Mark Johnston
Arkaroola Tue 16Mar2010 Observations from 9:30pm till 3:50am. 21.5 Mag/ArcSec2 Observers: Mark Johnston, solo trip. Arkaroola Location: 139 20 East, 30 18 South Started with 85% cloud cover and more then cleaned up 10:30pm. Seemed to always be slightly off transparency much of the night. This night was a night to catch up on mostly Southern Sky Astronomical League list, Bambo's Southern list and Caldwells (there is a lot of overlap). First I pick up the remaining objects in the SMC that I had planned upon but I had not got round to on 1st night. As I usually do it only indicate the diameter of globular clusters as the seem to me from my observation so that is generally well smaller than they are really sized due to outer stars are generally non-resolvable and 'disappear' in the views I report. All observations are as I reported them unless you see a PostNote that explains any correction. Date: 3/16/2010 Site: Arkaroola Scope: 12DobF5 Obs: ?? NELM: 6.5 see: 5 trans: 4 sqm: 21.5 Some cluster very low between clouds ... 16mmNag 10' size Bright FStar NW side (lower right). This object was 5deg off horizon and 50 degrees off of alignment of Sprigg observatory. Row of 3 stars. Bright carbon upper right, 2 stars down 45deg down to left in middle. Far top is bright star. Eifel tower down and to right. 50 2nd tier stars. 150 stars max. NGC 104 con: Tuc cmt1: 47_Tuc: Glob 4.0 50.0' 11.7 14.1 --- --- BAA 00 24 05.2 -72 04 51 10:30pm 16mmNag < 25' obvious size. Central brightest core section 1.5' size. Gets thinned out with resolvable stars with ever gradual fade off. [Re-Observation] 10:34pm 9mmNag 17' obvious size. Super super concentrated. Very gradual fading off of stars while being highly resolvable outside of core area. Central brightest core section seems to still show individual stars. Central core of highest density is just under 1' dia. con: Tuc cmt: SMC: NGC 411 Open 1.0x 1.0' --- --- NGC 01 07 55.6 -71 46 00 10:30pm 16mmNag 95x Tiny but apparently round object. IC 1641 Open 0.5x 0.5' --- --- NGC 01 09 25.1 -71 45 58 10:30pm 16mmNag 95x Averted vision revieled this object. NGC 416 Kron 59 Lind 83 Open 12.6 1.2' 985 15.3 BAA 01 07 59.0 -72 21 19 10:34pm 16mmNag 95x tiny and looks much like 411 in brightness and size. NGC 419 Kron 58 Lind 85 lst: SSAL Open 11.2 2.4' 1762 15.4 BAA 01 08 19.5 -72 53 02 10:35pm 16mmNag 95x Small 1' size about twice the size of 416 and brighter. NGC 376 Open 10.9 1.0x 1.0' 470 12.8 NGC 01 03 54.2 -72 49 33 10:37pm 16mmNag 95x Tiny, round. Clearly brighter than 416 but slightly smaller than 416 and concentrated. NGC 456 Lind 94 Open 2.0' --- --- n BAA 01 13 43.9 -73 17 35 10:40pm 16mmNag 95x 2.5' size averted. No filter but nebulosity shows well NGC 460 Open 12.5 0.7x 0.7' --- --- BAA 01 14 41.9 -73 18 23 10:41pm 16mmNag 95x Smaller than 456 and condensed. Separated from 456. MysteryObject I described a small nebulous region around a bright star that lies just SE of 460 to be Ngc465 but in fact that is some other object as 465 is a larger OC just to it's E. IC1662 not difinitive sighting, just felt I saw it. NGC 346 Lind 60 lst: SSAL Open 10.3 5.2' --- --- n BAA 00 59 06.0 -72 11 00 10:45pm 9mmNag 170x Looks amazing in 9mm Nagler IC 1611 Open 12.0 0.8x 0.8' 336 14.7 NGC 00 59 48.6 -72 20 02 10:45pm 9mmNag 170x Tiny object and of similar mag to IC 1612 IC 1612 Open 12.5 1.3x 1.3' 104 14.4 NGC 01 00 00.4 -72 22 13 10:45pm 9mmNag 170x Tiny object and of similar mag to IC 1611. A smaller object that may just be asterysm may be just E of IC1612 same