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Old 24-11-2021, 03:02 PM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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What Could I Look At Tonight?

I have my tripod set ready for the southern sky tonight. (24/11).
Have never planned an object and gone and found it, apart from the planet's and moon.
I see the large and small Magellanic clouds are up there, so l Googled them to see what they are. Ok.
Using Stellarium l see there are various star clusters, interstellar matter and even the Tarantula nebula.
I'm looking for something fairly obvious so l can say"there it is!". Not sure how I'll go with DSO's being in suburbia but l can only try

Using the Bresser 127L achro.
I have four lenses :- Bresser Super Plossal 26mm, GSO superview 20mm and 15mm and, Orion Edge On Planetary 5mm.
I do not have a go-to fancy finder, just a good old hand cranked EQ mount.

Any targets you would like to suggest l will give it a shot and report back.
I won't be home until 9:30 so Jupiter will be below my tree line by then.
I'll have to concentrate to the south.
Cheers.
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Old 24-11-2021, 03:14 PM
m11 (Mel)
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Hi Rod,

I would go for:

ngc104 - 47 tuc for an easy bright deep sky object. Its one of my favourite objects to view.

ngc362 - Globular cluster

ngc6752 - Pavo globular gc as well is nice to view.

If you stay out longer then give NGC 3372 - Eta Carina a go and Orion - m42 in the East.
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Old 24-11-2021, 03:52 PM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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Thanks, 362 and 6752 are the type of thing I'm looking for.
Something to let me learn my sky navigation skills on, doing things the Capt. Cook way
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Old 24-11-2021, 04:38 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Rod,
If you haven’t already , download a free copy of Stellarium on your home PC or laptop
It’s literally your road map to the Universe , saves fumbling around with Star charts , I tossed them out years ago.
Has Ocular plug ins as well so you can check your field of view on a particular object with your scope and eye pieces
A must for beginner and advanced astronomer and Astrophotographer
I use Stellarium to set up my nights observing when I use my 12” Goto dob and to control and navigate my Astrophotography rigs 6” and 8” newts when imaging
It’s a time saver and teaches you the night sky easily and quickly due to the incredible layout and view
For advanced astronomers it has loads of scientific and technical data too
You can project forward and backward in time 7 days a week , 365 days a year

Cheers
Martin
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Old 24-11-2021, 05:01 PM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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Thanks Martin, already use it as was mentioned in my post.
I didn't know it had the ocular plug ins, I've been using astronomy.tools for that stuff.
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Old 25-11-2021, 01:42 AM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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I did it!

I found 47 TUC.
I thought it was the SMC at first then realised the SMC was the whole area to the left that was mostly washed out by light pollution.
Using the 5mm ep l had the field of view 1/2 full of 47 TUC.
It looked exactly like the images on astronomy .tools and after scouting around the nearby skies l was able to relocate it easily, it stood out like the proverbial.

I then swung around to 135° and peaked over my neighbours roof (15°) and found a largish red and green thing but my focuser combined with a shakey setup would not allow me to have a good look. Lots of light pollution, atmosphere and residual heat, but it was the only colourful thing .
Probably the most/only colourful thing I've seen in the sky. Looking forward to a night in the country around the 13th Dec. Site to be determined. Just me, my telescope and a carton of aeroguard.
Damn mozzies!

Last edited by Rod-AR127; 25-11-2021 at 10:25 AM.
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Old 25-11-2021, 08:27 AM
m11 (Mel)
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Nice

Sounds like you had alot of fun finding 47 Tuc.

Keep it going!

