Unknown Cygnus reflection nebula discovered and confirmed by 2 San Jose amateur astronomers
4.cygni.ne...@gmail.com
Jose amateur astronomers - Sept. 1, 2010
A small reflection nebula coincident with the star 4 Cygni, now well
placed for nightly observing, has been confirmed by professional
astronomers. It was discovered visually with a 10 inch scope by one
San Jose amateur astronomer, Stephen Waldee, in July 2007, and his
collaborator, San Jose astrophotographer Al Howard, has produced his
own independent image of high quality. This image confirms the traces
of it that were recorded in the two series of Palomar Observatory Sky
Survey images dating back more than fifty years.
The star 4 Cygni (at 5th magnitude) is visible to the naked eye in a
very dark sky, located on the very border of Cygnus and Lyra, about
seven and a half degrees from the famous "Ring" nebula. The star is a
magnetic variable type, but the nebula is currently thought not to be
related to its physics, but rather exists as a reflection of its
bright whitish light in the 'nearby' dusty interstellar medium. The
Palomar and Howard images have been vetted by Dr. Harold G. Corwin,
Jr., a professional astronomer at Caltech, who believes that the
evidence is that the nebula is "real"--though somewhat commonplace.
The existence of the nebula was first suspected when Waldee observed 4
Cygni with his 10-inch telescope, and traces of it turned up in an
immediate examination of the POSS images. But, it was not recorded in
any professional astronomical catalogue, nor documented in any paper
found in a deep search of professional and amateur observing
literature back in 2007 and again in 2010.
After viewing it again several times, Waldee posted accounts on
amateur forums, and continued to look for an astrophotographer who was
willing to collaborate on an independent image, to confirm the Palomar
photos and show that the nebula was not merely an instrumental
artifact. One famous astrophotographer turned him down: the task of
getting a really clean image of this bright star, with more
unambiguous evidence than the Palomar photos, seemed too daunting.
Finally, Waldee persuaded Mr. Howard to use his fine quality 4"
astrograph, at the Golden Gate Star Party near Mt. Lassen in July
2010, to obtain a fresh new image. Deep processing revealed that the
nebula might be larger and more extensive than the trace evidence
recorded on the old Palomar photographic plates!
When an amateur forum was notified in August 2010, another 'competing
discovery claim' came to light, asserted by southern California
amateur Dana Patchick, who said he saw it on Palomar plates in 2005.
Unfortunately, to this date he has not published his discovery but
included it in a collated list of other anomalous items found on
Palomar plates, awaiting further study. Nothing had been published in
public, and Patchick said he shared information with only a few
friends involved in his "Deep Sky Hunters" group, who kept the
information private; he had never tried to look for the nebula with a
telescope.
Waldee's and Howard's work was entirely original, for they had no
other knowledge of the object aside from what they had found in visual
observations or on Palomar plates. Now in August 2010, a Finnish
amateur astronomer named Jaakko Saloranta has confirmed a *visual*
sighting, using his 8 inch Dobsonian telescope. The object is fairly
obvious and does not require a gigantic instrument to be able to
detect: just a dark sky, good equipment, and some experience.
Depending on the instrument used to view or photograph it, the nebula
may have an apparent angular diameter of as much as six by three
arcminutes.
The story of the work done by the San Jose amateurs and their
collaborator in Finland is found here:
http://faintfuzzies.zoomshare.com/files/4-cygni/4_cygni_nebula.html
Al Howard, the astrophotographer, is a professional electrical
engineer by trade, providing engineering on a contract basis for NASA.
He is an avid astrophotographer who uses a high quality refractor and
digital camera. Stephen Waldee is a long-time visual observer who has
been looking at the deep sky since the 1970s with large aperture
scopes, from the mountains north of Santa Cruz; he began observing the
Moon and planets back in 1957, excited by the appearance of Sputnik.
Waldee's prior discovery work involved the historical development of
scientific knowlege of the Horsehead nebula, which he traced back to
19th century Harvard archives with the collaboration of professors
from Harvard and UC/Santa Cruz, revealing the long forgotten fact that
the nebula was discovered on early astrophotos in 1888 by a female
astronomer, Williamina Fleming.
---------
Note; the long article cited above, chronicling the Waldee & Howard
investigation, contains online texts and links to original posts to
s.a.a. and the ASTRONOMY magazine forum, and Waldee's blog and website
in 2007. In addition the article has the raw and reprocessed results
of Howard's digital photographic work, and a discussion of the star,
its coordinates, type, and possible relation to the nebula; and
comments by two professional astronomers who have examined the Palomar
plates. In fact, it turns out that Waldee (as "AstroApp") first
posted his news of the nebula to sci.astro.amateur on 28 July 2007,
just ten days after his visual discovery; but his first public release
was to ASTRONOMY's forum on 20 July 2007 (links included.) Little if
any interest has been expressed by amateurs--but Saloranta's blog
report and drawing (links provided in the article) show that it can be
seen easily in a dark sky by an experienced observer with an 8 inch
telescope. Getting a clean astrophoto that will have as much evidence
of it as the various Palomar plates, or the Howard image, will not be
easy, and requires advanced techniques, excellent gear, and some prior
experience at image processing.
4.cygni.ne...@gmail.com
(to reply, 'take out the Ploessl' -- but we cannot absolutely
guarantee a response.)
Anthony Ayiomamitis
> (to reply, 'take out the Ploessl' -- but we cannot absolutely
> guarantee a response.)
