How many Meisser objects visable from Australian skies?

hotspur (Chris) · #1 19-02-2014, 07:59 PM

Hello Folks.

Just got home late,and the phone rang-the 'Weekend Australian' magazine,wanted a phone interview on a feature they are doing on my photography in their insert magazine due out 1/2 March,the reporter was a lot more on the ball ,than the usual 'trailer trash' magazines I do interviews for,and it came up about astronomy,so that will be feature too.I need to give him a figure on the amount of Meisser objects that can be seen from Aussie skies-So can anyone help? I'll email him a figure 2moz-I've had a couple of wines-my mind is frazzeled-thanks.

barx1963 (Malcolm) · #2 19-02-2014, 08:10 PM

I know it is 100 in Victoria but that includes M76, M106, M51 and M38 that are all very low. In FNQ it is a different story. The northern most Messiers are M81 and 82 at about +69deg and Townsville is -19deg and Weipa is at -12deg so they would rise to 2deg above the horizon in Townsville and a whopping 9deg above at Weipa.
So all of them are visible theoretically in Oz!

Malcolm

hotspur (Chris) · #3 19-02-2014, 08:28 PM

Thanks for your help,I thought it was nearly most of them.Cheers

astroron (Ron) · #4 19-02-2014, 08:40 PM

From South East Queensland,you can observe 102.
Cheers

mithrandir (Andrew) · #5 20-02-2014, 12:36 PM

As you go south you lose them in this order. Match your latitude against DecMn to find the most northerly still visible.

Code:

M       DecMx   DecMn
82      90.0000 -20.3167
81      90.0000 -20.9333
52      90.0000 -28.4167
103     90.0000 -29.3000
40      90.0000 -31.9167
102     90.0000 -34.2333
108     90.0000 -34.3333
97      90.0000 -34.9833
101     90.0000 -35.6500
109     90.0000 -36.6167
109b    90.0000 -37.6667
76      90.0000 -38.4333
39      90.0000 -41.5667
106     90.0000 -42.7000
51b     90.0000 -42.7333
51      90.0000 -42.8000
92      90.0000 -46.8667
34      90.0000 -47.2167
63      90.0000 -47.9667
110     90.0000 -48.3167
31      90.0000 -48.7333
94      90.0000 -48.8833
32      90.0000 -49.1333
29      90.0000 -51.4667
13      90.0000 -53.5333
38      90.0000 -54.1667
36      90.0000 -55.8667
57      90.0000 -56.9667
37      90.0000 -57.4500
33      90.0000 -59.3500
56      90.0000 -59.8167
3       90.0000 -61.6167
35      90.0000 -65.6667
45      90.0000 -65.8833
27      90.0000 -67.2833
1       90.0000 -67.9833
64      90.0000 -68.3167
44      90.0000 -70.0167
71      90.0000 -71.2167
85      90.0000 -71.8167
53      90.0000 -71.8333
100     90.0000 -74.1833
74      90.0000 -74.2167
98      90.0000 -75.1000
91      90.0000 -75.5000
99      90.0000 -75.5833
88      90.0000 -75.5833
90      90.0000 -76.8333
65      90.0000 -76.9167
66      90.0000 -77.0167
86      90.0000 -77.0500
84      90.0000 -77.1167
105     90.0000 -77.4167
89      90.0000 -77.4500
87      90.0000 -77.6000
15      90.0000 -77.8333
96      90.0000 -78.1833
58      90.0000 -78.1833
67      90.0000 -78.2000
95      90.0000 -78.3000
59      90.0000 -78.3500
60      90.0000 -78.4500
49      90.0000 -82.0000
61      90.0000 -85.5333
5       90.0000 -87.9167
78      90.0000 -89.9500
77      89.9833 -90.0000
2       89.1833 -90.0000
12      88.0500 -90.0000
14      86.7500 -90.0000
10      85.9000 -90.0000
43      84.7333 -90.0000
42      84.5500 -90.0000
48      84.2000 -90.0000
11      83.7333 -90.0000
50      81.6667 -90.0000
26      80.6000 -90.0000
104     78.3833 -90.0000
72      77.4667 -90.0000
73      77.3667 -90.0000
107     76.9500 -90.0000
16      76.2167 -90.0000
47      75.5000 -90.0000
46      75.1833 -90.0000
17      73.8167 -90.0000
18      72.8667 -90.0000
24      71.5167 -90.0000
9       71.4833 -90.0000
23      70.9833 -90.0000
25      70.7500 -90.0000
41      69.2667 -90.0000
75      68.0833 -90.0000
21      67.5000 -90.0000
80      67.0167 -90.0000
20      66.9667 -90.0000
30      66.8167 -90.0000
93      66.1333 -90.0000
22      66.1000 -90.0000
8       65.6167 -90.0000
79      65.4500 -90.0000
28      65.1333 -90.0000
19      63.7333 -90.0000
4       63.4667 -90.0000
68      63.2500 -90.0000
83      60.1333 -90.0000
62      59.8833 -90.0000
54      59.5167 -90.0000
55      59.0333 -90.0000
6       57.7833 -90.0000
70      57.7000 -90.0000
69      57.6500 -90.0000
7       55.1833 -90.0000

