The M97, also known as the Owl-nebula is a very spectacular, famous planetary, in the vicinity of M108. It's a nearly regular circle, slightly elongated in E-W directions. Also on the Eastern and Western corner one can find two darker spots, the eyes of the owl. The planetary itself is quite an easy object, looks much brighter than the 11m as listed in catalogues, a homogenous shape with sharply fading edges. Discovering the eyes is a bit harder: especially the Western spot is tend to blink. Using your averted vision helps a lot to see the details. I was using my Baader UHC filter to finish this sketch, however according to my experiences a slightly better seeing helps much more than the filter.

Also known as the Eskimo or Clown face nebula, this planetary is the real gem of the constellation Gemini. It's a very bright object, showing much details and is quite unresponsive on filters. I estimate the brightness of its tiny, star-like core about 11 magnitudes, with two perfectly regular concentric circles around it, each with surface brightnesses about 1 magnitudes fainter than this. The diametre of the inner circle seems exactly the half of the entire object.

I've sketched this planetary about a year ago, but obviously I did not mark it as "SKETCHED" in my list of objects, so the result is a new drawing. However, when I compared the two sketches, it was obvious to make this mistake, because now - even if conditions were not ideal thanks to the 50% Moon nearby - I was able to see and record much more details: the brighter arcs around the central star were not at all visible for me, but now they were easily noticeable. The UHC filter was not neccessary to observe this object, however it boosted the intensity of the brighter central bubble.

An unexpectedly bright, but tiny (20") planetary nebula. If we already know what and where must we look for, it is an easy target. However, for me it was a really tough one for the first time: it took some time to realize that the mysterious "star" that shouldn't be there according to the star maps is in fact the planetary itself. At 71x it is completely star-like, however at 250x we are able to catch its smaller details too. It has an almond shape, elongated to the E-W directions, with a bright white core. Also towards these directions I could discover two faint little horns. It requires high magnification, and good seeing.

The first thing that catches your attention on this planetary nebula is its marvellous sea blue colour. After that you may notice its asymmetric shape, which is just like two halves of nut sticked together, slided a bit apart. With the UHC filter on the view is even more spectacular: many additional faint details appear around the planetary, and it also appears slightly larger than without it. It demands for a very calm, stable atmosphere. The oval planetary has a longer axle on the N-S direction.

At 71x all I can notice is that a star appears in a magical deep blue colour. I had to increase magnification all the way up to 300x to be perfectly sure, that this star in fact has some extent. Due to the tiny size, the UHC filter does not help me to enhance the view at all. At 300x some tentacles appear but the whole sight is very uncertain. The object is very bright but I don't think it's any larger than 3", maybe even smaller than that. Later on I've checked some photos and I was very happy to see that those tentacles are really there, but they are visible only on the best photographs. SQM reading: 20.85 m/arcsec², 11°C.

A faint little planetary discovered by Herschel. It has a diametre of 1', even at 71x it does not look like a star, but rather like a large, fuzzy little spot. By increasing the magnification, you may notice a slight elongation in the WSW - ENE direction. By some more careful examination, a slightly brighter central region is visible to the ENE, with a faint star on its edge, which I thought to be the central star. However, as I went on with the sketching, I started to notice an even fainter star in the middle of the brighter core area, first only with averted vision, later on with direct vision too, which I believe is the real central star of this planetary.

A very tiny but bright planetary nebula, which looks pretty much star-like at small powers, but above 100x it starts to show some dimensions, looking like a blurred star. At 250x it seems quite large, without a filter it has some nice bluish colour. With an UHC filter and especially with averted vision its diametre grows even larger. Because of its small size it's very hard to discover any details, but by the time it looks as if the core has some tiny horn eastwards. SQM reading: 21.01 m/arcsec^2 9°C.

