I experienced a very productive ten-night observing run at Cherry Springs State Park last June. My friend Tony Donnangelo and I observed many celestial objects both new and old during that time but the most memorable highlight for me was successfully observing a certain planetary nebula.

The sky was beginning to cloud up completely early Saturday morning so I packed up my dew-soaked gear and was ready to crawl into my sleeping bag when conditions began to improve dramatically. I walked over to Tony's 24" f/3.3 Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob as he was making an attempt at one of the classic observing challenge objects, the planetary nebula located within the globular cluster M22. We were never successful in observing it before but with great seeing, the dark skies of Cherry Springs, a very detailed finder chart, an aperture of 24 inches, and a magnification approaching 800x, Tony, Dr. Elliott McKinley (a fellow Cherry Springs regular), and I all caught glimpses of the very elusive DSO.

http://www.blackskies.org/gjjc_m22_1.htm

http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/136080440

The conditions were superb after midnight on Sunday morning and Tony, Elliott, and I had an even better view of GJJC1 through the 24" Starmaster. Stars were surprisingly sharp at 771x (3-6mm Tele Vue Nagler zoom set at 3mm) and the transparency was excellent. Even so, the tiny and dim planetary nebula was nothing more than a slightly fuzzy star when seen with averted vision.

Pease 1 in M15 is a piece of cake compared to GJJC1.

There's more on GJJC1, which is also known as IRAS 18333-2357 and PK 009-07.1, at http://messier.seds.org/more/m022_pn.html and another image of the area where GJJC1 resides, but not of the nebula itself, at http://www.celestronimages.com/detai...85&mode=search

GJJC1 is ultimate challenge object #7 on Rich Jakiel's list at http://www.astronomy-mall.com/Advent...e/ultimate.htm

Dave Mitsky