Re: [TAC] OR: Random nebula from the Peak

[David Kirjassoff]

Great OR!  Thanks for sharing. Night vision is sure a compelling way to view the night sky.

David

On Dec 15, 2025, at 1:59 PM, 'Mark McCarthy' via The Astronomy Connection (TAC) <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Had the opportunity to go out observing this new moon cycle to Fremont Peak Thursday night.  The 2600' elevation was above the inversion layer which has been holding cold air, and poor seeing and haze, in the Bay Area.  It was indeed warm and dry all night, not a trace of dew.  Seeing was ok but not great.  I set-up on the pads next to Peter N. and Dave C., both of whom I haven't seen since a CalStar a couple years ago.  SQML was 20.5 according to Dave, not great but OK for me.

I brought my 10-inch f/3.7 Swayze reflector and night vision.  I didn't have a particular plan, other than to observe various large objects with this scope, which I don't recall having out in the winter.  I searched around in Interstallarium for large nebula.  I observed exclusively with the PVS-14 afocally with the 67mm plossl, with a 2.5º TFOV.  These are some highlights:

NGC 1491: Sh2-206, aka "The Fossil Footprint Nebula, is an emission type bright nebula located about 9,800 light years away in Perseus.  It is an older, evolved HII region ionized by the O5 star BD +50 886.  It was discovered by William Herschel.  With 3nm Ha there was a very bright central milky knot mottled heavily with dusty-looking haze, and a sharp cut-off on the west side.  The mottled nebulosity rippled away from this central area and diffused to the east, and with some bright semi-arc streaks mixed in with fainter dusty haze.  Later in the night I observed this region with the NV device handheld with an Ha filter, and this nebula seemed to form the apex of a long stream of very faint nebulosity running south parallel to Perseus, forming a sort of cape.

vdB 14 & 15: Part of the van den Bergh catalog of bright reflection nebulae, located in Camelopardalis, and circumpolar. They are faint bluish reflection nebula created as starlight from nearby bright stars scatters off interstellar dust.  Nicknamed "The Space Waterfall" by astrophotographers.  vdB 14 is a faint, dusty looking mottled elongated glow, with some sinuous seams flowing its length, its illuminating star off to one side, like a mini California Nebula.  vdB 15 was an irregularly round glow around a bright star, with diffuse edges. 

NGC 1333: Embryo Nebula.  In my notes I wrote "this looks like a beetle."  The "head" is mostly round with edges nibbled with dark nebula, with two pillar like formations.  There is a prominent dark intrusion which helps separate the head from the rest of the body.  The body has bright rims or ridges of brighter sections which are denser areas facing stellar winds. It is bisected lengthwise (the "suture") with darker mottling, and there are also crusted with dark nebula. The nebula is primarily composed of molecular hydrogen, dust, and ionized gases. Ultraviolet radiation emitted by nearby young, massive stars causes surrounding gas to glow and forms intricate filaments, knots, and cavities in the nebula.

 

NGC 1624 = Sh2-212: Small sparse open cluster surrounded by a bright but hazy, dusty glow.  Brighter to the middle and diffuse edges, mottled and streaked with dark nebula, looks to me like a lion's mane.  

PN IPHASX J055226.2+323724 in the open cluster M37.  Discovered in 2022, the PN in M37 is the third known planetary nebula associated with an open cluster, and it has been determined to have a kinematic age of 70,000 years. This age is based on the nebula's expansion rate, which is consistent with the properties of the host star. I first tried to observe it a couple of years ago in Mark Wagner's 18-inch telescope with night vision but could not convince myself I saw it then.  This time, after a few minutes observing, I noticed a very faint oval glow in the correct area of the nebule (northern edge).  In my field sketch I roughly drew the cluster and in particular three brighter stars on the periphery which were just to the side of the faint glow I saw, which I drew and pointed and wrote "here?" for me to follow up later.  Now that I have the discovery image below, I can confirm I did indeed see the nebula, nearly to its fullest extent (minus the very faint wisps trailing away to the north from the cluster).

