OR - Henry Coe 12/11/2025

[Richard Navarrete]

Tales from an unexpected star party.

As usually happens after full moon, my observing buddy, Mark Wagner, and I started making observing plans. We decided on Thursday, December 11, as the forecast for that night was good. We posted on our local observer’s list, TAC, about our intentions, and were a bit surprised when we got a fair number of responses from other amateurs hoping to join us. Generally we only have three or maybe four people with us. In the end, we had eleven people show up with scopes ranging from an 80mm refractor up to 17.5” and 18” dobs. Not bad for a Thursday night! Most people were observers, but we had at least two imagers, but we didn’t hold that against them.

I brought the 80mm refractor and decided to experiment with attaching my Orion binoviewers straight through, without a diagonal. No need for a barlow! The 25mm plossls gave 22.5x and some great views. My favorite view was the region around M42, the Orion nebula. Seeing the nebula with the surrounding clusters gave a unique view, not to mention that everything was reversed and upside down in the eyepieces. I also brought a new-to-me eight inch Orion dob sitting on my homemade stand bringing the eyepiece to a more comfortable level. I continued working through Sue French’s ‘ Celestial Sampler’ and managed to finish one new essay, and to snag objects I had missed on five others.

The evening started quite blustery, and died down for a bit later, but despite getting down to the mid-40’s F, it didn’t seem to feel very cold, and I was comfortable in thermals, hiking pants, t-shirt,and a swaggy sweatshirt for most of the night. I never put on gloves. A night my Canadian friends would call balmy.

My first object for the night was NGC 6866, an open cluster in Cygnus located between Gamma and Delta Cygni. I saw a loose cluster with a denser patch on the western side, and an arc of stars on the eastern side. I’d observed 6866 in 1998 in a 10” dob in a darker sky and my notes say it was spellbinding! Maybe I was more easily impressed back then, or a bigger scope and darker skies makes a difference. Ya think? Next was NGC 6910, a magnitude 7.4 open cluster that appeared as a ‘Y’ shape near Gamma Cygni. There are two magnitude 7 stars on the western side, and this helped me identify the field. IC 1318 is an emission nebula in the Gamma Cygni region. With a 35mm Panoptic and an Ultrablock filter I could see subtle patches of nebulosity, particularly dense on the western side. I used the AT80ED refractor with the binoviewer for Rubrecht 173, a large open cluster. Jaroslav Ruprecht was a Czech astronomer who published a paper in 1958 of known stellar associations and had nothing to do with colored cube puzzles.  My main impression is of three parallel crooked lines of stars with dimmer stars scattered about. X-Cygni, a variable yellow supergiant star, is on the edge of the field. Interestingly, X-Cygni is the first variable star discovered by an amateur, (was that you Steve G. ? ) ;-) and is a classic Cepheid variable. This finished ‘On the Wings of a Swan’ that I’d started in June.

I had one object left in “Treasures of the Royal Couple”, page 46 if you’re following along, and pushed the scope over to Stock 12 which turned out to be a pretty, loose, open cluster which contained a small arc of three brighter stars on the southern side. There is another arc of stars, farther apart on the northern side of the cluster.

I also had one object left in ‘A Hero’s Quest’ , page 35, and that was NGC 1499, or more popularly known as the California nebula. Both Mark and I had recently purchased used H- Beta filters, so I was excited to give it a try. I used the 80mm refractor and have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed. There was certainly a faint glow of nebulosity, but I was expecting something more dramatic. We also tried Mark’s H-Beta in his 18” Obsession, and the glow was certainly brighter, but having to scan around to view the nebula wasn’t the same as seeing the whole object in one view. I’ve heard reports of people seeing clumps and filaments in smaller scopes on this object, but perhaps I need to try again in darker and steadier skies. I did end up getting an amazing view of the California Nebula, but more on that later.

