Friday 13th July 2007

Southern Sentinel Observing Report

Friday 13th July 2007

Date:

13th July 2007 (Local)

Time:

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

Location:

Gary Beal's Place. Cambridge

2 Hours from Home

Weather:

Very Cold, Very Calm. Occassional Cloud Early, then Clear.

Seeing:

Limiting Magnitude 5.5, transparency 3/5, seeing 3/5, 4/5 Later

Moon:

No Moon

Equipment:

13.1 Inch Dobsonian, TeleVue Paracorr & Eyepieces & Lumicon Filters

Argo Navis

After a prolonged period of rain, nearly 3 weeks, the weather cleared for my first outing with my new Argo Navis and Feathertouch focuser.

I decided to travel down to Gary Beal’s Place in the Waikato and observe down there. This would be my first Observing Night out of the Auckland region in nearly 3 years, not including Waharau. I was looking forward to going observing with Gary & Dave which I only see normally at Waharau. All up we had seven of us out at Gary's;

Gary Beal, Rob Beck, Jason Harris, Dave Brock, Steve Chibnell & Jethro.

Others from Auckland were haeading out to Kumeu.

Packed up and went at about 3PM and arrived at Hamilton at the Hamilton City Motor Camp where I was going to stay the night, had a quick rest and then onto Gary’s another 10 minutes away.

The semi-rural skies at Gary’s are slightly better than Kumeu, possibly due to the lower trees making more of the sky seem available.

Tonight was a bit of a familiarisation night of the newly installed Argo Navis and the debut of the Feather touch focuser, so other than just observing there was some learning to be done. No plans to work through any lists or projects, just put the Argo Navis through it’s paces and enjoy the opportunity to be out again.

Observations as follows;

Object	Type	Magnification	Notes
Boomerang Nebula	Bright Nebula	114x	Small patch of nebulosity suggested by Dave Brock in the Crux region. Found using the Argo Navis and confirmed with Uranometria 2000 Second Edition. Looked at this object early so only moderate power was used. Not listed in Skymap Pro v11.
Sh2-3	Bright Nebula	114x	Very diffuse milky region of the sky. Shows as a faint arc, more a brightening of the background field.
NGC 6242	Open Cluster	114x	Bright open cluster with about 80 members. About 12 arcmins in diameter. One bright orange star dominates the cluster.
NGC 6231	Open Cluster	114x	Bight open cluster in the tail of Scorpius. Has 12 to 15 bright members about 9th Mag, with perhaps 50 fainter members. Fairly loose but well associated.
NGC 6322	Open Cluster	114x	Small open cluster inside an equilateral triangle of 8th Mag stars. About 30 members and five are probablt around 10th Mag.
NGC 6256	Globular Cluster	114x	Very faint globular cluster, enhanced by adverted vision. Casually looking at the field you could easily overlook this globular. Compact and unresolved.
NGC 6624	Globular Cluster	176x	Fairly bright, compact globular cluster. Partially resolved with a strong core. Not far from Messier 69.
NGC 6445	Planetary Nebula	176x	Small, irregular PN. Nice pair with as the globular NGC6440.
NGC 6440	Globular Cluster	114x	Compact globular. Not resoved at all. In the same field as NGC6445.
NGC 4337	Open Cluster	114x	Small faintish, compact open cluster. Has a small double star nearby.
IC 4499	Globular Cluster	176x	Fairly faint, unresolved southern globular in Apus.
DUN 207	Star	114x	Pair of 10th Mag Orange stars. Equal brightness and about 10 arcsec apart.
NGC 5844	Planetary Nebula	176x	Another look at NGC5844 with Jethro. Nice object...overlooked.
NGC 5307	Planetary Nebula	176x	Small PN in Centaurus. Same size as the Blue Planetary at high power, without the colour.
NGC 3918	Planetary Nebula	176x	Nice high power views of the Blue Planetary. A hint of irregularity.
NGC 6392	Galaxy	176x	Compact, round galaxy with a condensed core. Fairly faint,
NGC 6101	Globular Cluster	176x	Faint southern globular. Beginning to be resolved.
IC 4654	Galaxy	176x	Very faint difficult galaxy in Apus.
NGC 7293	Planetary Nebula	114x	First look at the Helix in a while. Easy at moderate power without the filters.
NGC 7009	Planetary Nebula	176x	Saturn Nebula. Easy. Round and bright with Ansae visible.
Neptune	Planet	176x	A quick look at Neptune. I will have to come back here to see if I can spot Triton.
M 72	Globular Cluster	176x	Messier globular cluster in Aquarius. Very compact and only partially resolved.

Everything worked very well, the Argo Navis pointed very well and the Feathertouch was a pleasure to use. Got familiar with the Tour and the Identify modes on the Argo Navis and just plodded around the sky, checking the pointing and finding some objects not seen for awhile. I did not log any of the regular bright objects, just obscure off the beaten track objects. Looked at a few objects in Apus.

I was very cold, possibly close to freezing. We just could not observe after midnight. Packed up and left Gary's just before 12:30am Frozen, we ended up at the nearby Burger King for some hot food. Stayed at the Motor camp (Cabin Pictured Below) and headed home on Saturday morning. Top night enjoyed myself immensely.

Paul Kemp

13.1" f5 Reflector with Argo Navis

Auckland, New Zealand

36° 55' 09 " South, 174° 43' 30" East

-- The Southern Sentinel --