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A glorious night down south


dobbyisbest

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Whilst I wait for the clouds to clear here in the east of England tonight (all set up, so fingers crossed), I thought I’d pass the time by writing a short observing report from my trip to South Africa (24 deg south, 28 deg east.. ish) towards the end of last month. 

I spent a few nights as the sole guest at a lodge under Bortle 3 skies (21.88 mag./arc sec), and was equipped with Skywatcher Heritage 130p, 12mm Plossl, 24mm Panoptic, a couple of filters, and a pair of 7x50 7.1 deg FOV binoculars.

I only really got to observe one night, as the other nights were taken up by magnificent highveld thunderstorms and a lightning show to boot, but I was out for a solid session from 7pm to 2am under crystal clear skies on that night.

The night started off by trying to get as much of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds observed at around 30 degrees before they set. The LMC is clearly visible with the naked eye, and with wide FOV binos this is truly the closest thing to science fiction that anyone could have the privilege to behold. The elongated core is very pronounced, and yet it doesn’t detract from the rest of the dwarf galaxy’s shape. The Tarantula Nebula shows extremely clear structure and filaments, and very bright. The galaxy is otherwise peppered by stars and clusters, too many to really be able to write about. Sufficed to say they were pretty, and I do think this is my favourite section of the night sky, or so I thought at the time. The SMC was a bit lower im the sky and not really as ‘tangible’ as the LMC. But what I aimed for was 47 Tuc, one of the two very famous globular clusters in the Southern Hemisphere. It absolutely popped, even in the 5” scope - really remarkable compared to one like M13 with similar equipment. After that, I spent some more time on the LMC for a while until moving on…

Next up was Crux… Good heavens! That little Jewel Box Cluster just begs to be stolen! Very pleasing on the eye, to say the least. I spent a bit if time getting to the area, knowing that it would rise from its current position between 45 and 50 degrees, and knowing that I wanted to clearly see the Coalsack Nebula. 

I then started to sweep towards Carina. The area in and around the Lamba Centauri Cluster is just another jaw dropper. The Running Chicken Nebula looks like solid candyfloss, and the Pearl Cluster is another little object that could fetch a lot in a pirate market. At this point in the night I already felt very spoiled. M42 was right behind me, I grabbed a look and it was magnificent as always, but the realisation just set in that it might not even be on SH observers’ radar given all these other objects. 

And finally, on to the first of the Big 5 of the African Sky (as defined by the Astronomical Society of South Africa). C92, or the Carina Nebula, is the biggest, baddest nebula of them all. At 120x120 arcmins and 1 Mag brightness, she is truly a queen to which all other objects can only but humbly bow. There is so much clear structure and the thing is just so huge! The Oiii filter amplified all of it even further. Eta Carinae (the famous variable at its centre) was clearly visible but unfortunately the scope wasn’t strong enough to clearly see the finer detail around it as larger apertures would be able to. 

To the east of C92 was another extremely busy area with various open clusters that all just dazzled. To the south there was the Southern Pleiades, another Big 5 object. It is a remarkable open cluster in its own right, but I have a personal preference for the normal Pleiades (which is also visible from the SH, to note).

I spent about another hour just revisiting various objects in Crux and Carina to properly acquaint myself, and specifically jumping back to C92 to discern more detail as it rose higher in the sky.

Eventually I moved on the Centaurus, first with the binos. I knew Omega Centauri was there, but I didn’t expect to immediately see it! If I thought 47 Tuc popped, this thing exploded! I immediately jumped to put the scope onto it. Wow, just wow! Being the biggest globular cluster of them all, it showed presented itself extremely well in the little 5”, and I’d say it’s comparable to how I see M13 in a 10”. It is very obvious that it is a densely packed cluster, but hundreds/thousands of individual dots away from the centre were also clearly visible.

After that I moved the Centaurus A, a +6.64 mag galaxy slightly to the east of Omega Centauri. It’s shape was clear, and under the dark sky I was very impressed with how clearly it presented in the little scope. 

I spent quite a of time star hopping in Centaurus, including moving down to Alpha and Beta Centauri - both extremely beautiful stars. At this point I took out the binos again to just gauge the context of it all.

Information overload started to set in a bit, so I went get some coffee, a towel, some pillows, and then just lied on the grass for while, panning between Centaurus, Crux and Carina. It was so nice to just be able to observe all these objects whilst just relaxing. No rush to avoid clouds, no worrying about street lights, nothing but dark skies and the bush.

