Nebulae

[Moonman]

Absolutely brilliant skies over Lony past two nights. Acropolite must be having a field'night' with his new LX90. However I have been star hopping through the milkyway myself with my 76mm.

First after just some arbitary scanning I happened upon a markedly bright cloud just to the west of Crux and upon some research I determined this most likely to be the ETA Carinae Nebula. Quite brilliant, dotted with individual light points in some intricate patterns.

Bouyed on by this first sniff off success I set off this evening to find Omega Centauri which was just visible to the naked eye once I used a star chart to narrow down the area of sky it inhabited. Through the telescope a hazy but reasonably brilliant cloud appeared roughly circular in shape.

Any suggestions for other targets for small scopes will be greatly appreciated.

Happy Viewing All
:eyepop:

[CosMos]

Hey Moonman, open clusters would be the way to go. Look at NGC 2516 off the False Cross, run a line along the long axis into Carina around 4-5 degrees; also IC 2602 which surrounds theta Carinae, a cluster south of the eta Carinae nebula marking one point of the Diamond Cross. Both are naked eye and large enough for your telescope to do them justice.

have fun, Rich:cool:

[Greg Bryant]

Michael,

A list of objects I like to run through from time to time with binoculars or small telescopes is the Astronomical League's Southern Sky Binocular Club List.

http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/sskybino/ssbinoc2.html

It's a good time of year to tour the list, ticking them off one by one as you go. Take your time.

I endeavoured to revisit the list last month at the South Pacific Star Party with 7x50 binoculars. Problem was I kept being tempted to see sights through nearby 20 and 25 inch Dobsonians. Can't really complain. :)

[Moonman]

Thanks Guys,

CosMos those directions seem clear enough and will follow suit in next night viewing session. Carinae is right above us in the sky presently so viewing is good.

Greg, that's a pretty awesome list and I'll be studying that closely in the weeks to come to plan a few good nights of viewing b4 the moon comes back with a vengence and spoils the fun. But I dare say it will keep me going for a few new moons yet to come.

[acropolite]

Micheal,

Been outside on one of those nights, stayed out till 9:30 when the woodfire smoke started to drift in from the city. I know what that stuff has done to the paint on my boat, so I am really wary of dew/smoke particles on the colector plate. I think that I'm going to have to come up with some sort of solution over the winter months. See if you can find 47Tuc, globular cluster with real wow factor; should be an easy target with your refractor. I found Rigel Kent nice too, didn't realise it was a binary (well its really a triple)

Just put the LX outside to cool and you guessed it, within 20 minutes the clouds rolled in. Might try again later if the weather clears.