(IAAC) Obj: Abell 31 = PK 219+31.1 - Inst: 24" f/4.1 Ultralight Dobson

[anonymous at sedna.atmob.org]

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Observation Poster: Stathis Kafalis <skorpion40 at freenet.de>

Observer: Stathis Kafalis
Your skills: Advanced (many years)
Date/time of observation: 2003 Feb. 25
Location of site: German Alps (Lat 48, Elev 1100)
Site classification: Rural
Sky darkness: 2-3 <Bortle Scale (9 worst)>
Seeing: 3 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Moon presence: None - moon not in sky
Instrument: 24" f/4.1 Ultralight Dobson
Magnification: 105
Filter(s): OIII
Object(s): Abell 31 = PK 219+31.1
Category: Planetary nebula.
Class: very Irregular disk
Constellation: Cancer
Data: mag 12  size >980
Position: RA 08:54  DEC +08:54
Description:
In the 24 mm Wide Field + OIII a huge Planetary! (I would guess 11' diameter).
Round or slightly oval elongated E-W. One dominating 10m5 star in the nebular at SE-edge of a parallelogram, which is not the central star but is 1-2' eatwads out of the center. The CS itself is by far fainter, quite difficult
to see at this bad seeing.

Everywhere within the nebular I see faint irregular patches of glow.
One dark patch in the East and another less obvious in the NW.
The W-edge seems crescent shaped (not sure). More details pop up for short moments, but can't hold them. 

A remarcable Abell! In the POSS plates it is even bigger than I saw it.

The next night at better seeing I saw 3 small faint background galaxies at 360x
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Optional related URLs: http://www.stathis-firstlight.de/deepsky/abell.htm
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