Southern Pleiades & Others from New Zealand

[moondog]

Tonight was clear(ish) but I couldn't borrow the CG5 mount. So it was just the ZS66 and photo tripod.

I'm trying to learn the Southern skies and the ZS66 is a good rich field scope for the task. I've not found any CA on a wide range of objects with this scope.

Started with the Southern Cross. Focussed on the third brightest star in the cross, Mimosa, and there was the Jewel Box just in the EP. Even though the sky quality by now was on the wane, the colours of the stars were obvious.

Swung down towards the horizon and to the East, and with a bit of moving the scope around, found the Southern Pleiades. At first glance it looked very similar to the Jewel Box in basic shape, but it was quite a bit larger (4 times?). After a short while it became obvious that the stars were all white. The shape of the cluster is exactly like a mini Plough - just like a much smaller (Northern) Pleiades. I even detected some nebulosity around the cluster. I couldn't tell if there was any colour to the nebulosity.

Turned the scope on Alpha Centauri, one of the two pointer stars and swung the scope 2/3 of the way to the star Achenar in the East. Picked up the second brightest globular in the sky - Tucanae. This was a pretty faint grey blob as the sky quality was falling, but it seemed a good size.

Picked out the second star in the pointers, Hadar. Eyeballed the sky a few degrees to the West of Hadar and saw the large grey blob of Omega Centauri - the brightest globular in the sky. Through the scope it was obviously much larger and brighter than Toucanae. Tried both the 25mm Plossl and the 7mm Lanth but couldn't pick out any individual stars in the cluster. I think that the sky quality wasn't good enough and the ZS66 hadn't sufficient light grasp.

When I get the mount back and the sky improves I look forward to imaging both globs with the QHY6.

I also want to look at these globs through the borrowed C8, when it can be collimated. I should be able to see individual stars with an 8 ins SCT.

MD

[Talitha]

Thanks for sharing your eyepiece with us, MD. It's interesting to read about out-of-reach objects... maybe some day I'll see them for myself. Btw, the Southern Pleiades was a new one for me, never heard of it before.

[moondog]

Talitha - there are plenty of other 'Southern....' objects named, I guess, after Northern ones. Such as :-

Southern Cigar Galaxy, Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, Southern Whirlpool Galaxy. While I'm here I'll check them out to see if they look like their Northern name sakes. There are also plenty of 'crosses' down here - of course the famous Southern Cross as well as the Diamond Cross and False Cross.

Glad you liked the report - I find that writing an observing report out helps to fix the object names and positions in my mind.

8)

MD

[algol]

pretty jealous of all this seeing you're getting down there MD, is it worth a trip to see these southern gems?

[moondog]

Algol - you can, of course, see quite a few of the 'southern gems' without going as far as New Zealand. To see them all you need to be quite far south though - I'm at latitude 41 deg South.

Any one with an enthusiasm for the night sky (and rugby and sheep!) would certainly love it down here - and the beer's good.

8)

MD

[algol]

love the night sky, from wigan so am rugby mad and family history is welsh so yeah sheep too lol

[Sam]

Algol - you can, of course, see quite a few of the 'southern gems' without going as far as New Zealand. To see them all you need to be quite far south though - I'm at latitude 41 deg South.

Any one with an enthusiasm for the night sky (and rugby and sheep!) would certainly love it down here - and the beer's good.

8)

MD

Oi! ease up on the sheep jokes fella!

Just had 6 cases of Speights delivered, can't seem to get Canterbury Draught, Tui or Montieths here so Speights will do for now!

Rugby - go Canterbury!!! and Wairarapa Bush!

Sam

[moondog]

Come on Sam, with more sheep in NZ than people you've got to take the sheep jokes!

Had a couple of bottles of Monteith's last night with one of the wife's home made green Thai curries - magic!

8)

MD

[Cate]

Moondog,

I've just read both your latest reports and they are fantastic. They help to identify things I could be aiming for. I am very jealous though. I can count on one hand how many clear nights we've had down here in Christchurch since June . Think I need to come up and join in with you guys.

[moondog]

Cate

I know you've had some bad weather further south - it's a shame you haven't had many clear nights.

They tell me Nelson's not known as 'Sun City' for nothing!

8)

MD

[Rob]

Great report MD. Thanks for sharing