I need sleep but noooooooo I just had to force myself up at 2.30am, didn't I?
My mission was to see if I couod pick any details on NGC 3918 at very high powers. I checked the weather maps - all looked well, no jetstream, minimal high level winds and perfect calmness at ground level. Alas, the seeing was pure, absolute crap. Stars at the zenith were scintilating and those near the horizon were just messed up. It was yet another freezing cold Melbourne summer night.
Well seeing was trashed, so I figured I might try some of the bigger globular clusters.
Just a side note... I was browsing thru the Herald Bobroff atlas and found a section which shows distribution of various types of DSOs, and found that there's perhaps 5 times as many globulars on the southern side of the celstial EQ when compared to the north!
Had the sky atlas 2000 out with me, great for improptu sessions like this.
Scope: 10" GSO dob
Time: 3.45am-5.30am
Seeing: 4/10
Transparency: 4/5
NGC 6397
One of the
several southern globulars that are apparently better than M13, it showed good resolution at 56x. At 192x the outer reaches appeared quite loosely bound, with a granular/hazy core. A circlet of several cluster members could be seen surrounding the core, with a red star among them. Increasing power to 250x bought out an additional 3-4 stars overlapping the core. Didn't expect to use such a magnification in light of the damn seeing.
NGC 6584
Smaller globular in Telescopium, east of Ara. At 56x it is a hazy orb and forms a neat triangle with two 7th mag stars. At 192x, about half a dozen stars were resolved, increasing power to 250x added a few more to the tally.
NGC 5286
Located just 4' NW of mag 4.7 M Centauri. Outer areas were well resolved at 250x, with some further stars superimposed across the granular core.
M4
Very easily resolved, even at 56x. Very nice at 192x. Doesn't have much of a condensed core although a bar which is unevenly populated by mag 11 stars crosses its center. A nice arc of 18 mag 11-13 stars "cradles" the cluster's western side.
NGC 6144
A faint ghost about 40' NW of Antares. A mag 12 star marks the W edge. At 192x I could resolve perhaps 10 faint cluster members.
M80
Still in the vicinity of Antares, NW of M4. Several stars across the outer half were resolved at 250x, with a bright condensed core.
NGC 6752
Apparently this is supposed to be the 4th best globular in the sky, am I correct? Located in Pavo almost midway between Peacock star and Ara. A mag of 192x bought out lovely arcs of bright stars streaming from the core, with a circlet of cluster members also present. The tight core showed granularity.
M22
Just a quick peek at 192x, now i see what all the fuss is about! Sorry northern Hemisphere, but you can keep your M13
Jupiter
Starting to look good! Maybe 6 bands resolved at 146x in moments of good seeing, some detail in both the NEB and SEB, with a wide rift in the SEB. A dark spot was seen in the EQ zone.