Omega Centauri

[Martin Meredith]

A few moments ago, I managed my first definite sighting of Omega Centauri in 10x50s. This has been a long-time goal of mine!

I'm at latitude 36N in the province of Cadiz and the cluster was roughly 3 deg above the horizon (it never gets above 6 deg from here). There is periodic intense light pollution -- a lighthouse beam at the tip of Cadiz city -- which makes this a particularly challenging object. Although the atmosphere was pretty murky making the cluster rather faint, it was unmistakeable due to its huge size. Imagine something 3 times the diameter of M13! What this must look like further south I can only imagine. For me it looked like a severely defocused star.

I was also hoping to catch some hint of Centaurus A (NGC 5128), one of the brightest galaxies, sitting about 5 deg above Omega Centauri, but failed. I'll try again when the atmosphere is calmer. The field is easy to localise as there's a really obvious descending diagonal of stars with a kind of arrow at their base pointing to where Centaurus A ought to be -- very convenient! I just checked with Sky Safari on my return and indeed this is the right place to be looking.

My plan is to capture some brief exposures of these and other southern objects over the next few days, weather permitting, which I'll post in the video forum if successful...

Martin

[RCompassi]

Congratulations!

I'm at 29° S, and Omega passes almost at the zenith! It is really impressive!

But I think Cen A will be nearly impossible to see. When it's high overhead, with my 10x50 it looks a very, very faint smudge, almost half the size of omega cen. 

I can see it with averted view only. My sky is not that great, at VLM 5.5, though.

Cheers

[southernman]

Good luck with your search for Centaurus A. From my location at 44 South Omega Centauri reaches an altitude of 86 degrees and is breathtaking through my 250px. I really do sympathise with our Northern friends and the lengths they go to in order to view this incredible object.

Peter

[Martin Meredith]

Thanks RCompassi and Peter for your Southern perspective! One day I'd love to see these objects high in the sky.

Sounds like Centaurus A is going to be a tough one then. I'll give it another go when it reaches 11 deg..

Martin

[Beulah]

You guys are very, very lucky!

[Stu]

Very nice Martin. I managed a view of it from Sharm el Sheik on holiday once in my 66mm refractor. It was low down in the murk, as you say would be wonderful to see high in the sky.

Good luck with Centaurus A.

Stu

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[BinocularSky]

As a nipper, I began observing from 20*S, but later my favourite spot was 18*S  at an elevation of about 2000m - Omega felt like you could reach out and grab it!

[pixelsaurus]

I'm at 41 South and both objects are easy for me. I'm semi rural and can see naked eye to at least 6m0 quite often when it is not cloudy. Omega and Cent A are almost, but not quite, in the same field of view in my 7x50 binos. Even with binos, CentA is not a difficult target. Of course in my 300mm dob (32mm ep, 46x), they are easy peasy.

[Martin Meredith]

Thanks Beulah, Stu, BinocularSky and pixelsaurus for your contributions and encouragement!

I tried again last night and am 95% confident that I managed to see Centaurus A in 10x50s near to culmination around 10.5 deg above the horizon with averted vision, based on memorising the starfield (my earlier description of the arrow of stars wasn't quite right: the arrow -- a lovely asterism in its own right -- comes down diagonally (from NW to SE) ending in a hook, below which is a trapezium of stars. Following the two parallel sides leads to Centaurus A.) The view contained no detail whatsoever but the size of the faint grey patch was right for this galaxy. When I returned a little later I caught similar glimpses. My eyes were not fully dark-adjusted as I was doing some near-live imaging at the time.

Omega Centauri moved from faint to spectacular in bins even at a max of 6 deg above the sea. This is a *big* object. I've posted some 15s Lodestar images in the Video section (as well as one of Centaurus A) -- check out the comparison with M13.

To end the night I scanned around for Panstarrs c/2012 k1in Bootes but to no avail. Bootes seems to have suddenly gone from being just above the horizon a few weeks back to near zenith at 2.30 am -- neck-aching work!

cheers

Martin

[RCompassi]

Sound about right!

I find it by going straight up from omega, until the arrow asterism. There is two stars at the left of the arrow and then Cen A.