Continuing the quest for ever-more impossible globular clusters in a cheap 4.5" scope...
Anyway, last night we had our monthly club observing night out at the Porepunkah airstrip, and were greeted with great skies. Tons to see, cruised all the biggies, some fantastic views.
I came prepared with charts for globular clusters Rup 106 and E3, both well-positioned. Try as I might, I couldn't get a hint of anything at the E3 position, no surprise there.
Rup 106 was a different matter, and I'd like to get some advice on this from people who might have seen it before. Because it seemed
relatively easy to me (compared to some impossibly faint things I have chased down LOL). I first looked when there was still a hint of brightness in the sky (just to nail down the position) and there was nothing there. A bit later, in dark sky, a very faint background glow was visible in the position, perhaps 4 arcminutes in diameter. I could hold it quite well, knocking the eyepiece and moving the field with the hand control. It never quite assumed a proper form, bits of it flickering in and out. Conditions were excellent - two mag 6.4 stars close to it were easy naked-eye. I checked the position again later as mist was starting to rise and there was nothing there again - amazing the effect of a bit of moisture in the air.
I've attached a rough sketch of what I was seeing - the 'glow' I've drawn is considerably exaggerated of course, it was a ghost of a ghost! In hindsight, I should have 'commandeered' one of the bigger scopes on the field to check it out, but I'm that used to observing on my own it didn't occur to me.
Comments, advice welcome!
Cheers -