Last Morning Observing in Oz - 6/20/07

by Shneor Sherman

Heavy rain and clouds had obscured the skies at Magellan Observatory and all over Australia's southwest for three days. The forecast for Saturday, the 19th and my last night at Magellan was for clearing, but when I went ot bed at about 6:30 p.m., the skies wre still cloudy. When I awoke, a bit after 1 a.m., howeve, the skies were clear and I soon made my way to the observatory, where Zane had alrady performed a complex multi-star alignment on the Argo Navis so that objects would be in the field of view of the 20mm eyepiece, at least. I had prepared a long list of objects to view in advance, and just began plugging them in. This night, I viewd using only the 20mm Nagler Type II and 12mm Nagler eyepieces. The Argo Navis, Servo-Cat and 24" f/3.7 performed nicely, and I got a bit of exercise rotating the dome as needed.

in Microscopiun, IC5011/13, N6923, N6925, N6958 and IC5195, all galaxies; in Corona Australis, N6541 and N6496, globular clusters, IC1297, a nice plaetary with central star, and a very interesting combination of emission and reflection nebulae, N6727/27/29. In Scorpius, N6334, IC4628 and N6357, emission nebulae and N6337, a ring-style planetary, larger but fainter than M57. In Sculptor, these galaxies: N7793, N24, the huge and beautiful N55 (an edge-on with an off-center nucleus), N253 (had to pan around to see it all, even in the 20mm), N300, N131/134 (small companion), N439 and 441, a pretty pair of face-on galaxis, and N613. In Aquarius, practically at the zenith, the Helix (N7783). I've viewed this object many times but never have I seen it as a dense, thick ring until now. Beautiful sight. In Indus, galaxies N7049, 7090, IC5152 (a dwarf galaxy, rather faint) and N7205. In Tucana, N7208, a galaxy. Also, in the Small Magellanic Cloud, N265, an open cluster, seen in the same field with three bright nebulae. In Hydrus, N602 ( a nebula in two parts, does not look like a bipolar), N1466, a globular cluster, and N1511, a galaxy. In Reticulum, the galaxies N1313, N1559 and N 1574. In Phoenix, the galaxies N625 and ESO245-65 (rather faint). In Fornax, a host of galaxies - N1316 and another 6 galaxies; N1097/97A, N1344, N1665, a bright barred spiral (I saw the bar and the arms), the Fornax Cluster, including but not limited to N1398, N1399, N1391, N1989/87/, etc. All 8 galaxies were bright, clear and with structure visible in almost every one. Also viewed N1406. In Cetus, galaxies N835, N833, N838 and N839 all in the same field (2 pairs, more or less). All pretty bright. Also N936 and N940, and the N1042 group, three bright edge-on falaxies (more or less), and N1073, which seemed to have a circular halo around it. In Eridanus, galaxies N1232/32A, N1187 (a barred spiral) N1232, N1300/1297/1301 (group, only these three visible), the N1379 group (11 galaxies visible), and N1400/1407. In Carina, Eta Carinae, again - what an incradible object! (described in a previous post).

These are copied from notes, and I've done my best to decipher my handwriting...

So, in the end, I had 4 out of 8 nights, a night or two fewer than I had hoped. Nonetheless, it was well worth the trip.

A bit OT here - the guest bungalow at Magellan has two bedrooms with queen beds, ahd there is another room with two beds. Not bad for small groups, but there is no closet space. Thee are ample cooking facilities, including microwave, gas stove, oven and broiler, as well as a gas barbecue (not really usable when it's unpleasant outdoors), and a large living room area with monitor, VCR and DVD player (no TV) and books and magazines for when you can't observe. The observatory is a 5-minute hike away from the living quarters.

If anyone wants to know more, just contact me.

Clear skies,
Shneor Sherman

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