Sky.and.Telescope_

SkyandTelescope.com August 2014 61

the south, faint in the north, and not completely black in
the middle. My 222× ocular revealed a 13th-magnitude
star hugging the northeast edge. Higher magnifi cation
hinted at other stars embedded in the nebulosity but, alas,
not the 17th-magnitude central star. The “hole” around
the missing star remained dusky, not perfectly black. Fil-
tering the view helped defi ne the nebula’s slightly diff use
circumference, even across the pale northern half.
The prize for size went to Abell 62 (PK 47-4.1), which
spans 2.6′ of sky. Images indicate an annular shape, but
the ghostly bubble barely showed in my scope. To ensure
that I’d found the correct spot a bit more than 3°° east of
gamma Aquilae, I followed a 1°-long chain of successively
dimmer stars, beginning with 6.0-magnitude HD 185018
(SAO 105045) and ending at the 10.1-magnitude star TYC
1060-2892-1, which overlays the nebula on its northwest
side. Only by adding the O III fi lter and staring into the
67 × fi eld with averted vision could I glimpse the nebula’s
tenuous, vaguely spherical glow against the Milky Way.
The most pleasing view was provided by a fi ltered 13-mm
ultrawide ocular yielding 154×.
Throttling back to 83×, I tracked down two minuscule
planetaries. For the fi rst, I looked between Mu Aquilae

6807

Abell 62

PK

44-5.1

PK

45-2.1

PK

46-3.1

α

γ

μ

ο

σ

υ

AQUILA

Σ 2497

Altair

6781

6803

6804

19 h 20 m

+11°

19 h 50 m 19 h 45 m 19 h 40 m 19 h 35 m 19 h 30 m 19 h 25 m

+10°

+9°

+8°

+7°

+6°

Star magnitudes

4 5 6 7 8 9

10

Big, ghostly Abell 62 appears reddish in this image synthesized from the red

and blue plates of the Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. This image

and the three POSS-II images on page 62 all show fi elds of view 15′ wide.

Abell 62