Just be careful of any sprays near your optics.
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Old 25-11-2021, 09:37 AM
Startrek (Martin)
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Rod,
Great work , well done !!
Your off and running now ......
I had the same comment from my youngest daughters, 68 year old father in law ( I sold him my 10” manual dob a number of years ago ) He was struggling, having trouble finding objects , Star hopping etc.. almost gave the hobby away
So I marked thin lines on the base of the dob using a white paint pen with cardinal points and degrees in 5 deg increments. Marked the south meridian line on his pavers ( he didn’t mind a thin line scored on his pavers) Gave him my old digital inclinometer accurate to 2 decimal places ( I bought a new one ) and chose 47 Tuc as a test object.
I guided him what do , set up dob with central axis aligned to south line ( we used 2 plumb Bob 600mm apart over the tube to centre it and get as accurate as possible ) Jumped on Stellarium and found the Az and Alt values for 47 Tuc. He raised the dob’s tube up using the digital inclinometer close to the Alt value and then rotated the base close to the Az value , then looked in the finder-scope and saw a tiny edge of a fuzzy ball just in the field of view , I told him to centred the fuzzy blob ,he plonked his 22mm Nagler in the focuser and adjusted focus. He called out “I did it , I found it , wow”
From that moment he was hooked
After that night he was off and running too , never calls me anymore, use to call me every week about his woes and goes trying to find objects
I hope my story didn’t bore you but I thought your experience and reaction was similar
Clear Skies
Martin
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Old 25-11-2021, 10:03 AM
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multiweb (Marc)
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I know what I'm looking at. The same thing I've been observing for the past two weeks. The cumulonimbus nebula.
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Old 25-11-2021, 10:17 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Judging by your description of the large thing 135° east of 47 Tuc, it sounds like the Orion Nebula. If you're seeing red and green in this, I have major eyesight envy!
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Old 25-11-2021, 10:37 AM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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Martin that's exactly what l did last night.
Inclinometer on my phone held against the tube, compass in hand standing well away from the tripod and once l had found one object (TUC), l started to get a feeling for the scale of things as right now one arc minute may as well be a welding term.

Patrick I must clarify l then moved only a bit to the east and pointed the tube at 135° and 15° up.
Very close if not smack on to NGC 3372.

My focuser trouble is due to it being damaged when l dropped my tube the other year, it works but is missing som teeth of both the internal rack and pinion.
I'll slowly replace when finances allow.
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Old 25-11-2021, 10:53 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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You'll never get sick of looking at the Eta Carina nebula, and if you're seeing red and green with the naked eye, that's pretty wild.
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Old 25-11-2021, 11:33 AM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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Stellarium with my OTA and lens added to the plug in says l was looking at an out of focus star.
Time permitting I'll have another look tonight.
Best l go fill in my log book.
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Old 25-11-2021, 11:34 AM
astro744
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Was it a point source that you were observing red/green? If so it was likely Canopus as it was at approx. 141 deg. Az. and 17 deg. Alt. at 22:30 Perth time. (Not sure if my Stellarium app compensated for DST). In any case at some point in the evening Canopus approx. matched your coordinates of 135 deg. Az. and 15 Alt.

The red/green was likely the refraction of different wavelengths of the light from Canopus in the lower part of our atmosphere.
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Old 25-11-2021, 11:53 AM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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Yes a point source and at 22:30.
This Stellarium is addictive, l got to go do some chores before work.
Shift work sees me up at all hours.
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Old 25-11-2021, 12:09 PM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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NGC 3242 now that would be a nice view, albeit at 0330 stupid o'clock.
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Old 25-11-2021, 12:31 PM
glend (Glen)
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The rain.
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  #18  
Old 25-11-2021, 12:34 PM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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Nothing but sky here
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Old 25-11-2021, 03:07 PM
astro744
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Can you see above Jupiter due west at 22:30 about half way between Jupiter and Fomalhaut (slightly right)? If so then try for NGC 7293, Helix Nebula. A bit more challenging than 47 Tuc but not too difficult. It’s a large planetary nebula about 2/5 to 1/2 the apparent size of the Moon. A dark sky is best but can be seen in suburbia. A UHC filter helps but not essential. It’s 7.59 magnitude is spread out over a large area whereas NGC 3242, Ghost of Jupiter magnitude of 7.3 is considerably more compact.

Magnitude data is from Sky Safari 6 Pro which conflicts with Stellarium which has 3242 at mag. 8.6. Not sure why such a big difference for 3242. Note magnitude drops as objects get lower in the sky due to the greater air mass. Magnitudes quoted do not take atmospheric extinction into account.

3242 appears stellar at very low powers but starts showing a disk as you increase magnification. Similar apparent size of Jupiter hence it’s name.
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Old 25-11-2021, 03:21 PM
Rod-AR127 (Rod)
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Yes l have a perfect view of that part of the sky, better than getting up at stupid o'clock too.
Thanks.
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