Finished with The Hero, I moved on to Sue’s essay entitled ‘Leaping Lizard’, page 140. NGC 7243 is a magnitude 6.5 open cluster that looked like a backwards question mark to me in the small refractor. Sue French saw it as a broken heart with half of the heart missing, and after observing for a bit I could see what she meant. Struve 2890 is a double star within NGC 7243 on the southeast side and was an easy split at 50x. NGC 7209 was next and was an eyepiece (24 Panoptic) filling open cluster. There is a magnitude 6.2 yellow star on the northern edge. SS Lacertae is a magnitude 10.1 ex-eclipsing binary located within NGC 7209. Apparently the eclipses began in the late 1800’s and stopped sometime in the middle of the 20^th century. The thinking is that there may be a third star whose gravity is affecting the system. Space is weird. The last object was another open cluster, IC 1434. I saw a hazy background glow with a few brighter stars sprinkled about when observed at 50x.

I had two double stars to observe in Auriga, both within the confines of M36. Struve 737 and Sel 350 were easy splits.

My last observations were two open clusters to finish off ‘Dog Overboard.’ NGC 2362 was a knockout cluster surrounding Tau Canis Majoris. A bright star with a retinue of dimmer stars packed around it. By this point in the evening the seeing wasn’t very good, so the stars looked a bit bloated. I definitely need to check this out again when the seeing is better. My last object was NGC 2354. I found this to be a tough find, even though it is in an easy spot to locate between Delta and Tau Canis Majoris. I saw three brighter stars in a line with many dim stars trailing below.

I’ve now completed thirty-one of the sixty essay’s in Sue’s book. This project has been a lot of fun and I look forward to stalking the night skies to observe all the objects in her book.

Since sunset is so early in December, and I could start observing by six o’clock, my plan was to pack up and drive home around 11:30. David K., who was set-up next to me, had a similar plan and we decided to leave together so we would minimize the impact of our lights while we drove out. As I finished packing I saw a group of people in the middle of the field talking excitedly, so I wandered over to say good night and warn them of impending lights. It turns out they were using Mitchell’s hand held night vision gadget looking at nebula! When I got a turn I was amazed at the view through this small, though expensive, tool. The North American nebula popped out, even though it was on the horizon, the California nebula looked like it was painted on the sky, bright as a photo. The biggest thrill was seeing Barnard’s Loop, which seemed to stretch all along the side of Orion, and I think I even suspected a notch where the Horsehead should be. A fantastic ending to a night of companionship and observing.

[Mark Wagner]

Nice OR Richard.  The views through you 80mm of the M42 region were quite impressive!

Want to mention Tau CMa since you enjoyed the cluster it dominates.  Years ago I recall tapping my ten inch looking at Tau, and was amazed at the eye trick that ensued.  Tau was so bright relative to the cluster it would appear to move erratically and independently from the dimmer stars making up the rest of the cluster.  It jumped around!  We began calling it the Mexican Jumping Cluster!  Additionally, Tau itself is interesting, as one of the most luminous stars in the sky, a blue supergiant.

Can't wait to get out again!

[Richard Navarrete]

Oh yeah! I didn’t realize Tau Canis Majoris was the Mexican Jumping Star! That was so long ago, I’d forgotten all about it .

Richard 

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[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

Just had a fun Navarrete moment, reading what you'd written about 6866, this open cluster in the middle of the very busy Cygnus Milky Way. Back in 1998 you'd called it spellbinding. Knowing your passion for OC's, my first thought was that you were being sardonic in '98. Not so! Looked at my notes for that cluster, from 2000, "Ah-ha! Beautiful dense sparkle of little stars, very rich toward the center. Whole cluster forms a very shapely arrowhead." And The Animal's NGC notes call it "rich and very appealing."

Plus, no kidding about 2362, very sparkly, highly to be recommended. And tau CMa is a visual triple, with two close pinpoint companions. Not an easy triple. Turns out there are 5 stars in that system.

Thanks for the vicarious fun, Richard!

[Ted Hauter]

A very rich reminisce.

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[Richard Navarrete]

I've gained a new appreciation for open clusters in general since I started observing with smaller scopes with wider fields of view.

Richard

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.

[Paul Alsing]

Funny how that works, eh?

\Paul

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From: 'Richard Navarrete' via The Astronomy Connection (TAC) <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 3:56 PM
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Subject: Re: [TAC] Re: OR - Henry Coe 12/11/2025

 

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[Richard Navarrete]

The right tool for the job. 

Richard

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[Surya Rao]

Open clusters are simply spectacular. They look beautiful through a binoculars.

Surya 

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