Hi all,
This last Saturday of the New Moon was the first chance I got to take my finished 17.5" 'Odessius' to a dark sky for a bit of a fang. As a result, my observations were very much divided up with various 'must see' objects to gauge the guts of the rebuild, comparing views with other observers there at Katoomba Airfield, and The Challenge.
Consequently I only managed a few of this month's target objects.
First though, here is a link to a thread in the Imaging forum to the faintest target in this month's challenge, UKS-1. I'm not sure if SkyViking had followed the invitation, but a great co-incidence if not:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=62561
When Scorpio had risen high enough above Sydney's sky glow, the GC imbedded in M7,
NGC 6453, was my first target. I've seen 6453 from home in Old Sydney Town, and it isn't the easiest thing to make out. Even at a dark sight, this GC is still a challenge to make out due to the glare of the illuminosity of the component stars of M7.
M7 is like a sack of diamonds that has been dropped on a table with some of the precious stones scattering away. The smaller open cluster Tr 30, also within M7's boundaries, looks like someone crushed one of these scattered diamonds and the resulting crush gives a burst of tiny precious sparkles.
6453 is trapped beneath a couple of the scattered diamonds, at nearly the opposite side to Tr30. If you imagine a 'Y' radiating out from Tr 30, with the base of the 'Y' on the cluster, and the centre of the 'Y' over M7's heart, 6453 will lie approximately on one of the arms of the 'Y', I'd say the more southerly placed arm in this configuration. It appeared as a faint, but definite small round patch of diffuse light. Easy to miss with the bright stars superimposed. I found it by a slow scan of M7, away from Tr 30 as described above. The 'giggling' of the scope during the scan helps to bring it up against the glare.
The planetary nebula PK356-4.1 I didn't have a go at, though it appears in a shot of M7 taken by rogerg in this thread link:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=62433
NGC 121 followed. At this time of year the SMC and 47 Tuc are just above the southern horizon. My go at 121 was more of a 'yeah, why not have a half hearted try'. It was to be a test to how well 'Odessius' performed at such a low elevation- just brilliantly, thank you very much!
47 Tuc was first attained. Just marvelous the bugger is. Using my widest field eyepiece, a slow scan around 47 Tuc, keeping it on the edge of the FOV, eventually revealed NGC 121. At 66X, it is a small round patch of diffuse light, with the tell-tale sign of being a GC with its outer edge just fading out. It is about the same size and brightness of 6453, though it appears brighter and is easier to spot as it is not challenged by the glare of M7. At 133X it begins to show a mottling structure, with some faint component stars hinting at being resolved in my 17.5". A higher elevation would give a better view.
A really cool 'family picture' of a big brother GC and a little brother GC, 47 Tuc and NGC 121.
M4 was the last Challenge object I picked of that night. It is one of my favourite GC's. At 66X it fills nearly half my FOV. Not as highly populated as Omega or 47 Tuc, the lies and curls traced by its component stars are easier to trace, recognise, and retrace without being lost. Its famous 'dark lane' that bisects this GC in smaller scopes, if filled with masses of tiny stars, but still there if you squint for a moment.
Until the next Obs. Challenge,
Mental.
Globular Clusters
Oh, man! It's gonna be a loooong night!
