Gum 49 and Gum 50

[glenc]

Has anyone seen the nebulae Gum 49 and Gum 50? They are about 2 degrees west of the open cluster NGC 6067 (Dunlop 360).
The attached wikisky.org image, with a field of 1.9 deg, shows the faint open cluster Trumpler 23 (Dunlop 358) at top left with Gum 50 to the lower right of it and Gum 49 at lower right. The distance from Tr 23 to Gum 49 is 1d 20m. The star below Gum 50 is mag 6.1.

See also http://galaxymap.org/cgi-bin/gum.py?s=41
and http://galaxymap.org/drupal/node/33

[glenc]

Tragically, Gum was killed in a skiing accident near the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps on 29 April 1960. Bok's grief comes through in his obituary for Gum (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1961QJRAS...2...3 7):

[Ro84]

I think this map could be a good help to find them. They are RCW 98 and RCW 99.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Norma-Circinusdetail_charta.png

[glenc]

Thanks Roberto for an excellent map.

[Rob_K]

Here's a couple of finding charts, backgrounds generated in Starry Night. Closer chart includes low power FOV (43 x).

Cheers -

[Rob_K]

Nice dark clear skies tonight so had a go at these with Tasco 4.5" f8 reflector & 21mm EP (43x). First up, there's a lot of mottling in the vicinity with a fairly dense starfield.

Gum 50 was fairly easy to see, a faint, smooth, oval nebulous patch about 3' long and about half that wide, best viewed in averted vision (strong & could be held).

Gum 49 was a different story - the strongest 'signal' was a faint elongated patch as marked in the attached sketch, but in-&-out and not a terribly satisfactory observation at all. At times I 'imagined' I could see more but I think I was kidding myself. With the sketches, there were of course many more stars in the fields - those drawn were just my markers.

Should be a doddle for a bigger scope. :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[glenc]

Well done Rob, you have good eyes.