Although as a US observer from California I've lurked in IIS for awhile, this is my first observing post. Last weekend, I returned from a week-long star party at Coonabarabran. Several months ago I noticed the Three River Foundation (3RF), which sponsors the OzSky Star Safari each year in March or April was planning a second no-frills (observing only) 7-night star party in early November 2010.
Although I've made three previous observing trips to Australia in July 2002, July 2005 and April 2008, the different season appealed to me as the LMC and SMC would be well placed along with lots of galaxies that are too far south for an ideal view from northern California in Sculptor, Fornax and Grus and a chance to view constellations which are below my horizon such as Indus, Phoenix, Hydrus, Reticulum and Dorado. I've made a 30-year observing project to view the entire 7500-object NGC (now 94% complete across the sky) and this was a perfect opportunity to pick up many of the remaining southern objects in these constellations.
For this trip I was able to use 3RF's fully equipped 30-inch f/4.5 SDM scope so there was no observing gear to drag along, except for a few Ethos eyepieces and several of my binders filled with Megastar-generated finder charts. Lachlan McDonald and Tony Buckley were gracious Aussie hosts and during the day escorted me to several local sites of interest including an inside tour of the Siding Springs Observatory to see the 154-inch Anglo-Australian telescope (AAT) and the 48-inch Schmidt telescope (UKST) as well as the Compact Radio Telescope array near the town of Narrabri.
As far as the weather, the prospects looked pretty dismal the few weeks leading up to the star party, as there was consistently cloudy conditions and rain throughout New South Wales. In fact, the clouds continued throughout the week at Coonabarabran, but at least for the first 4 days the skies cleared by sunset and we had mostly clear nights with some impressive SQM readings (21.85-21.89). The one negative was high relative humidity, though the 30-inch was equipped with dew heaters for the secondary and eyepieces. On the 5th day, though, the clouds thickened, thunderstorms arrived and we were shut out from observing on the last 3 nights.
NGC 87, 88, 89 and 92 form a distinctive compact quartet in the southern constellation Phoenix. As a fan of the Hickson Compact Groups (HCG), I was looking forward to observing this quartet as it would qualify as one the better HCGs if located further north. The group is sometimes referred to as the "Phoenix Quartet" or "Robert's Quartet" and carries the catalogue designations Arp-Madore 0018-485 and Rose 34 (see Alvin Huey's Rose Catalogue at
http://www.faintfuzzies.com/Files/RoseCatalogue.pdf). The quartet is clearly interacting with a long tidal tail extending 100,000 light years pulled out from NGC 92. In addition, NGC 87 is a distorted Magellanic-type galaxy with bright knots of starburst activity.
NGC 87
00 21 14.2 -48 37 42
V = 14.3; Size 0.9'x0.7'; Surf Br = 13.6
30" (429x): fairly faint, fairly small, irregularly round, 0.7' diameter, low even surface brightness. Second faintest in the Phoenix Quartet with NGC 88 1.5' SE, NGC 89 2.8' SE and NGC 92 2.9' E. The arrangement is distinctive with the three brighter galaxies (NGC 87/89/92) arranged in an equilateral triangle with NGC 88 in the center, forming a "Y" or propeller shape. ESO 194-13 lies 12' ENE of the quartet.
NGC 88
00 21 22.0 -48 38 24
V = 14.4; Size 0.8'x0.5'; Surf Br = 13.2; PA = 145d
30" (429x): faint, small, slightly elongated NW-SE, very small bright core. An extremely faint star is attached at the SW end. This galaxy is the faintest in the quartet and centered in the equilateral triangle of galaxies with NGC 87, 89 and 92.
NGC 89
00 21 24.4 -48 39 55
V = 13.5; Size 1.2'x0.6'; Surf Br = 13.0; PA = 148d
30" (429x): moderately bright, moderately large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 1.0'x0.5', very small slightly brighter core, faint stellar nucleus. Has a slightly higher surface brightness than NGC 92. Furthest southern member of the quartet. NGC 88 lies 1.5' N and a faint star is 43" N (at the midpoint to NGC 88).
NGC 92
00 21 31.6 -48 37 30
V = 13.1; Size 1.9'x0.9'; Surf Br = 13.6; PA = 144d
30" (429x): this galaxy is the brightest member and furthest east in the compact Phoenix Quartet. It appeared moderately bright, moderately large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 1.2'x0.6', broad concentration to a bright core. The faint tidal tail to the SE was not seen. ESO 194-013, a fifth member of the group, lies 11' ENE.
ESO 194-013
00 22 38.1 -48 34 52
V = 13.6; Size 1.1'x1.0'; Surf Br = 13.6; PA = 47d
30" (429x): picked up while viewing the compact Phoenix Quartet located ~12' WSW and part of the same group. At 429x, appeared moderately bright, moderately large, elongated 4:3 SW-NE, 0.9'x0.7', broad concentration with a slightly brighter core but no distinct zones. A distinctive string of three mag 13 stars [length 1.4'] is centered 2' E.