[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Last night, I attempted to check out my final 2 targets in Norma.

I had 3 scopes out, in a bit of a shoot-out to see how they performed on faint targets. They were my 8 inch SCT Edge HD, a Vixen 140mm SS achromatic and a Meade ED 127mm F9.

The Great Attractor. "Approximately 200 million light-years from Earth with a redshift of 0.016 is Abell 3627; also called the Norma Cluster, it is one of the most massive galaxy clusters known to exist, at ten times the average cluster mass...
I assume that I will not be able to see this, but will nevertheless point a scope in that direction and see how I go.

The first thing that I noticed when I tried to check this out, it that the given co-ordinates are just inside the Constellation: Triangulum
Australe (TA)

When viewing, I can see that the given area is covered by the Milky Way and really impossible to see through. The main object of interest that I came upon in sweeping was the open cluster NGC 6025 which was in TA, just beyond Norma's boarder.

Shapley 1. The Fine Ring Nebula. Another Planetary.
I spent about an hour with all three scopes trying to cox this one into view. Unfortunately, I failed.

Menzel 2- revisited.
I again viewed this faint planetary.

Using low magnifications (around 50x) with each scope, I found that it showed slightly better with the Vixen 140mm than the SCT. However, that said, I don't think that I would have seen it, if did not already know exactly where it was and what to look for.

At higher magnifications (over 100x), it showed best in the 8" SCT, then the Meade 127mm. I would have found it with the 127mm with high mag if I had never seen it before. The Vixen, however, did not handle the higher power so well (no CA filter used), and the quality of the view dropped away.