Hi Harro, welcome to our forum and soon, our Aussie shores
.
Ron (Astro Ron) is one of my best friends and I go up his place from time to time. You'll have a great time I'm sure of it. He's great to have a conversation with, easy to get along with and is a brilliant teacher. He'll show you a ton of stuff with his 16" dob.
Just try to get to Ron's early before dark so you can catch Scorpius and Sagittarius before they set. Your eyes will pop and your jaw will drop when you see the LMC and SMC *easily* naked eye.
Alexander mentioned above M77 (Cetus A galaxy). Sydney's light pollution may be a bit worse than here in Brisbane because I can easily spot it through my 10" dob- it's one of my favourite galaxies. So easy to find too.
Please, please, don't leave our southern skies without taking a look at Ruby Crucis. It's a blood red carbon star in Crux, next to beta Crucis. There's also the Blue Planetary PN within the vicinity.
Don't forget Centaurus A. Make sure you look through Ron's 16". It'll bring you to your knees
. But I'm Ron will cover this anyway. As for the homunculus nebula, you really need a 5mm ep to do it justice. An amazing site indeed. Again, best viewed at Ron's. Don't worry, I have no doubt that he'll automatically show you all the gems in our sky.
And another nice object is in Musca- NGC 5189, the Spiral Nebula (PN).
What date are you going to Ron's?
If it's a weekend & if hubby's not away, I may even join in.
Perhaps see if you can get a hold of the brilliant book, "Atlas of the Southern Night Sky" by Quirk & Massey, it might help you out. Each constellation lists its gems worth viewing with an easy to follow map and picture for each object. Oh.... strange.... I'm not seeing it available anymore
.
Paddy from our forum did a
review of it.
Meanwhile, I hope these lists help you out
.
John Bambury's Southern Skies Observing List
Highlight's of the Winter Sky. I did this list and many of these objects are are still observable now. These are some of the eye candy objects.
Enjoy!
