Monday 10th March 2008

Southern Sentinel Observing Report

Monday 10th March 2008

Date:

10th November 2007 (Local)

Time:

21:00 - 22:15 NZDT (UT +13)

Location:

Kumeu Observatory

30 Minutes from Home

Weather:

Mild with No Wind. Early Cloudy then Clear.

Seeing:

Limiting Magnitude 5.0, transparency 3/5, seeing 4/5,

Moon:

No Moon

Equipment:

13.1 Inch Dobsonian, TeleVue Paracorr & Eyepieces & Lumicon Filters

Argo Navis

Second Night in 3 days.

As the Cloud Sensor said it was clear, I decided to go up to Kumeu. When I arrived the cloud was dark and ominous, but I stuck around and it did clear. No one else arrived, as the Annual Astronomical Society Burbidge Dinner was being held.

Another good night was expected. An observing list compiled on Astroplanner was uploaded to the Argo Navis. This observing session was going to be short, as I needed to br home by 11PM.

Observations as follows;

Object	Type	Magnification	Notes
NGC 2217	Galaxy	88x	Large, round and easy galaxy, with and even brightness. Halo extends to twice the size with adveted vision. Near two 11th Mag stars.
NGC 2170	Bright Nebula	88x	Small patch of bright nebulousity around a 11th Mag Star.
M 78	Bright Nebula	88x	Bright patch of nebulosity. Easy, has two 11th Mag stars involved.
NGC 3242	Planetary Nebula	88x	Strong green colour showing through on the Ghost of Jupiter, even at the lower power.
NGC 3115	Galaxy	88x	Spindle Galaxy. Bright lenticular shaped galaxy. Contrast average, in the top of the Auckland light dome.
M 67	Open Cluster	88x	Large Messier Open Cluster. Fairly even in distribution, with 200 members. 50 odd stars are brighter than 11th Mag.
Fleming 1	Planetary Nebula	88x	Fleming 1. Small, compact and a hint of irregularity. Not difficult to spot.
8P Tuttle	Comet	88x	Large round comet with a very even brightness, possibly about 20 arc minutes in diameter. No tail.
NGC 3960	Open Cluster	88x	Fairly faint sparse open cluster. Has about 50 members and only stands out due to the field being not very rich.
NGC 3783	Galaxy	88x	Small compact galaxy, with a stellar core. Has a 10 mag star right next to it. Fairly easy to spot.
NGC 3749	Galaxy	88x	A galactic pair with NGC3742. Similar in brightness, but NGC3749 is maginally more faint.
NGC 3742	Galaxy	88x	A galactic pair with NGC3749. Similar in brightness, but NGC3749 is maginally more faint.
NGC 3706	Galaxy	88x	Compact galaxy with an even brightness, perhaps a brightening of the core. Probably elliptical.
NGC 3918	Planetary Nebula	88x	Nice colourful view of the Blue Planetary. Nice low power view frames the PN well.
NGC 3699	Planetary Nebula	88x	Irregular PN which is moderately bright. Warrents a higher power. In a starry field.
IC 2391	Open Cluster	88x	Too big for the even the 22mm Nagler, field is covered with 8th Mag stars. Clearly naked eye.
Tr 10	Open Cluster	88x	A gathering of about 50 stars brighter than 10th Mag. Scattered across the FOV.
NGC 2660	Open Cluster	88x	Rich open cluster. Compact and well resolved. Inside a triangle of 9th 10th and 11th Mag stars.
NGC 2626	Bright Nebula	88x	A bright nebulous patch, similar in size to M78, observed earlier, but fainter. Has 4 stars involved within its boundry.
NGC 2547	Open Cluster	88x	Rich open cluster. Has 50 brighter members 9th/10th stars and about 25 fainter stars. Fills the FOV.
NGC 2546	Open Cluster	88x	Large open cluster that more the fill the FOV. 50 bright members, with a compact grouping in the N that works its way across the FOV to some brighter 9th Mag loosely associated stars.
IC 2395	Open Cluster	88x	Bright Jewel like Open cluster. Has 20 members brighter than 10th Mag. Visible naked eye. Not far from the Omnicon Velorum Cluster.
IC 2220	Bright Nebula	88x	Star with nebulosity, the object is a good candidate for the narrowband filters. Quite compact, but there is more to see here. Must return for closer inspection.
NGC 1851	Globular Cluster	88x	A bright, well resolved, globular cluster. Very condensed (Type 2) globular. 10 arcminutes in diameter.
M 79	Globular Cluster	88x	Bright Messier globular, in a sparse field. Not as rich or as nice as NGC1851 that I have just observed. Compact and with a strong condensation in the core.
NGC 2206	Galaxy	88x	Small compact galaxy, moderately faint with no real detail.
NGC 1979	Galaxy	88x	Small, round galaxy but not difficult. No real detail on note.
NGC 1964	Galaxy	88x	Small galaxy that shows not much different from a star. Very compact but bright. Overrated.

Argo performed very well. I did a 27 Star TPAS run, before it got dark.RMS fitted 5.3' raw 8.3, PSD 5.7, IE -5.5 +/- 1.1. Excellent pointing all around the compass and the uploaded catalog was nice to work through. Very easy.

There was a little bit of cloud around early, but this shuffled off and I had pretty much and un-interrupted. Nice views of some Open Clusters and it was good to catch up with some Southern Planetaries again. IC2220 was interesting and needs further observing.

Home at 11:00 PM.

Paul Kemp

13.1" f5 Reflector with Argo Navis

Auckland, New Zealand

36° 55' 09 " South, 174° 43' 30" East

-- The Southern Sentinel --