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Old 11-07-2010, 12:03 PM
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Townsville viewing night 10th July

Well, a great night was had at Donnington last night, about 3/4 hr west of Townsville!! What a relief, as we were so worried about the ever lingering cloud up here of late, but we were finally in luck. Seeing was not great, and bit of light in the NE from industrail site (too light for Ursa Major galaxies, which we can see sometimes), and in the SE from a fire.
We had occasional cloud come through, but much of the night was at least 80% clear. Many quick short meteors were seen.
For starters, while a bit of cloud cleared, and the sky darkened, we checked out the 3 planets in the east, with a very bright Venus close to Regulus, and Mars and Saturn above. Thought Mercury may have been there too, but cloud may have obscured it.
We did a bit of a Messier Tour, but got bogged down at the start with Virgo and Coma Berenices. Too many galaxies, and did we have the one that was asked for??? Who knows, as we all had dobs, so no GoTo clarification. It took us half the night to work out the 3 main stars of Coma Berenices!!!
Some of the objects viewed were:
Beautiful albireo - always a delight (and easy to find), its blue and yellow components clear and bright.
NGC 6302 ... The Bug Nebula in Scorpious - a little bipolar PN, and interesting in the FOV, with 2 small faint sections either side of the main star.
Hydra - M83 ... large spiral, 'Southern Pinwheel' - was quite faint to us all. M48 - nice glob.
Virgo - we only stuck to 2, as too many gals crowded in, and we werent sure which was which!! We checked out 2 galaxies, M49 and M 104 - at least we could recognize The Sombrero.
Coma Berenices - what a faint constellation - and, after a LONG time deciphering its actual whereabouts, we decided just to do the 1 galaxy, M 64 -'Black Eye Galaxy'.
Decided to do some easy ones then, so checked out the beautiful Ring Nebula (M57), and M56 in Lyra, a lovely little glob.
On to Corvus for NGC 4361 (a PN)and the little Antenna galaxies NGC 4038-39.
Aquarius had now risen so searched for the big Helix nebula- very faint, and took me ages!! Once found, a bit of a wow, as so huge, but still, very faint. Think we also checked out The Saturn Nebula in Aquarius, which didnt look like Saturn.
Up to Capricorn for M30 - nice glob, and NGC 7009, a little nebula.
Over to southern sky due to cloud and checked out the 2 globs in Musca, lovely ESB 365, the Jewel Box, then the magestic Omega Centauri,then to the lovely 47 Tuc, and Sue found a nice bit of nebula like formation, which must have been 362, a little glob, near 47 Tuc.
Am sure we saw more, as time just flew, as we whizzed from 1 target to another. We were waiting for Jupiter and Sculptor to rise, but cloud was dominating in SE. We did manage to have a quick look at Jupiter and 4 moons, no luck with Uranus, as too many clouds.
Quick look at the lovely M13 in Hercules before we left - Sue and Lex hadnt seen this before, and were quite impressed. We tried for the Veil nebula, but incoming cloud, might make it one for next week, with the help of a nice little filter.
Will probably do it again next Saturday night.
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  #2  
Old 11-07-2010, 01:46 PM
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Glad to see you got to see some stars Liz. I was up at Tully Hds all week (just walked in the door) and the night sky was pretty dismal.
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Old 11-07-2010, 05:35 PM
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Great obs report,glad you had a good time.

lucky you, all clouded out down here in the southern highlands nsw and i've been wanting to do some observing to break this long drought of non obs reports.

Were you able to see any spiral arms in m83? Did suzy end up going the solid tube or the colapsible one or are you talking about another suzy?

Great to hear you had a good time and happy observing
Orestis
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Old 11-07-2010, 10:43 PM
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Hey Paul ... yes, dismal is the word for the weather up here for the whole year, lucky to see some stars at all. Hope Tully Heads was fun.

Thanks Orestis. No, no spiral arms in M83 ... dont think seeing was great, all we saw was a large fuzzy round area. No, different Sue, but Suzy was going for the solid tube.

