Saturday 22nd July 2006

Southern Sentinel Observing Report

Saturday 22nd July 2006

Date:

22nd July 2006 (Local)

Time:

17:00 - 22:30 NZDT (UT +12)

Location:

Waharau Regional Park

60 Minutes from Home

Weather:

Cool, Calm and Clear.

Seeing:

Limiting Magnitude 6.0, transparency 3/5, seeing 4/5

Moon:

New Moon.

Equipment:

13.1 Inch Dobsonian, TeleVue Paracorr & Eyepieces & Lumicon Filters

Waharau Winter 2006 Dark Sky Weekend

After about 15 months of not much observing, due to poor health, it was great to be out with the telescope once again. Michelle drove me down to Waharau and we arrived just after 5 PM while it was still light and we could set up easily. We parked so we could get away early so we would not be too tired.

Very clear and very cold. No cloud and seeing was pretty good. There was a bit of cloud at about 8 PM but this did not affect the observing for too long

Armed with my dictaphone I proceeded to log some objects, some not seen for a long time, but not neglecting the nice bright objects.

Object	Type	Magnification	Notes
B 85	Dark Nebula	114x	Dark lanes within the Trifid very easy and contrasty.
M 10	Globular Cluster	114x	Messier glob not seen in a while. Slightly more condesation and similar in size to the nearby M10 Messier glob but with fainter stars. Well resolved.
M 107	Globular Cluster	114x	Faintest of the Messier Globs in Ophiuchus. Still bright but not fully resolved at this power. Even brightness with no apparent core. M107 appears to be embedded in an arrow asterism made up by 11th and 12th magnitude stars.
M 12	Globular Cluster	114x	Bright Messier Glob in Ophiuchus.Bright and well resolved and possibly a Type 9 with a very loose core. 4 or 5 10th Mag stars involved in this glob.
M 17	Bright Nebula	114x	Swan Nebula. Contrasty with dark nebula clearly visible in the western end. Faint nebulosity seen beyond the '2' shape in the eastern end of the complex.
M 20	Bright Nebula	114x	Contrasty tonight with a recently coated primary mirror. Dark lanes clear and reflection nebulosity easy. Showpiece object that has not seen for over a year.
M 4	Globular Cluster	114x	Another Messier Showpiece object that has not seen for over a year. High in Dobs Hole.
M 5	Globular Cluster	114x	Messier Glob not logged for some years. Large and bright with a condensed core, 47 Tuc like but with looser core. Possibly type 5 or 6 Glob.
M 6	Open Cluster	114x	M6 is well framed in the 22mm Nagler. Nice starry field.
M 7	Open Cluster	88x	M7 Messier Open Cluster. Too large for the FOV of the 22mm Nagler.
M 8	Bright Nebula	114x	Lagoon Nebula and Open cluster. Showpiece object that has not seen for over a year.
NGC 4945	Galaxy	114x	Nice contrast on NGC4945, some mottling noted,
NGC 5128	Galaxy	114x	Centarus A. Needs more power but the contrast is excellent. Dark lane prominent.
NGC 5139	Globular Cluster	114x	Omega Centauri. Logged for completeness. Very bright and loose. Type 9 perhaps?
NGC 6530	Open Cluster	114x	Lagoon Open Cluster. 30 plus stars that are brighter than 10th Mag. All similar in brightness.
B 64	Dark Nebula	114x	Dark nebula very conspiciuos in the same field as M9. Stands out in a starry field.
B259	Dark Nebula	114x	Dark Nebula just in the FOV of the 22mm Nagler and M9. Clearly noticable around a white 7th Mag star.
M 14	Globular Cluster	114x	M14 is very similar in appearance to the much higher M107. Loose and partially resolved with an even brightness.
M 19	Globular Cluster	114x	One of the brighter Messier globulars in Ophiuchus. Bright and well resolved. Fairly loose (about class 8), similar to most of the globulars in Ophiuchus.
M 23	Open Cluster	114x	Messier open cluster. Even in brightness and over half a degree about 100 10th and 11th mag stars.
M 62	Globular Cluster	114x	Messier Globular on the Scorpius / Ophiuchus border. Nice and high and now that we are in Scorpius, this globular is now different than all of the recently observed Messier globs. Large and bright, with a defined noticable core. Type 3 or 4 class of Glob.
M 80	Globular Cluster	114x	Compact and small Messier glob. Very condensed core. Needs more power to be resolved better.
M 9	Globular Cluster	114x	Compact Messier globular very similar to the already observed M107 & M14. Small and loose but brighter than the previous two globulars. Partially resolved in a starry field next to the dark nebula Barnard 64.
IC 5148	Planetary Nebula	114x	The Grus Planetary. Round and faint at this power with no detail. This planetary is more difficult than I remember. Needs a filter to bring out ring shape.
M 22	Globular Cluster	114x	Largest and brightest globular in the region. Even in brightness and loose with not much of a core possibly a type 8 globular. Resolved very well. Showpiece object
M 28	Globular Cluster	114x	Compact bright Messier globular cluster in Sagittarius. Resolved in the halo but closer in the core gets quite compact. Very similar to the Messier glob M62 in Scorpius.
M 72	Globular Cluster	114x	Overlooked Messier globular cluster in Aquarius. Small and partially resolved. Needs power. No apparent core, just small. One of the faintest globulars seen tonight.
M 73	Open Cluster	114x	Messier asterism. Four 11th and 12th mag stars very close to each other. Not seen for some time.
NGC 7009	Planetary Nebula	114x	Saturn Nebula. Easy to spot in a lackluster field. Ansae visible. Needed more power than 114x and one of the last objects seen tonight. Need to come back here for a good look sooner rather than later.
NGC 7293	Planetary Nebula	114x	Quick look at the Helix without filters. Easy to see in the field even without filters. No real detail just a ghostly haze.
NGC 7582	Galaxy	114x	Grus Triplet. Not logged for a long time but definately seen since the last observation. Moderately bright elongated oval (3:1) very small amount of brightening towards the core. Large with not much detail. Runs just E of N-S unlike the other two galaxies nearby.
NGC 7590	Galaxy	114x	Grus Triplet. Not logged for a long time but definately seen since the last observation. Moderately bright oval (2:1), brightest and smallest of the three. Compact with not much detail. Runs NE-SW like the it's close pair NGC7599 nearby. The is a bright star involved on the NE side of this galaxy.
NGC 7599	Galaxy	114x	Grus Triplet. Not logged for a long time but definately seen since the last observation. Moderately bright oval (3:1), faintest and most difficult to see of the three, with a similar size to NGC7582. Not much detail just an even brightness. Runs NE-SW like the it's close pair NGC7590 nearby.
M 13	Globular Cluster	114x	The 'Great' Hercules Globular. Low in the north, large and partially resolved. Small core that evenly spreads to the edge of the cluster. Not the best views due to the seeing being a lot worse down this low.
M 2	Globular Cluster	114x	Large bright Messier globular cluster. Bright core (Type 3 perhaps) and resolved well to the core. Needs a higher power and higher altitude. Need to come back and do M15 at the same time at higher powers.

Pakm worked well and was accurate all night.

We listened to the All Black beat South Africa in the Tri Nations after a poor start, while observing. We provide a score service to those within ear shot.

No interesting points tonight but it was great to get out under dark skies. In the process of trying to log more detail in my observations such as Glob type, Open Cluster members and features, although most galaxies will be even in brightness and pretty faint.

Paul Kemp

13.1" Reflector

Auckland, New Zealand

36° 55' 09 " South, 174° 43' 30" East

-- The Southern Sentinel --