Carina (Car), oft the favourite of us southern astronomers and amatuers is jam packed full of goodnes. It contains not just the well know nebula of Eta Carina, but the "Southern Pleiades" (ic2602), ngc2808 which is a globular cluster and of course Canopus which is the second brightest star in teh night sky. Yes Carina sure does have more than its fair share of beautiful objects.
The name Carina is latin for the word for Keel. Strange they should have a keel in the middle of no where I here you exclaim... well there is a good reason for this! The constellation actually forms the keel of an old constellation called Argo Navis. Argo was the ship used by Jason and the Argonaughts of greek mythology. This used to be the largest constellation in teh sky and included Carina, Puppis (the poop deck) and Vela (the sails) and is the only constellation of Ptolemy's 48 that no longer exists. of course it isnt the only constellation that has be changed or deleted.
So here is the list then in all its glory. Not all there is by any means though!
1. rmk11 3.02/6 5" : a nice bright one to start with and at 5" its easy too. a brilliant white and yellow combination to delight the senses.
2. hj4213 5.78/9.55 8.8": Go the Saints! another red and white combo but as you can see this one is alot closer. the red in the secondary is an absolute blood red and is a stunner to behold.
3. gli77 7.94/9.35 35" : a pretty red and white couple. the red star (dimmer of the 2) is not the most spectacular red i have seen tho.
4. hj4084 6.50/9.51 42" : another easy split, alas the seeing when i spotted this wasnt that great and colours were hard to make out. the primary is almost definitely white but the secondary looks reddish but it is hard to tell. there is a near by star that with this double forms a triangle that is quite pretty.
5. hj4053 6.91/8.45 11.6" : gem-o-lishous! while i cant seem to get details on this triplet, a triplet it is... and such a pretty one. the stars are red, yellow, and green. stunner!
6. rmk8 5.27/7.62 3.6" : due to their brightness these 2 are an easy split, but thats not what this is all about is it. brilliant white and stunning yellow, at low or high power this looks great!
7. hj4306 6.48/6.25 2.4" you could find this one a hard one if the conditions arent right. they looked white to me.
8. dun87 6.6/7.55 82.3" : a huge split for a huge constellation, thats what i say. pretty blue secondary miles from the yellow primary.
Thanks for this Dave. If the weather clears, its a Linden weekend and I made the mistake of buying a new eyepiece so its a double clouded weekend for me I think, I will have a go
but you forgot little old Pyxis( the compass)the one most people cannot remember, including me most times