Last edited by Liz; 13-07-2010 at 07:58 AM.
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Old 11-07-2010, 11:18 PM
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That was a great report Liz.
Because of the cloudy weather, it has been so long since I've been able to spend any great length of time observing, that I appreciated reading yours. I hear Babs singing "Memories" in my head now .
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Old 12-07-2010, 05:18 AM
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It was nice thanks Liz. Great to catch up with the family. Pity about the weather though, no reef fishing that week.
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Old 12-07-2010, 06:03 PM
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Nice report Liz. Glad the night turned out mostly clear, it wasn't looking all that good all week, and Sunday was also cloudy, so you guys snuck it in on the right day.
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Old 12-07-2010, 06:39 PM
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Sounds a very good night Liz, thanks for the report. I wonder if the small object near 47 Tuc was NGC 121. NGC 362 is a pretty decent size GC, quite resolvable and you probably wouldn't refer to it as nebula like. It's also at the other end of the SMC to 47 Tuc. 121 is a much smaller target, not resolvable and looks like a small bright patch of fuzz. I think it actually belongs to the SMC whereas 362 is a Milky Way glob and much closer. I think.
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Old 12-07-2010, 09:11 PM
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Great report Liz. Lots of great targets. NGC 6302 is one of the best PNE out there for detail. Did you catch the "ansae" in NGC 7009? I've managed to see 1 spiral arm and the central bar in M83 from my outer suburban location with a 12"...not obvious for sure, but a bit of scrutiny and averted vision reveal them. How did NGC 4361 look? I see an elongated "S" shape against a perpendicular background haze.


47 Tuc actually has 2 nearby clusters, with all 3 seperated by the same distance and nearly in a perfect striaght line...the only such arrangement of globulars in the entire sky.

One is NGC 121 as has been mentioned, located to the north of 47 Tuc, but there is another slightly fainter cluster... ESO 28-19 located a similar distance south of 47 tuc. Both 121 and 28-19 belong to the SMC.

Last edited by pgc hunter; 12-07-2010 at 10:19 PM.
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Old 13-07-2010, 08:05 AM
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Thanks guys for info.
Perhaps could have been NGC 121?? None of us there were very experienced, and I dont think our charts/books showed NGC 121, as we were looking to see what else it may be.
Alas seeing wasnt great either, so minimal detail seen in galaxies etc.
Will check again sat night if clear..... armed with more charts.
Thanks Rex .... yes, cant believe the weather 'mostly' held for us, hope to see you there this Sat night.
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Old 13-07-2010, 08:15 AM
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How far was it from 47 Tuc? NGC362 is nearly 4º ENE, NGC 121 is about 40' NNE.
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Old 13-07-2010, 09:39 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pgc hunter View Post
How far was it from 47 Tuc? NGC362 is nearly 4º ENE, NGC 121 is about 40' NNE.
not sure .... another girl had found it in a 12" Dob, but think it was ESE - Tucana had not long risen, so prob NGC 362, but did look more nebulous.

damn ... have been reading Suzy's article link by David Kingsley on filters, and we didnt use any filters that night ... forgot!! Fancy not using a filter on the Helix, or The Bug, or Saturn Neb etc. Geeze.
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Old 05-08-2010, 08:12 PM
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I've been missing in action from the Reports Forum for a while, sorry about that folks. Bit of catch-up reading to do now.

Liz, I love the pics you've taken!

Your first one of the three planets is striking. I saw the trio tonight and they now span the width of a 20c piece held at arm's length. Also striking is the change in their spacings from one night to the next.

The second pic is a nice artistic one: the red glowing forground old fence, the silouetted tree line, and the Milky Way in the background.

The third is especially beautiful. Looks like you captured a 'quiet' moment with everyone sitting quietly at their scopes, the soft glow of the red light illuminating the scene, and Eta Carina, Southern Cross and the Coal Sack in the background doing their circum-polar thing! So many stars! I had to think about this pic for a while. Being taken in Townsville, this grouping is lower down to the horizon than from my home in Sydney, throwing me off a little. I thought it was the region of Scorpio/Sagittarius for a time, but too low for the time of the year.

Paddy mentioned NGC 121. Use a low power EP and do a slow scan around 47, just keeping it in your field of view. It lies way behind 47 Tuc., and gives hints at begining to resolve in larger scopes. I tracked it down back in June while it was at its lowest elevation just above the horizon. I'll be chasing this one down when its better placed higher up in the sky.

Mental.
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