by William Cone
I'd read about the deep sky treasures that are hidden from our northern latitudes , especially Omega Centaurus, so I was pretty excited to get a chance to even glimpse some of the brighter ones. I've read OR's in the archives that mention being able to spot this grand and massive cluster from a few vantage points locally, but I've never had the opportunity to do that , so this was my first shot.
The Audubon Field Guide to the Night Sky was my companion on the plane on the way down, Sky Atlas 2000 being a bit unwieldy in coach. The field guide has the mag 6 sky charts from Tirion adapted for their book. It turned out to be a good match for binos and an 80mm scope. There was quite a bit of light pollution from our beachfront hotel, and I didn't have a car, so I just walked out on the beach every night, and setup everything in a modestly dark spot. Roving bands of "happy" teenagers were a common sight, though, I was not once interrupted. Their focus and purpose in the evenings was less cosmic and more earthbound... I was that geek on the beach with the suitcase, a red flashlight, a scope, and binos. Strange how one's passions in life lead in different directions at different ages. But I digress...
I had a great time with the binos, (hooray for image stabilization) and the scope was ok. I say ok, because the mount was a bit clunky, and 80mm doesn't offer up appreciably more photons than the binos or the finderscope, though the extra magnification it afforded was useful from time to time. I had grabbed the erect image finderscope I purchased last fall for my 10", and mounted that on the 80mm, so I had 15 x 50, 8 x 50, and mag ranging from 15 to125 on the 80mm.
Bring it on!
Between light pollution of the city, sea level haze, and periodic high altitude clouds, observing conditions were less than ideal. No matter. At least it wasn't raining, and regarding the other factors, it wasn't that different than Moraga. Familiar territory. I was on vacation anyway. Every night after dinner with the family, I'd retire to the balcony to study a slice of the west and southwestern sky, from Orion to Vela. From there, I observed some of the usual targets of the season, and then worked my way down lower: M41, 42, 46, 47, 93, NGC 2347, 2477, 2451, IC2391.
M46-47, viewed as a pair are an astounding contrast: fine misty cluster next to bright "chunks" of stellar light.
Highly recommended. Turn away from that massive aperture folks, and pick up the binoculars for some widefield, aesthetic splendor. Nothing notable about the above mentioned open clusters...ranging from a faint patch to loose, bright groupings.
Around 10 or so, I would pack up my charts and binos, and roll my airline luggage out to the beach and setup, either on the sand or a chaise lounge. O the hardship of it all.
Due south from my beach vantage point coincided with a view over the rocks of the Cape, so the first 5 degrees of sky were effectively blocked. Nothing, save Jupiter rising, was visible at or below that elevation anyways, though I did discover that the higher rocks were apparently blocking some clusters I should have been able to see. It took me some time to orient myself with the visible stars down low. From my hotel balcony I had found Canopus sinking into the Southwest, and began to stick together the lower reaches of Puppis, Vela, and Carina. From the beach on the first night I finally identifed Gamma and Delta Centuari, which formed a triangle standing on it's tip with Gamma Cruci as it's lower point. This grouping slowly rose above the cape rocks, followed by Beta Cruci (Mimosa, though it should be called Pina Colada from my vantage point), and eventually ngc 4755, the Jewel box. I observed every night for an hour or two, and found that I could see as low as -65, though the absolute horizon was probably around -70.
| NGC 5139 | Omega Centauri. This massive globular appeared in the binos as a large grey blob as low as 5 degrees above the horizon. Later in the evening it would take magnification well, and I could see a ragged texture of stars at it's periphery. A certain granularity was evident over the main mass as well. It's big, and unmistakable once you have it in your sights, but whether due to the elevation, or the transparency, this was not a naked eye object for me on any night. |
|---|---|
| NGC 4755 | The Jewel Box. I observed this on several nights and failed to appreciate it's charms. I detected a small triangle filled with stars, that had apparent varying colors, which under my conditions and equipment, was not a dazzling object. I would compare it in character to NGC 2169, the '37' cluster, which gets a lot of press for it's symbolic asterism, but through a 10" aperture presents a beautiful multi-colored, tight grouping of stars to my eyes. |
Yes, you can see further south from Cabo, but the low altitude is probably not giving many of these objects a fair shake...
| NGC 3766 | OC- This little gem was swept up in the binocs, moving West from beta Cruci. A small, bright cluster beneath a 5 star asterism that resembles the X pattern on a pair of dice. |
|---|---|
| NGC 3532 | OC- More binocular eye candy! This huge open cluster is NE of the Eta Carina complex. Elongated, and roughly triangular in shape, it is rich and bright. and feels like it's been blown into it's form by a prevailing wind. |
| NGC 3372 | Neb, OC's- Eta Carina Nebula. This is a rich, rich area of the sky. Tight clouds of nebulosity were apparent in the binocs in areas filled with stars. I sketched this field to orient myself with a chart. With an 0lll filter I could make out extremely faint nebulosity running North from 2 groups of stars. The bino view was far superior in showing the glow of the nebula at that aperture. Too complex to effectively describe. With a bigger scope you could spend a whole evening in this region. |
| NGC 3293 | Neb, OC- Part of Eta Carina complex, This appeared as a detached clump of nebulosity containing an open cluster in a widefield view, about 3 degrees N of Eta Carina. Higher magnification revealed a tight pattern of stars in a sort of Delta/Cygnus pattern... a swept wing shape over a vertical line of stars. |
Hiding behind the highest cape rock was I2602, labelled as the Southern Pleiades in Sky Atlas 2000. On the first night, I spotted it on the charts, and noticed the rock wall impediment. A few of the stars may have been poking out after midnight, but I wasn't getting a good read on it. Doesn't count.
Unremarkable, yet detected, were the following: M68, NGC 5460, 3228,
Late in the evening, Scorpius would appear, rising vertically, looking more like a palm tree than a Scorpion. Saturn and Jupiter were bright, colorful jewels.
Not great observing conditions, but great fun!
Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 08, 2006 23:49:43 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Apr 09, 2006 08:08:12 PT
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