Thursday 27th March 2008

Southern Sentinel Observing Report

Thursday 27th March 2008

Date:

27th March 2008 (Local)

Time:

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

Location:

Matarangi Beach

3 Hours from Home

Weather:

Mild with No Wind. Clear with Occasional Cloud.

Seeing:

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

Moon:

No Moon

Equipment:

13.1 Inch Dobsonian, TeleVue Paracorr & Eyepieces & Lumicon Filters

Argo Navis

Another observing report in March 2008. My first observing session at Matarangi Beach.

We are away on a long weekend at Matarangi Beach, so I have packed the telescope, hoping to do some observing. This is the first time since last February (2007) I have taken the telescope away with me on holiday. However, my trailer is no longer road worthy so we did have to bring two cars. We will address the trailer/transport issues before the next Christmas holidays.

I have loaded plenty of objects in the Argo Navis, but primarly I am going to look at some southern Hartungs objects.

Observations as follows;

Object	Type	Magnification	Notes
Lo 5	Planetary Nebula	114x	Suprisingly large and faint PN. Detectable without filter, but object is greatly enhanced by using either the UHC or OIII filters. Not easy. Any less aperture or contrast would render this object invisible.
Rup 106	Globular Cluster	114x	Compact faint GC. Maginally resolved, this object is very faint and compact. Excellent contrast assists in making this object detectable.
NGC 3503	Bright Nebula	114x	Very faint nebulosity surrounding a 11th mag star. Not strong or easy but visible. No real details seen.
IC 2948	Open Cluster	114x	Bright but sparse open cluster. Has about 15 members brighter than 9th Mag and probably another 15 brighter than 11th Mag. This cluster has nebulosity involved, which has been logged separately. Nebulosity invisible without narrowband filters.
IC 2944	Bright Nebula	114x	Running Chicken Nebula. This object sprung to life with the narrowband filters, especially the UHC. Large and conspicious, the nebula fills the FOV and is cresent shaped arcing clockwise. Irregularity noted. Involved with this nebulosity is the bright Open Cluster IC2943.
IC 2581	Open Cluster	114x	Compact open cluster with about 30 members. Has a very bright 4th mag star at the centre.
NGC 3247	Open Cluster	114x	Sparse open cluster in a starry field. Looks just like a starry knot in the Milky Way, as it is hard to determine this objects boundries. Almost impossible to number the members, but a stab would be 30 stars.
K1-23	Planetary Nebula	114x	Medium size southern PN. Round with a hint of irregulaity. Visible without the filter, however as soon as the filters are employed, this object reacts strongly, enhacing the PN to become obvious.
NGC 3199	Bright Nebula	114x	This is a remarkable object that I have never seen. A large cresent object (fills the FOV) that arcs clockwise. Truckloads of irregularity and filaments. Reminds me of the Veil. Responds superbly to the UHC and OIII filters	.
IC 2621	Planetary Nebula	114x	Stellar PN. Definately confirmed, middle 'star' of 3 of equal brightness. With the UHC this centre 'star' stays the same brightness while the other two drop considerablely. Confirmed using the computer charts.
8P Tuttle	Comet	114x	Easy comet. Large, round. No tail. Looks like a very bright face-on spiral galaxy with no detail in the arms.
Saturn	Planet	114x	Had a quick look as Saturn. 5 Moons were easy.

I did another 15 star TPAS run on the Argo Navis but forgot to note down the data. I think both the RMS and the PSD were in the low 4s,

Did a full horizon survey which should assist for planning. Horizon Map taken from Astroplanner on the right.

Had a street light bug me in some far off street, but I will move the scope 1 meter to to the east and it will never bug me again. The light disappeared when I had the scope on the eastern side of the mount and I was facing south, so it was not an issue.

There were some remarkable objects in my short observing run. K1-23, Lo5, but the most remarkable was NGC 3199 a real find. Superb to view these Planetary and Emission nebulae under superb skies. Kumeu is conveinent, but to get under truely dark skies is sensational. Nice to see 8P Tuttle again as well.

Cloud killed any observing after about 9:30PM and a shower of rain shuffled through as I packed up.

A short but very memorable observing session.

Paul Kemp

13.1" f5 Reflector with Argo Navis

Auckland, New Zealand

36° 55' 09 " South, 174° 43' 30" East

-- The Southern Sentinel --