Sky & Telescope - March 2022 - 56

CHAD QUANDT
MARCH 2022 OBSERVING
Suburban Stargazer
BOZO SMUDGE Known to
amateur astronomers as
the Clown Face Nebula,
NGC 2392 is a small but
prominent spring sky target
that boasts a relatively bright
(10.5-magnitude) central
star. This fuzzy face in space
smiles at us from a distance
of some 5,000 light-years.
10-inch Dobsonian - and employed
the UHC and O III filters with magnifications
of 169× and 218×. Both filters
presented a patchy disk. Again, the O
III deleted the central star but mercifully
spared Handy-Dandy 59087, my
focus friend. I marginally preferred the
UHC view, but I admit it's a matter of
personal taste.
Fiddling with filters is a dark art on
any night, but this March session was
really cold. Picture it: numb fingers trying
to thread an O III onto an eyepiece
. . . patiently refocusing the field . . .
nudging the scope at high power . . .
losing the freaking target. Endless joy.
No filters? No problem!
Putting the filters aside, I boldly pushed
the Dob to 436×. Wow! The Clown Face
came to life. The mega-magnification
generated a cottony, bluish-grey visage,
the central star a pure-white nose. The
face was egg-shaped, aligned northsouth.
To my eye, the southern portion
glowed brighter than the northern
parts. This agrees with images of NGC
2392, which show a bright patch on the
southern edge (the Clown's forehead in
56 MARCH 2022 * SKY & TELESCOPE
my telescope's inverted view) and a dark
area in the northern half (a dimpled
chin). By comparing the size of the disk
to the space between the nose and HD
59087, I estimated the oval nebula to
span about 45″. That eyeball exercise
led my averted vision to pick up an
extremely tenuous halo around the disk.
Surprisingly, neither the UHC nor the O
III enhanced this barest hint of halo.
So, Gemini's cosmic Clown had the
last laugh. In my backyard Dob at high
power, it looked best unfiltered. Don't
get me wrong. Narrowband filters work
Clown Jewels
Object
Type
NGC 2392
Delta Gem
South 548
SHJ 368AB
SHJ 368AC
Planetary nebula
Double star
Double star
Double star
Double star
wonders at reviving pale planetaries
sickened by polluted skies. But the
Clown Face Nebula is healthy enough
to stand out on its own. If your kit
doesn't include filters, your views of
NGC 2392 won't suffer much. All you
need is a good telescope, relatively high
magnification, and an eagle eye.
So, get after that face in space - and
no clowning around!
¢ Contributing Editor KEN HEWITT-WHITE
observes every clear night but hasn't
spotted a real circus clown in years.
Mag(v)
9.1
3.5, 8.2
7.0, 8.9
5.3, 10.9
5.3, 10.7
Size/Sep
0.9′
5.5″
35.3″
43.0″
2.2′
RA
7h 29.2m
7h 20.1m
7h 27.7m
7h 27.7m
7h 27.7m
Dec.
+20° 55′
+21° 59′
+22° 08′
+21° 27′
+21° 27′
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.

Sky & Telescope - March 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - March 2022