Globular Clusters

[glenc (Glen)]

I have seen 97 globulars since 4/4/12.
Last night I saw IC 1257. I could only just see it in my 16" with averted vision. Attached is a wikisky.org image of it.
" New (1997) CCD photometry of the faint, compact star cluster IC 1257 (l=17(o,) b=+15(o) ), obtained with the Palomar 5m telescope, reveals that it is a highly reddened globular cluster well beyond the Galactic center. With an apparent distance modulus (m-M)_V = 19.2 and a foreground reddening E(B-V) = 0.75, it is 24 kpc from the Sun and ~ 16 kpc beyond the Galactic center. "
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997AJ....113..688H

[glenc (Glen)]

http://my.hwy.com.au/sjquirk/globulars/globs-all.html

"In 2009 I (Steve Quirk) set myself a project to image all the Milky Way globular clusters possible from my location."
The observatory is a private facility located near the country town of Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia.

[glenc (Glen)]

I have seen 108 GC this month. There is one more on my list - NGC 288. (I have seen it many times but not this month)
I saw NGC 6749 this morning, it was easier than I expected. http://my.hwy.com.au/sjquirk/globulars/ngc6749.jpg
There are 104 NGC and 3 IC globular clusters in the Milky Way, 106 of these were seen.

[glenc (Glen)]

Tried to see NGC 288 this morning but it was cloudy again.

[astrospotter (Mark)]

Ngc288 is a favorite on this end as it is one of those very low concentration globulars that approaches a fine blanket of similar mag stars much like some open clusters with even blankets of stars. Sitting so close to Ngc253 makes it all the better. Good luck in your noble quest and say hello to the deep southern globs for this northern observers who cannot see them

[glenc (Glen)]

I saw NGC 288 this morning despite the moonlight. All of the 107 Milky Way NGC and IC globular clusters have now been seen.

[Gem (Grant)]

Well done!!!!

[Gem (Grant)]

Originally Posted by astrospotter

say hello to the deep southern globs for this northern observers who cannot see them

Time to move to the south!!!!

[Rob_K]

Quite a good sky late tonight after a cloudy evening so I armed myself with detailed charts and went looking for HP 1 in Ophiuchus. No luck, found the exact position easily but couldn't draw anything out despite seeing stars into the mag twelves. My chart showed a little tight cluster of three stars right on its edge - I could see that although at 43x it appeared as one star (or one star at a time LOL).

No surprise really, I'm down to ones that are maybe a bit beyond the reach of my 4.5" scope. Not that I'll stop trying! Still, that makes 102 of the 107 NGC/IC Milky Way globs with RUP 106, Pal 8 and Djorg 2 chucked in, all 105 through a little Tasco telescope shock horror...

Finished with a quick glob tour, Omega Centauri , M22 in Sgr (beautiful object), NGC 6144 in Sco (nice little pale blob), M4 in Sco ('Cat's Eye' bar very plainly visible in averted vision), NGC 6441 in Sco (one of my favourites, tiny and bright), etc.

Cheers -

[Ted Manuel]

Omega Centauri is just so dim when viewed in my backyard.
Find it hard to get excited over it when I view it on my 8" dob.

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Originally Posted by Ted Manuel

Omega Centauri is just so dim when viewed in my backyard.
Find it hard to get excited over it when I view it on my 8" dob.

If you are in the Melbourne metropolitan area, you aren't going to see deep sky objects well. Time to get that 'scope out of Melbourne, a few hours drive away.

That said, human responses to "visual views" of the sky vary a lot.
I recall showing Omega Centauri to two people, one after the other:
First Person's Response : "It just looks like a can of worms. I'm sorry, I just can't relate to stars."
Second Person's Response : "If my father could have seen this, he wouldn't have been able to sleep for three nights......"

The objects we view in the telescope are Very very very very Far Away, and they are usually faint. So, a lot more interest can be added to our observations by learning the details of what it is that we are actually looking at in the telescope.

Do you know how far away Omega Centauri is? How many stars it contains? How it formed, and how many years ago?

cheers, Robert

[glenc (Glen)]

Thanks Grant.
Rob you have done well with a small scope.

[glenc (Glen)]

This is a list of my 30 favourite globular clusters.

Size is in arc-minutes.
Class is concentration, I high to XII low.
BR* is the brightest star.
Tirion is the page in a star atlas.

Refr SAC http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/downloads.htm