Hi all,
I missed posting for May's Challenge, but it is still very much achieveable, with nebulae on the menu:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=60695
June's is also up, with Globular Clusters as the main fair:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=62129
There are a couple of warriors left out of this month's challenge, namely Omega Centuri and 47 Tuc. The latter a more diffiucult to see from more northern latitudes at this time of year. Have a go at them. Omega is in the constellation Centaurus, and 47 Tuc in Tucana.
47 Tuc is very close to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. Best seen with binoculars. There is also a second globular cluster near to these two puppies: NGC 362. It is often confused with being 47 Tuc. But when you identify each GC, you can be left in no doubt which is which! The kicker with these three objects is that they all orbit our Milky Way. Saddly for the SMC, it will be devoured by the Milky Way in the next two billion years, next saturday week.
Another thing about Omega Centuri and 47 Tuc is that they are the remnent cores of other galaxies that have too been devoured by our Milky Way. This is evidenced by their exceptional sizes and the composition of these systems. GC's are usually made up of the same age and type of stars- very old and lacking the heavier elements. Omega and 47 Tuc have much younger stars in their mix as well as heavier elements being present, showing that stellar evolution has taken place since the formation of these 'globular clusters', something that doesn't tend to happen in 'normal' GC's.
Happy viewing,
Mental.