Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - 55
θ
the nebula's central star. Indeed, at
97×, I perceived a compact puff dominated
by the central star. Adding a 2×
Barlow for 194× produced a spherical
haze roughly 30″ across that was diffuse
at the edge and pinpoint-bright in
the middle. HD 59087 was helpful for
refocusing when needed.
Returning to 97× and attaching the
O III filter made NGC 2392 crisply
round, but it greatly diminished the
central star. I switched to an Ultra High
Contrast (UHC) filter, which isn't as
severe as an O III. At 180×, the UHC
delivered a big, well-defined disk with
a central sun pleasingly visible. But
beware: A filtered field at high power
can be quite dark. Whenever I used the
filters (particularly the O III), I had
to cup my hands around the ocular to
keep my eye sensitive to the dim and
delicate scene.
Fiddling With Filters
For a bigger, brighter Clown Face, I
deployed my 7.1-inch f/15 Mak-Cass. A
30-mm eyepiece generating 90× yielded
a roundish haze, with the embedded
central star still threatening to overpower
it. Gazing directly at the star
eliminated the delicate vapor. At 113×,
the nebula was bigger and more diffuse.
Adding the OIII filter darkened the sky
significantly and eliminated the central
star, leaving only a soft-edged disk.
With the UHC, the disk was less sharply
defined but the central star re-emerged.
Next, I upped the ante to 159× with
the UHC in place. The nebula seemed
unevenly bright, it didn't disappear
under direct vision, and the central
star persevered. Nice! Swapping out
the UHC for the O III slayed the star.
Despite that, I kept the O III and tried
my luck at 300×. The result was a palegrey
" planet. " The ghostly globe, around
35″ in diameter, was a bit mottled and
slightly elliptical, its long axis pointing
toward HD 59087 - still a boon
for focusing. Nothing else was visible.
With this combination of filter and
magnification, the background was
so dark I couldn't see the edge of the
eyepiece field. I wanted more aperture,
so I turned to my biggest bucket - the
7h 40m
ρ
Castor α
+30°
τ
σ
Pollux
β
υ
GEMINI
κ
Mebsuta
ε
+25°
ι
7h 20m
7h 00m
6h 40m
6h 20m
Wasat
μ
δ
ζ
Mekbuda
2
3
4
5
6
7
ν +20°
λ
γ
Alhena
+15°
7h 35m
7h 30m
7h 25m
7h 20m
South 548
Wasat
δ
GEMINI
63 (SHJ 368)
HD 59087
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
+20°
Clown Face Nebula
2392
56
+21°
+22°
FINDING THE FACE IN SPACE The author's star-hop to NGC 2392 begins at 3.5-magnitude
Delta (δ) Geminorum, which is located almost halfway from 1.2-magnitude Pollux to 1.9-magnitude
Alhena, Gamma (γ) Geminorum. It continues through a pretty star field that includes 5.3-magnitude
63 Geminorum, then on to NGC 2392.
sk yand tele scope .o r g * MARCH 2022 55
Star magnitudes
Star magnitudes
http://skyandtelescope.org
Sky & Telescope - March 2022
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - March 2022
Contents
Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - Cover1
Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - Cover2
Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - 1
Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - Contents
Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - 3
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Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - Cover3
Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - Cover4
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