B33 Horsehead Nebula: Everyone with NV will look at the Horsehead, since such a difficult object is so easily seen with the device.  I observed it with 1x, just holding the device without a telescope, as a dark intrusion into the nebula.  At 3x, with a lens attached to the front of the device, I can see the direction of the snout.  With the 10-inch scope, I saw the bump on the horse's head, the protrusion of the snout, the rim of bright nebula running along the top of the head, and even the trail of dark nebula which would be the mane of the neck, but it's separated by a very thin strip of brighter nebula.  IC 434, the bright nebula, forms a bright, sinuous line not unlike some portions of the Veil Nebula (i.e. the Witch's Broom), and huge sheets of the bright nebula seem to evaporate off this line into the sky.  

Sh2-261: Lower's Nebula.  According to the internet, H. A. Lower discovered this nebula in 1939 by using an 8-inch f/1 Schmidt camera with Agfa Superpan Press film and exposure time of 20 minutes.  An emission nebula with both Hb and OIII emissions, it showed up well in my Tri-band filter (Ha, Hb, OIII).  The dark central region is lined with irregular streaks and patches of nebulosity, brighter on the southern side.  The southern side is smaller than the northern, which is turbulent and diffuses slowly in a great arc which trails to the east.  The western edge has a very faint pointed stream of nebulosity which looks like a break-out from a planetary nebula.  A great amount of detail in this large nebula which nearly filled the field of view.

Abell 12: Appeared as a tiny thick, smooth-edged ringed planetary with a soft milky middle next to bright star Mu Orionis.  Did not have enough magnification to notice the breakout along the northern edge.

M1: Best seen through the dual band filter (Ha+OIII).  Hairy oval shape, heavily mottled, with two round bright loops in nearly complete intersecting circles.  I'd love to view this with a larger scope with more image scale.

Abell 21 Medusa Nebula: Bright dome shape with a fairly crisp upper edge and two trailing "legs" on either side.  The center is filled with milky nebula, and the very faint breakout nebula can be seen flowing away opposite from the dome.

NGC 2261 Hubble's Variable Nebula looked like a small squat comet with a broad fan-shaped tail.  One edge of the tail was like a bright small spike, and the other was a bright, longer streak which curved back behind the nebula.  In between these sides was filled with subtle greyscale changes of bright nebula, suggesting structure even in the tail.  Wish I could have used more magnification.

Sh2-310: Large wash of nebula floating near open cluster NGC 2362.  According to Wikipedia t is one of the largest H II regions known in the Milky Way and us ionized by the stars Tau Canis Majoris and UW Canis Majoris. What I was looking at in the scope was the brightest patch of this giant cloud.  Its entire extent is best seen with the NV device handheld at 1x, where it forms a kind of tail to Canis Major.  I also noticed faint streams of nebula which linked it to the Seagull Nebula -- of which most are familiar with the brightest part forming the Seagull shape, but don't see the bubble the wings form unless using low power NV.  Here is the Finkbeiner image from Aladin to illustrate.

Planetary Nebula FR 2-25.  For a full description and a wonderful image of this object, go to Jon Talbot's Astrobin page here.  I noticed this on my atlas and gave it a try, using my Nexus DSC with the Ra & Dec entered to find the general area.  After at least 10 minutes of careful observation, I noticed an extremely faint small glow arcing away from a string of four faint stars (an arc of brighter stars was to the SE).  My notes are "vague cloudiness here in the right spot" with a sketch of the curve and the star field.  A pretty difficult observation but worth the effort!

Mark

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[Mitchell Koerner]

It's wild to think that both Henry coe and Fremont peak had their own sets of a Mark, David, and Peter looking at the stars!

I don't recall the last names but we had one of each (and a few others) on that same night. Also surprisingly warm. 

Thanks for the OR!

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[Akarsh Simha]

On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 3:06 PM Mitchell Koerner <mfko...@gmail.com> wrote:

It's wild to think that both Henry coe and Fremont peak had their own sets of a Mark, David, and Peter looking at the stars!

