Sky and Telescope - July 2017 - 39

bright disc was irregularly round and slightly brighter along
the eastern rim, particularly near the embedded star.
It's fair to say that tracking down Abell planetaries is not
the easiest task in the universe. It is, however, one of the
more rewarding. Good planning makes success more likely.
Know where to search in the sky, be ready to switch up your
eyepieces, and have an O III or UHC ﬁlter handy on the
observing table. Find some dark skies and take your time, and
you'll ﬁnd the views well worth the effort.
¢ Last year, Contributing Editor and deep-sky fanatic STEVE
GOTTLIEB completed a 40-year project to observe the entire
NGC (7,500 objects), but he's still working on the Abell list.
u OUTSTANDING IN THE FIELD George O. Abell (1927-1983) earned
his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, where he studied the
distribution of galaxy clusters based on POSS plates. He was passionate about science education and served as president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and chairman of the American Astronomical
Society Education Committee. He also served as chair for the Astronomy
Department at UCLA, where he was considered an inspired and brilliant
lecturer by students and faculty alike.

FURTHER READING
º In 1977, Spencer Weartt conducted an oral history of George
Abell for the American Institute of Physics. Read more at https://
is.gd/abellhistory. For the full Abell catalog, see https://is.gd/
AbellPNeCat.

SK Y & TELESCOPE ARCHIVES

Summer Abell Planetaries
Object

Alt ID

Mag(v)

Abell 39

PN G47.0+42.4

12.9

Central Star Mag

Size

RA

Dec.

Distance
(light-years)

15.7

162″ × 162″

16h 27.6m

+27° 55′

5,500

53.5m

+10° 37′

7,700

(v or photographic)

Abell 43

PN G36.0+17.6

14.7

14.8

80″ × 74″

17h

Abell 50

PN G78.5+18.7

13.4

20.0 pg

32″ × 32″

18h 59.3m

+48° 28′

13,000

10.5m

-02° 21′

10,000

Abell 55

PN G33.0-05.3

13.2

20.5 pg

57″ × 52″

19h

Abell 65

PN G17.3-21.9

13.8

15.4

134″ × 72″

19h 46.6m

-23° 08′

4,700

20h

31.6m

-07° 05′

20,000

20h 50.0m

+13° 34′

6,500

26.4m

+62° 54′

6,800

Abell 70

PN G38.1-25.4

14.7

17.8

45″ × 38″

Abell 72

PN G59.7-18.7

12.7

16.1

134″ × 118″

Abell 75

PN G101.8+08.7

14.5

17.2 pg

67″ × 47″

21h

Abell 78

PN G81.2-14.9

13.4

13.3

113″ × 88″

21h 35.5m

+31° 42′

6,600

26.3m

+54° 50′

11,000

Abell 79

PN G102.9-02.3

15.3

18.7 pg

59″ × 49″

22h

Abell 81

PN G117.5+18.9

14.4

18.8 pg

34″ × 31″

22h 42.4m

+80° 27′

16,300

23h

45.8m

+57° 04′

5,800

23h 47.7m

+51° 24′

6,400

Abell 82

PN G114.0-04.6

12.7

14.9

34″ × 31″

Abell 84

PN G112.9-10.2

13.0

13.0

146″ × 114″

Angular sizes and separations are from recent catalogs. Visually, an object's size is often smaller than the cataloged value and varies according to the aperture and
magniﬁcation of the viewing instrument. Right ascension and declination are for equinox 2000.0.

s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m

* J U LY 2 017

39
http://www.is.gd/abellhistory https://www.is.gd/AbelIPNeCat http://www.is.gd/abellhistory https://www.is.gd/abellPNeCat http://www.skyandtelescope.com
Sky and Telescope - July 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - July 2017
