse angle. They can only be split into
two objects at 220X in moments of good seeing.
NGC 5956 Faint, small, round, bright middle, flanked by two 13th mag stars on either side to the east and west at 135X.
NGC 5957 Pretty faint, pretty
large, round and little brighter in the middle at 100X.
Dugas S=5 T=7 13" 220X--pretty bright, pretty small, little elongated
1.2X1 in PA 0. The bright section of this galaxy is offset towards the
north and there is a 13th mag star to the south of this "core".
This galaxy really grows with averted vision. It really does look like
a 12th mag comet.
NGC 5962 Pretty faint, pretty large, elongated, brighter in the middle, stellar nucleus at 165X. Averted vision makes it grow in size.
NGC 5970 Pretty bright, pretty large, elongated 2x1 and bright middle at 135X.
NGC 5980 Faint, pretty small, elongated 2X1 in PA0, very little brighter in the middle, averted vision helps at 150X. IC 1133 is a companion, it was extremely faint, pretty small and round, the low surface brightness galaxy was better with Aviz.
NGC 5984 Faint, pretty small, elongated, somewhat brighter in the middle at 100X.
NGC 5994 Pretty faint, pretty small, elongated 1.5 X 1 in PA 20 and brighter in the middle at 135X. It is between two double stars.
NGC 5996 Very faint, small, round, not brighter in the middle at 135X. This dim galaxy could only be held with averted vision. About 5 arc minutes to the southwest of NGC 5994.
NGC 6004 Faint, pretty large, very little elongated 1.2X1 in PA 90, little brighter in the middle at 150X. There are two very faint galaxies nearby, one to the north, the other SW, both tough.
NGC 6010 Pretty faint, small, much elongated (3 X 1) in PA 90 and brighter in the middle at 135X.
NGC 6012 Faint, pretty small, elongated 1.8X1 in PA 165, gradually very little brighter in the middle at 150X. It is between two pretty bright stars, one of 8th mag and one of 9th mag.
NGC 6027 I saw three galaxies with direct vision at 165X, they were all small and pretty faint. One more galaxy could be detected with averted vision only.
NGC 6070 Pretty bright, pretty large, somewhat elongated and somewhat brighter in the middle at 135X.
NGC 6118 Pretty faint, pretty large, somewhat brighter in the middle and elongated 2.5 X 1 in PA 60 at 100X. Averted vision helps with this low surface brightness object.
NGC 6535 Pretty bright, pretty large, round, much brighter in the middle. The 17.5" scope resolves 5 stars at 165X.
NGC 6539 Faint, pretty large, round, not brighter in the middle at 135X. This globular is somewhat mushy, and no resolution can be seen at powers up to 250X.
NGC 6611 (M 16) Open Cluster
is bright, large and not rich at 100X.
There are several nice chains of stars that form beautiful curved lines,
they remind me of the antennae of a butterfly. The nebulosity can be seen
without the UHC filter, but it is much better with the UHC. Several dark
lanes wind through the nebulosity, including Burnham's "Star Queen"
near the center.
Ultimate Star Party, McDonald Obs. S=6, T=8, 36" f/5--
M16 20mm and UHC, much nebula, dark Star Queen throne, 62 stars involved
with obvious cluster.
Camp 613 S=8, T=10 13" f/5.6 Naked eye-pretty easy
spot in Milky Way, "above" Swan Nebula and Small Sagittarius
Star Cloud.
11X80-8 stars involved in large nebulosity.
60X-55 stars in bright, large irregular nebula. There is a 10th mag orange
star 20 arcmin to north. Lovely field of view.
100X-72 stars involved in nebula, many 10th and 11th mag stars in NW section
that includes the star cluster. Several dark lanes within nebula, "Star
Queen" is better with averted vision. Adding the UHC filter is a
great view, the nebula is much larger, about half the field of view. The
"Eagle" shape is obvious and the "star queen" is much
easier with the filter. There is a nice triple star, three 11th mag stars
in an
isosoles triangle on eastern wing tip. More nebulosity is in the field
of view to the west of the Eagle shape, including a 10 arcmin streamer
that almost streaches out of the field of view.
220X+UHC provides a great view of the "Star Queen" dark marking,
there is a double star on her nose and several delicate dark lanes wind
around the entire area. Dark "elephant trunk" to the southwest
of Star Queen is pretty easy.
IC 1158 Extremely faint, pretty large, irregularly round and very little brighter in the middle at 100X. This is a tough, low surface brightness object from a good site.
Pal 5 Extremely faint, pretty large, not brighter in the middle at 100X. This low surface brightness globular is tough from a dark Arizona site on a good evening in the 13".
IC 4593 Pretty faint, very small, round, Central star seen with direct vision. Some blinking effect, it grows with averted vision.
IC 4756 Very bright, very, very large, not compressed, 70 stars counted at 60X in 13". This very nice asterism almost fills the one degree field of view at low power and is just a naked eye spot in the "off ramp" of the Milky Way that points into Serpens and Ophiuchus. In the 11X80 finder it is bright, very large and I counted 18 stars among a fuzzy backround of unresolved members.
At Camp 613 with the 13" while testing a 35mm Panoptic eyepiece this cluster is very bright, very large, somewhat compressed and pretty rich. There are 46 stars involved from mags 9 to 13. The entire cluster is elongated 2X1 in PA 90. There are several delicate binary pairs within the cluster.
PK 9+10.1 13" S=6 T=7 cherry
rd. 150X--only suspected
220X--extrememly faint, pretty small, little elongated 1.5X1 in PA 15,
not brighter in the middle. It is averted vision only and then is seen
about 30% of the time. A difficult object.
UGC 10041 very faint, pretty small, very little brighter in the middle, elongated 1.8X1 in PA 165 at 150X. This is a tough, low surface brightness galaxy that I never would have found without uranometria charts.
Double Stars
5 Ser Split at 100X, white and light yellow
6 Ser Tough split at 165X, only separated in moments of good seeing, this pair is mostly elongated and notched, yellow and yellow.
59 Ser Split at 165X, white and light blue.
Delta Ser Split at 165X, this white and white pair sparkles.
Beta Ser Wide and easy at 100X, white and blue.
Struve 1919 Easy split at 100X, white and yellow
Struve 1931 Pretty wide split at 100X, yellow and yellow
Struve 1985 Split at 165X, white and light blue.
h 2814 Nice quadruple star. At low power it is triple with a bright white star in the middle of two light blue stars. Going to 220X will split one of the companions.