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Old 09-07-2018, 03:51 PM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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NORMA - The Grand Tour

Norma is a small constellation that does not have stars designated as Alpha or Beta.

Below are the subjects in Norma that I wish to view:-


The Main Stars:

The following four stars make up the square in Norma.

Gamma Normae (Nor). The brighest part of Norma. Gamma is used to designate two nearby stars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_Normae

Delta Nor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Normae

Eplison Nor. Said to be a fine double star.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Normae

Eta Nor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Normae

Mu Nor. It is 339,000 times the luminosity of the sun and 40 times its mass.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Normae



Objects of interest.

NGC 6067. Open cluster.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6067

The Great Attractor. "Approximately 200 million light-years from Earth with a redshift of 0.016 is Abell 3627; also called the Norma Cluster, it is one of the most massive galaxy clusters known to exist, at ten times the average cluster mass. Abell 3627 is thus theorized to be the Great Attractor, a massive object that is pulling the Local Group, the Virgo Supercluster, and the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster towards its location at 600–1000 kilometres per second."
I assume that I will not be able to see this, but will nevertheless point a scope in that direction and see how I go.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Cluster

NGC 5946. A faint globular.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_5946

Menzel 2. Said to be the brightest planetary in Norma.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menzel_2

Shapley 1. The Fine Ring Nebula. Another Planetary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapley_1


Messier objects in Norma: Nil.
Caldwell Objects in Norma: C89
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Old 10-07-2018, 09:37 PM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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My observations (Interim report)

Norma was a somewhat difficult Constellation with the main stars being rather faint and so were some of the DSOs.

Clouds have probably brought my evening to an end, so this is only an interim report.

I used 2 telescopes tonight. An 8" SCT was used on the DSOs, where as a 80mm triplet was used on the main stars. Larger 2" EPs were used on the Celestron (35mm, 17mm & 13mm), and 24 & 15mm EPs were used on the 80mm.


Objects of interest.

NGC 6067. Open cluster.
There is a thickening of the Milky Way in this region, which makes this area visible to the eye. The cluster is rich in texture and has individual stars, which vary greatly in magnitude. It was nicely framed with the Vixen 17mm LVW EP.

Menzel 2. Said to be the brightest planetary in Norma.
This was a tiny, faint, round, grey patch that was seen with the 17mm & 13mm Vixen EPs. This is a rich region and it was overlooked when using a 35mm Panoptic. However, once seen, I could then view it with the lower magnification.

NGC 5946. A faint globular.
NGC 5946 was much fainter than the nearby globular, NGC 5927 in Lupus. It appeared in the 17mm to only have a slightly condensed center.


Not yet seen:

The Great Attractor. "Approximately 200 million light-years from Earth with a redshift of 0.016 is Abell 3627; also called the Norma Cluster, it is one of the most massive galaxy clusters known to exist, at ten times the average cluster mass. Abell 3627 is thus theorized to be the Great Attractor, a massive object that is pulling the Local Group, the Virgo Supercluster, and the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster towards its location at 600–1000 kilometres per second."
I assume that I will not be able to see this, but will nevertheless point a scope in that direction and see how I go.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Cluster

Shapley 1. The Fine Ring Nebula. Another Planetary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapley_1


The Main Stars:

The following four stars make up the square in Norma.

Gamma Normae (Nor). The brighest part of Norma. Gamma is used to designate two nearby stars.
Strangely, Gamma 1 is the fainter star and looked light orange; Gamma 2 is the brighter star and looked medium yellow.

Delta Nor.
White in colour.

Eplison Nor. Said to be a fine double star.
The main star looked white, whereas the companion, which appeared to be about 2 magnitudes fainter, looked to be a deep blue. Using the 80mm, it was widely separated at 20x, but looked better at 32x.

Eta Nor.
Light orange in colour.

Mu Nor. It is 339,000 times the luminosity of the sun and 40 times its mass.
Appeared white.

Last edited by Tropo-Bob; 11-07-2018 at 07:13 AM.
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Old 15-07-2018, 03:20 PM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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My observations- Part 2.

Last night, I attempted to check out my final 2 targets in Norma.

I had 3 scopes out, in a bit of a shoot-out to see how they performed on faint targets. They were my 8 inch SCT Edge HD, a Vixen 140mm SS achromatic and a Meade ED 127mm F9.

The Great Attractor. "Approximately 200 million light-years from Earth with a redshift of 0.016 is Abell 3627; also called the Norma Cluster, it is one of the most massive galaxy clusters known to exist, at ten times the average cluster mass...
I assume that I will not be able to see this, but will nevertheless point a scope in that direction and see how I go.