spacing as to IC 1611 MysteryObject: 30' from 330 towards 261 is the 'bottom' of a cross of 4 objects with no label. Then off of this box or cross with sides about 6' in len if we extend the cross bar towards 419 is a dimmer object spaced just a bit less than this box's edges. Each appears tiny and fuzzy with the one most NW a bit larger than the others. NGC 261 Open 13.4 0.4' 16 13.9 BAA 00 46 33.0 -73 05 55 10:50pm 9mmNag 170x 1' size. Nebulous with a star in the center resolving NGC 249 BrtN 1.3' E SKY 00 45 35.2 -73 04 56 10:50pm 9mmNag 170x 1' size. Nebulous area but no apparent stars resolving like 261 MysteryObject BrtN 1.3' E SKY 00 48 52.5 -73 07 46 10:53pm 9mmNag 170x 1' size. Nebulous area but I have no name for this. On same line as 249 to 261 go twice that distance to find this nebulous patch of similar size to 249. Barely detectible direct but clearly obvious averted. NGC 290 Open 12.0 0.5x 0.5' 228 13.8 NGC 00 51 14.9 -73 09 40 10:54pm 9mmNag 170x Tiny Visible direct but very obvious averted as tiny round object similar to cluster. May have a central star that makes it appear stellar. MysteryObject Open 13.x 0.8' 410 16.1 BAA 00 51 41.8 -73 13 40 10:55pm 9mmNag 170x Tiny object like a cluster. Non stellar. Averted 100% but blots out with direct. This is 1/4 of way on a line between 290 and 294 NGC 294 Lind 47 Open 12.7 0.8' 410 16.1 BAA 00 53 05.6 -73 22 49 10:57pm 9mmNag 170x Cluster of lower magnitude than 290 and not very stellar core like 290 was. Similar size. NGC 267 C+N 1.2' NGC 00 48 02.1 -73 16 30 11:00pm 9mmNag 170x 3' size and slight 2.5EL EW NGC 248 Open 13.6 0.8' 20 14.8 BAA 00 45 24.1 -73 22 44 11:00pm 9mmNag 170x Much smaller than 267 but similar mag and size to 265. Visible direct. NGC 265 Kron 24 Lind 34 Open 12.2 1.0' 301 15.0 BAA 00 47 11.6 -73 28 38 11:00pm 9mmNag 170x Much smaller than 267 but similar mag and size to 248. Visible direct. NGC 256 Kron 23 Lind 30 Open 12.7 0.6' 142 14.7 BAA 00 45 54.4 -73 30 24 11:00pm 9mmNag 170x Smaller and dimmer than 265, barely visible direct. 256 is slightly brighter than 269 but of a similar size as 269. NGC 269 Kron 26 Lind 37 Open 13.3 0.6' 218 15.2 BAA 00 48 21.3 -73 31 49 11:00pm 9mmNag 170x Smaller and dimmer than 265, barely visible direct. 269 is slightly dimmer than 256 but of a similar size as 256. NGC 231 Open 12.0 1.2x 1.2' 131 15.0 NGC 00 41 06.5 -73 21 02 11:10pm 9mmNag 170x Tiny and averted only. In a short line with 222 then 220. NGC 222 Open 11.0 0.5x 0.5' 128 15.3 NGC 00 40 44.5 -73 23 03 11:10pm 9mmNag 170x Tiny but visible direct. Center of a line of 3 clusters with 231 and 220 on either side. NGC 220 Open 11.0 0.8x 0.8' 256 14.8 NGC 00 40 31.0 -73 24 12 11:10pm 9mmNag 170x Small but visible direct and little larger than other 2 in this line. Most West of a line of 3 clusters with 231 and 222 to the East. NGC 176 Open 12.0 0.6x 0.6' --- --- NGC 00 35 58.5 -73 09 57 11:15pm 9mmNag 170x Tiny and just visible direct, perhaps from FStar to it's SW. NGC 152 Kron 10 Lind 15 Open 1.7' --- --- BAA 00 32 55.5 -73 06 59 11:15pm 9mmNag 170x 1.5' size and visible direct. Diffuse and large as SMC objects go. No resolved stars detected. 11:25 now with Tape at 24:00 NGC 2442 NGC 2443 ESO 59-8 IRAS 7367-6924 PGC 21373 con: Vol cmt: . Glxy 11.2b 6.6x 5.4' 95 SAB(s)bc pec RC3 07 36 17.7 -69 32 16 11:25pm 7mmNag 220x 6' main body 30dPA SCore Arms seem clockwise. A strong arm averted with potential knot in that arm comes out of bottom [north]. On the top [South] averted shows a broad fan of the glow going off to the right [East]. South arm does not have as strong as a feel as an arm. con: Cen cmt1: RunningChickenNebula: lst: C100 IC 2948 RCW 62 BrtN 66.0x42.0' R UNK 11 38 19.0 -63 18 00 11:40pm 35mmPan 44x NPB_Filter. 