Hi all,
I'm making this Obs. Challenge for both December and January due to fore seeable complications of the festive season. I apologize if this annoys fellow IIS'ers.
Part I
Hail Australia's first great astronomer - James Dunlop
This Obs. Challenge has a distinct pioneer flavour. James Dunlop is regarded as Australia's first great astronomer, even regarded as one of the Southern Skies first great astronomers. His many hundereds of object discoveries all being catalogued from the now non-existant Parramatta Observatory in Sydney's west.
The extent of James Dunlop's work is honoured with the official Dunlop Catalogue of objects.
Fellow IIS member, glenc, has done extensive work on the life of James Dunlop. The first part of this Challenge is a selection by Glen of Dunlop's discoveries, all of which are observable in amateur sized scopes. His 9.5" scope was of the optical quality of a modern 6" scope.
Open Cluster
NGC 2243 - in Canis Major. A faint OC, that could prove a little difficult to make out from the surrounding mass of stars
Globular Clusters
NGC 1261 - in Horologium. A 10" scope begins to resolve this GC.
NGC 1851 - in Columba. One of the better objects in 'The Dove'
NGC 2298 - in Puppis. A small GC that is heavily obscured by galactic dust.
Galaxies
NGC 1316 & 1317 - in Fornax. A pair of interacting galaxies.
NGC 1365-1380 - in Fornax. The Fornax Cluster of galaxies. A spectacular grouping of galaxies. I spied out this cluster of galaxies this last Saturday night for the first time. A casual observation with my 10" scope counted 14 galaxies in very close proximaty, with NGC 1365 being one of the brightest barred spirals (one of last month's targets)
NGC 1792 & 1808 - in Columba. Two spiral galaxies that are close in the single field of view.
NGC 1487 - in Eriandus. The faintest galaxy Dunlop found. An interesting 'starburst galaxy' with massive stellar formation happening.
Planetary Nebula
NGC 1535 - in Eriandus. One of the brighter examples of a planetary nebula.
Part II
This second part is a selection of targets that highlight certain gems of the summer sky. Most of these targets will also be easier to acquire than most of the Dunlop targets.
M 42 The Great Nebula, in Orion. One of the most photographed targets by amateur astronomers, this distinctly fan shaped nebula offers masses of detail for all sizes of scopes. The largest of amateur scopes begin to reveal distinc pink and green colouration.
Mira, The Wonderful, in Cetus. The first variable star to be identified. This red star varies in brightness from a magnitude 2 at its brightest, down to nearly magnitude 10 at its dimmest over an 11 month period. It is currently just on its maximum brightness. The mechanism which causes this pulsation is thought to be the stage of its evolution which sees the pull of gravity & an irregular burning of its hydrogen fuel push and pull on the star, varying its brightness.
M45 The Pleiades, in Taurus. Also known as The Seven Sisters, and as Subaru in Japan (noticed the car maker's logo is the same as this cluster? No coincidense). This is a young open cluster of massive blue stars. Its remanent gas and dust cocoon still faintly visible in larger scopes, where a nebula filter may help with its observation. The distance of this cluster from us sees the current light we observe having left this cluster when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas more than 500 years ago.
B33, the Horsehead Nebula, in Orion. This is a feature of the faint emission nebula IC 434. This faint feature is also known as a 'dark pillar'. This is a really tough bugger to spot. Reputedly seen in scopes as small a 6", a 10" is more likely to just, just make it visible and only in very dark skies. A specialised Hydrogen-Beta filter, or a UHC filter at a pinch, will greatly help show this very faint shadow against a very faint glow of its associated nebula.
Again, any other suggestions?
It's been a pleasure to compile this series of monthly challenges this year. I hope they have been of assistance to your observing pleasure and apprieciation of the night sky.
Merry Christmas everyone,
Mental.