The first thing that I noticed when I tried to check this out, it that the given co-ordinates are just inside the Constellation: Triangulum
Australe (TA)

When viewing, I can see that the given area is covered by the Milky Way and really impossible to see through. The main object of interest that I came upon in sweeping was the open cluster NGC 6025 which was in TA, just beyond Norma's boarder.

Shapley 1. The Fine Ring Nebula. Another Planetary.
I spent about an hour with all three scopes trying to cox this one into view. Unfortunately, I failed.

Menzel 2- revisited.
I again viewed this faint planetary.

Using low magnifications (around 50x) with each scope, I found that it showed slightly better with the Vixen 140mm than the SCT. However, that said, I don't think that I would have seen it, if did not already know exactly where it was and what to look for.

At higher magnifications (over 100x), it showed best in the 8" SCT, then the Meade 127mm. I would have found it with the 127mm with high mag if I had never seen it before. The Vixen, however, did not handle the higher power so well (no CA filter used), and the quality of the view dropped away.
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Old 23-07-2018, 06:29 PM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Bob, your reports are great but you need to slow down! There are at least 6 of your reports I'm yet to attempt....
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Old 24-07-2018, 01:11 PM
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Tinderboxsky (Steve)
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Bob is certainly settting a cracking pace. I am envious of the time Bob has been able to spend under the stars.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gaseous View Post
Bob, your reports are great but you need to slow down! There are at least 6 of your reports I'm yet to attempt....
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Old 25-07-2018, 08:10 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Finally got around to attempting some of Bob’s extensive list of objects from Norma, Scorpius, Rho Ophiuchus and Serpens (tap the brakes there, Bob!) A 90% moon blasting down the tube in moderately light-polluted skies (Bortle 5) didn’t really help matters, but I wasn’t going to wait another week or so before the moon rises a bit later. Used the 8” dob with a 8-24mm Baader Zoom and 4.7mm ES. A few highlights:


NGC6153 – mag 10 planetary nebula. Not visually exciting, other than the fact I could actually see it at all. It was small and faint with a DGM NPB filter, and virtually invisible without it.


Xi Scorpii – double star easily split at 50x, there is another double next to it, both stars having about the same magnitude to my eyes. These two seemed orange and blue, but oddly seemed to swap colour as I zoomed in and out. Quite a nice looking set of doubles. I didn’t have Bob’s notes in front of me so didn’t recall that it’s actually a triple system – will need to reinvestigate.


Beta Scorpii – double star, easily split at 50x, both appeared white.


Antares – finally split this for the first time! Bob’s comment on the use of a green filter did the trick. Although I didn’t have a normal green planetary filter, I tried my OIII filter at 255x, and sure enough there was the faint companion. Needed 255x magnification to resolve it. Thanks Bob!


NGC 6572 – mag 8 planetary nebula in Oph. Quite bright but very small – almost starlike. Again, not visually awe-inspiring, but I like my PN’s and I was glad to see it, given the conditions.


Eta Normae – double star in Norma. The main star appeared bright white, the companion appeared a dusky lavender colour.


Menzel 2 / Wray 16-210 – Mag 12 planetary nebula in Norma. With the lousy conditions, this was JUST visible using averted vision and a DGM NPB filter.

In general, the globular clusters were very washed out, almost to the point of invisibility.
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Old 25-07-2018, 01:03 PM
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ngcles
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Hi All,

Quote:
Originally Posted by gaseous View Post

NGC6153 – mag 10 planetary nebula. Not visually exciting, other than the fact I could actually see it at all. It was small and faint with a DGM NPB filter, and virtually invisible without it.
I hold a different view on NGC 6153 -- I think it is one of the most charming winter PNe -- though it reserves its best for medium-large apertures. Nice round moderate surface brightness 30 arc-second disc that is a weak annulus with a relatively large slightly dimmer patch in the centre. In 46cm it displays a bluish hue.
The thing that I like most is the setting -- it forms the fourth and southernmost point in a small diamond (4' x 3') with three other stars mags 8, 10 & 10. The two brighter of the three other stars are orange/deep orange with the other one white. The latter, is a close (5 arc-second) mags 10/11 pair.

I used to often show this object to the public during night tours at Sydney Observatory -- love it!

Best,

L.
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Old 25-07-2018, 01:29 PM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Yes I do recall that it made a sort of kite shape with those 3 other stars - if it hadn't been for them and their position on Skysafari, I might have missed it - the moon was like a torch shining down the tube last night. I'll definitely be having another look at this one under better skies and with my larger scope. Thanks!
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Old 26-07-2018, 06:55 PM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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Thanks all for the recent remarks and observations.

Patrick, definitely have another go at Xi Scorpii. It will need high magnification to split the main pair. Ah, its great to hear that you were able to split Antares with your filter!

I have slowed up a little because of both the weather and the Moon. Hopefully, I will be able to make some more observations next week.
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