45' len Cluster within it has a grouping of 5 stars on the edge of one broad nebulous region and an equilateral triangle of bright stars of about the same dimension. I go on to attempt to describe this area but it is a complex description and my only take-away is that I saw two fairly broad main areas of nebuloscity. I think my idea of West was off by as much as 90 degrees which adds to difficulty of interpriting description. con: Cru cmt1: CoalSack: lst: C99 CoalSack 1 Around the center of the large area Star 9.17 0.0.436 --- TYC 12 54 00.9 -61 46 17 11:50pm 15x60Bino 15x A series of very large areas that blot out most of the background stars but tend to not really blot out all the stars except in two small areas. To me the most obvious and darkest of the spots was an area just shy of 1 degree south-east of alpha Crux on the other side of 2 fairly bright stars in a 45dPA line. That area is about a degree of very dark zone slight elongated at around 45 dPA. Moving North to what is typically called the coal sack we see main circular area just S of jewel box about 3 degrees by 2 degrees N. Overall in the binoculars I make out a capitol A letter with top of the very long 4 degree A to the west. From the most eastern beta Crux going past Jewel box an equal distance farther you hit the north most fat bottom part of this leg of this giant A and here too the darkness is about as profound as the area SE of Alpha Crux. There is the feeling of a gap in the black on the East that is the bottom of the 'A' and to the west of that is a dark bridge (the center 'horizontal' stroke of the 'A' then assorted stars showing up to form the hole in the top of the A which is ill defined. The second tall right side of the 'A' is not quite as defined as northern tall left side of the A. This leg is AGAIN separated with a thin EW long area where stars shine through a bit till we hit a third very long mostly ES dark section with the extremely deep darkness on the W end close to Alpha Crux. NGC 6101 con: Aps lst: SSAL,C107 Glob 9.2 5.0' 13.5 16.6 --- --- BAA 16 25 48.6 -72 12 06 11:57pm 7mmNag 220x 4' size Low concentration. Averted appears to yeild some resolution. Transparency only 3 just now as it is low, will try later. NGC 4945 ESO 219-24 IRAS 13025-4911 PGC 45279 cmt: Ngc4945group: con: Cen lst: SSAL,C83 Glxy 9.3b 20.5x 3.8' 43 SB(s)cd: sp RC3 13 05 26.2 -49 28 15 12:05am 16mmNag 95x 20' length 6EL 45dPA Flaring out on NE end. SE edge appears to be faded from being regular in symitry. Brighter slightly in core but not obvious core. Some puffing out on the N end. NGC 4976 ESO 219-29 PGC 45562 Glxy 11.0b 5.6x 2.9' 161 E4 pec: RC3 13 08 37.3 -49 30 23 12:10am 9mmNag 170x 1' len Has a more of a SCore then 4945. [PostNote: it is a lot larger] NGC 4945A ESO 219-28 PGC 45380 MltG 13.0p 2.5x 1.3' 55 SB(s)m? sp RC3 13 06 33.3 -49 41 36 12:10am 9mmNag 170x Detection only, a very bright mag 4 star to S blots this out quite a bit. GSC 8626:2809 SAO 238429 HD 93308 con: Car cmt1: HomunculusNebula: Star 6.10 0.0.603 --- TYC 10 45 03.5 -59 41 04 12:25am 5mmNag 305x Very bright and yellow-orange distinct color. The 2 lobes are obvious right away. A faint glow surrounds the area with a size of 3-4'. The lobes themselves are tiny but the brighter one has a fairly sharply defined round abrupt cut to darkness. I am