Advise needed: a deepsky top 100 (minus -20 declination

[H.Treur]

Hello,

I am a visual observer from Europe and like to observe the northern skies with my homebuilt 16 inch Newton.
On nov 10th, i will arrive in Australia after a 25 hour flight.
This will be my first visit to the southern hemisphere.
And that puts me in a strange situation; Even though I am an experienced observer, I will be confronted with totally new stars in the skies. I will have to learn the way like a beginner.

So I need your help.
Which deepsky objects do you advise?
What is the top 100 of must-see objects, below -20 declination?

I will be bringing a 10 inch travel dobsonian, eyieces and filters (O3 ,UHC-narrowband , CPB). Furthermore a 20x80 binocular.

Best regards,
Harro

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Hello Harro,

Wonderful to see you will be coming over to Australia, and with a scope!

I have a few of questions about your trip here: where will you be staying or will you be driving? How long will you be here?

This way we can give you the best information for your time here. Not much good rattling off a bunch of objects, if half of them need a dark sky to see them, and you are stuck in the city.

Don't discount looking at objects higher up than -20° either! M42 is right overhead for us here, and so is the Horeshead nebula. I'm sure the view of both will be much improved from what can be seen from your home.

Regards,

Alex.

[H.Treur]

I will be staying at my sisters home outside Brisbane.
Also my plan is to rent a campervan and to visit the starparty in Hazeldean friday 13 th till sunday15.
Followed by a visit to Astroron, who is so kind to welcome me at his observatory.
18th of november my family will join in for a night on Fraser Island.
The days after I am back in Brisbane, but by then the moon will have grown to unfavorable proportions.

[H.Treur]

Originally Posted by mental4astro

Don't discount looking at objects higher up than -20° either! M42 is right overhead for us here, and so is the Horsehead nebula. I'm sure the view of both will be much improved from what can be seen from your home.

Yes ! I think you are right in that. Although M42 is a glorious sight even from Europe. But globular M79 (Lepus) for instance is nothing more than a hazy patch, barely 8 degrees above my lightpolluted horizon. M79 will certainly improve wonderfully. As will the Horsehead

I have been scrolling through SkySafari on ipad with location Brisbane.
This is a strange sensation for me: to see the constellations rise in the east (as usual) but then.... moving to the left instead of to the right...
And Orion which is completely upside down from what I am used to see.

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

Harro,

here is a few to start.....

Eta Carina – try to spot the asymmetry in the homunculus
47 Tuc - also try for nearby globular NGC 121
Grus Quartet NGC 7590 etc.
Columba galaxies 1808 & 1792
Tarantula in LMC
Double stars Acrux, Epsilon Canis Major,
Plenty of interesting objects to see!

[H.Treur]

Thank you for your list John B.
It is a good starting point. I looked them up in Safari and discovered a lot more along the way.
Here my comments on your objects in advance:

Eta Carina – try to spot the asymmetry in the homunculus (this sounds puzzling, but I will google for details)

47 Tuc - also try for nearby globular NGC 121 (now that is an intriguing couple. There is even more globular pleasures in that area).

Grus Quartet NGC 7590 etc. (Yeah: 4 in a row. And i will give a try on the PGC-galaxies in the same field).

Columba galaxies 1808 & 1792 (let's make that a quartet either with 1827 and P16790)

Tarantula in LMC (Good Heavens: the whole field is splashed all over with NGC-objects !)

Double stars Acrux, (good specs)
Epsilon Canis Major, (seems no showpiece, but I ll give it a try).

Well: i hope some more objects will be published here.
please bring it on.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Some other suggestions:

* Sculptor Galaxy, NGC 253
* Thor's Helmet NGC 2359
* Fornax Galaxy Cluster (NGC 1365 just might reveal its arms in a 10")
* John mentioned The Tarantula nebula and 47 Tuc. There is the whole of the Large Magellanic Cloud, and its little brother, the Small Magellanic. There are hunderds of individual objects in these. An Oiii and UHC filter is a wonderful help.
* M46 cluster, with the planetary nebula (NGC 2438) that lies in it boundary
* M77 galaxy will test your eyes with a 10" scope!

I'm sure other people will add more to the list for you.

Mental.

[Suzy]

Hi Harro, welcome to our forum and soon, our Aussie shores .

Ron (Astro Ron) is one of my best friends and I go up his place from time to time. You'll have a great time I'm sure of it. He's great to have a conversation with, easy to get along with and is a brilliant teacher. He'll show you a ton of stuff with his 16" dob.

Just try to get to Ron's early before dark so you can catch Scorpius and Sagittarius before they set. Your eyes will pop and your jaw will drop when you see the LMC and SMC *easily* naked eye.

Alexander mentioned above M77 (Cetus A galaxy). Sydney's light pollution may be a bit worse than here in Brisbane because I can easily spot it through my 10" dob- it's one of my favourite galaxies. So easy to find too.

Please, please, don't leave our southern skies without taking a look at Ruby Crucis. It's a blood red carbon star in Crux, next to beta Crucis. There's also the Blue Planetary PN within the vicinity.

Don't forget Centaurus A. Make sure you look through Ron's 16". It'll bring you to your knees . But I'm Ron will cover this anyway. As for the homunculus nebula, you really need a 5mm ep to do it justice. An amazing site indeed. Again, best viewed at Ron's. Don't worry, I have no doubt that he'll automatically show you all the gems in our sky.

And another nice object is in Musca- NGC 5189, the Spiral Nebula (PN).

