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Southern Hemisphere Targets


Littleguy80

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I was looking through my newly acquired copy of the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas  and the close up chart of the Large Magellanic Cloud caught my eye. As it's not visible for sunny/cloudy England, it got me wondering what else we're missing out on. If you could got to somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere what would your targets be? Better still, if you live in, or have gone stargazing, in the southern hemisphere what are/were your favourite astronomical sights?

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Apart from the Magellanic clouds (LMC & SMC), I'd want to see (at least):

- The Coalsack Nebula

- The Carina Nebula

- Omega Centauri (globular cluster)

I'd also want to say that I'd seen Alpha Centauri simply because it's the closest star to us :icon_biggrin:

There are many other splendid southern skies objects too of course.

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I have been to Australia in both the summer and the winter, and both times looked through a scope.  First time I saw the jewel box and 47 Tucanae globular cluster.  I also saw with the naked eye the SMC (just), comet McNaught, it was huge in the dark at Uluru, and when the coma set you could still see a huge tail still in the sky.  Obviously I saw all the major constellations upside down.

The 2nd time I went to the Sydney Observatory and saw Omega Centauri, and a rather large Uranus in the massive scope there. 

The thing I would love to image the most is the Tarantula nebula, and perhaps galaxy Centaurus A. 

Carole 

 

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Recently returned from many years in Australia and there are some fabulous objects in the southern sky. For me the pick of the bunch were eta carinae nebula, 47 Tucanae globular (finest in the sky IMO) and the swan nebula. though I'm encouraged to see that the latter will be visible from my new southern England location albeit only about 10° above the southern horizon!5903be0f367e6_timsastronomicaldrawingsetacarineanebula.thumb.jpg.43a0b412f7aa9bfa8cf46cc9ff20b0cc.jpg

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I have been to a Cheetah sanctuary in South Africa a few times and spent a few happy hours sat out on a garden chair in the dark just looking- no idea what at, just a sky full of stars. I'm going back in June, this time armed with a pair of 10X50's and Stelarium :headbang:

I have also been to Hawaii, taking in an excursion to the Mauna Kea observatories. Sunset from the top is a stunning sight, especially when you are standing above total cloud cover. Watching the volcano shadow get longer and catching the green flash as the sun disappears.... The only downside was my visit coincided with a full moon so the full majesty of the southern skies was obliterated. Still a hell of a view.

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35 minutes ago, timwetherell said:

Recently returned from many years in Australia and there are some fabulous objects in the southern sky. For me the pick of the bunch were eta carinae nebula, 47 Tucanae globular (finest in the sky IMO) and the swan nebula. though I'm encouraged to see that the latter will be visible from my new southern England location albeit only about 10° above the southern horizon!5903be0f367e6_timsastronomicaldrawingsetacarineanebula.thumb.jpg.43a0b412f7aa9bfa8cf46cc9ff20b0cc.jpg

Stunning pictures. The swan nebula is certainly aptly named :D

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2 minutes ago, Swoop1 said:

I have also been to Hawaii, taking in an excursion to the Mauna Kea observatories. Sunset from the top is a stunning sight, especially when you are standing above total cloud cover. Watching the volcano shadow get longer and catching the green flash as the sun disappears.... The only downside was my visit coincided with a full moon so the full majesty of the southern skies was obliterated. Still a hell of a view.

Sounds awesome. Definitely one for the bucket list!

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