16 December 2012

Bernes Bright Nebulae

An observing plan containing Claes Berne's 160 "bright nebulosities in opaque dust clouds" has been uploaded to the Deep-Sky Planner Plan Library. Announcements of new plan uploads are typically made on the Deep-Sky Planner Facebook page, but this plan deserves a little background information.

Dr. Bernes original study appeared in Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, vol. 29, July 1977, p. 65-70. The study surveyed optical wavelength photographic plates in an effort to list star forming regions. The original article and abstract are available online from SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service.

The 160 entries in  the study contain reflection and emission nebulae, and many Herbig-Haro objects, a special type of emission nebula surrounding young stars. Some of these objects can be observed in moderate sized amateur telescopes, but others require large instruments and/or dedicated CCD imaging equipment. The objects are distributed across the entire sky so that both northern and southern hemisphere observers can observe many of these objects.

The original publication listed positions referred to epoch B1950.0. The uploaded plan includes updated positions (referred to epoch J2000.0), cross references and magnitudes taken from SIMBAD. Object size, relative brightness codes and some cross references are included from the original publication.

These objects are not suitable for novice observers, but they present a nice challenge for observers with moderate to large instruments and deep-sky imagers.

No comments:

Post a Comment