Object of the Week June 16, 2013--- NGC 6337

[Uwe Glahn]

Howard, you open the PN season with one of my favorites.

When I first saw a picture of that PN with its CS line I becomes one of the "most wanted" object in the sky. I first tried it with my 16" from 47° latitude N. The PN could be seen as a faint round ring, no detail, no CS line...only 5° above the horizon.

When I first traveled to Namibia (23°S) I first tried it with 12", 375x: "bright ring even without filter, ~40" diameter, 13mag star N within the ring, very faint 15mag star S, always something within the ring but no star itself can be resolved, perhaps a faint line N-S elongated, the ring itself is better defined at its NW and NE edge"

A few nights later I tried it with 24" and 400x and the results amazed me deeply: "bright, absolutely round, distinct ring structure with some details (knots) in it, stellar spot at the W edge, the NE quadrant also brighter and better defined, within the ring shifted from the middle to SW faint line composed of 3 faint stars, line easy to see but difficult to separate, middle star a little bit brighter"

24", 400x, NELM 7m+
NGC6337.jpg

[Howard B]

That's the finest sketch of 6337 I've seen Uwe, and you saw all three of the central stars! Fantastic, and yet another reason to go to the southern hemisphere one day. I imagine that if 6337 traded places with M57 it would be one of the most famous deep sky objects and immensely popular. Like real estate, location makes a huge difference.