It would be easy to miss this little treat while exploring the celestial gems scattered throughout Sagittarius. But if you detour about 5 degrees southwest of the globular cluster M75, you'll stumble across Abell 65. My sketch presents a 122X view in the 18-inch Obsession. The faint planetary lies just south of center, a 3'x2' foggy oval. The UHC filter enhances contrast just enough to better the unfiltered view. A 13th magnitude GSC star marks Abell 65's northwest limit. A string of four 12th to 15th mag. sparklers mark the opposite boundary. The 15th to 16th magnitude central star is not visible. A collection of relatively bright stars stands conveniently to the west. They're arranged randomly along a north-south path about 4' in length. The brightest are a pair of 9th magnitude stars at the northern end. A Y-asterism of 11th and 12th magnitude stars mark the southern extent due west of Abell 65. More than 50 stars dot the field in my drawing. |