NGC 6826

Object Name: NGC6826, the Blinking Planetary
Object Type: Planetary Nebula
Location: Terneuzen, the Netherlands
Date: 21-06-2012Media: Photoshop, using several layers to make it smooth
NELM: 5.8
Seeing: average 6-7/10

This sketch was made using a 8 inch newtonian telescope on an HEQ-5 Pro from Skywatcher. The magnification I did used was around 400 times.
The central star was seen with ease and the ‘blinking’, where this planetary is known of, wasn’t seen with the magnification I used for the sketch. After several minutes of waiting for moments of good seeing, I noticed something strange. Something I haven’t seen in other sketches with the same aperture. It was a central bar, running from one end of the oval planetary to the other. Really nice to see a surprise like this.

After checking the internet, I’ve found some sketches and observations of some brighter parts of this planetary. At both end of the over planetary, there are some spots which are called FLIERS. Together with the brighter central spot and some ‘average’ seeing, it would probably merged together and be the reason for seeing a ‘bar’ instead of three brighter spots.

Luuk Haarmans