not getting much detail so will try this object again another night. The 14" SCT was an even worse view just now. M 83 NGC 5236 ESO 444-81 MCG -5-32-50 con: Hya lst: M_RO Glxy 8.2b 12.8x11.4' -- SAB(s)c RC3 13 37 00.3 -29 52 04 12:45am 9mmNag 170x 10' size and mostly round with structure. Out of the south is a broad protrusion of glow that then thins and continues curling to the west. Out of the West comes a strong protrusion with an arm then clearly separated and curling to the north. This arm appears to have a knot well out going west just before the turning point of the arm. Another closer in arm with a gap of darker area between the core and it is closer in to the core. The dark lane for this closer in arm is along the west and loops around over almost all the way up to the north to separate the inner arm. Something comes out of the north and rotates around over the east. This bar has a detectible darker lane running to the east of the core on down towards the south. A very light arm is seen well out from the core looping down towards the south. Three bright field stars with one, then a double, then another single one are to the East and there seems to be the very faint outer arm just detectible with movement and contrast from other side of these 3 stars. I discuss a possible knot out on an arm North of the core. Possible knot 3' NW of core on farthest out arm I can see there. NGC 4609 Cr 263 con: Cru lst: SSAL,C98 Open 6.9 5.0' 40 10.0 II 2 m LYN 12 42 20.0 -62 59 36 1:05am 9mmNag 170x 5' len Flared Eifel Tower or 'A' look with two base points like tight doubles. In the middle bar are 2 stars. Up on the top [S] is a point star with farther up a few fainter stars just above. There is a tier1 star just off to the west as it it is the point of a triangular flag hung from the top (a 2x1 IsoTriangle with point to the west is the 'flag'). Very bright FStar 5' to the SSE, not part of this I bet. Scope: 14SctF7 Went back to the dome to use the SCT as I had no telrad on 12" yet. NGC 3195 ESO 19-2 Henize 2-44 Sanduleak 2-57 PK 296-20.1 PNG 296.6-20.0 con: Cha lst: SSAL,C109 Plan 11.5p 42.0" 15.3 3 STE 10 09 21.0 -80 51 34 1:20am 7mmNag Fairly solid. About 1' len. Not super distinct edge. Get the feel of a slightly darker central area but I do not detect the central star. END TAPE 1 for this night at tape time 48:00 NGC 6101 con: Aps lst: SSAL,C107 Glob 9.2 5.0' 13.5 16.6 --- --- BAA 16 25 48.6 -72 12 06 1:59am 9mmNag 280x 5' size Faint. Very low concentration, only mildly more concentrated in center. [Said 170x 8' size but that is for 9mm in dob so scale to 5' for this observation] NGC 6025 Cr 296 Mel 139 con: TrA lst: SSAL,C95 Open 5.1 12.0' 60 7.0 II 3 r LYN 16 03 19.1 -60 25 21 2:07am 16mmNag 156x 15'x8' NSxEW 80 stars. Very open, not concentrated. Stands out well. 6 tier1 stars, 12 tier2 and the rest dimmer. Looks like body of spider with forward leg to NW, couple legs out back. NGC 6087 Cr 300 Mel 141 con: Nor lst: DM,C89 Open 5.4 12.0' 40 8.0 II 2 m LYN 16 18 54.0 -57 53 00 2:10am 9mmNag 280x 9' size. 30 stars, open. 2 Tier1, 8 tier2 and a the rest all dimmer ones. Medium range of magnitudes. Gives a feeling of a tall IsoTriangle pointing roughly NE. A triangle forms SW corner of base. Many triangles seem apparent. NGC 6231 Cr 315 Mel 153 con: Sco lst: DM,TE,C76_RO Open 2.6 14.0' 93 6.0 I 3 p BAA 16 54 09.8 -41 50 00 2:15am 35mmPan 71x > 100 stars. 