Oh you're welcome! I'm so glad it will be of help to you and that you're excited to go after some of things on my list. It makes it all worthwhile doing these lists
and becomes rewarding when people use them.
I wrote up the list for Puppis back in November and I still haven't had clear enough skies to go after my own list
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Wey, you might want to wait for the Moon to buzz off before tackling many of these objects. You may be okay with some of those brighter star clusters tho. Have a go anyway, but definitely go back when the Moon is not around. See the widget of the Moon on the blue menu bar to the left? Click it and it'll tell you in advance what the Moon will be doing. Also, on that table, check when astronomical twilight is as it's best to do observing after this time (the sky is darker so you will see more). I found the best time to observe was around midnight when most people have their lights turned off and sleeping
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The Butterfly Cluster is in Scorpius and is more of a winter object. Geee I think it would be very low on the horizon in the wee hours of the morning, at the moment ?. And I honestly can't remember the coloured stars in it
. If you have downloaded Stellarium (free night sky software lots of people on here use), it will tell you when objects are viewable from your location. Then you can make a proper plan for your night of observing starting up first viewing objects that set earlier in the night. If you make a proper plan for the night you will likely have a better & fun filled observing session.
Exploring within a single constellation is the best way to become really familiar with it and IMO tend to remember better of where those objects sit. Gives a nice personal experience
. And it's so much fun!
If you enjoy seeing coloured stars, Canis Major has oodles of gorgeous gold stars. Wow, I just love scanning the scope aimlessly through that region. There's also a lovely gold & yellow pair known as The Summer Albiero (145 CMA). Feast your eyes on the Winter Albiero when it's Cygnus season - very cool!
I also did a big tour through there but I haven't typed it up yet. And I also mapped out a neat, easy little star hop to find
VY Canis Majoris (watch the very cool video) - it's the largest known star
. It's apparently viewable in binos (tho I haven't) & I've spotted it easily thru my little 4" dob, so your scope should nab it easily. There's another nice little challenge for you
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If you want the star hop, let me know. And I should hurry up and type up the tour!
There is one particular star that might be a nice little challenge for you and ridiculously easy to find. Point the scope at beta Crucis (Mimosa). That's the star on the bottom left of the Southern Cross. Use high magnification. Look to the left of beta (I have a Newtonian tube so my views are flipped). It's a tiny blood red star known as Ruby Crucis. Both objects should be within the same field of view in the eyepiece. This is called a carbon star and one of the reddest, if not *the* reddest of all the carbon stars. Unfortunately it often gets overlooked because it's a southern object and not on a lot of carbon star lists which are mainly compiled by northern hemisphere people.
I'd be interested to see if this is do-able with your 130mm scope, as it's very easy to find in my 10".
And while you're there, move your scope down below beta a little bit (you may make out a fuzzy patch with your naked eye) - that's our famous Jewel Box cluster. Lovely assortment of colours in there and it's one of our showpiece objects of the southern sky.
The showpiece globular cluster, 47Tuc is very easy to find by using this method:
Look for the really big triangle in the sky facing south (Hydrus), which sits to the right of the Southern Cross. Make this your first object for the night at around 8pm as it's getting low as the night progresses. You know you have the correct triangle if you see a pair of stars running thru the left side of the triangle - sitting about the half way mark on that imaginery line.
- Now, go to beta Hydri which is the bottom right star on that triangle.
- Hold out 3 fingers horizontally, at arms length with one eye closed, above beta.
- Voila! You're there
. Easily spotted in binos btw.
We are very fortunate in our southern sky to have two of the largest and brightest globular clusters in the sky - Omega Centauri (brightest) and 47Tuc (second brightest, which many including myself think is prettier).
Along with the stuff I already gave you, that should keep you busy for a while and out of trouble
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