Amaranthus (Barry) · #6 20-02-2014, 02:48 PM

Great list Andrew - very helpful! It'd be nice to have one for the Caldwell Objects too...

mithrandir (Andrew) · #7 20-02-2014, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amaranthus

Great list Andrew - very helpful! It'd be nice to have one for the Caldwell Objects too...

Caldwell is actually simpler. They are (almost) in order by declination.

Code:

C#      DecMx   DecMn
1       90.0000  -4.6667
2       90.0000 -17.4667
3       90.0000 -20.5333
4       90.0000 -21.8000
5       90.0000 -21.9000
6       90.0000 -23.3667
7       90.0000 -24.4000
8       90.0000 -26.7000
9       90.0000 -27.3833
10      90.0000 -28.7500
11      90.0000 -28.8000
12      90.0000 -29.8500
13      90.0000 -31.6667
14      90.0000 -32.8667
15      90.0000 -39.4833
16      90.0000 -40.1167
17      90.0000 -41.5000
18      90.0000 -41.6667
19      90.0000 -42.7333
20      90.0000 -45.6667
21      90.0000 -45.9000
22      90.0000 -47.4500
23      90.0000 -47.6500
24      90.0000 -48.4833
25      90.0000 -51.1167
27      90.0000 -51.6500
26      90.0000 -52.1833
28      90.0000 -52.3167
29      90.0000 -52.9500
30      90.0000 -55.5833
31      90.0000 -55.7333
32      90.0000 -57.4667
33      90.0000 -58.2833
34      90.0000 -59.2833
35      90.0000 -62.0167
36      90.0000 -62.0333
37      90.0000 -63.5167
38      90.0000 -64.0167
39      90.0000 -69.0833
40      90.0000 -71.6500
42      90.0000 -73.8167
43      90.0000 -73.8500
41      90.0000 -74.0000
44      90.0000 -77.6833
45      90.0000 -81.1167
46      90.0000 -81.2667
47      90.0000 -82.6000
48      90.0000 -82.9667
49      90.0000 -84.9500
50      90.0000 -85.1333
51      90.0000 -87.8833
52      84.2000 -90.0000
53      82.2833 -90.0000
54      79.2167 -90.0000
55      78.6333 -90.0000
56      78.1167 -90.0000
57      75.2000 -90.0000
58      74.3833 -90.0000
59      71.3667 -90.0000
60      71.1333 -90.0000
61      71.1167 -90.0000
62      69.2333 -90.0000
63      69.2000 -90.0000
64      65.0500 -90.0000
65      64.7167 -90.0000
66      63.4667 -90.0000
67      59.7167 -90.0000
68      53.0500 -90.0000
69      52.9000 -90.0000
70      52.3167 -90.0000
71      51.4500 -90.0000
72      50.8167 -90.0000
73      49.9500 -90.0000
74      49.5667 -90.0000
75      49.3333 -90.0000
76      48.2000 -90.0000
77      46.9833 -90.0000
78      46.3000 -90.0000
79      43.5833 -90.0000
80      42.5167 -90.0000
81      41.5833 -90.0000
82      41.2333 -90.0000
83      40.5333 -90.0000
84      38.6333 -90.0000
85      36.9333 -90.0000
86      36.3333 -90.0000
87      34.7833 -90.0000
88      34.4000 -90.0000
89      32.1000 -90.0000
90      31.6833 -90.0000
91      31.3333 -90.0000
92      30.1333 -90.0000
93      30.0167 -90.0000
94      29.6667 -90.0000
95      29.5000 -90.0000
96      29.1333 -90.0000
97      28.3833 -90.0000
98      27.0333 -90.0000
99      27.0000 -90.0000
100     26.9667 -90.0000
101     26.1500 -90.0000
102     25.6000 -90.0000
103     20.9000 -90.0000
104     19.1500 -90.0000
105     19.1167 -90.0000
106     17.9167 -90.0000
107     17.8000 -90.0000
108     17.3333 -90.0000
109      9.1333 -90.0000

Amaranthus (Barry) · #8 20-02-2014, 09:29 PM

Nice, so I'm good to go for all Caldwells >14!

