Observing Report from Last Night (27/03)

[Sentinel]

I am currently away at the beach and got a short observing session in last night.

The report can be found as usual at;
http://www.southernsentinel.co.nz (http://www.southernsentinel.co.nz/)

When your out at the scope next time, check out NGC 3199, a real stunner.

Hope to get more observing in this weekend if the weather clears.

[ngcles]

Hi Paul & All,

Very good report mate.


Good that you saw NGC 3199. It is a pertty rare sort of nebula which is akin to NGC 2359 (Thor's Helmet) Canis Major, and the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) in Cassiopeia and NGC 6888 (Crescent Nebula) in Cygnus that is formed by a Wolf-Rayet or similar type of exotic star.

I think it is probably the brightest of its type in the sky but sadly sits in the shadow of the mighty Eta Carinae complex and doesn't get the attention it deserves. The illuminating star is mag 10.6 HD 89358 with a spectral type WN5.

There is a paper about it here:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989A&A...226..270D

NGC 6164-65 in Norma is also more distant kindred, but not formed by a W-R star instead by an evolving high-mass O7-f star. There are only a handful of this sort of visible in the whole sky.

Best,

Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

[PhilW]

It is a fascinating object - and completely overshadowed by its celestial neighbourhood. NGC 1999 suffers the same fate, being only a few degrees away from M42.

[goober]

Enjoyable, thanks Paul. Observations have dried up here (Melbourne). Hope you're having a nice holiday. Two cars to get the scope out there - I like it :)

[Rob_K]

Sounds like you had a good time Paul, nice report! :thumbsup: Found your observation of Rup 106 very interesting - do you mean by 'contrast' that it is set in a very dark field?

Cheers -

[Karlsson]

Interesting report, Paul!

Can't believe I missed NGC3199 as I had been trawling around that area for a few dewy nights some weeks ago... thanks for reminding me to revisit it...

:thumbsup:

[ausastronomer]

Ahhhhh !!! the Southern Crescent. One of the targets I always share with our American visitors whenever I entertain them.

It's pretty impressive in an 18" scope, with or without a filter. A UHC filter does work very well on it.

Cheers,
John B

[Sentinel]

Just got back from the beach yesterday. I did not get any more observing done as we had a blanket of cloud over us all weekend after that night.

Glad you all enjoyed the report.

The hardcase thing about this report was that I was sitting in the car uploading it to the net via a wireless access point in Whitianga...about 25 minutes from the beach where I was staying. We drove in for a Cafe Lunch so I uploaded it from the car. Should have got Michelle (My Wife) to take a photo!!

Roll on the Star Party for the AAS at Waharau this weekend.

Hopefully more reports on the way.

[Sentinel]

The skies were less light polluted so the contrast was better.

Cheers

[Sentinel]

Yeah....my trailer has died. Succumed to Rust. Can't afford a new one at the moment so we took two cars.

I'll post some shots to my Flickr account tomorrow morning and post the URL.

[Sentinel]

Les,

I have met you...at South Pacific Star Party 2004. I enjoy your contributions to the S&T, both the Australian one and the US version.

6164 is another favourite of mine.

I have logged over 2900 observations since 01/12/1999. All recorded in Skymap Pro v11 & Astroplanner v1.6. Those log files are now invaluable to me. I have copies all over the place, for safe keeping.

All the best.

[ngcles]

Hi Paul,

We have met have we? I did indeed go to the SPSP in 2004 (I've been about 5 different times -- sometimes as a speaker) and you tend to meet a lot of people. Hmmm ... I think in 2004 I spoke about several deep sky objects in and around Corvus (much like the present DSD article in AS&T) and I seem to remember I wasn't at the star party long at all because of my back and instead went up the road a bit to stay at a mate's in Mudgee where I knew I could get a proper bed to sleep in and had a shed to store the 'scope without having to disassemble every night!

So from memory, I was actually only at the SPSP that years for a few hours on the (Friday??) to do my talk -- I can't remember much more about that year's SPSP -- I was in a Panadiene Forte and Endone "haze" for much of 2004 & 2005.

The operation I had in 2005 fixed it all though!

Thanks for the feedback on the articles -- much appreciated. Sometimes I wonder how well they are received (or indeed whether they are read at all)because I don't get a huge amount of comment (positive or negative) from the readership of AS&T. Good to know someone reads 'em!

2,900 observations -- whew! That is a very, very impressive log my friend, you should be proud! The biggest (current) observing log (I'm aware of at least) is kept by Steve Gottlieb who currently writes for Astronomy and used to write occasionally for S&T in the US (we have observed together a couple of times here in Australia). Last I heard, it contained about 10,000 observations of over 6,500 objects.:eyepop:

Now thats an observing log that would even have impressed Herschel (either or both of them)!

Best,

Les D

[Karlsson]

Thanks to this thread I have been observing NGC3199 for the last three nights, amazed how well it shows up even here in the Sydney suburbs... I do spend quite some time with my black T-shirt upside down over my head though...:)

And (off-topic) Les, I do read your AS&T contributions, and most of it goes onto my observing list, except faint galaxies - those are really pointless where I live...