THE FIRST CLEAR NIGHT IN MONTHS!!! The DSE have ruined the last 3 new moons (to the hell with them), and then it's been cloudy and foggy and whatnot.....thus this was my SECOND night out this YEAR!
By a pure twist of fate, I wasn't rostered on to work this evening (normally I would be - and I would've finished at midnight), so, with a DSE-free sky and nothing to do tomorrow, I grabbed the oppurtunity like it was a battle between life and death. With a new moon, the scope of choice was my 12" dob, which has been sitting idle for literaly months.
Right, so I drag the 40 kilo beast on a rug outta my bedroom,out the door, through a dog infested deck, down 4 stairs and finally to rest in my little courtyard. The neigbours, who are notorious for blaring their lights for their stupid little dogs have put up a wall, which largely blocks their damn light. Hooorayy!!. Well it still lights the tall trees around my place, but it's much les worse than before. I hate my neighbours, but I thank them for this ugly wall they have erected...it's a disgusting piece of usless crap but hell it blocks most of their lights out
The 12" dob has been left to cool for 3 hours while I watch TV and eating Subway.....Now, the seeing was excellent by Melbourne standards, reaching 0/10, but transparency might've been dodgy judging by the grey/brown murk I spotted on the horizon during sunset. However, I had the impression that transparency ended up being quite good, although some of that might've been a false impression caused by the rich Carina-Scorpious- Sagittarius MilkyWay being directly overhead (which I havent seen for a year).
scope...12" dob
time: 9:30pm - 3:30am
seeing; 0/10
Transparency: 3/5
First Target....the
NGC 3576 complex. Quite an awesome region located SE of the Eta Carinae Neb. The 12" resolved 5 components at 176x. The brightest was located at the southernmost point of the complex, and was distinctly wedge-shaped in appearance, with the point aiming towards the south. A mag 10 star lies just to the east. This region of nebulosity forms a chain with 2 other bright knots oriented North-south. The northernmost component is elongated N-S and curls and tapers off in a NW direction. A faint 4th blob is located just to the west of the main complex, and an fainter 5th blob lies just to the east of the brightest wedge-shaped component, on the opposite side of a 10th mag star. A dark lane was evident across the main structure, seperating the middle from the northernmost component of the nebulosity.
NGC 5170
Edge on galaxy in Virgo. 217x - faintishg, hint of needle-like structure, bright elongated core region in a NW/SE direction.
NGC 5746
217x - bright, large strongly elonged in a N-S direction, needle like extensions hinted at.
NGC 5084
Galaxy....Pretty tiny at low mags, although higher power revealed a bulging core and E-W extensions with averted vision. Nearby companion
PGC 46489 seen with averted vision at 283x.
NGC 5792
217x - Non-descript ball of fuzz located just SE of a mag 9.5 star.
"Bug" Nebula NGC 6302
283x - very bright and large planetary nebula in scorpius. Elongated E-W, has a very bright central region, with what appears to be a dark lane cuttiing off the the eastern 1/3rd. The OIII filter revealed a bright knot in "detached" western 3rd, a filament stretching from the southern side of the bright core to the Northwest, and a second fainter filament stretching from the the northern side of the core to the northwest.
NGC 6357
Nebula in Scorpious....83x with UHC filter... small, bright elongated patch just northwest of Mag 7 star, and directly north of a mag 11 double star. Southern side has a sharply defined edge whereas the northern side is more diffuse. Higher magnifications ruined the view.
NGC 6334
Another nebulosity in Scorpius. At 64x with a UHC filter, a faintish haze could be seen around three mag 9-11 stars, arranged in a triangle with the top point pointing southeast.
NGC 6337
217x with UHC filter....planetary nebula in Scorpius, an almost perfect ring! The N/NE edge appeared slightly brighter than the rest of the ring, with a bright star just inside the NE edge of the ring. Increasing the magnification (despite horrid seeing) to 353x with the UHC filter revealed a brighter knot on the southwestern portion of the ring.
NGC 6445, "little Gem" nebula
At 217x, this planetary in Sagittarius appeared as a "squashed" ring, rectangular in shape, with the long axis orientated in a NW/SE direction. The interior is not quite hollow, being brighter than the background sky outside the nebula. With the OIII filter, the NW end appeared slightly brighter than the rest of the nebula.
NGC 6781
A large planetary in Aquila. 217x with OIII filter.... roughly circular, quite large and responds well to the OIII filter. I go the impression that this object featured a thick ring structure, but with the the southern, western and eastern sides of the ring are much brighter and thicker than the northern portion. The donut hole was clearly displaced toward the north and the inner "hollow" regions are brighter than the background sky.
By now it was 3am and I was getting tired...it felt good being under the stars again , I completely forgot what it was like thanks to Melbourne's disgusting horrible weather and those evil DSE crackpots.....