Reminded me of this OR's title: https://adventuresindeepspace.com/160604.OR%20A%20Three%20Mark%20Night%20at%20Willow%20Springs%20160604.html

 

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[Mark Wagner]

I'm not seeing the original post, the first I see is David's reply 

[Mark McCarthy]

I had a nice opportunity to go out observing this new moon cycle to Fremont Peak Thursday night.  The 2600' elevation was above the inversion layer which has been holding cold air, and poor seeing and haze, in the Bay Area.  It was indeed warm and dry all night, not a trace of dew.  Seeing was ok but not great.  I set-up on the pads next to Peter N. and Dave C., both of whom I haven't seen since a CalStar a couple years ago.  SQML was 20.5 according to Dave, not great but OK for me.

I brought my 10-inch f/3.7 Swayze reflector and night vision.  I didn't have a particular plan, other than to observe various large objects with this scope, which I don't recall having out in the winter.  I searched around in Interstallarium for large nebula.  I observed exclusively with the PVS-14 afocally with the 67mm plossl, with a 2.5º TFOV.  Here are some TFOV.  Here are some highlights:

NGC 1491: Sh2-206, aka "The Fossil Footprint Nebula, is an emission type bright nebula located about 9,800 light years away in Perseus, according to the internet.  It is an older, evolved HII region ionized by the O5 star BD +50 886.  It was discovered by William Herschel.  With 3nm Ha there was a very bright central milky knot mottled heavily with dusty-looking haze, and a sharp cut-off on the west side.  The mottled nebulosity rippled away from this central area and diffused to the east, and with some bright semi-arc streaks mixed in with fainter dusty haze.  Later in the night I observed this region with the NV device handheld with an Ha filter, and this nebula seemed to form the apex of a long stream of very faint nebulosity running south parallel to Perseus, forming a sort of cape.

vdB 14 & 15: Part of the van den Bergh catalog of bright reflection nebulae, located in Camelopardalis, and circumpolar. They are faint bluish reflection nebula created as starlight from nearby bright stars scatters off interstellar dust.  Nicknamed "The Space Waterfall" by astrophotographers.  vdB 14 is a faint, dusty looking mottled elongated glow, with some sinuous seams flowing its length, its illuminating star off to one side, like a mini California Nebula.  vdB 15 was an irregularly round glow around a bright star, with diffuse edges. 

NGC 1333: Embryo Nebula.  In my notes I wrote "this looks like a beetle."  The "head" is mostly round with edges nibbled with dark nebula, with two pillar like formations.  There is a prominent dark intrusion which helps separate the head from the rest of the body.  The body has bright rims or ridges of brighter sections which are denser areas facing stellar winds. It is bisected lengthwise (the "suture") with darker mottling, and there are also crusted with dark nebula. The nebula is primarily composed of molecular hydrogen, dust, and ionized gases. Ultraviolet radiation emitted by nearby young, massive stars causes surrounding gas to glow and forms intricate filaments, knots, and cavities in the nebula.

 

NGC 1624 = Sh2-212: Small sparse open cluster surrounded by a bright but hazy, dusty glow.  Brighter to the middle and diffuse edges, mottled and streaked with dark nebula, looks to me like a lion's mane.  

PN IPHASX J055226.2+323724 in the open cluster M37.  Discovered in 2022, the PN in M37 is the third known planetary nebula associated with an open cluster, and it has been determined to have a kinematic age of 70,000 years. This age is based on the nebula's expansion rate, which is consistent with the properties of the host star. I first tried to observe it a couple of years ago in Mark Wagner's 18-inch telescope with night vision but could not convince myself I saw it then.  This time, after a few minutes observing, I noticed a very faint oval glow in the correct area of the nebule (northern edge).  In my field sketch I roughly drew the cluster and in particular three brighter stars on the periphery which were just to the side of the faint glow I saw, which I drew and pointed and wrote "here?" for me to follow up later.  Now that I have the discovery image below, I can confirm I did indeed see the nebula, nearly to its fullest extent (minus the very faint wisps trailing away from the cluster).

