by Ron Bhanukitsiri
Last night, the TV-102 Light Cup made a last ditch effort to uncover southern "treasures" after its recent success at the Eight-Burst Planetary Nebula (NGC 3132) before the moon ruins the view. Those southern ladies and gentlemen observers sure have "well-mannered objects" to enjoy ;-).
The variable star V Hydrae is reputed to be the *reddest* known carbon star. See http://www.lcas-astronomy.org/. After seeing the anemic Hind's Crimson Star early in the year, the TV-102 Light Cup rolled its objective and said "yeah right" ;-). LM=5.0. Umm, it's noticeably very red at 22x (40mm Pentax XL) and 30x (30mm Ultima) takes on a color of a purple grape. Exquisite at 73x (12mm TV Radian), eye catching reddish purple and formed a nice triangle with mag 8 star SAO 179272 and mag 9.2 star SAO 179267. Its magnitude varies between 6.5-12, but it was bright last night and so close to the mag 7.0 star SAO 179301. Going straight to 293x (3mm Radian) turned V Hydrae into a small dim purple grape with its round airy disc. Good gracious, being at the tail end of the Snake, could V Hydrae be a reddish stinger? Definitely, the best looking variable star for me to date! (BTW, the LCAS web site above contains tons of treasures of very informative articles.)
Next gem (in the rough shall we say ;-) is a Ring-Tail Galaxy (NGC 4038/4039). LM=5.3. A smudge located at 22x. Better view at 73x, irregular dim smudge shape. Averted vision shows brighter center. Too dim at 110x (8mm Radian), but can still be seen. No comma shape noted at any magnification. No nucleus seen. Walter Houston described the Ring-Tail Galaxy at best as “easily visible in my 4-inch Clark as an asymmetrical 11th mag blur”. Ah, so this gem needs a more black "background dirt" to be seen clearly. Try again under a dark sky. In contrast, I got a great view of NGC 3621 and NGC 4361 PN with its mag 13.3 central star clearly seen.
Now, the best southern treasure of all, the Great Globular Cluster of Omega Centauri (NGC 5139). Last year, I hauled my TV-102 upstairs and caught a glimpse of it from the balcony. But is was no mute and dull. I've weeded out all of the objects too far south included NGC 5139 but thought I would give it a try tonight. The TV-102 Light Cup easily located it at 22x by panning from Gamma Centauri. Checking with the Star Beam finder and then the sky, I could see it with the naked eye; it's huge! Now, it's only 7 degree above the horizon in the southern easterly direction with lots of light pollution from the south; in fact, the LM was only 4.0!. The TV-102 OTA was nearly parallel to the ground! At 22x, it was huge and bright, clearly larger than any GC in the sky. At 73x, it fills 1/3 of the FOV of the 12mm Radian with a definitely ground sugar look. The Light Cup could resolve the stars around the edges. Suddenly, I was reminded of an coconut white round ice-cream scoop viewing from the top! The roundish shape now appears uneven at 110x and more stars in the "scoop" can be resolved averted. Almost filled the FOV at 146x (6mm Radian) with outer edges completely resolved, uniform brightness in the core region. My oh my! Completely filled the FOV of my 5mm Radian at 176x (I certainly wouldn't want to use the constricted orthoscopic to savor it all in ;-). Many stars can be resolved in the core especially with averted vision, still very bright and contrasty! Too large to fit in the FOV of the 4mm Radian at 220x with the impression of looking at the Milky Way star cloud section than at a GC with lots of slightly blurry stars (due to unsteady seeing). Contrast is now lost. However, I got a strong impression that at 220x under a higher position in the sky like M13, the TV-102 might have been able to completely resolved GC. M13 still beats this mighty jewel in terms of contrast from my position. I'm thankful however for such a great view of the best GC in the sky. Thus, I re-christend NGC 5139 southern gem as the "Ice Cream Scoop Globular Cluster", a better fitting name than "Great Globular", wouldn't you say?
Being so unprepared and checking with the chart afterward, I couldn't believe it; I had missed Centaurus A (NGC 5128)! Gotta catch this one and make up a list of "southern exposures" after the moon is gone. Any other "hidden" southern gems you guys would recommend that is at or higher than NGC 5139?