DEEP SKY OBSERVING
January 2008
by Mark Wagner

Primary targets are in bold large font. Additional targets range from more difficult (large font) to difficult (regular font) and most challengingt (small font). Targets are within a one hour section of right ascension, north to south, and at a comfortable eastern elevation at astronomical dark. Available for download as a Megastar .obs file or Excel spreadsheet.
 Object
 Const.
Type 
Size 
Mag 
R.A.
Dec.
Arp 213
Cam
GX
5.3' X 3.9'
10.5
04 07 47
69 48 00
Faint, homogeneous, round with ill-defined edge.

Arp 210
Cam
GX
3.7' X 1.8'
11
04 30 49
64 50 00
NGC 1569, 380x, bright, elongated asymmetric.

NGC1502
Cam
OC
7
5.3
04 42 00
62 20 00
Kemble's Cascade, beautiful group.

NGC1501
Cam
PN
13.3, 9
04 42 00
60 55 00
Bright, irregularly round, weakly annular with a faint glimpse of the central star.

B21
Cam
DNB
10.0'
4
04 37 57
55 21 00
Indefinite; irregularly round

B13
Cam
DNB
11.0'
4
04 31 18
54 53 00
Irregular; irregularly darker inside.

B12
Cam
DNB
24.0'
5
04 29 47
54 14 00
Isolated dark spot SE of B 11; irregularly round.

B9
Cam
DNB
04 18 00
55 03 00
Dark, irregular vacancy.

B20
Per
DNB
60.0'
2
04 37 04
50 58 00
Close north of small group of faint stars 8' in diameter.

N1624
Per
C+N
5x5
10.4
04 40 37
50 27 41
About 1/2 dozen stars, some definite nebulosity.

NGC1545
Per
OC
18
8
04 20 00
50 15 00
Many dim components, cluster is large.

NGC1528
Per
OC
25
6.2
04 15 00
51 14 00
Awesome open cluster, easily seen in the finder.

NGC1513
Per
OC
12
8.8
04 10 00
49 31 00
Nice little cluster with the brighter foreground stars.

B15
Per
DNB
15.0'x10.0'
5
04 31 06
46 37 00
Elliptical, example of dark object away from Milky Way

B16
Per
DNB
5
04 32 26
46 36 00
Very small; elongated N and S; close to SE edge of B 15

B17
Per
DNB
5
04 32 30
46 31 00
Very small; elongated N and S; close E of B 15

N1605
Per
OC
5
10.7
04 34 52
45 16 18
Pretty dim and pretty small, few dim stars some glow.

N1582
Per
OC:
24
04 31 39
43 50 00
Visible in binoculars

NGC1664
Aur
OC
15
7.5
04 51 00
43 42 00
Fan shaped cluster to west of a bright star in the field.

B25
Aur
DNB
8.0'
3
04 52 04
46 00 00
Irregularly round example of a dark starless region.

N1579
Per
RN
12x8
04 30 14
35 16 47
Sh2-222, 5' dia., elongated 1.5' central region.

B221
Aur
DNB
45.0'
04 44 00
31 44 00
Partly vacant region about 3/4 degree. Pal 2 in field.

B28
Aur
DNB
4.0'
6
04 55 52
30 38 00
Irregular, next to LBN 796 = VDB 31.

B26
Aur
DNB
5.0'
6
04 54 38
30 37 00
B 26, 27, 28 are close NW of BD +30 741 (mag 6.8)

B27
Aur
DNB
5.0'
6
04 55 08
30 33 00
Irregular

B23
Tau
DNB
5.0'
5
04 40 33
29 52 00
Sharply pointed SE; BD +29 728 (mag 6.5) in N part

B24
Tau
DNB
8.0'
5
04 42 53
29 44 00
Sharply pointed to the S

B219
Tau
DNB
55.0'x3.0'
5
04 34 00
29 35 00
Partly vacant space; 55' x 3 degrees, NE and SW

N1514
Tau
PN
136"x121"
10.9
04 09 17
30 46 33
263x showed uneven, mottled, dumbbell-like shape

B7
Tau
DNB
5
04 17 25
28 33 00
Large, irregular, with brighter (B 10) in SE part

B214
Tau
DNB
5.0'
04 21 55
28 32 00
Diam. 5'; close N of BD +28 645 (magnitude 9.1)

B209
Tau
DNB
04 12 23
28 19 00
Center of a broad extension from B 7, toward the W

B10
Tau
DNB
8.0'
5
04 18 41
28 16 00
The brightest part of B 7

B211
Tau
DNB
5
04 17 12
27 48 00
North end runs from B 7; extends to B 217.

