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Old 26-08-2006, 12:19 PM
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Lee
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Post M83 - Southern Pinwheel Galaxy - GX

Mag 8.00 galaxy in Hydrus
RA 13h 37.376m
Dec -29° 54.168'

Date - 2000hr AEST 16 Aug 2006
Location - Newcastle, Australia
Telescope - 200mm f/6 GSO Dobsonian
EP - 20mm Televue Plossl

From this relatively light polluted location, albeit darker than it often is - I didn't expect to find very much of M83 - and I didn't!

I starhopped to M83 from mu- and nu- Centauri, across to the four star asterism of 1-, 2-, 3- and 4- Centauri, and then dropped about 4deg down to the area of M83. At this time it was at an altitude of 37° in the west.
Nothing of M83 was visible in the 8*50 finderscope.

In the 20mm Plossl, M83 initially appeared as an approx 7-8th magnitude star, which quickly became "fuzzy" on closer examination - closer scrutiny revealed a brighter fuzzy patch a couple of arc minutes across, and the VERY faint hint of a fuzzy area maybe 10 arc minutes across - gentle nudging of the OTA confirmed this, as did a closer look through the XW-10.
Subsequent review of Starry Night Pro confirmed the sketch taken as M83.

Certainly nothing like the awesome images of this galaxy posted regularly - but visible notheless from my suburban backyard.
I hope to follow-up this report with a dark sky report of M83 this weekend - fingers crossed!

One of the many great images of M83 - by tonado33 http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=12449

Check http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m083.html for a bunch of further info about this galaxy and its discovery.
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Old 26-08-2006, 01:38 PM
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CosMos (Rich)
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Even a modest 15cm mirror will show spiral arms from a dark site. This galaxy is worth monitoring as 6 supernovae in 60 years have appeared, the last in 1983. One of my favourites.
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Old 27-08-2006, 02:45 PM
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I have seen this object with many different instruments all from moderate light polluted sites. 10x50mm binos will show it and I have seen the spiral arms faintly with a 200mm Dob. cant wait to see it under dark skies with my 300mm Dob.
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