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Old 02-01-2011, 08:38 PM
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Paddy (Patrick)
Canis Minor

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Some Decmber challenge objects + some more LMC

Dear all,

here are some more notes from Dec 30th, this time late evening as opposed to early morning. I started with some of the December challenge objects and then moved to the NE LMC

Thanks for reading.

Telescope 410mm (16”) f4.9 tri-dob reflector
Eyepieces 28mm UWAN, 17,13,9 mm Naglers, Paracorr
Navigation: Night Sky Observer’s Guide(NSOG), my own charts of LMC Chart (#1,2 in particular) available at cloudsofmagellan.net.au

Position data from NGC/IC project, other from NSOG

2255

Seeing good 2/5
Transparency good 6/7

Jupiter

135X I just happen to start observing as Europa commences a transit. The bright small disc of the moon is very obvious against the limb of the planet just to the south of the equatorial regions. No sign of the shadow, which is due to transit later. The seeing is poor as the planet is low, but there are intermittently sharp views of the NEB, which shows a large festoon near the eastern limb. One thick band is obvious in the northern temperate region and there are several bands in the southern temperate region. Where the SEB would normally be is a wide pearly-grey band. There is a very distinct thin line spanning the disc where the southern edge of the SEB would normally be. Just to the south of this is very pale.

NGC 1851 GC in Columba Class II
05h 14m 06.3s -40º 02' 50" Vmag9.9 dia 11’

135X A beautiful GC with densely packed bright core a little like a small NGC 104. Around the core there seems to be a swirl of brightness and resolvable stars within the broader halo of the GC – the swirl has an arc to the west (convex south) and another to the east (convex north), looking a bit like a propeller. Reasonably compact and round with no signs of disruption. Appears to me about 7’ dia. The brightness drops suddenly from the core to the halo.

NGC 2298 GC in Puppis Class VI
06h 48m 59.1s -36º 00' 19" Vmag 9.4 dia 6.8’

135X A much fainter and smaller GC than 1851, no marked core and quite irregularly shaped. There are a few faint resolvable stars. I guess it’s about 3’ across.

NGC 1316/17 (Arp 154) GX in Fornax SAB(s)O/ SAB(rs)O
03h 22m 41.7s -37º 12' 30" Vmag 8.2 13’.5x9.3’
3h 22m 44.4s -37º 06' 12" Vmag 10.8 3.5’x3’

135X 1316 is the larger and brighter of the pair. They look about 8-9’ apart. 1316 is a wide oval (long axis SW-NE)with a bright core. Looks about 5’x3’. 1317 is to the north and appears much smaller and rounder. It also has quite a bright nucleus.

A line from 1316 through 1317 leads to NGC 1326

NGC 1326 GX in Fornax (R)SB(r)O+
03h 23m 56.3s Declination (2000): -36º 27' 53" Vmag 10.4 4.4’X3.2’

135X Appears similar to 1317, somewhat elongated N-S. Perhaps an elliptical galaxy?


There is some high haze in this area of sky which impedes things a bit. So I go south.

LMC observations – chart 1

The key landmark for the north-eastern section of the key chart is the equilateral triangle (to the north of NGC 2070) formed by Delta Dorado to the north, 63 Dor to the west and Epsilon Dor to the SE. These points are in charts 2,4&5. If a line is drawn from Delta to Epsilon then takes a right hand turn to the ENE it encounters a wide pair of bright stars in chart one Eta Dor 1& 2. These were the landmarks for this session.

Extending this line about 3x the span between Eta Dor 1 & 2 I find

NGC 2257 GC in LMC
06h 30m 13.1s -64º 19' 29"

135X Quite a large object, very round, even spread of luminosity but not very bright. Looks about 3’ across. At 175X a delicate glow against velvet black sky. (From Steve Gottlieb’s entry in the NGC/IC project database “
13.1" (2/18/04 - Costa Rica): fairly faint, fairly large, round, 1.5'-2' diameter, broad weak concentration, no resolution. An elongated group of a half dozen mag 10-11 stars oriented NW-SE passes just N of the cluster. This is one of the oldest LMC globular located at the north-east periphery of the cloud, and
is comparable in age to galactic globulars, ~10 billion years old.”)

Drawing a line from Eta Dor 1 to 2 then taking a 90 degree turn to the north (away from the bar of the LMC) I find NGC 2193

NGC 2193 OC in LMC
06h 06m 17.9s -65º 05' 57"

135X Somewhat fainter than 2257 and smaller. A faint 1’ circlet of haze

To the west is

NGC 2181 OC in LMC
06h 02m 43.7s -65º 15' 54"

135x Very faint indeed, less than 1’ dia round glow

NGC 2155 OC in LMC
05h 58m 33.3s -65º 28' 35"

135X Larger than 2193 and also brighter. About 2’ across.

North-east of Delta Dor are a couple of bright stars, co-linear with these to the SE is

NGC 2123 OC in LMC
05h 51m 43.4s -65º 19' 18"

135X Fainter again and smaller than 2155, less than 1’ across round and regular

NGC 2138 OC in LMC

05h 54m 48.8s -65º 50' 07"

135X Another quite faint disc of light <1’ across, sitting at the northern end of a small line of bright stars.

Following a line from 2123 through Delta Dor I come to

NGC 2030 OC and Emission nebula in LMC
05h 35m 40.1s -66º 02' 08"

175X This is the northernmost part of a very interesting field of the LMC. It is an irregularly shaped patch of luminosity and resolvable stars which appears to have two sections. The easternmost one is the larger of the two with quite a few resolvable stars and a spray of light to the south This part seems to have a V shape with the point, containing a bright knot, towards the west. The western section has only a few resolvable stars. Glows very strongly with UHC filter especially around the bright clump in the point of the V.

Before succumbing to the onslaught of mosquitoes, I pay a quick visit to Henize nebulae 64, 62 and 55 and SL 553 just to the south of NGC 2030 and it is a magnificent patch of sky, about which I will record observations another time.
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Old 05-01-2011, 07:12 AM
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orestis
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Nice one Paddy,Great to see some of us are getting in some good observing sessions.

Cheers Orestis
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Old 05-01-2011, 07:17 AM
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Liz
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Yes, great report Paddy, under some good central Victorian skies.
Wow, you are going to be a world renowned expert on Magellanic clouds, that is excellect!!!!! All those goodies in the LMC.
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Old 05-01-2011, 08:12 AM
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Paddy (Patrick)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Liz View Post
Yes, great report Paddy, under some good central Victorian skies.
Thanks, Liz


Quote:
Originally Posted by Liz View Post
Wow, you are going to be a world renowned expert on Magellanic clouds, that is excellect!!!!! All those goodies in the LMC.
I am certainly learning heaps through the process - especially about how much more there is to learn and about the many fantastic resources there are out there that people have put together.
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Old 05-01-2011, 09:06 AM
Rob_K
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Great job Patrick! Nice that we're getting some sky at last!

Cheers -
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