B33 Horsehead Nebula: Everyone with NV will look at the Horsehead, since such a difficult object is so easily seen with the device.  I observed it with 1x, just holding the device without a telescope, as a dark intrusion into the nebula.  At 3x, with a lens attached to the front of the device, I can see the direction of the snout.  With the 10-inch scope, I saw the bump on the horse's head, the protrusion of the snout, the rim of bright nebula running along the top of the head, and even the trail of dark nebula which would be the mane of the neck, but it's separated by a very thin strip of brighter nebula.  IC 434, the bright nebula, forms a bright, sinuous line not unlike some portions of the Veil Nebula (i.e. the Witch's Broom), and huge sheets of the bright nebula seem to evaporate off this line into the sky.  

Sh2-261: Lower's Nebula.  According to the internet H. A. Lower discovered this nebula in 1939 by using an 8-inch f/1 Schmidt camera with Agfa Superpan Press film and exposure time of 20 minutes.  An emission nebula with both Hb and OIII emissions, it showed up well in my Tri-band filter (Ha, Hb, OIII).  The dark central region is lined with irregular streaks and patches of nebulosity, brighter on the southern side.  The southern side is smaller than the northern, which is turbulent and diffuses slowly in a great arc which trails to the east.  The western edge has a very faint pointed stream of nebulosity which looks like a break-out from a planetary nebula.  A great amount of detail in this large nebula which nearly filled the field of view.

[Steve Gottlieb]

Thanks for posting your NV observations, Mark.

I’m curious about vdB 14&15, as well as NGC 1333.  Since these are mainly dusty reflection nebulae, I assume you didn’t use a filter as Ha or Ha + OIII wouldn’t be of any help?

Also, the image you included for NGC 1333 is actually IC 1848, AKA the “Baby” or “Soul” Nebula.  Both NGC 1333 and IC 1848 have been called the “Embryo Nebula” by imagers.  Great example how these nicknames are out of control.

Here’s the “other Embryo Nebula”

Steve

On Dec 15, 2025, at 4:55 PM, 'Mark McCarthy' via The Astronomy Connection (TAC) <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:


I had a nice opportunity to go out observing this new moon cycle to Fremont Peak Thursday night.  The 2600' elevation was above the inversion layer which has been holding cold air, and poor seeing and haze, in the Bay Area.  It was indeed warm and dry all night, not a trace of dew.  Seeing was ok but not great.  I set-up on the pads next to Peter N. and Dave C., both of whom I haven't seen since a CalStar a couple years ago.  SQML was 20.5 according to Dave, not great but OK for me.

I brought my 10-inch f/3.7 Swayze reflector and night vision.  I didn't have a particular plan, other than to observe various large objects with this scope, which I don't recall having out in the winter.  I searched around in Interstallarium for large nebula.  I observed exclusively with the PVS-14 afocally with the 67mm plossl, with a 2.5º TFOV.  Here are some TFOV.  Here are some highlights:

NGC 1491: Sh2-206, aka "The Fossil Footprint Nebula, is an emission type bright nebula located about 9,800 light years away in Perseus, according to the internet.  It is an older, evolved HII region ionized by the O5 star BD +50 886.  It was discovered by William Herschel.  With 3nm Ha there was a very bright central milky knot mottled heavily with dusty-looking haze, and a sharp cut-off on the west side.  The mottled nebulosity rippled away from this central area and diffused to the east, and with some bright semi-arc streaks mixed in with fainter dusty haze.  Later in the night I observed this region with the NV device handheld with an Ha filter, and this nebula seemed to form the apex of a long stream of very faint nebulosity running south parallel to Perseus, forming a sort of cape.

vdB 14 & 15: Part of the van den Bergh catalog of bright reflection nebulae, located in Camelopardalis, and circumpolar. They are faint bluish reflection nebula created as starlight from nearby bright stars scatters off interstellar dust.  Nicknamed "The Space Waterfall" by astrophotographers.  vdB 14 is a faint, dusty looking mottled elongated glow, with some sinuous seams flowing its length, its illuminating star off to one side, like a mini California Nebula.  vdB 15 was an irregularly round glow around a bright star, with diffuse edges. 

