Quote:
Originally Posted by EpickCrom
Hi fellow observers! I had a wonderful night exploring the large constellation of Eridanus with my 10 inch dobsonian. This constellation holds many delights and a few rare sights! Moon at waxing gibbous but sky very transparent.
Before my foray into Eridanus began I had a few targets that I wanted to observe first. I started with finding the "Little Ladle" asterism in Pisces, brought to my attention on another forum. This charming asterism is found approx 2° from Iota Piscium, close to the Pegasus border. It gleamed in the moonlight and does look like a round spoon ( ladle). Next target was Saturn. Spectacular as usual, with one of its moons, Dione, positioned directly below Saturn and very close to it. A lovely sight! Mighty Jupiter was next, its moons strung out to one side of the planet. I saw very fine details in its cloud bands, one of my best ever views of the gas giant. After Jupiter I payed a visit to Mira (Omicron Ceti) the famous variable star in Cetus. I estimated it's current magnitude to be around 8th magnitude.
After enjoying those targets it was on to the main event of the evening, Eridanus:
Acamar ( Theta Eridani): Lovely double with identical white components spaced at 8"
NGC 1535: "Cleopatra's Eye". Wonderful planetary nebula. Blue/green coloration. I noticed it's 12th magnitude central star for the first time. Some internal structure visible at 343x.
Kied ( Omicron Eridani): This is an amazing multiple star, it's two companions being a white dwarf and a red dwarf! Very rare indeed.
39 Eridani: Another amazing multiple star, at 70x it's first companion was visible, then to my amazement the third companion became visible once I upped the magnification to 240x. This was my first time observing this object. I just love surprises!
NGC 1332: Elliptical galaxy. This was visible as a fuzzy smudge despite the moonlight. Another first discovery for me.
NGC 1537: Another elliptical galaxy. Eridanus abounds with galaxies!
I finished the night by observing the waxing gibbous moon. I got fantastic views of the Straight Wall, Apennines Mts and crater Clavius among others. I viewed crater Plato using my 2.3mm Cielo eyepiece ( my lowest focal length eyepiece) giving me 522x. The seeing was good as I got a rock steady and clear image, enabling me to see the Plato craterlets for the first time.A nice ending to an enjoyable session. Wishing you all clear skies 
Joe |
Hi Joe,
Nice report and session. Here are the targets in Eridanus that I included in my 600 target Southern Skies observing list.
53 NGC 1232 Gal ERI 9.8 13.9 7.4 6.5 108 SBc 3 9 45.3 - 20 34 45 Dec
56 NGC 1291 D487 Gal ERI 8.5 13.4 11.0 9.5 72 SB0-a 3 17 18.3 - 41 6 26 Dec
58 NGC 1300 Gal ERI 10.5 13.9 6.2 4.1 106 SBb I 3 19 40.9 - 19 24 40 Dec
65 NGC 1395 Gal ERI 9.8 13.3 5.0 4.5 120 E2 3 38 29.6 - 23 1 38 Dec
68 NGC 1404 Gal ERI 10.2 12.6 3.3 3.0 E1 3 38 51.9 - 35 35 35 Dec
69 NGC 1407 Gal ERI 10.1 13.3 4.6 4.3 35 E-S0 3 40 11.8 - 18 34 48 Dec
78 NGC 1532 Gal ERI 10.6 14.5 11.1 3.2 33 Sc II-III 4 12 4.2 - 32 52 30 Dec
80 NGC 1535 Cleopatra's Eye PN ERI 9.6 0.9 PN 4 14 15.8 - 12 44 20 Dec
You've only done Cleopatra's Eye and Acamar so far. The others are all within reach of a 10" telescope under dark skies, if you wanted to follow those up. Acamar is one of my all time favourite doubles, along with X Velorum.
Cheers
John B