2020 July 24
Deep Sky Update – 2020 July
There seem to have been a few clear nights over the past month, but I expect most will have used the time to observe Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE. I have had several good views of the comet from my back garden and the field beyond. It has been very bright, and from the UK probably the brightest comet since Hale-Bopp in 1997, which was preceded the year before by Hyakutake which is probably my favourite comet that I have seen. It is still pretty late when it gets dark so on work days an extended session is not possible for me – but as the nights get longer into August I hope to be able to get out a bit more.
Many thanks to Owen Brazell for presenting a BAA Webinar on Observing Planetary Nebulae on Wednesday. If you missed it, or want to watch again, you can see it on the BAA YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/britishastronomical
Nick Hewitt has alerted me to a new variable nebula. An announcement about it was circulated by The Astronomer, and reported on ATel #13832. The discovery was made with an 0.65-m f/1.5 Hamiltonian reflector + 3Kx3K CCD. It is located in Cepheus, so well placed but is rather faint at magnitude 17
Nick Hewitt has managed a follow-up observation using a 0.5m iTelescope remote scope, and Mike Harlow has imaged it with his 12 inch telescope with a 125 x 30s exposure.
But it is very faint on both. You can see these observations on Nick and Mikes members pages at:
https://britastro.org/node/23006 , https://britastro.org/node/23005 and https://britastro.org/node/23349
Follow-up observations would be very welcome.
Peter Goodhew has identified a potential new planetary nebula in Corona Borealis. It is rather faint also, with 60 hours of imaging. It has not yet been confined which needs to be done spectroscopically. Checkout Peters members page https://britastro.org/node/23405
Some Deep Sky images from BAA members pages:
Dean Ashton
Witches Broom – https://britastro.org/node/23467
Callum Wingrove
Veil – https://britastro.org/node/23249
M17 – https://britastro.org/node/23464
Rik Hill
Rik has posted a number of nice double star images on his page – checkout https://britastro.org/profile?id=1438
Clear skies,
Callum
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