Stephen,
I accidently came across your recent thread surrounding the nebulosity
in the vicinity of 4-Cygni and where you write at
http://faintfuzzies.zoomshare.com/files/4-cygni/4_cygni_nebula.html:
"I suppose Mr. Ayiomamitis -- a truly distinguished amateur
astronomical artist -- found my comments objectionable, for he did not
answer them."
I am 99.9% certain that I missed your reply and it is for this reason
I did not follow-up. As a result, please do not assume that I was
offended by your comments. If this was the case (ie. I was offended),
I would not be posting on s.a.a. or the internet in general.
I wish I had known about your find around 4-Cygni earlier so that I
could revisit the area and get you an image (without spikes). I am now
busy with an excrutiatingly dim SNR which will require 25-30 hrs total
exposure time and, as such, I am rather preoccupied. However, I will
do my best to try and get you some quality imaging time in the area of
4-Cygni at some point this week or next week.
My apologies once again for overlooking your reply back in 2007!
Anthony.
Anthony Ayiomamitis
> "I suppose Mr. Ayiomamitis -- a truly distinguished amateur
> astronomical artist -- found my comments objectionable, for he did not
> answer them."
>
> I am 99.9% certain that I missed your reply and it is for this reason
> I did not follow-up. As a result, please do not assume that I was
> offended by your comments. If this was the case (ie. I was offended),
> I would not be posting on s.a.a. or the internet in general.
>
> I wish I had known about your find around 4-Cygni earlier so that I
> could revisit the area and get you an image (without spikes). I am now
> busy with an excrutiatingly dim SNR which will require 25-30 hrs total
> exposure time and, as such, I am rather preoccupied. However, I will
> do my best to try and get you some quality imaging time in the area of
> 4-Cygni at some point this week or next week.
>
> My apologies once again for overlooking your reply back in 2007!
>
> Anthony.
PS. For the sake of completeness, I missed your message in the
following message and which you refer to when making a reference to
me: http://groups.google.com/group/sci.astro.amateur/msg/5f9e6f9fdec08ecd?dmode=source
Anthony.
4.cygni.ne...@gmail.com
<ant...@perseus.gr> wrote:
>Stephen,
>
>I accidently came across your recent thread surrounding the nebulosity
>in the vicinity of 4-Cygni and where you write at
>http://faintfuzzies.zoomshare.com/files/4-cygni/4_cygni_nebula.html:
>"I suppose Mr. Ayiomamitis -- a truly distinguished amateur
>astronomical artist -- found my comments objectionable, for he did not
>answer them."
>
>I am 99.9% certain that I missed your reply and it is for this reason
>I did not follow-up. As a result, please do not assume that I was
>offended by your comments. If this was the case (ie. I was offended),
>I would not be posting on s.a.a. or the internet in general.
I am delighted to know this and the moment I saw your comment -- for
some reason it has taken DAYS for the post to appear on my newsgroup
server -- I immediately revised the text of my article, saying in
regard to my critique "I blush a bit at its stern tone; but I have
indeed retained my opinion about 'added spikes'..."; and then after
quoting the post I had made, removed any speculations and stated:
"I am happy to say that Mr. Ayiomamitis -- a truly distinguished and
gifted amateur astronomical artist -- reports that he had not seen my
comment and therefore had not replied to it immediately; but he says
now that he wasn't offended when he finally saw my post. "
>I wish I had known about your find around 4-Cygni earlier so that I
>could revisit the area and get you an image (without spikes). I am now
>busy with an excrutiatingly dim SNR which will require 25-30 hrs total
>exposure time and, as such, I am rather preoccupied. However, I will
>do my best to try and get you some quality imaging time in the area of
>4-Cygni at some point this week or next week.
This would be quite wonderful, Anthony. My post has a public gmail
address that may be used. "Remove your PLOESSL to reply" was my
little joke--
4.cygni.ne...@gmail.com
>My apologies once again for overlooking your reply back in 2007!
>Anthony.
I understand. On re-reading my remarks, they are stern and perhaps
argumentative. I think that there is something to be said on both
sides of the question -- star clusters take on a special vividness and
liveliness WITH the spikes. If the seeing is not fabulous, the
ostensibly (ideally) round star images/halos created by a refractor
may become elongated (especially if the autoguider has difficulties);
so an imperfect exposure may be dressed up a little with the spikes.
Here is a picture that my friend Chuck Vaughn just finished, Monday
night 6 September, the night I drove to his home near the Sierras in
NE California to view 4 Cygni from his locale with my C11. While we
looked at the nebula in my telescope, Chuck's faithful 8 inch
Newtonian was finishing the third night of exposures of NGC 7380 in
Cygnus:
http://astrophotography.aa6g.org/Astrophotos/ngc7380_ssp.html
Chuck's 8 inch astrograph is a conventional Newtonian (with coma
corrector) and has a 4 vane secondary mirror spider. After hours and
hours of exposures, the bright stars created QUITE a pattern. These
of course are 'real data' as the diffraction pattern is perfectly
visible in a live look into the scope (though it's not quite as
impressively vivid); and with the effects of the spikes, the stars
take on a dramatic character, a sort of "sparkle".
I have mixed feelings about this. Now, when I see an amazing
refractor image, I happen to think of others that pleased me, perhaps
IN PART because of the vivid spikes...and when I see an image with the
spikes, I can't help but wonder how it would look WITHOUT them? You
can't win!
Again, thanks for your courtesy. I appreciate clearing up the matter
and knowing that you're obviously not only greatly talented but also
self-critical and open-minded. I only mentioned my post, in fact, not
specifically to bring up the issue, but to point out that it was in
fact one item of documentation of my discovery, by eye, of the nebula.
Sincerely,
Steve Waldee