Monday 25th September 2006

Southern Sentinel Observing Report

Monday 25th September 2006

Date:

25th September 2006 (Local)

Time:

19:00 - 23:00 NZDT (UT +12)

Location:

Kumeu Obseratory

30 Minutes from Home

Weather:

Mild, Occasional Breeze & Haze. Heavy Dew.

Seeing:

Limiting Magnitude 5.5, transparency 2.5/5, seeing 3.5/5

Moon:

Setting Moon

Equipment:

13.1 Inch Dobsonian, TeleVue Paracorr & Eyepieces & Lumicon Filters

Dave Ek Box and Skymap Pro v11

First time out in a month, but not for a lack of trying. Two weekends in a row of blanketed skies, one up North and the second at Waharau. No observing either night at Waharau, a real disappointment.

After a beautiful day I headed up to Kumeu, there was some cloud out to the east which we hoped would not affect our observing. I arrived before 7 PM and setup under a setting moon and twilight. Dave was already there, getting the dome ready for some astrophotography and Guy turned up soon after followed by Alan. Alastair turned up later.

The plan of attack was to test out the new laptop with Skymap Pro v11 and the Ek Box once again.

Object	Type	Magnification	Notes
NGC 6934	Globular Cluster	114x	Easy globular cluster. Partially resolved, no real core. Possibly a Type 6. Bright 10th Mag star juston the W edge of the globular.
NGC 6891	Planetary Nebula	114x	Bright, non stellar PN. When you look at the nebula directly it disappears till you can see a central star. When adverted vision is employed the PN swells back to a disk. When viewed as a disk, the nebula appears as bright as two nearby 10th mag stars.
M 27	Planetary Nebula	114x	Dumbell Nebula. Not as contrasty as usual due to the setting moon and some high haze. Still one of the best objects there is.
M 71	Globular Cluster	114x	Messier globular cluster, partially resolved and very loose, possibly type 11. Nebulous in nature due to the unresolved stars. In a very starry field.
NGC 7006	Globular Cluster	114x	Moderately faint globular. Very condensed and small (Type 3) in a sparse field.
M 15	Globular Cluster	114x	Large Messier globular cluster, well resolved and bright. Type 4 with a small core.
NGC 6326	Planetary Nebula	114x	PN in Ara, fairly bright and round.
Shapley 3	Planetary Nebula	114x	Small PN fairly difficult, possibly has a bright central star. Tucked inside a 'T' shaped asterism.
NGC 6541	Globular Cluster	114x	Very resolved golular in Corona Australis. Compact core with a sparse outer halo.
NGC 6496	Globular Cluster	114x	Globular cluster bang on the Corona Australis / Scorpius border. Looks nebulous, more of a milky open cluster. Has 8 brighter members otherwise, unresolved.
NGC 6388	Globular Cluster	114x	Bright compact globular, partially resolved. Very condensed core, possibly Type 2.
NGC 6352	Globular Cluster	114x	Globular cluster in Ara, Large and very loose, possibly Type 9 or 10. Completely opposite in nature to NGC 6388 4 degrees to the NE, which I have just observed.
NGC 6397	Globular Cluster	114x	Ara Globular. While in the area, just had a look at this very large and bright globular.
B263	Dark Nebula	114x	Dark nebula in the 'Stinger' of Scorpius. Not difficult. About 30 arc minutes in diameter.
NGC 6322	Open Cluster	114x	Small open cluster with about 15 to 20 members. Superimposed onto a eqilateral triangle of star which are of equal brightness (8th Mag).
B 87	Dark Nebula	114x	Parrot's Head. With the contrast not so good tonight, the dark nebula is not as defined. Still visible.
B 90	Dark Nebula	114x	Dark nebula in Sagittarius, not difficult but better skies would make definition easier.
NGC 6520	Open Cluster	114x	Oen cluster next to the Ink Spot. Compact and very bright. Has about 50 members.
B 86	Dark Nebula	114x	The Ink Spot. Unobserved for over 3 years. Not super contrasty due to conditions. Nice pair with NGC 6520.
NGC 6451	Open Cluster	114x	Small open cluster on the Scorpius / Sagittarius border. About 30 members of even brightness.
