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(IAAC) Obj: NGC 2392 (Eskimo Nebula) - Inst: 8" f/10 SCT on fork
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Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate (some years)
Date/time of observation: 1998-03-10/11 01:15 UT
Location of site: Medford, MA, USA (Lat 42oN, Elev 5m)
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 5.1 <Limiting magnitude>
Seeing: 5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Moon presence: None - moon not in sky
Instrument: 8" f/10 SCT on fork
Magnification: 90x, 170x, 340x
Filter(s): None, UHC
Object(s): NGC 2392 (Eskimo Nebula)
Category: Planetary nebula.
Class: 3b+3b
Constellation: Gem
Data: mag 9.9 size 13" (halo 44")
Position: RA 07:29 DEC 20:55
Description:
A quick finder sweep E from delta Gem, to a pretty NE-SW line of mag. 6 stars,
with the lovely tight trio 63 Gem at its center. The famed planetary is at the
invisible E vertex of an equilateral triangle with 63 and southerly 61 Gem. In
the eyepiece at 90x, the Eskimo is a bluish-gray "dot" just S of a mag. 9 star.
Clearly non-stellar even at this low power, little detail can be seen in the
bright, small face of the nebula. However, the subtle hints of its outer halo
showed up best against the light polluted sky at this power. At 170x, a dark
arc suddenly becomes apparent in the core disc, beginning N of the obvious
central star and sweeping W. At 340x, this arc began to appear complex, and a
further brightening to the S was also noted. Finally with UHC at 340x, all the
dark details stood out well, beginning to show hints of fine-grained complex
mottling along their edges, and small areas of the faint outer halo suddenly
became visible again, especially SE - though again less clearly than at 90x.
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