Clear skies tonight, rain is coming for the long weekend but my book, Turn Left at Orion has arrived so that is taken care of ,,,
Got the Dob out on the front driveway about 20:00, setup the laptop with Stellarium in the garage entrance and turned out all the lights.
Seeing was good with some high haze, qiuite cool, no wind, transparency reasonably stable. Most viewing done with the 20 and 15 mm Supervie but switched to a 12 PLossl in some cases.
Saturn, high in NW sky, very bright, 15mm gave best view, saw some banding and ring separation, three moons obvious. High haze made this hard viewing.
Went looking for NGC 5139, but stumbled across NGC 5286, a small Glob not far away. Could not define stars in that but got excellent views of 5139 in the 15mm, Big, soft almost grey appearance with well defined starfield.
Eta Carina, used the OIII on 15mm and got well defined dust clouds and lanes. Those clouds extend quite a way out. Spent a while visually tracing thee extent.
Went looking for A Cen cluster. Found NGC 3766, small cluster nearby first then 2944, A Cen. Not much to see naked eye, seems to be a black hole almost. More defined by the lack of stars than the presence.
Using Stellariuim worked my way through several Open Clusters, NGC 4052, 4463, & 4349. Starting to get the hang of this star hopping. Using the binocs to establish region first then the RDF. Really need a Rt Angle Finder scope to make this easier. LP makes it hard to keep your eye on the markers.
Had a quick peek at Mimosa and K Cru, always a pretty sight with it's reddish stars in the group.
But then I got ambitious. Stellarium showed a Mag 9 Galaxy, NGC 4945 over between ACrux and NGC 5139, Omega Cent Glob. After about 20 mins managed to pin down E1 Cen and E2 Cen and then with averted vision found the galaxy, my #2 !! Extremely faint, averted vision with no definable central bulge that I could see. I had to hang on to it for 15 minutes or more to see any real shape. Sits at right angles almost to the two E1,E2 Cen stars and quite large when you finally see the limits. Stellarium does not show it other than location.
Emboldened by success I remembered Sombrero in the NW sky, always elusive for me. Found Saturn and Algorab, roughly aimed the Dob with the RDF about the middle .... and there it was, #3 !! Got it up to a 12mm Plossl but the seeing in that direction seems not great. I think heat over my roof and the volcano behind may have something to do with it. Applies to the Saturn viewing as well. ( No, the volcano is not hot, it just causes air curents from surrounding houses to rise )
Sombrero showed the central dark band and good shape through the 15 and 20 SV's. Very pretty amongst it's little group of surrounding stars.
An excellent night in more ways than one. Successful in the hunt and the progress and very enjoyable. Inside to a warm fire by just after 22:00
I think a hot choccie with extra is in order before bed. See you all tomorrow.