A very large planetary nebula in the Cygnus constellation, also known as the Fetus nebula. Its naming perfectly suits its look, which is very conspicious. Its an asymetrical shell with widely varying brightness and an enormously shiny area to the NE. The central star is a 13.2 magnitude one, easily detectable because its surrounding dark areas. To the East from this you may notice another star of the similar colour and luminosity. I cannot see any hint of colour throughout the planetary. It's a nice object even at low powers of around 100x thanks to its relatively high surface brightness, therefore it may be a reachable target for small telescopes too. I've tried using my UHC filter, but the results were worse than without it.

Also known as the Magic carpet nebula, this planetary is quite large, with a shape that fits its name well. The surface brightness varies widely, with a brighter larger part to the NW, and a smaller bright portion to the SE, divided by a fainter part. Its colour is remarkably blue, the dark parts are very spectacular with their deep shade of blue.

Nearly round, faint, mid-size planetary. The centre is fairly brighter, dark patch can be detected running from the East. To the South I can see a star that looks a bit as if it is surrounded by some sort of fuzziness. The planetary does not react well to the use of UHC and O-III filters. Located in a sparsely populated environment. SQM reading: 21.07 m/arcsec², 4°C, humid air.

The planetary, also known as Blue snowball nebula looks planet-like even on powers as small as 45x, with a charming cyan colour. I think this is the planetary, that looks nice even is a theatre-binocular. Naturally, a filter is unneccessary to view it, however I've found that by using a UHC filter its size expands, especially to the Northeast, where a dark blue thin arc shows up. Finding this planetary is not hard at all, but it's a bit tricky, because the viewfinder displays it just like a bright star which you are unable to find on your maps. It has a perfect circular shape of a diametre of 0.6', with a brightness of about 8m.

This open cluster is located in a star field that's free from bright stars. Its most remarkable figure reminds me of a reaping-hook, and is composed by four stars between magnitudes 9 and 10. These are also considered the brightest members of the cluster, besides these only a couple of stars of 8-10m are visible in the field of vision, but most of the members are fainter than 12m. For about 20' to the south is the planetary nebula PNG138.0+04.1, but its nebulosity can only be suspected even by using averted vision - the large, 5.5' diameter planetary cannot really be seen even with the UHC filter on. However, its 13m central star can be found and a little haziness can be detected next to this star that is probably illuminated by the brighter stars next to the central one.

Tiny, yet surprisingly bright planetary nebula. Despite its name it doesn't contain any hint of blue colour visually. Its surface is very even, however with deeper examination and higher magnification some details start to show up. To the North for example, you may notice a small bump. The detailed sketch were done at 375x and UHC filter and reveals more surface details. Visible from 71x. With UHC it emerges from its background. The O-III view is not better and not worse than the UHC one. The H-ß filter seem to emphasize faint surface details, however it hides the rest of the nebula and the surrounding stars.

SQM reading: 20.45 MPSAS, 14°C.

A wonderful yet tiny little planetary. At small magnification (71x in my case) it looks like a slightly defocused star, however by increasing the power it soon starts to develop into a nice, perfectly round planetary nebula. Some details that also appea: to the South of the bright central star you may notice a small brighter blob, and to the West a bright feature can be seen that resembles a spiral arm of a galaxy. Doesn't react at all on UHC filter, but with an O-III it's size apparently grows, however the central star completely disappears, which is a bit weird, because the Westward star stays in the field even if it's fainter than the central star of the nebula. With low power it has a tint of purple-blue.

Tiny planetary, at 71x it looks like a star with a small halo. Especially with averted vision you can see its round shape. At high magnification I discover lots of details, for example a thin, brighter arc on its Northern border, and a brighter blob next to the central star to the South, and a darker patch to the Southwest. With averted vision, the round shape transforms to a little bit of oval, elongated in the East to West direction.

What makes this observation special is that it is actually an error, because I've already observed this object about a month ago, but again, I failed to mark this object in my list of observed objects: click here for that observation. So I've sketched it again, and what's more interesting is that I have used the same magnification! Although the subjective classification is a bit different, but alltogether the two observations are quite the same.