NGC 1333: Embryo Nebula.  In my notes I wrote "this looks like a beetle."  The "head" is mostly round with edges nibbled with dark nebula, with two pillar like formations.  There is a prominent dark intrusion which helps separate the head from the rest of the body.  The body has bright rims or ridges of brighter sections which are denser areas facing stellar winds. It is bisected lengthwise (the "suture") with darker mottling, and there are also crusted with dark nebula. The nebula is primarily composed of molecular hydrogen, dust, and ionized gases. Ultraviolet radiation emitted by nearby young, massive stars causes surrounding gas to glow and forms intricate filaments, knots, and cavities in the nebula.
 

NGC 1624 = Sh2-212: Small sparse open cluster surrounded by a bright but hazy, dusty glow.  Brighter to the middle and diffuse edges, mottled and streaked with dark nebula, looks to me like a lion's mane.  

PN IPHASX J055226.2+323724 in the open cluster M37.  Discovered in 2022, the PN in M37 is the third known planetary nebula associated with an open cluster, and it has been determined to have a kinematic age of 70,000 years. This age is based on the nebula's expansion rate, which is consistent with the properties of the host star. I first tried to observe it a couple of years ago in Mark Wagner's 18-inch telescope with night vision but could not convince myself I saw it then.  This time, after a few minutes observing, I noticed a very faint oval glow in the correct area of the nebule (northern edge).  In my field sketch I roughly drew the cluster and in particular three brighter stars on the periphery which were just to the side of the faint glow I saw, which I drew and pointed and wrote "here?" for me to follow up later.  Now that I have the discovery image below, I can confirm I did indeed see the nebula, nearly to its fullest extent (minus the very faint wisps trailing away from the cluster).

B33 Horsehead Nebula: Everyone with NV will look at the Horsehead, since such a difficult object is so easily seen with the device.  I observed it with 1x, just holding the device without a telescope, as a dark intrusion into the nebula.  At 3x, with a lens attached to the front of the device, I can see the direction of the snout.  With the 10-inch scope, I saw the bump on the horse's head, the protrusion of the snout, the rim of bright nebula running along the top of the head, and even the trail of dark nebula which would be the mane of the neck, but it's separated by a very thin strip of brighter nebula.  IC 434, the bright nebula, forms a bright, sinuous line not unlike some portions of the Veil Nebula (i.e. the Witch's Broom), and huge sheets of the bright nebula seem to evaporate off this line into the sky.  

Sh2-261: Lower's Nebula.  According to the internet H. A. Lower discovered this nebula in 1939 by using an 8-inch f/1 Schmidt camera with Agfa Superpan Press film and exposure time of 20 minutes.  An emission nebula with both Hb and OIII emissions, it showed up well in my Tri-band filter (Ha, Hb, OIII).  The dark central region is lined with irregular streaks and patches of nebulosity, brighter on the southern side.  The southern side is smaller than the northern, which is turbulent and diffuses slowly in a great arc which trails to the east.  The western edge has a very faint pointed stream of nebulosity which looks like a break-out from a planetary nebula.  A great amount of detail in this large nebula which nearly filled the field of view.

Abell 12: Appeared as a tiny thick, smooth-edged ringed planetary with a soft milky middle next to bright star Mu Orionis.  Did not have enough magnification to notice the breakout along the northern edge.

M1: Best seen through the dual band filter (Ha+OIII).  Hairy oval shape, heavily mottled, with two round bright loops in nearly complete intersecting circles.  I'd love to view this with a larger scope with more image scale.

Abell 21 Medusa Nebula: Bright dome shape with a fairly crisp upper edge and two trailing "legs" on either side.  The center is filled with milky nebula, and the very faint breakout nebula can be seen flowing away opposite from the dome.

