Good DSO's to observe this month...

[phobos27]

This is my first July month that I have had an imaging capable scope and so I was wondering what all of you guys are photographing to give me some ideas! Really anything that is in the sky at the moment and up for at least 4 hours of the night would be great!

Can't wait to here what you guys say :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Dude, the milky way is high in the sky these nights. There's got to be a million DSO's in it! Have you had a look through the imaging forums?

There's Eta Carina, Omega Centauri, the Galaxy in your avatar Centaurus A NGC5128, NGC4945 galaxy, Running Chicken IC2944, M83 galaxy, Lagoon, Trifid nebula M8 - M20, Omega neb M17, M16, prawn Lobster, Star Queen, Cat's paw, M22.... Too many to list!

[phobos27]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I guess the reason I asked this question was too find the best DSO's. The Milky Way is rising like you said and I am inundated with choices which is my problem! :lol: I might star out with that list because it looks pretty good!

Too bad the moon is starting to creep up...

[Octane]

What scope and camera will you be using? What's your local light pollution like?

H

[phobos27]

Right now I am using an 8" Newtonian with an aperture of f/4 on an AZ-EQ6 GT and a Nikon D-7100. I live about 20km form the centre of Brisbane however on a clear night I can make out the core of the Milky Way and can see the Orion Nebula comfortably. It says according to Dark Sky that I live in the orange zone or the Suburban Sky.

However despite this I do still manage to go to a dark sky site usually every second month!:thumbsup:

[glend]

I'd suggest starting with the brighter magnitude DSOs, like Eta Carinea, Omega Centauri, etc as they are easy targets if you have clear views to the SW. They are dropping down in the sky during the evening so get to them early on then shift to the East. Objects rising in the East include all the Sag star cloud area: Omega, Lagoon Nebs etc. You will need to be wary of the Moon which is setting later each night and getting brighter as well. By the time the Moon sets, Omega and Lagoon should be near the zenith, just watch out for crossing the meridian as your scope will want to do a meridian flip. I try to run exposures up to the meridian and then reset the rig on the other side or shift to another east side target.

These are all objects that can be imaged without a guide camera provided you have your polar aligment done properly.

[phobos27]

Thanks for that! Some good ideas. I have had to watch out before as my scope has almost hit my mount a few times because it needed to flip. Will watch out more closely next time!