Object of the Week, July 4, 2021 – Abell 69 in Cygnus

Note: I'm posting early as I will be out of town for 2 weeks starting now. Here you go.

Another short OOTW as my time is limited, but hopefully a good challenge. And I like to continue to contribute to the hobby that I will eventually return full time once I complete my doctoral studies.

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Object of the Week, July 4, 2021 – Abell 69 in Cygnus
Extremely Faint Planetary
RA: 20 19 56 Dec: +38 24 33
Size: 25x22” Listed Mag: >20.1 (I think it is closer to mag 17). Other sources list 18.7. Apologize that I forget where I got this figure.

For this week, I decided to pick a challenge object that now I am not 100% sure if I observed it, but pretty sure that I did. I just wanted to throw it out there for all of you deep sky hounds with huge telescopes to chime in to “hopefully” validate what I saw with my 30” Starmaster more than 15 years ago. It was under good skies in the high Sierras under NELM 6.9 skies, but transparent. I was looking east, away from the skyglow to the west.

I observed this object at least 4 times and saw it only twice with my 30” reflector. I did not attempt this object with my 22” reflector though. I guess the mag figure cause me to skip it with my 22”.

I’m positive that some of you have seen it.

Notes from my 30” reflector (copied from my Abell PNe book):
314, 419 and 538x: This is an extremely faint, small round disk. Even surface brightness disk, which is seen only 50% of the time with averted vision and O-III filter. A 17th magnitude star lies 15” southeast.

Attachment 4373
DSS image

Attachment 4374
Eyepiece rendition with my 30” at 419x with O-III filter (field: 10.4’, NELM 6.9, Transparency 4/5)

Some photos by a couple imagers
https://www.pbase.com/dsantiago/image/166091902

http://www.capella-observatory.com/I...A69AndPCyg.htm



Anyhow, As always, give it a go and let us know.

Great choice Alvin. I see only one (!!!) observation of this planetary nebula on DeepSkyLog so I'll be interest to see who else has observed it. I certainly haven't. By the way, that only observation was by Ivan who, I am sure, will report it here as well.

Hi Wouter and Alvin,

I have pulled up a z-zg-g PANSTARRS image and the nebula is a distinct blue annulus:

Attachment 4375

There are three subthreshold stars just E of the nebula. The brightest of them is Vm 18.85 in USNOA2. The star just off the nebula's SE edge, which I did see, is Vm 16.7. Here is the observation and sketch (note the arrow indicating north). The mentioned OIII is more like an UHC.

2020-07-11, Spruce Knob (elev. 4800 ft), SQM 21.72-21.74. 20-inch Newtonian (F/4). Abell 69, Cyg. Observed with 5.5 mm ocular [360x] with and without OIII filter. The nebula is very small, round, immediately NW of a faint star (right of center in the sketch).

Attachment 4377

I also had only two "soso" observations at the limit of perception. I copy my two observations out of my Abell-project:

16", 225x, [OIII], NELM 7m2
extremely difficult PN which needs an exact map to find; under very good transparency the PN is popping in and out of view with higher magnification and [OIII] filter; it is positioned in western extension from a faint eastern coming star chain; after intensive observation the PN is again visible for 1-2 seconds with averted vision as a small and very faint glow; no confusion with a 16mag star directly SE because the star is not visible even without a filter

27", 293x, [OIII], NELM 7m0+
extremely difficult Abell, even with large aperture and good transparency; without a filter the 16mag SE positioned star is steadily visible with averted vision; with Astronomik [OIII] filter a very faint glow at the exact position of the PN is barely visible with averted vision; problematically this glow could also be the 16mag star; the Lumicon [OIII] filter shows noticeable less stars, but the glow remains at the exact position; because of that I classify the observation as uncertain but generally positive

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ivan Maly

Hi Wouter and Alvin,

I have pulled up a z-zg-g PANSTARRS image and the nebula is a distinct blue annulus:

Attachment 4375

There are three subthreshold stars just E of the nebula. The brightest of them is Vm 18.85 in USNOA2. The star just off the nebula's SE edge, which I did see, is Vm 16.7. Here is the observation and sketch (note the arrow indicating north). The mentioned OIII is more like an UHC.

2020-07-11, Spruce Knob (elev. 4800 ft), SQM 21.72-21.74. 20-inch Newtonian (F/4). Abell 69, Cyg. Observed with 5.5 mm ocular [360x] with and without OIII filter. The nebula is very small, round, immediately NW of a faint star (right of center in the sketch).

Attachment 4377

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That's pretty good that you saw it with a 20"! Thanks for sharing.