What date are you going to Ron's?
If it's a weekend & if hubby's not away, I may even join in.

Perhaps see if you can get a hold of the brilliant book, "Atlas of the Southern Night Sky" by Quirk & Massey, it might help you out. Each constellation lists its gems worth viewing with an easy to follow map and picture for each object. Oh.... strange.... I'm not seeing it available anymore .
Paddy from our forum did a review of it.

Meanwhile, I hope these lists help you out .
John Bambury's Southern Skies Observing List

Highlight's of the Winter Sky. I did this list and many of these objects are are still observable now. These are some of the eye candy objects.

Enjoy!

[H.Treur]

Thank you Alex! Here I put my comments:

* Sculptor Galaxy, NGC 253 - (YEAh: i remember this one vividly: holiday in South of France, very low in the sky , but through a 42inch (!!!) Newton. A life-changing experience ).
* Thor's Helmet NGC 2359 (Perfect choice. yesterday i saw a fantastic drawing on this forum: it turned out te be yóur drawing! )
* Fornax Galaxy Cluster (NGC 1365 just might reveal its arms in a 10") (I will happily pick up this challenge).
* John mentioned The Tarantula nebula and 47 Tuc. There is the whole of the Large Magellanic Cloud, and its little brother, the Small Magellanic. There are hunderds of individual objects in these. An Oiii and UHC filter is a wonderful help. (It must me enormous over there: i noticed already in SkySafari)
* M46 cluster, with the planetary nebula (NGC 2438) that lies in it boundary> YEAH: it is a winter-favorite of mine: Low in the Dutch sky. But high in Oz!)
* M77 galaxy will test your eyes with a 10" scope! (This one needs a dark sky, and a high position, preferably in the zenith)

[H.Treur]

Suzy, thank you for your welcoming words.
I am looking forward to meet AstroRon. My plan was to arrive at Ron's place on sunday 15th. I bring a rental campervan and plan to spend 2 nights there.

I expected that SCorpius and Sagittarius would not be visible anymore, but
if I understand correctly, these are still visible?

Ruby Crucis? never heard of it, but i am fond of this kind of exotic objects. On the hitlist!
Blue Planetary? I like all sorts of them!

Centaurus A? 4 years ago I had the privilege to observe this beauty from atop the La Palma Volcano through my own 16inch. Although very low above the Atlantic Sea, it was a marvel.
But that " homunculus nebula" : the second time i hear this one, but still don't understand. But Ron will clear up things i trust.

Musca- NGC 5189: sounds promising

And thank you for your links to the Bamburylist and the winterlist. I will certainly check these out.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Originally Posted by H.Treur

But that " homunculus nebula" : the second time i hear this one, but still don't understand. But Ron will clear up things i trust.

Harro,

The Homunculus Nebula is a nebula that resides INSIDE another! It surrounds the supergiant star Eta Carina. This star also lends its name to the famous nebula.

The star Eta Carina is nearing the end of its life, and is experiencing a series of eruptions as a precursor to it eventually going supernova. These eruptions have generated the Homunculus Nebula from the material that has been ejected. When will it go supernova? It may have done so already, or in 10,000 years from next month...

You will find this following Hubble link VERY useful not just for the Eta Carina nebula, but the information in it is excellent for understanding the forces that form and shape ALL nebulae:


Hubble Tour of the Eta Carina Nebula


You will longer look at an image of a nebula in the same way after going through this Hubble tour! You will identify the many different structures, and now also understand the forces that have shaped them, and what is going on. M42, M17, the Helix, the Horsehead - the forces that shape all of these nebulae you will identify and understand.

The star Eta Carina is further complicated because it is a binary system. Its smaller companion is undergoing massive problems dealing with enormous amount of material that Eta is dumping on it, causing the smaller companion to regularly experience nova eruptions itself due to the massive build up of surface pressure. Much of the Homunculus nebula's shape is due to the complex magnetic fields formed by the two stars.

The Homunculus nebula is very easy to identify within the Eta Carina nebula. It is the brightest star in the entire complex, and has a distinct orange colour. As you increase magnification, its volume becomes evident as the 'star' no longer focuses to a single point. And detail within the bipolar lobes starts to become visible.

With all this talk of the tiny Homunculus, don't forget the actual nebula Eta Carina... . I can see several dark pillars from my home in Sydney using an 8" scope. From a dark site, well, I'll leave you to tell us about it...

Ron will certainly be able to guide you to this marvel in the sky.

It is wonderful that you are also bringing your binoculars. You will just LOVE using them! The LMC and SMC are are must to view with binos. Take your time - your eyes really need some time to slowly take in all that is in this pair, and the arm of the Milky Way that is in our part of the sky.

Mental.

Oh, nearly forgot, the Keyhole nebula, which is a dark structure within the Eta Carina nebula, is formed out of the radiation that is blowing out from Eta Carina star, and the Keyhole is material being pushed out towards us. There is a 'bubble' of material that is being blown out from around the star Eta Carina. There are several bubbles infact within this massive nebula...

[H.Treur]

That is a thorough explanation Alexander.
It is obvious that you are a real sketch-artist; someone who studies one object for several hours, instead of ticking away 75 objects in one night....

I also like that patient approach, but unfortunately my time in Australia is limited. (even more because of the growing moon.)
But i promise to plunge myself into the Eta Carina-caroussel for as long as possible.

[MichaelSW (Michael)]

G'day H.Treur.

This thread might be useful for you. It's author, glenc (Glen) aka star-hopper, is very approachable and helpful.

Cheers.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=125725