Went up to Renmark to hire a houseboat for 4 days from Monday 4th to Friday 8th. I've been to Renmark before and know that the skies are dark. Damn dark.
EACH of the 4 nights was completely clear, infact there was NO CLOUD FOR THE ENTIRE STAY!!! Temps were warm aswell, it was warm enough to stay out observing in a shirt and a pair of shorts. Can't do that in Melbourne.
The night sky was ofcourse spectacular. The Tarantula Nebula is a naked eye object. The LMC had an almost 3D, layered texture. Stars glow brightly right to the horizon. Never seen the Milkyway thru Monocores and Orion Before. Foreground objects are pitch black sillhoutes on a star spangled backdrop.
Had the 4.5" reflector with me, was going to take the ST120 but I had no diagonal and my EPs don't reach focus without one, not to mention the neck breaking factor. Because the Vixen LVWs are bowling balls, I had to use a few plossls I had lying around in order to maintain balance on the scope.
So with the scope on deck, I observed on 3 nights (4th, 5th, 6th) until the moon rose.
Scope: 4.5" newtonian
Eyepeices: 18mm Celestron Ultima, 32mm TV Plossl.
NGC 2024 (Flame Nebula)
Better in the 4.5" than in the 12 incher at home. At 50x, the main dark lane was easily visible, with another smaller branch shooting off towards the SE from the western end. A brighter patch was seen in the southern wing of the nebula.
NGC 1977
This is the reflection nebula located to the north of M42. At 50x, Nebulosity elongated E-W was clearly seen around the 3 brightest stars, with the northern edge fainter and more diffuse. A slightly darker lane was seen just north of the 3 main stars. A brighter plume of nebulosity was also sen just to the NW of the main complex. This one is never really obvious from home.
NGC 2237 (Rosette Nebula)
Easily visible at 28x with the UHC filter as a large round haze, with a slightly darker interior and uneven surface brightness. The edges of the "donut" appeared somewhat ragged, uneven and what appeared to be a wide dark lane, which was only slightly darker than the surrounding nebulosity, was seen in the SW quadrant of the complex.
IC 410
With Auriga visible in a way never seen from home, I decided to try for the nebula complex in northern Auriga. I was hoping to catch the Flaming Star Nebula, but using the HB Atlas with its completely ridiculous quirk of showing large nebulae as squares, I wasn't sure of the exact boundaries of the object relative to the field stars, which is essential when looking for faint hazy glows. While the HB is a good atlas, its representation of nebulae is complete crap. ANyway, the portion of nebulosity which I spotted was IC 410. A Crux-shaped asterism of approx 8 stars helped pinpoint the nebula. A faint haze was seen, with the most obvious parts overlapping the asterism and trailing off the the SE.
NGC 3114
At 28x........unreal. Very obvious nazi sign shape! The field is so rich, that the cluster itself barely stands out from the background. Absolutely incredible region.
NGC 3372 (Eta Carina)
Chucked on the UHC on the 28x eyepiece, and I could trace this cloud atleast 3º end to end in N-S and E-W direction. The nebula well and truly overflowed the 1.9º field of the TV 32mm Plossl. Two faint fingers were seen stretching to neighbouring nebula NGC 3324.
Sh 2-296 (Seagull nebula)
Straddles the border of Monoceros and Canis Major. At 28x, it was seen as a faint glow, elongated N-S. The broadest and brightest portion lies just west of star 'FN' CMa, with a fainter haze extending to the open clusters NGC 2335 and 2343. An even fainter filament was seen stretching down to Ced 90. UHC filter provides virtually no improvement in contrast.
Ced 90
This small nebula lies at the southern extremety of SH 2-296. It was visible at 28x and 50x as a faint circular glow around a Mag 8.5 star.
vdB 93
Located at the NW edge of Sh 2-296, this nebula appeared fainter and smaller than Ced 90 at the same magnification. Again, it simply appeared as a compact patch of haze around a mag 7 star.
IC 2944
The so-called "Running Chicken Nebula". Obvious at 28x with the UHC. Six stars in the shape of an arrowhead form the centrepiece of the complex, around which the nebula is the brightest. A dark indentation was seen at the southern edge of the cloud, and the general surface brightness was somewhat uneven. The nebula sported a somewhat kindey-bean shape with the brightest region to extending south of the arrowhead-shaped star asterism.
Gum 25 (RCW 40)
HII region in Vela, appeared as a faint hazy patch at 50x, elongated N-S. Located about 25' NE of cluster
Mrk 18, which itself consisted of 6 stars arranged in a diamond shape. The SW edge of the nebula appeared brighter the the main body.
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Also did the obligatory milky way sweeps at low power, amazing form this dark sky site. Also swept up the LMC and SMC, with the Tarantula Nebula region just overflowing the 1.9º FOV with faint networks of nebulosity amongst numerous brighter patches. The LMC bar was brilliantly visible in the eyepeice and peppered with little knots, with also filled the FOV several degrees out!
All in all, a fantastic trip, with good company and awesome skies