B213
Tau
DNB
04 21 10
27 03 00
Dark spot in lane

B216
Tau
DNB
04 23 59
26 27 00
Dark spot in lane

B217
Tau
DNB
04 27 38
26 07 00
SE end of lane running from B 7. Next to CED 33.

B19
Tau
DNB
04 33 00
26 16 00
Large, indefinite

B22
Tau
DNB
120.0'
4
04 38 00
26 03 00
Irregular; unequally dark; SE to NW; very large region.

B220
Tau
DNB
7.0'
04 41 30
25 59 00
Round, diam. 7'; extension runs NW for 1 degree

B14
Tau
DNB
3.0'
04 39 59
25 24 00
Very small, bright nebula in the B 22. AKA IC 2087.

B18
Tau
DNB
60'
5
04 31 13
24 21 00
Group of dark spots

B215
Tau
DNB
5
04 23 34
25 02 00
Darker spot in dark lane

B212
Tau
DNB
5
04 19 44
25 18 00
Darker spot in dark lane

B210
Tau
DNB
5
04 15 33
25 03 00
Darker spot in dark lane

B208
Tau
DNB
2.7'
04 11 32
25 09 00
Darker spot in dark lane

NGC1750
Tau
OC
45
05 03 00
23 39 00
Three overlapping open clusters combine in binoculars.

NGC1647
Tau
OC
6
04 46 00
19 04 00
Looked like wishbone 12x60s

N1663
Ori
OC:
8
04 49 24
13 09 06
A rather non-discript and difficult open cluster.

N1662
Ori
OC
20
6.4
04 48 29
10 55 48
Sparse cluster with notable multiple star system.

Arp 20
Tau
GX
1.2' X 0.7'
14.4
04 19 53
02 05 00

N1587
Tau
GX
1.7x1.5
11.7
04 30 40
00 39 43
Fairly bright, large; bright core, trio w/ N1588 N1589.

N1762
Ori
GX
1.7x1.1
12.6
05 03 37
01 34 25
Faint, small, oval ~N-S.

Arp 61
Eri
GX
1.0' X 0.5'
15.1
04 36 42
-02 17 00

HCG 30
Eri
GXCL
1.5'x1.4'
13.7
04 36 18
-02 49 52
Three components observed, fourth suspected.

N1618
Eri
GX
2.3x0.8
12.7
04 36 06
-03 08 56
NGC 1625, 1622, 1618 immediately adjacent to Nu ERI.

N1637
Eri
GX
4.0x3.2
10.8
04 41 28
-02 51 29
A nice face on circular galaxy, ... with a stellar core

N1600
Eri
GX
2.5x1.7
10.9
04 31 39
-05 05 10
Large, circular diffuse but bright irregular core.

Arp 180
Eri
GX
1.1' X 0.5'
14.8
04 53 22
-04 48 00

N1700
Eri
GX
3.3x2.1
11.2
04 56 56
-04 51 56
Easy circular galaxy with a faint stellar core at 100x

HCG 31
Eri
GXCL
0.9'x0.3'
13.3B
05 01 38
-04 15 32
Arp 259, NGC 1741, all four components observed.

Arp 259
Eri
GX
0.7' X 0.3'
15.2
05 01 36
-04 16 00
NGC 1741, and part of Hickson 31.

Arp 187
Eri
GX
0.9' X 0.4'
15
05 04 53
-10 14 00

Arp 186
Eri
GX
1.3' X 1.2'
13.6
04 33 59
-08 34 00
NGC 1614, faint, small, elongated, broad concentration.

HCG 28
Eri
GXCL
1.1'x0.3'
16.2B
04 27 18
-10 18 23

HCG 27
Eri
GXCL
0.5'x0.2'
16.8
04 19 27
-11 44 00
Extremely dim.

NGC1535
Eri
PN
20x17
9.3
04 14 00
-12 44 00
Double-shell structure easy at 100x bright central star.

HCG 32
Lep
GXCL
0.8'x0.6'
14.4
05 01 45
-15 26 55
Next to Abell 7

Abell 7
Lep
PN
12.7'
13.2P
05 03 07
-15 36 23
18": 73x,OIII, appears as extremely large, ghostly glow.

HCG 29
Eri
GXCL
0.2'
15.1
04 34 43
-30 32 39
 
Marginal sighting of the brightest member as 10" knot.


Source catalogs:

Messier, Arp, Abell Planetary, Abell Galaxy Cluster (AGC), Hickson Compact Galaxy (HCG), Sharpless HII Regions, Barnard Dark Nebulae, Herschel 400, Herschel 400-II.

Herschel 400 are identified as NGCXXXX,
Herschel 400-II are indentified as NXXXX.
Descriptions are from the following web-sites:

Thanks to Steve Gottlieb and Alvin Huey for their help.

visitors since August 31, 2007