Clear night tonight, what to look at?

[Jezza94]

Hi all,

It looks like its going to be a clear night tonight. Haven't seen one of these in a while. :)

Are there any documents online that can give me a list of things in the sky to go on a tour of? Only have a 70mm refractor so they can't be over a magnitude of say... 9.5-10.

Jeremy

[mithrandir]

"Tonight's Sky" (http://www.njstargazer.org/PROG/PROG.asp) will filter by magnitude.

Where it says "Minimum magnitude" in the query selection it means only show objects brighter than that.

One gotcha. Don't try to specify transit times on both sides of midnight. It defaults to sunset/twilight to midnight. If you want times on both sides of midnight, do two runs - one for before and one for after.

[DavidU]

It's not looking to flash here in Melb at the moment.

[Mun]

Yeah currently experiencing some thunder and lightning north of melbourne... :(

[mental4astro]

Try to tease out the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. You might even fluke an eclipse transit going across its face.

If you haven't already, Comet Lemmon is a go. Its wispy soft tail should be visible in your scope. There's an excellent thread on Lemmon running in the Events Forum with current charts on where to find it:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=949001#post949001

Not far from Lemmon is 47 Tuc which is easily resolvable in a 70mm scope. The near full Moon won't hinder viewing this magnificent globular cluster.

Just 3 things to look at.

[Suzy]

Hi Jeremy, :hi:

Take a look at this link that I've compiled- these objects should look awesome through your telescope. Some of them won't be in the sky right now (most are), but might be an idea to hang on to this list for when they are.

Easy & Beautiful Targets for Binoculars. (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=950381#post950381)


And perhaps try your hand at the "Easy" section in this thread?
Suzy's Observing Targets: July/August 2012.
(http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/Thanks%20Alex.%20How%20could%20I%20 have%20forgotten%20about%20adding%2 0M8%20%28The%20Lagoon%20Nebula%29%2 0to%20the%20list-%20it%27s%20simply%20awesome%20thru %20binos%20even%20from%20a%20light% 20polluted%20backyard%20it%27s%20ju st%20so%20bright%21%20%20Wait,%20ju st%20realised,%20I%20probably%20had n%27t%20observed%20it%20thru%20bino s%20when%20this%20list%20was%20done .%20%20%20I%20must%20add%20that%20o ne%20to%20my%20list.%20%20And%20tha nks%20Daniel%20for%20the%20mention% 20of%20M44-%20The%20Beehive%20Cluster.%20But%2 0I%20found%20it%20un-impressive%20in%20binos.%20It%20was %20just%20a%20faint%20splodge-%20I%27ve%20just%20been%20looking%2 0at%20my%20notes%20now.%20%20I%27m% 20sure%20from%20a%20dark%20site%20t ho,%20it%20would%20look%20quite%20b eautiful%20and%20different.%20%20Fo r%20my%20list%20I%27ve%20picked%20t he%20really%20bright,%20easily%20st and%20out,%20hit%20you%20in%20the%2 0face%20targets.%20I%27m%20about%20 to%20edit%20my%20list%20to%20add%20 a%20few%20more%20goodies%20in:%20%2 0TAURUS:%20The%20Hyades,%20%20COMA% 20BERENICES:%20%20Mel.%20111,%20%20 TUCANAE:%2047Tuc%20%28NGC%20104%29, %20%20SCORPIUS:%20M6%20%28Butterfly %20Cluster%29,%20%20LMC:%20Tarantul a%20Nebula%20NGC%202070,%20%20VULPE CULA:%20Coat%20Hanger%20Cluster/Brochhi%27s%20Cluster%29%20%20SAGIT TARIUS:%20The%20Lagoon%20Nebula%20&%20assoc.%20star%20cluster%20%28M8% 29%20%20If%20anyone%20thinks%20of%2 0any%20other%20really%20bright%20on es%20that%20I%27ve%20missed,%20plea se%20let%20me%20know%20so%20I%20can %20add%20it%20in.%20%20BOOOOOOOOOO% 20%20Seems%20I%20can%27t%20edit%20o ld%20posts.%20%20Big%20and%20bald%2 0on%20these%20objects%20will%20have %20to%20do%20I%20guess.%20%20And%20 major%20*face%20palm*%20I%27ve%20ju st%20realised%20I%27ve%20called%20S corpius%20%22Scorpio%22.%20%20Smack %20me%20now....%20had%20a%20real%20 habit%20of%20doing%20that%20back%20 then.%20Edited%21)

Go for a cruise through Crux and Carina- plenty to see there for your size scope. A few gorgeous clusters in that area come to mind that aren't mentioned in the above links:

Pearl Cluster- NGC 3766 - Centaurus

Gem Cluster- NGC 3293 - Carina

Wishing Well Cluster- 3532 - Carina

Try your your hand at The Spiral Planetary Nebula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_5189)in Musca- NGC 5189. You may be able to see the bright "S" shape in the nebula.


As for what's in the sky at the moment, take a look at this great page: Southern Sky Watch (http://home.mira.net/~reynella/skywatch/ssky.htm)


Enjoy! :astron:

[mithrandir]

An update on Tonight's Sky. Nor noticed my suggestion you try it and we've exchanged a few emails.



Contrary to what I'd said it does work properly across midnight.

I think what I was thinking about is it can't sort in transit time order.

Say RA at sunset was a bit after 20 and RA just after 4 at dawn. RA sort will go 0, 1, 3, 4, 20, 21, 22, 23. Transit time sort would have RA go 20, 21, 22, 23, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Nor said he'd look at being able to sort by transit time, but no promises on when. He calculates transit when an object is selected, so it is not available as a sort key.

[StarVoyager]

Hi Jeremy,

When I was starting out I found the following site to be useful as a guide for some interesting objects to looks at: http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html (http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html). As you will see the site has links to star charts for each latitude (north, mid, south) and object lists with accompanying descriptions. Scroll down the page until you reach the Southern Hemisphere Edition which is applicable for Australia and select the pdf for March. It will have a star chart for the southern sky to help you locate the objects on page one and a lists of objects and their descriptions on page two.


:thumbsup:

[6se_p]

Bintel publishes a monthly newsletter, which includes a sky map also. Link: http://www.bintel.com.au/Night-Sky.aspx