Hi Malcolm,
Very good rerport much enjoyed -- thanks for taking the time to record your observations and post them.
The pair of G.C's in Musca are excellent examples of very well resolved and "open looking" clusters with very little concentration to centre. They both lie at very similar distances to our Sun, (from memory about the 28,000 ly mark) so they must be quite close in space to each other. NGC 4833 is definitely the brighter and better of the two. I don't have recorded 31 or 46cm observations of these two so I guess it's about time to drop by again. The "dark doodad" a dark molecular cloud starts at about NGC 4372 and winds-up past Gamma Muscae. It is a superb dark nebula best appreciated in large binos but really needs a pretty dark sky.
Not trying to be picky -- seriously there are a couple of typos in your NGC etc No's that had me scratching my head for a just moment NGC 2438 and the Eight-burst (NGC 3132) but easily worked out in the end. NGC 3132 is a wonderful, wonderful object particularly when the seeing is really good and you can push up above x300.
Here's how it look a couple of years ago with 46cm at x317 and the seeing I rated at 7/10:
NGC 3132 Planetary Nebula *
RA: 10h 07m 01.8s Dec: -40° 26' 09"
Mag: 8.2 (P) Size: 88.0"x58.0" Class: 4+2
Mag C. Star: 10.0 R.V.: ---
This is a spectacular and very bright PNe with very high surface brightness and a distracting "central star". This apparent central * is not in reality the true one -- it is a superimposition. The true central star is at about mag 19 and invisible in amateur instruments. The outer halo is irregular in outline but roughly oval in PA 90 about 80" x 50" and has lowish S.B. The inner halo then takes over and is ovoid in PA 90 with a very strong and bright outer ring to that inner halo from which the nebula dims gradually to the mag 9 central *, though the whole inner halo has good S.B. Very beautiful. Strong mid-blue in colour in the inner halo.
Thanks for posting your stuff!
Best,
Les D