Observing

Tuesday Night was very clear which is what I came here for. I had picked up at the sign in a "Nebraska Star Party Planetary Challenge Sheet" and started to work on it.

Object ra dec Time Date Desc

ic4593 16.11.45 12.04.17 23:40 2006/07/25 Small Planetary
ic4599 16.19.23 42.15.36- 23:00 2006/07/27 Small Planetary
ngc6153 16.31.30 40.15.13-
ngc6210 16.44.30 23.48.00 23:54 2006/07/25 Small Planetary
ngc6302 17.13.44 37.06.14- 00:00 2006/07/26 Mid sized Planetary
ngc6337 17.22.15 38.29.01- 23:40 2006/07/27 Small Planetary
ngc6309 17.14.04 12.54.38- 00:12 2006/07/26 Small, very near Moderatly bright star.
ngc6369 17.29.21 23.45.35- 02:40 2006/07/26 Small Planetary
ngc6445 17.49.15 20.00.34- 02:42 2006/07/26 Mid sized,dim planetary
ngc6543 17.58.33 66.37.59 02:48 2006/07/26 Bright blue Planetary, "The Cats Eye."
ngc6563 18.12.03 33.52.06- 23:30 2006/07/25 Small Planetary
ngc6572 18.12.06 06.51.13 00:20 2006/07/26 Midsized Planetary
ngc6567 18.13.45 19.04.34-
ic1297 19.17.23 39.36.47-
ngc6781 19.18.28 06.32.23 01:55 2006/07/26 Nice largePlanetary
ngc6804 19.31.36 09.13.30 02:05 2006/07/26 Midsized Planetary
ngc6818 19.43.58 14.09.11- 02:10 2006/07/26 Small Planetary
ngc6826 19.44.48 50.31.30 02:14 2006/07/26 Small Bright Planetary
ngc6853 19.59.36 22.43.16 02:16 2006/07/26 Big & Bright (also known as M27, The Dumbbell)
ngc6891 20.15.09 12.42.15 02:25 2006/07/26 Smallish Planetary, 2 in same field of view.
ngc6894 20.16.24 30.33.55 02:30 2006/07/26 Midsized Planetary


I used 2 32mm eye pieces, one with a O3 Filter (good for detecting Planeary nebulas,) and one without. I would switch the eye pieces back and forth trying to detect the planetarys. This works because of what planetaries are, which is old dieing stars. They have burn't all of their hydrogen in their cores and have then started burning the helium into heavier elements. One of the heavier atoms is oxygen and the O3 filter can detect excited oxygen.
With a O3 filter in, stars should be diminished in brightness and planetarys should remain as bright. For higher magnifications I switched to a 15mm. 32 mm eye pieces should give 63x, while the 15mm should give 135x.

Terry