A tour of the Southern Sky with Binos

[Sam]

Last night I got my binoculars out and battled the light polluted sky of Wellington, which isn't really too bad given it's a capital city. I guess I've got the harbour to thank for that so the street lights are rather spread out. I started off viewing by finding the Jewel Box just to the right of the Southern Cross. Then I thought I would have a go at finding the Running Chicken nebula, which I imaged a few years ago and have it as the background on my iPad. Unfortunately the conditiosn we're not ideal for seeing anything but the brightest nebulae, just to the south of the where it should have been is the beautiful Pearl Cluster which was nice and clear. 

 

So one of the brightest nebulae around is Eta Carina which was easily seen and just to the left of the Pearl Cluster and below Southern Pleiades. The Southern Pleiades is a great sight, sometimes known as the running man by the locals - because it has an asterism in it that looks like a M. Next I headed up to the Achernar to find the SMC and see if I could find the two globular clusters, one being the famous 47 Tucanae and the other being NGC 362. Obviously 47 Tuc was easy to see, and 362 was quite easy to see as well.

 

Next I took the binos to Canopus (Atutahi, the chief of all the stars in the sky to Maori, basically because it's the brightest one always visible here) to check out the second brightest star in the sky. Then it was up to the LMC to try and find the Tarantula Nebula, which was easy to spot even in the Wellington sky. Then I had a look at NGC 2516 which is a nice wee cluster in Carina. To finish the evenings viewing I had a look at the star Adhara and then M41 before having a quick look at M42 which was right over Wellington harbour.

 

It was a great night to have the Binos out!

[Astro Imp]

I enjoyed reading this Sam, some of the objects you observed makes us Northerners a bit envious, but it's still nice to read of them.

[Hayduke27]

Every time I read anything about southern skies it makes me excited to someday get the chance to come check it all out!  It's going to be a pretty spectacular feeling to look up into the night sky toward a plethora of new objects!  Thanks for sharing your experience!

[25585]

Want to see all those & Omega Centauri some day. Also my pet craze, elliptical galaxies.