I've been setting up an observing program to run through the Messier and Caldwell lists with my two sons who are getting an interesting at last.

Anyone know and easy way to get Sky Safari Pro to pull up a list of M of C object that are visible at a given time-date? I've been doing the list manually and it seems tedious - I figure there must be some way to automate it...

noeyedeer (Matt) · #9 20-02-2014, 09:58 PM

mobile observatory has both lists .. and a simple way to determine if they're above or below at a certain time ...

matt

ps I'm not a sky safari advocate .. in fact I really don't like it because it's cluttered with useless junk.

just checked skysafari .. kinda lists the same way... I guess an actual program will print a list of currently viewable items

deep sky assistant on the android will produce a list of items from m c and ngc (rasc) for a time and location ..

RobF (Rob) · #10 20-02-2014, 10:19 PM

Its 106 from SE Qld - I know 'cause I've taken photos of them all, as per here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/UserRob...isibleFrom27S#

Mind you, some were grazing a few degrees off the ground at times

Camelopardalis (Dunk) · #11 20-02-2014, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amaranthus

Nice, so I'm good to go for all Caldwells >14!

C14 The a Double Cluster is probably the northern object I miss the most

was visible all year round and a beauty in any scope... (small sacrifice for all the southern objects I've gained though

)

Btw, the Wikipedia page for the Caldwell Catalogue has a nice chart too.

noeyedeer (Matt) · #12 20-02-2014, 10:58 PM

I've read the double cluster is a beautiful object .. shame I won't see it

Camelopardalis (Dunk) · #13 20-02-2014, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noeyedeer

I've read the double cluster is a beautiful object .. shame I won't see it

Should just be able to bag it a little north of Brisbane with a clear northern horizon...at the right time of year (summer). They're open clusters, so should show up OK at low altitude (not great, but better than nothing!)

No chance from down here

Amaranthus (Barry) · #14 21-02-2014, 12:17 AM

Well, I'll be moving from Lat -34 all the way down to Lat -43 later this year (south of Hobart), so I'll lose a chunk more of the northern sky.

The bonus is that all the great far-southern beauties will reach a higher transit. That, and the even better fact that my new 'backyard' will be Bortle 2 skies

(vs the current Bortle 6 skies I suffer under in suburban Adelaide!). So... I can't wait!

noeyedeer (Matt) · #15 21-02-2014, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

Should just be able to bag it a little north of Brisbane with a clear northern horizon...at the right time of year (summer). They're open clusters, so should show up OK at low altitude (not great, but better than nothing!)

No chance from down here

I've tried Dunk ... but only with software .. and it will be too low for me. even andromeda is a bad target for me @11° because of surfers' lights. mind you .. I havnt had the scope out for quite some time so I will keep me eye out if it's around when the cloud goes away

matt

ps this is my scenario for C14. it may improve if I hold my promise to my cat which will be put down tomorrow afternoon (by getting my hr fixed and stop drinking and get my license again)

skysurfer · #16 21-02-2014, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amaranthus

The bonus is that all the great far-southern beauties will reach a higher transit. That, and the even better fact that my new 'backyard' will be Bortle 2 skies

(vs the current Bortle 6 skies I suffer under in suburban Adelaide!). So... I can't wait!

Objects 9 degrees lower in the sky at Bortle 2 will show more detail than higher with Bortle 6 as long as the declination is south of -50 decl so the Double Cluster you'll miss anyway also in suburban ADL. But objects as California Neb NGC 1499 (decl -36) will show better in Tasmania @ Bortle 2.

But in Dec/Jan you will miss 30mins of dark sky due to longer daylight.

Amaranthus (Barry) · #17 21-02-2014, 11:17 AM

In terms of what constellation is visible to a given observer, this map is REALLY useful - says it all in one 2D image:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Co...gular_plot.svg

From my current latitude, only UMi, Cep, Dra, Cam and Cas are essentially invisible all year around. I will lose a few more when I move to Tassie.

Camelopardalis (Dunk) · #18 21-02-2014, 11:59 AM

The difference with the northern circumpolar constellations (at least, those from the UK) is they they're not all that crowded.

Now that I think about it, I kinda miss Cassiopeia too...there are some nice objects hanging around that area of the sky. Still, a trip to Queensland/NT/Hawaii can fix that