|
Thoughts on Northern targets from a northern guy
Agree on the constellations. Ursa Major (big dipper part ANd the whole thing all together) and if you are up late, Cassiopeia are real obvious and nice. Of course to just to say you 'saw it' check out Polaris, north star and Ursa Minor (little dipper).
Un-obtainable targets from the south that I would put high on the list:
M81 and M82 Some big galaxies that many people really like.
Ngc6543 - Cats Eye Nebula This is small but an amazing object.
If you are up real late and are not here for a month or so ...
Cassiopea is just as lovely as things get and has these things nearby
Ngc7789 - A fine low concentration blanket of even mag stars.
Ngc869/884 - The 'Double Cluster' is a very late target these days.
Too early for M31 and friends and you can see those down south but here I can track down globular clusters in M31 with an 18" dob. Mind you, it IMHO is nowhere near as exciting as LMC (you guys are SO lucky).
If you can bring along an O3 filter you would want to take a look these from here even though you can see um down south.
Cygnus (looking at just Cygnus itself you can do down under but the nebula may be washed out low in the sky so I suggest these nebula in or near CYG
Ngc7000 North American Nebula and if you are at a real dark site, the Pelican nebula just off of the 'gulf of mexico'.
Ngc6960/6992 - The Veil Nebula
Ngc6826 - Blinking Nebula
M57 - Ring Nebula (This is also available down south easily but here it is directly overhead). Kind of like me just loving Omega Cen when I visited down there last March.
Also in Lyra is 'The double double' AKA Epsilon Lyra but we tend to use it as a measure of how good the seeing is so unless you are into very unique doubles, this is optional.
M101 and M51 are available from south but here are very high. This is kind of like me wanting to check out M83 from Australia last March because it is a much better view from there.
You could get a better look at M13 here these days but of course you guys can see it down there AND have Omega Cen.
And just to keep things straight ... When I looked at Orion from Australia it was upside down from THERE Not from here gentlemen!
Your skies rock but have a good time if you head this way. If you are going anywhere near the middle of California, get back to me on where the dark sites are around here. If you go to the east coast, it is sadly not a good place to observe the dimmer objects.
Have fun,
Mark
|