NGC 6563	Planetary Nebula	114x	Round, bright PN about the same size as Jupiter. Very even in brightness. No central star noted. In a starry field.
M 17	Bright Nebula	114x	A quick look at the Swan Nebula. Contrast is down tonight but still a good view.
M 18	Open Cluster	114x	Bright large Messier open cluster with about 25 Members, with 10 stars being around 11th mag.
NGC 6603	Open Cluster	114x	Small Open Cluster inside M24. In the NE corner of the Small Sagittarius Starcloud. Extremely starry field.
NGC 6567	Planetary Nebula	114x	Small PN inside the M24 Small Sagittarius Star Cloud. Non stellar and is at the vertex of two lines of stars that meet inside a pentagon. This object has eluded me for years. No detail within the PN.
M 24	Open Cluster	114x	Small Sagittarius Star Cloud. Very starry object.
B 93	Dark Nebula	114x	Small Barnard dark nebula on the NW edge of M24. Nice pair with Barnard 92.
B 92	Dark Nebula	114x	Small Barnard dark nebula on the NW edge of M24. Nice pair with Barnard 93
NGC 6752	Globular Cluster	114x	A quick look at the Pavo globular while in the area. Nicely resolved and beautiful.
NGC 6744	Galaxy	114x	The Pavo Galaxy. No real contrast tonight, just the nucleus visible due to conditions.
M 16	Open Cluster	114x	Messier Open Cluster with nebulosity. About 15 stars brighter than 12th Mag superimposed on milky nebulosity in this star forming region. Over-rated. Pehaps if I spent time trying to see the Pillars maybe this object would improve on me.
NGC 6725	Galaxy	114x	Small unremarkable glaxay not far from the Pavo Globular. No real detail.
IC 4797	Galaxy	114x	Small IC galaxy near the Pavo Globular. No detail noted other than it being very small.
Pal 8	Globular Cluster	114x	Small galactic looking globular. Small with no real detail, it completes a rectangle of 12th Mag stars.
IC 4776	Planetary Nebula	114x	Small IC Planetary. Non Stellar about 15 arc seconds. Looking directly at the PN the PN looks stellar but green, look away and the PN bloats out and looses it's colour. Remarkable.
IC 1297	Planetary Nebula	114x	Small IC Planetary Nebula on the Corona Australis / Sagittarius border. Round about 25" across and even in brightness.
NGC 6723	Globular Cluster	114x	Corona Australis Glob. Bright and well resolved. No core as such but not lose. Possibly Type 7. Observed most of the globulars in this region so why not the brightest.
NGC 6870	Galaxy	114x	Very faint galaxy with no detail, in the same field as the brighter NGC6868.
NGC 6868	Galaxy	114x	Faint and small galaxy, slightly elongated oval with a bright nucleus. Nice pair with the fainter nearby NGC 6870.

No major issues with equipment tonight, and the setting circles proved to work well again. Three southern alignemnt stars were added to the ASCOM platform so southern observing should be more accurate with Skymap Pro now.

Dew was a major tonight, my Dew heaters performed well but did not stop the secondary mirror from dewing over. We all had problems with this including Dave in the Dome. The dew was 'due' (excuse the pun) to some localised mist. There was quite a bit of mist on the road back to Kumeu on the way out. With the mist and moon, the best observing regions were to the West.

Started off attempting a few objects in the October JOG list but the milkiness of the sky in the NE made observing in that direction no worth it.

A nice amount of objects seen tonight, with perhaps the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud region being the most enjoyable. Some of the Planetary Nebulae observed were nice and a good look at the globular clusters on the southern side of Sagittarius and Scorpius were very good to catch up with again. Caught up with a few Barnard Dark Nebulae dispite the low contrast due to mist or haze.

M24 Region

Nice to get out again. Probably the last in awhile.

Home by 11:45 PM.

Paul Kemp

13.1" Reflector

Auckland, New Zealand

36° 55' 09 " South, 174° 43' 30" East

-- The Southern Sentinel --