At this point the Scorpius was already up, with Antares at about 30 degrees. Quite a bit to see there as well, but my attention started to shift to the Milky Way structure in itself, specifically the dark nebulae that form the dust lane or the Great Rift. From east to west, one can clearly see the dark structure overlays an otherwise bright band, and you can also trace it all the way to Crux. Using this method and direction, I finally got all the reference points and shades necessary to clearly see the the Coalsack Nebula. If Carina was the queen of the sky, this thing is like the dark lord. Edging against Mimosa and Alpha Crucis, it is just this massive black cloud just blocks out most of what lies behind it. A very remarkable sight, and I can’t really think of anything else like it. I tried to gauge it with the scope, but the magnification was too much and the light through the scope didn’t work as well as with the naked eye or binoculars, so I just settled down on the grass again going back and forth across the whole rift. This was more sci-fi stuff and I was happy for it. 😃

Eventually, Sagittarius was also at a reasonable altitude and I went for the scope again, picking off the various well known Messier and other objects there. I can’t really see these in the UK due to trees in my and neighbours’ back gardens, so it was a nice to be finally be able to spend some time on them. The Swan Nebula is what it says on the tin, and M6-M24 (bar M13 and M15) were all well worth the time. M24 does well with the binoculars, although I thought the 15x70s would have shown it in a more vibrant way. The areas around C76 and M7, respectively, were easily my favourites in these parts of the sky.

Before packing up, I revisited all of the highlights that were still up. Carina Nebula, Omega Centauri, Coalsack, and the Great Rift kept on putting up a good show, whilst I otherwise kept being in awe of how much research I would have to do just to be able to know and describe all the busyness and grandeur of the Carina, Crux Sagittarius constellations.

All in all, it was just a fantastic night and I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity. But I hope to be able to go back someday, ideally to Tivoli or Kiripotib in Namibia where they have the big guns. 😉

In the meantime, I now look forward to the galaxy season up north and then the late but short nights in the summer. 😛 Clear skies to us all.

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Hi @dobbyisbest! I'm glad that you had the opportunity to enjoy our magnificent southern skies. 

Indeed, the area from Carina, Crux and Centaurus is extremely busy! Throw in Vela, Puppis, Ara, Norma, Scorpius, Sagittarius as well as the SMC and LMC then you have an inexhaustible number of interesting objects to observe.

That being said, the northern hemisphere has many jewels in Auriga, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cygnus , Ursa Major and Canes Venatici that I would hopefully love to observe if I make it to the northern hemisphere for the first time next year. There are marvels scattered throughout both hemispheres!

Clear Skies

Joe

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5 hours ago, Epick Crom said:

 

That being said, the northern hemisphere has many jewels in Auriga, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cygnus , Ursa Major and Canes Venatici that I would hopefully love to observe if I make it to the northern hemisphere for the first time next year. There are marvels scattered throughout both hemispheres!

Clear Skies

Joe

Oh, definitely. This are definitely my favourite NH constellations and they are much easier to navigate, I just need to get out to a place with less light pollution and dryer weather, en then I’m sure all things will be equal. I may be wrong, but I got the impression that the NH has much more in the way of galaxies and and planetary nebula - that is actually what I’m focusing on this season and I can tell you, there are a LOT, and all of them are interesting sights!

 

 

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14 hours ago, dobbyisbest said:

Oh, definitely. This are definitely my favourite NH constellations and they are much easier to navigate, I just need to get out to a place with less light pollution and dryer weather, en then I’m sure all things will be equal. I may be wrong, but I got the impression that the NH has much more in the way of galaxies and and planetary nebula - that is actually what I’m focusing on this season and I can tell you, there are a LOT, and all of them are interesting sights!

 

 

Yes, I have noticed this too. The northern hemisphere sky is populated by way more bright galaxies (M31, M81 and M82, M33, M51 etc) and bright planetaries ( M27, M76, M57, Blue Snowball, Cats Eye etc) than the southern hemisphere. 

M81, M82, Double Cluster, M51, Polaris, Cassiopeia region, northern Cygnus, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Perseus, northern Andromeda, northern Auriga Lacerta, Chepheus are all invisible or too low on the horizon to be visible here. I look forward to exploring those regions one day!

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