5 Tier1, 20 mid-tier and hundred lower mag. Broad range of magnitudes and looks better than up north because it is so transparent up high. [PostNote: I describe a broader 1' field then discuss the smaller 6231 concentrated area as above] NGC 6397 con: Ara lst: DM,SSAL,C86 Glob 5.3 31.0' 10.0 12.9 BAA 17 40 41.3 -53 40 25 2:20am 9mmNag 280x 4' obvious dia but thining continues after that. Non stellar but center is more concentrated for sure. Medium concentration. Circle of stars on west seems to encircle the central section. Lots of resolved stars as this thins out with space between stars. NGC 6352 con: Ara lst: DM,SSAL,C81_RO Glob 7.8 9.0' 13.4 15.2 BAA 17 25 29.2 -48 25 22 2:29am 9mmNag 280x 4' dia with very gradual fade from middle blanket. No resolution. Very low concentration. Fine powder. Much fainter than 6397. Has a mild feel of slight EL at 30dPA NGC 6193 Cr 310 con: Ara lst: DM,C82_RO cmt1: 6193oc_6188neb: Open 5.2 14.0' 14 5.7 II 3 p n LYN 16 41 20.4 -48 45 45 2:35am 9mmNag 280x < 40 stars perhaps. 2 Tier1, 5 Tier2 A few dozen more at most. Very bright double EW elongated like 20" spacing of equal mag in the center of cluster. Small number of stars in the cluster. NGC 6188 RCW 108 con: Ara cmt1: 6193oc_6188neb: BrtN 35.5x22.5' E+R SKY 16 40 52.0 -48 45 00 2:35am 9mmNag 280x 4' of apparent nebulous area. [PostNote: Actual nebuloscity is far broader in CCD photos] NGC 6541 con: CrA lst: DM,C78_RO fav: F3 Glob 6.3 15.0' 12.1 15.3 BAA 18 08 02.2 -43 42 20 2:54am 9mmNag 280x 5' apparent diameter. Sugary appearance. Clearly more concentrated in the core with gradual fade. Not a highly concentrated look but mediuam concentration. Several resolvable stars. West edge may have slightly less outer stars than other edges. Trailing FS by 3-4' A string of stars seems to come out of South and going SSE. Another string comes out of west and generally goes off to the North. Had some confusion in figuring out PAV as it is quite dim and confusing on NE corner. Transparency not real good and these targets in Pav are fairly low. trans: 3 NGC 6744 ESO 104-42 IRAS 19050-6354 PGC 62836 con: Pav lst: SSAL,C101_RO fav: F5 Glxy 9.1b 20.1x12.9' 15 SAB(r)bc RC3 19 09 45.4 -63 51 27 3:24am 16mmNag 156x 15' length 30dPA. Very concentrated core that seems slightly elongated NS. Some structure is presenting itself. 9mm not giving up much more. 9mm allows some dark areas to be made out. Transparency not so good as it is low. NGC 6752 con: Pav lst: SSAL,C93_RO fav: F5 Glob 5.3 29.0' 10.5 13.8 BAA 19 10 51.8 -59 58 55 3:30am 9mmNag 280x 7' apparent size. Medium concentration. Several spikes of stars out of it. One spike out of NW. Loop of stars 2' dia comes out of N and loopw CW back into core. Spidery 5-star 3' out of SE. Leg out of SW bending south. In the center there is a 1' strong line of stars going E and another 1' strand going SSW. trans: 5 NGC 5823 Cr 290 Mel 131 con: Cir lst: DM,SSAL,C88_RO Open 7.9 10.0' 100 13.0 II 2 r LYN 15 05 30.6 -55 36 30 3:35am 9mmNag 280x 10' size. 50-100 stars. Fairly well defined cluster limits. Fairly open look. A few Tier1, Tier1 member on SW and one on far N. 20 or so Tier2 but not a huge range of mags. NGC 5822 Cr 289 Mel 130 con: Cir Open 6.5 39.0' 150 10.0 II 2 r LYN 15 08 01.2 -55 36 51 3:40am 16mmNag 156x < 50 stars, not very distinct. 4x size or more of 5822. Very broad area with much higher mag stars than 5823. Which stars are part of this cluster are difficult to say. I am not so sure what is part of this cluster and what is backdrop. May be a broader 40' area that has couple hundred stars. Not so sure. 3:50am Close down and very very tired.
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