Hi all,
Last Saturday night I got together with a couple of other IISers at Randwick Girls' High oval for an asto session. We lucked out on one of the better nights we've had for a while. Good for Sydney anyways,
.
It was a good few hours spent comparing and sharing notes, scopes, eyepieces and filters. Cheers Peter and Stephen,
.
My main objective for the night was to get a sketch done. I hadn't been able to put pen to paper for a while now. The target I selected was also one I hadn't been able to pin at all from home, the open cluster and planetary nebula duo of NGC 2818 and 2818A in Pyxis.
Armed with two charts and my trusty Odessius, I had a bugger of a time. At first I thought that there must be some type of misprint as could not see any open cluster where the charts indicated. Then, all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, a little roundish puff caught my attention. BINGO! NGC 2818A was in the bag.
The surprising thing is how unimpressive the open cluster is! The collection is so loose and faint, no wonder I had so much trouble tracking it. I'm guessing that at a dark site the cluster would be a little more obvious.
An OIII filter helped a great deal bring out detail in the PN. It somewhat resembles a Pac Man figure, as it is a disk of mist with a piece bitten out. The missing "bit" is actually very much fainter than the rest. I'll be trying for this little two-for-one combo again next dark site time.
I managed a sketch of the duo. It is not the brightest of targets from Sydney. That in itself was the challenge. I'm actually very pleased to have been able to nab it after so many months trying, and that IT should be the object of my first sketch in ages.
The second pic shows Odessius up and running, with Peter's Tantalus, his 13.1" dob, behind my 17.5" beastie (yes, it does have 3 finder scopes, one 2", another 3" and a red spot finder mounted on the 3",
).
Mental.
