Sky & Telescope - June 2021 - 33

of the nebula. Larger planetaries with low
surface brightnesses such as this one and
K 1-22 require much larger telescopes to be
visually appreciated.

Bonus Target

Summary
When I was an acolyte of the chemical
industry, we once had a corporate R&D
director who spoke in parables and used
inspirational catch phrases. One such
was " Strive to pluck the low-hanging fruit
ﬁrst. " There wasn't all that much fruit
left on the chemical tree, but his precept
prompted me to pursue this project: plucking low-hanging
southern planetary nebulae from the murky skies of Houston.
Although you could say these targets are low-hanging, they
were certainly not easy to pluck.
But the fact that I cataloged all 15 planetary nebulae (plus
one symbiotic star) detailed here suggests that neither my
latitude nor atmospheric conditions or even light pollution
are detrimental to viewing these southerly nebulae. Granted,
the planetaries for the most part aren't ultra-faint fuzzies,
and I viewed most of them on the rare nights of optimal seeing and transparency. However, I feel that I must apologize
for always panning Houston skies, for even if it is one of the
worst light-polluted cities in the U.S. there are still small
jewels to be found.

I decided to throw in the symbiotic star
(binary system consisting of a red giant
Hen 2-289
and a white dwarf) Henize 2-289 because
prior to my knowledge of its reclassification, I had previously scheduled to observe
its alter ego, Haro 1-36. Since I was in the
neighborhood. . . . Hen 2-289 is located 1.3′
north-northwest of G Scorpii, a 3.2-magnitude yellow star about 4′ west of the
7.2-magnitude globular cluster NGC 6441.
Star and globular make a charming pair in
a 13′ eyepiece field at 212×, but the glare
of G Scorpii precluded any identification of the 12.1-magnitude
symbiotic star either with or without the O III filter. Only when I
placed an occulting bar in front of the bright star with the filter in
the optical train did Hen 2-289 emerge as a blue point.

DON FERGUSON has cataloged 124 planetary nebulae (and
one symbiotic star), uncounted double stars, and many other
things good and proper for an amateur astronomer while living
at this location. He can be contacted at dferg28571@aol.com.
FURTHER MATERIAL: Finder images for these targets can be
downloaded at https://is.gd/Sendero_Finders.

Planetaries in the Sendero
Constellation

Mag(v)

Mag(*)

Size

Dec.

NGC 2792

Object

Vela

11.6

17.2

21″

09h 12.4m

-42° 26′

NGC 2818

Pyxis

11.6

19.5

93″

09h 16.0m

-36° 38′

07.0m

-40° 26′

NGC 3132

WOLFG A NG PA ECH / FR A NZ HOFFM A NN / CH A M Ä LEON OBSERVATORY

K 1-22

Vela

9.2

10.0

88″

10h

Hydra

~12.1

17.4

180″

11h 26.7m

-34° 22′

22.4m

-44° 09′

IC 4406

Lupus

10.2

17.4

106″

14h

NGC 5873

Lupus

11.0

15.5

13″

15h 12.9m

-38° 08′

40″

16h

01.3m

-34° 33′

13.0m

-36° 14′

NGC 6026

Lupus

12.9

13.2

NGC 6072

Scorpius

11.7

19.3

98″

16h

NGC 6153

Scorpius

10.9

16.1

24″

16h 31.5m

-40° 15′

IC 4637

Scorpius

12.5

22″

17h 05.2m

-40° 53′

NGC 6302

Scorpius

9.6

21.1

89″

17h

NGC 6337

Scorpius

12.3

14.9

51″

17h 22.3m

-38° 29′

Fg 3

Corona Australis

11.2

14.3

2″

18h 00.2m

-38° 50′

IC 1297

Corona Australis

10.7

14.2

24″

19h 17.4m

-39° 37′

132″

21h

59.6m

-39° 23′

17h

49.8m

-37° 01′

IC 5148
Hen 2-289

Grus
Scorpius

~11
12.1

16.5
-

13.7m

-37° 06′

Mag(*) is the magnitude of the central star. Angular sizes 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.

sk yandtelescope.org * JUNE 2 021

https://www.is.gd/Sendero_Finders http://www.skyandtelescope.org

Sky & Telescope - June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - June 2021