NGC 2261 Hubble's Variable Nebula looked like a small squat comet with a broad fan-shaped tail.  One edge of the tail was like a bright small spike, and the other was a bright, longer streak which curved back behind the nebula.  In between these sides was filled with subtle greyscale changes of bright nebula, suggesting structure even in the tail.  Wish I could have used more magnification.

Sh2-310: Large wash of nebula floating near open cluster NGC 2362.  According to Wikipedia t is one of the largest H II regions known in the Milky Way and us ionized by the stars Tau Canis Majoris and UW Canis Majoris. What I was looking at in the scope was the brightest patch of this giant cloud.  Its entire extent is best seen with the NV device handheld at 1x, where it forms a kind of tail to Canis Major.  I also noticed faint streams of nebula which linked it to the Seagull Nebula -- of which most are familiar with the brightest part forming the Seagull shape, but don't see the bubble the wings form unless using low power NV.  Here is the Finkbeiner image from Aladin to illustrate.

Planetary Nebula FR 2-25.  For a full description and a wonderful image of this object, go to Jon Talbot's Astrobin page here.  I noticed this on my atlas and gave it a try, using my Nexus DSC with the Ra & Dec entered to find the general area.  After at least 10 minutes of careful observation, I noticed an extremely faint small glow arcing away from a string of four faint stars (an arc of brighter stars was to the SE).  My notes are "vague cloudiness here in the right spot" with a sketch of the curve and the star field.  A pretty difficult observation but worth the effort!

Mark

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[Steve Gottlieb]

On second thought, perhaps your description refers to IC 1848 and not NGC 1333?

[Steve Gottlieb]

Here are my notes on a few of these for comparison using night-vision with my 14.5-inch:

Abell 21 at 24x + H-alpha: nice, bright crescent shape that was noticeably brighter as it tapered down at the SW and NE ends.  Filamentary structure was evident in the thick eastern part of the crescent connecting the SW and NE caps.  Brighter streaks and darker gaps were visible, but the scale (at most 10' across) was pretty small at 24x and the contrast subdued.

M1 at 87x + H-alpha; I was surprised to find obvious filamentary structure (better than visual with this aperture) using an 18.2mm Delite. A long filament (A) runs E-W through the center of the Crab Nebula. A shorter thin filament (B) starts just W of center along (A) and angles to the NE.  It seems to reach another filament (C) along the north side that is oriented NW to SE. In general the surface brightness is irregular with brighter and darker regions.  The darker bay on the E side is evident, though filled in with faint nebulosity.

Lower’s Nebula at 24x + H-alpha:  I was surprised to find Lower's Nebula was fairly bright and detailed, with a highly irregular horseshoe shape, open on the east side. It extended over 30' in diameter, but fit comfortably in the field.  The brightest  section lies to the south of the 9th magnitude runaway star HD 41997 (O7.5-type).  It extended ~12' E-W in a thick arc opening to the north. The arc faded a bit, but continued to curve N of the west end.

On the northern side is an irregular region more than 10' in diameter with filamentary appearance (roughly centered at 06 09.1 +15.9).  A fairly faint "wing" or strip extends towards the SW from the NW side.  There is a gap between this strip and the one curving N mentioned above. A faint, diffuse region is on the NE side of Lower's Nebula.  Mag 7.1 HD 42233 is involved on its N end.

Steve

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[mccart...@yahoo.com]

NGC 1333 is a mistake -- I did indeed observe IC 1848.  I guess I got cross-eyed reading the atlas and translated "Cr 33" (the big open cluster in the head section") with NGC 1333...

NV is not supposed to be good with reflection but, with vdB 14 & 15, strangely enough, I was using Ha.  These two are on the edge of / intermixed with Sh2-202, but the shapes of the nebula I saw in my FOV track closely to the reflection nebula.  I do flip through my filter wheel while observing, did see them unfiltered, TriBand (Ha+Hb+OIII) and the Ha.  Somehow, I thought Ha was the best view.

M1 was pleasant a surprise to me too, the "loops" I saw are the brighter filaments you described, and the whole thing was shot through with them and hairy looking.  

Best

Mark