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Corvus!

neural

By neural
in Observing - Reports

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neural

neural

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I love reading the observing reports on here but haven't yet posted one of my own ... mostly because I feel a bit inferior with my nasty LP and limited aperture :)  Still what's the worst that can happen...

Out last night with the 16x70s just looking around. Found M3 without too much difficulty, thought I'd have a go for M53 from vaguely remembering which star it was near to, and was pleased to find it quite easily, though it was really just a small diffuse averted-vision glow. 

After a bit more random sweeping I hoiked the tripod to the other end of the patio to have a quick look at Mars (not that you see much in binocs, but it's always nice to see), noticed three bright stars underneath it and thought they were pretty bright for the low elevation and I really ought to know what they were. Then I spotted the fourth one and it was obvious - Corvus! OK that doesn't sound all that exciting, but it's a constellation I've never explored before in binocs so I headed down to have a look. I was very pleased I did as I happened to land on the pair of tiny asterisms 5 degrees north of delta Crv, one pair of bright stars with an attractive close double in between, and another straight line of three a degree to its NE (including HIP 61486 and 61656 respectively) - and I actually caught my breath when I realised that HIP 61656 was a little double itself. Gorgeous area of sky. 

And I managed to spend ten minutes gawping at all that while having no idea that M104 was less than a degree away :)  Such is life. I'll try again tonight if it's clear, but I don't have high hopes...

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Daniel-K

Daniel-K

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Corvus also has a nice and easy to find planetary nebula in it - NGC 4361.  I'll have to check through my records, but I do believe I was once able to detect it with my 20x80 bins.

I found this quite hard to see  last month even in my scope! had to use the orion ultra block filter to pick it out, good job if you did get it in binos!

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neural

neural

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Corvus also has a nice and easy to find planetary nebula in it - NGC 4361.  I'll have to check through my records, but I do believe I was once able to detect it with my 20x80 bins.

Once when the world was young there was a nice transparent night with minimal LP to the south when I had little to do but hunt down small faint things in the sky. (OK it was last autumn.) Should such a circumstance eventuate while Crv is still in reach I'll be sure to take a look. ;)

Not that I have latitude envy or anything.

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Double Kick Drum

Double Kick Drum

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A nice report.

Always worth posting to here, whether for confirmation of what you have observed or suggested next targets.

I had bagged about thirty night sky objects when I joined this forum. I am now up to around 300 and have started sketching and doing some simple photography.

It is always a joy to read personal experiences of new discoveries or just revisiting some 'old friends'.

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neural

neural

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Corvus - a constellation I take great delight in seeing (naked eye) at this time of year. 

I was going to make a time lapse movie in March of Corvus - but after the first couple of frame I got clouded out!

What a great photo - thanks. You can just see M104 on it, can't you? And what a beautiful chain of stars from gamma right up to the stars I mentioned in the first post; I was using too high a magnification to notice these. I'll try 7x on them next time I'm out.

Zeta also looks like a great ultra-low-power double, and according to its spectral types (B8/K0) should be very pretty. Stellarium suggests mags 5.2 and 6.25 separated by 5'50", which raises the possibility that with excellent vision from an excellent site it might just be possible to split naked-eye. Anyone know if this has been done? 

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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Nice report. Corvus is often overlooked; low in the sky, and with all the attention Virgo gets it gets neglected. Some really nice galaxies to be found there as well, but that needs a scope, rather than bins. I bagged the PN there as well, but also with the C8 rather than with the 15x70s

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YKSE

YKSE

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Corvus also has a nice and easy to find planetary nebula in it - NGC 4361.  I'll have to check through my records, but I do believe I was once able to detect it with my 20x80 bins.

Thanks for the heads up, I put it on my list before the travel tonight, and baged it :smiley: It is actually brighter than some fainter Messier with 10.8 mag and 10.8 surface brightness.

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mjpfc

mjpfc

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If you can get a low enough horizon to get just on a bino feild of view below B Corviithen your 16 by 70s should be plenty to see Globular M68 well too...

Just next to a mag 8 variable star in Hydra that even Uranometria does not name. 

M83 is nearby too, but it is very Low and all but the core is pants in anything other than a very dark sky.

Its real gem though is for dark sky and scope which is as good and excuse as any to get out to a star party when you can

perhaps south of London.

The Star 31 Crt form a right-angle triangle with epsilon and Geinna, and just above it is Ncg 4038/39 the Antennae.

They are the cream of interacting galaxies and an 8" from a dark site should show them but the bigger the better.

I am not sure wether 16x70s would tease out a smudge from the background sky, but the big scope boys are always happy

to show the veiw through their light buckets to others if they dont have imaging equipment hooked up.

Clear skies Mick

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neural

neural

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If you can get a low enough horizon to get just on a bino feild of view below B Corviithen your 16 by 70s should be plenty to see Globular M68 well too...

Just next to a mag 8 variable star in Hydra that even Uranometria does not name. 

M83 is nearby too, but it is very Low and all but the core is pants in anything other than a very dark sky.

Its real gem though is for dark sky and scope which is as good and excuse as any to get out to a star party when you can

perhaps south of London.

The Star 31 Crt form a right-angle triangle with epsilon and Geinna, and just above it is Ncg 4038/39 the Antennae.

They are the cream of interacting galaxies and an 8" from a dark site should show them but the bigger the better.

I am not sure wether 16x70s would tease out a smudge from the background sky, but the big scope boys are always happy

to show the veiw through their light buckets to others if they dont have imaging equipment hooked up.

Clear skies Mick

That sounds great. I'd love to see the Antennae. I need to get myself in gear and look into the dark sky / star party opportunities ... I'm a bit lazy though :)

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