Aquarius is a very fun
part of the sky. There are some great objects to observe and a fun
variety of different types. Seeing the Water Jar asterism move up in
the sky always means the autumn is upon us. I know that many folks
use the Pleiades in the same way, and that is also true. But from a
dark sky site the stars of the celestial water boy form interesting
patterns and there are several great binocular fields as well. So,
let’s take a look at Aquarius.
M 72 is the lesser of
the two Messier globular clusters in Aquarius, even though I can see
it in 10X50 binoculars from a dark site. Using a 6" f/8
refractor on a good night shows it as pretty bright, pretty large,
round and much brighter in the middle. An 8.8mm eyepiece allowed me
to resolve 6 stars, the last 2 are difficult. Averted vision makes
it somewhat larger, but there are no more stars resolved.
In a 13”
Newtonian it is pretty bright, pretty large, round, considerably
compressed middle and not resolved at 100X. At 220X there were 11
stars counted, a couple in the much compressed core. Going to 330X
resolved 15 stars.
NGC 7009 is the Saturn
Nebula, a famous planetary with outer ansae (wing-like projections)
and a bright inner disk. It was discovered by William Herschel in
1782 but Lord Rosse was the first to see the extending ansae. The
projections reminded him of the planet Saturn and he gave this object
its' nickname. Amateurs have been trying to duplicate that
observation ever since.
Using the 13" at a
club site about 60 miles from Phoenix shows it as bright, pretty
large, elongated 1.5 X 1 in PA 75 at 100X. Moving up to 220X the
central star and ansae are obvious and the nebula is light green.
In 1962 Richard and
Helen Lines discovered a very nice comet that became Comet
Seki-Lines. This observation of the Saturn Nebula is made with Helen
and Richard Lines' 20" f/6 Newtonian in Mayer, Az. At 225X the
ansae are pretty faint projections from the bright central section.
At 400X the central star is obvious and the ansae stand out more
clearly. One of the bright spots along the ansae (Helen Lines calls
them wing tanks) is visible at this higher power. All these
observations are on a night I rated 7/10 for seeing and transparency
and I found that the UHC filter did NOT help with either the central
disk or the ansae detail. Several observers, myself included, saw
the nebula as light green without the UHC filter installed.
Brad
Ehrhorn/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF
M 2 is the showpiece of
the constellation and one of the best Messier objects in the sky. In
a 6” Maksutov-Newtonian and a 22mm eyepiece it is an obvious
globular, bright, pretty large, round and much, much brighter in the
middle. No stars resolved but very sparkly. With a 14mm eyepiece
there are 10 stars resolved and this globular doubles in size with
averted vision. Going to a 6.7mm eyepiece still shows about 10 stars
consistently resolved, but another 20 or so are at the limit of the 6
inch on an excellent night. Averted vision will bring out lots of
faint members.
At the Oregon Star
Party on a night I rated 7/10 for seeing and 5/10 for transparency, I
was fortunate enough to get a look at this magnificent ball of stars
with a 25 inch f/4 and a 12mm eyepiece that yields about 210X. The
cluster is very bright, very large, shows a much brighter middle and
is round. I counted 38 stars in one quadrant for a total of at least
150 stars resolved. There is a dense core on this very bright
globular with many outlying stars that looks like a starfish or a
scarab. There is a dark marking at the SE edge of the core. A
magnificent view.
Adam
Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF
NGC 7184 is a galaxy
that I observed with an 11 inch SCT. At 125X it is pretty bright,
pretty large, elongated 2X1 and shows a bright middle. Using
averted vision shows an elongated bright center section.
NGC 7723 is pretty
faint, pretty large, brighter in the middle and elongated 2X1 at
125X. This galaxy has a pretty low surface brightness in the 11 inch
SCT.
Double Stars
Zeta AQR is a nice,
matched pair. They are split 100% of the time in the 6”
refractor with a 4.7mm eyepiece. I see both stars as white and I
gave this pair a “Wow” in my notes.
Struve 2809 is a pretty
wide pair in the 6” with a 14mm eyepiece, easily split. I see
the colors as medium yellow and light blue with good color contrast.
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