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The Changing Night Sky
In previous posts I have mentioned that I have spent the first half (I hope) of my life not looking up. So it was nice to go outside last night for the first time in a month and be presented with a totally different sky to navigate and explore. The sky had shifted by about 45° (who knew?!) and I was totally lost. I cracked out the Taki skycharts I have printed and laminated, and the red LED torch.
Conditions were pretty good last night. Warm, clear skies in our viewing area, although clouds over the most light polluted areas were casting a bit of a glow. I started by finally locating a couple of objects I had been looking for for a while.
The Carina Nebula. Now I know where to look, I am surprised it took me so long to find it. I can't see all of it through the 25mm eyepiece, which is a bit of a shame.
The Tarantula Nebula. The LMC is always pretty easy to spot so I just scanned around until I found it. Not particularly bright in the 6", but quite clearly the same centre structure I've seen in pictures.
My son stumbled across the Omega Centauri Globular Cluster, which is now in a position where we can see it over the hill to our east. We spent some time looking at it, and for me, the globular clusters are very rewarding viewing.
We aimed and panned around Virgo, looking for faint fuzzies and stumbled across one. but I was totally lost and have no hope of identifying it. It would appear that general area is littered with galaxies (the Virgo Supercluster?).
Yet again, this fascinating hobby delivers an extraordinary night of viewing and discovery.
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