Lessons learned: a.) the faint details I've sketched last time were also there this night, so I have a strong proof now that I can trust my senses, even if the details are extremely faint or low-contrast. b.) I'm getting older, shouldn't trust my memory anymore. :)

A tiny, faint planetary nebula in the constellation Gemini, a relatively easy find. Its double lobed shape can be recognized even with very small magnifications (at 71x its shape was very obvious), but shows much more details with high powers. In the two parts two star-like false cores can be seen. Its Northern half looks a bit triangular, while its Southern half appears to grow significantly to SE when using averted vision. UHC filter helps a little but is not necessary and ruins the looks of the stellar neighborhood while an O-III makes it even fainter so is not recommended.

I was very surprised when I looked into the 21mm (71x) eyepiece I use for searching objects, because I expected a tiny fuzzy stellar sight: instead a small, round, well-defined spot greeted me. Increased my magnification to 250x, however - most probably because of the below average seeing - the planetary nebula was much better looking when I stepped back from my 6mm TMB Planetary II to my 7mm of the same type, providing a modest 214x magnification. This is a very easy target even without filters, however I found that it appears much brighter compared to the sky background with a wide transmission UHC filter. An O-III was also fine, but somehow the UHC view was a bit neater for me. It resembles the M57 Ring Nebula, except that it is a bit fainter, smaller, and the central part of the muffin shape is not as dark, but closer to the outer regions in surface brightness. Can be found relatively easily by following the path of Kemble's Cascade, as it sits near one of its end, close to the nice open cluster NGC 1502.

Bright but very tiny, therefore really difficult object: even at 250x it looks completely stellar. I looked for about 45 minutes at a wrong place nearby thanks to some really inaccurate sketches I used to find this planetary nebula. Turns out, some fellow sketchers did not really see this object, yet confidently drawn a similar fuzzy in a field that is nearby, even resembles the real field a bit, but they were wrong. So I've just learned that it's not only astrophotographs a visual observer shouldn't trust, but one must be precautious with sketches too. Higher magnification may be better, but I couldn't go any higher because of my rather poor condition Dobsonian mount. I've tried O-III, UHC-S and UHC filters, but neither enhanced the view worth mentioning.

At 71x it looks like a slightly de-focused star which is moderately faint and seem a bit elongated. At 250x the elongation becomes obvious in the N-S direction, and the protoplanetary nebula splits into two lobes. At 375x it looks somewhat large. The Northern part is clearly brighter and has a denser inner region. The Eastern part is smooth and resembles an arrowhead. The whole nebula appears to have a very faint halo around it. Its light is polarized: by using a polarization filter I sense a change in brightness by about 1-2 magnitudes when I rotate the filter to the correct position.

This protoplanetary nebula is much fainter than what I expected, but it has an easy location so it's very easy to recognize. At 71x it is completely stellar. At 250x you can suspect that it is an extended object. However, to be able to fully understand the nature of this object, you need to go into extreme magnification levels. Fortunately I had an excellent seeing this evening, so I was able to use my 2.3mm eyepiece (for the first time in the past decade) and view the object at 652x. It has a strong NW-SE elongation, and the shape of an eye. Its NW side is brighter and it has the shape of a drop. The SE side consists of a faint arc and an area that is even fainter and completes the eye shape. Between the two sides of the protoplanetary nebula a thin slit can be seen. The most interesting feature of this object is that it definitely looks blue!

Very faint planetary, its edge is very hard to define. It's perfectly spherical, but this shape is obvious mostly with averted vision only. Its Western side looks brighter and almost invisibly but I do detect a slightly darker band in the middle of the surface in the N-S direction, which touches the Northern edge of the planetary nebula. The object is huge, but it is still very difficult to find due to its faint surface brightness.