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Old 25-02-2011, 11:20 AM
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Paddy (Patrick)
Canis Minor

Paddy is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Strangways, Vic
Posts: 2,214
Hi Sebastian and welcome to IIS.

All very good advice so far and I think Carl's suggestion of going to a club night is one of the best ways to get started as you will learn some constellations.

In the meantime, some easy ones to find are

NGC 4755 The jewel box cluster just near the left hand star of the southern cross - a little bit out from the cross itself

M42 the great nebula in Orion - orion's belt and sword are often seen as a saucepan - the nebula is the middle "star" of the handle

NGC 2070 - the Tarantula nebula.- if you can find the large magellanic cloud it is the brightest object in the LMC. You will see heaps of great DSOs in both Small and Large Magellanic clouds which are the patches of "cloud" not far from the band of the Milky Way in the south. Hints for finding them and printable charts of the objects in the Magellanic Clouds are available at my web site http://www.cloudsofmagellan.net.au/

NGC 104/47 Tuc is low but visible right near the Small Magellanic Cloud

Half way between the southern Cross and the "False Cross" asterism to its north is a patch of sky with fantastic open clusters and the fabulous "ETa Carinae Nebula" - Just point your scope in that area and use the finderscope to pick out any bits that a brighter and fuzzy and you will find a lot to look at.
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