Date: August 27, 2011
Location:  Shot Rock
NELM:  7.0 to 7.2
Transparency:  4/5
Seeing: 3/5

 Telescope:  22” f/4.0 on equatorial platform and AstroTelescopes 4” f/11 doublet refractor on German equatorial mount.
Eyepieces: 24mm Panoptic (96x), 12.5mm BGO (184x), 10mm ZAO-II (230x), 9mm BGO (255x), 7mm BGO (328x), 6mm ZAO-II (383x), 5mm BGO (460x) and 4mm ZAO-II (575x)

First time at Shot Rock since November last year.  There was at least 10 feet of snow when I attempted to observe there on July 2, 2011.  Ended up going to IHOP.

M-101 Supernova
Very easily seen even in the 4” refractor at 110x.  About 2x brighter than the two neighboring stars forming a very flat isosceles triangle that is perpendicular to the core.

Ethos 1  (19 16 31.5  +36 09 48    1 x 0.3’  `17.6*)
22” f/4 (230 and 383x) – Very faint, 3:1 elongated glow.  Ultrablock makes it disappear and the CLS filter helps quite a bit.  The CLS slightly enhances the two lobes, so I’m’ pretty sure that I observed the nebulous lobes, not the double stars as suspected after the last session.   PA = 150 and about 1’ long.  
Note:  A couple days after leaving Jimi’s place in West Texas, he reported superb seeing and transparency and was able to “bust” apart the two lobes and the round part in the middle.  He also saw both double stars in each lobe!  That takes some impressive seeing and aperture.  The separation of the double stars is about 5” and the magnitudes range from 17 to 18^th magnitude. 

Kohoutek 3-46   (19 50 00.3  +33 45 53  0.5’ 16.4p )
22” f/4 (230, 328 and 383x) – Field was easily located, but no nebula.  Tried the CLS, Ultrablock and O-III.
It appears “bright” in the red POSS2 plates, while barely visible in the blue POSS2 plates.  Always pays to check the blue POSS2 plates as human vision is most sensitive to the green wavelengths, which is more closely depicted by the blue POSS2 plates.

Wein 1-10  (20 31 52.4  +48 52 51  3.2’  15.1v   18.1*)
22” f/4 (128, 184 and 255x) – Field was located, but no nebula.  Tried the CLS, Ultrablock and O-III.
Note:  The Wein catalogue is my ultimate challenge for planetaries as a good percentage “appears” to be “easy”, but tough in the eyepiece.  I feel good when successful in observing these guys.  So when you think you’re done with the Abell PNe’s, take on the Wein Challenge!

PNG 027.6 + 16.9  (17 41 41  +03 07 02  94”  16.3p)
22” f/4 (128, 184 and 255x) – Extremely faint round diffuse glow in a very star rich field.  1.1’ across. The 14.9 mag central star was slam dunk.   A blazing 9.7 mag star lies on the south edge and a mag 10.2 star lies 1.2’ from the NEN edge.  A third star, mag 9.7, lies 1.9 off the west edge.  These three stars make it very difficult to observe, but under the transparent Shot Rock skies made it observable...barely.

Kohoutek 4-55  (20 45 10  +44 39 10  27”   -   -)
22” f/4 (184, 255, 328x) – Extremely faint very small round glow next to a faint 16^th magnitude star to the WNW.   This is a very difficult object!

Shakhbazian 302   (23 17 22  -11 42 31  mag 17.28+   size 2.2’  9 members)
22” f/4  (383, 460 and 575x) – Observed three members.  1 – brightest of the bunch, considerably faint, very small round glow.  2 – Very faint, very small round glow and the last one, 3, is extremely faint, very small round glow.  The three visible members form a very shallow equilateral triangle.  A blazing mag 6.3 star lies just 4.0’ west inhibits the view, if not kept off the field.   A string of 11 to 12^th magnitude stars lies about 4.3’SW.

Shakhbazian 304  (23 43 40  -12 28 21  mag 16.97+   size 2.6’   8 members)
22” f/4 (383 and 460x) – Only two members seen.  The first one is held steadily as a considerably faint small round glow.  The other one pops in and out.

Shakhbazian 296   (21 40 46  -14 17 41   mag 17.81+   size 3.4’   16 members)
22” f/4  (328, 383 and 460x) – Lumpy darkness, not well resolved.  Group A was seen as one glow and group B was pretty lumpy.

Einstein’s Cross   (22 40 30.2  +03 21 30)
22” f/4 (460, 3.7mm Ethos) – Suspected stellaring on one end.  But not sure.

AGC 278  (01 57 18.0  +43 13 00)
22” f/4  (255, 328 and 383x) – Two individual members and three members were unresolved.   Both resolved members are very faint, very small round glows.

NGC 51 and IC 1535 trios  00 14 34,9 (NGC 51 coordinates)
22” f/4 (184, 255, 328x)  – This par if linear trios forms a nice group in a star rich field that fits in a 12’ field so it will fit in a high power wide field eyepiece or a medium power narrow field eyepiece.
NGC 51  (00 14 34.9  +48 15 22  1.2x0.9’  14.1p) – Bright very slightly elongated glow with well-defined edges.  PA = 45 and 0.6’ long.  A couple very faint stars are just off the SW edge and two faint stars are 0.3’ off the NE edge.
NGC 49  (00 14 22.4  +48 14 48  1.1x1.0’  14.7p) – Considerably bright 3:2 elongated glow with somewhat defined edges.  A faint 16^th mag star lies just off the SSE end and another on lies off the NE edge.   This is the dimmest of the trio.
NGC 48  (00 14 02.1  +48 14 04  1.4x0.9’  14.4p) – Considerably bright 3:1 elongated glow with diffuse edges.  Much brighter very small core.  Two extremely faint knots or stars are detected on the southern tip, one on each side.  PA = 30 and 0.9’ long.  A pair of 16^th magnitude stars flank the SE and SW edges.
IC 1535  (00 13 57.4  +48 09 27  1.3x0.3’  15.1) – Faint 3:1 elongated glow with defined edges.  Brighter round center.  PA = 170 and 0.7’ long.
IC 1534  (00 13 45.6  48 09 06  1.0x0.4’  14.8p) – Considerably bright 2:1 elongated fairly high surface brightness glow.  Upon observing this galaxy a little closer showed very faint extensions that is easily missed.  PA = 60 and 0.7’ long (total) and 0.4’ long (bright part).  A 12.5 mag star lies 0.6’ away to the NE.
IC 1536  (00 14 19.2  +48 08 35  0.9x0.8’  15.4) – Considerably faint slightly elongated glow with diffuse edges.  PA = 0 and 0.4’ long.  An upside down “y” of 13^th magnitude stars is just north.