GJJC1, the Planetary Nebula in M22

[Dave Mitsky]

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

[Uwe Glahn]

Dave,

congrats for the positive observation of the PN or better the blue CS.

My experiences are much the same. With 16" and a tracking 18" (alpine skies, 47° north) under very good transparency and seeing I could locate a close double star - the fainter? companion was CS. From Namibia (23° south, GJJC1 zenith) I could also only detect a star point source (double star) with 24". I always tried several filters but without any success, no filter blink, no glow around the star.

I wonder if anyone could detect a nebula around the CS?

[Jim Chandler]

My experience is very similar to Uwe's. In July 2004 on a very good night (transparency 9/10, seeing 8/10) at 30 deg. north and 6000 feet elevation using my 25" f/5 at 901x with UHC and O-III filters I attempted GJJC 1 using this finder chart, which I thought came from Doug Snyder's site, although I no longer find it there:

GJJC 1 finder chart.jpg


I tried blinking with both the UHC and the O-III, and the object remained stellar. No nebulosity was detected with or without filters.

[Dragan]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for joining DSF! We look forward to your contributions here!

Unfortunately, this object has eluded me everytime I've gone for it. I've never attempted it below my current latitude here in Northern Illinois so I'm sure that may have something to do with it.

Pease 1 I last observed at the 2010 NSP and was a positive observation. GJJC1, unfortunately, was a goose egg that year!