dark doodad

[mozzie]

i was looking in musca earlier in the year and reading in the pocket sky atlas ,noticed the dark doodad didnt know if i was looking at it or not wondering can you see it or do you need special filters

[h0ughy]

i have only ever seen the dark doodad via a image not visually

[ausastronomer]

Hi Peter.

The Dark Doodad is a very long thin "Dark Nebula", as you mention in Musca. It is almost 3 degrees in length by about 15' wide. It is like a long thin piece of black ribbon against the rich starfield. It runs almost North/South and the Southern end sits adjacent to the globular cluster NGC 4372. NGC 4372 is a bright globular at about Mag 7.8. The Dark Doodad is very easy to see, even in small telescopes because it is in a field of total darkness, set against a bright background of stars. Like all Dark Nebula, no filter of any description offers any assistance. In fact any filter will only destroy the view to some extent. The Dark Doodad is also visible in good binoculars. I have had some wonderfull views of it in the 25x150 Fujinon binoculars at Coonabarabran, but it is easily visible in any decent hand held binoculars.

A great target in a very nice field, which includes a dark nebula set against a bright starfield and a globular cluster nearby.

Cheers,
John B

[erick]

Yes, easily seen in dark skies. Find the globular and then you have found one end. Use lowest magnification in scope. 10x or 12x binoculars will be best.

There is a nice image in this thread:-

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=29581

[Starkler]

Yes in properly dark skies it will be obvious even in a small finder scope or binocs.

In not so dark skies it takes a telescope to discern an absence of stars in the region.

[mozzie]

thanks for the heads up next time its in the sky i cant wait to see it

an excellent site iis have a question just ask somebody is always able to help:whistle:

[glenc]

The Dark Doodad is today's APOD, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0812/doodad_oreshko_big.jpg
They say it is unnamed but it has a catalogue number HMSTG436.
It is in "A catalogue of southern dark clouds" Hartley M., Manchester R.N., Smith R.M., Tritton S.B., Goss W.M.
http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?VII/191