Sights In Circinus And Virgo

[Epick Crom]

Hello fellow stargazers!

Last night was a clear night after a week of clouds. I targeted the constellations of Circinus and Virgo for observations. Circinus is a quaint and small constellation with some interesting deep sky objects and Virgo is the queen of galaxies. 

Conditions:

Sky: Bortle 6/7 backyard

Transparency: Good

Seeing: Good

Instrument: Saxon 10 inch dobsonian.

Since it's been a week since my last session, I decided to warm up with some eye candy. Omega Centauri NGC 5319 globular cluster was chosen. It looked more wonderful than usual in my new Sky Rover XWA 100° eyepiece, the huge AFOV framing it nicely and giving the sensation of floating in space. It's elliptical shape was pronounced and I noticed a grouping of around 5 stars near its southern edge for the first time. The "eye of omega" was visible. Great start! It was now time to dive into my targeted constellations.

 

CIRCINUS

Alpha Circini: A fine double star of magnitudes 3 and 8 seperated by 15 ". 

Pismis 20: A delightful tiny open cluster shaped like a little box. Charming!

NGC 5315: A tiny but reasonably bright planetary nebula. I could not detect any colour in this one, but it looked great at 534x. I must come back to it on a night of excellent seeing.

Gamma Circini: A tight double of almost equal 4th magnitude components seperated by 0.8". Alas, I was unable to split it.

Loden 1409: A large, sprawling open cluster not far from Alpha Centauri. Looks more like a moderately rich starfield than an open cluster!

CO Circini: A fine double star at the end of a line of stars. I like to call this asterism "The Rocket". A beautiful sight at low power.

NGC 5823: A nice scattering of stars. This open cluster is located right by the border with Lupus.

 

 VIRGO

M87: My favourite elliptical galaxy! Seen a bright hazy spot, it's massive size of 120,000 light years always gets me. 

NGC 4753: I observed this galaxy for the first time. Barely visible as a slight brightening of the background sky.

NGC 5634: Virgo's lone globular cluster, and another first sighting for me. Picked it up rather easily next to a 7th mag field star. I tried 534x on this globular but could not resolve any stars.

Porrima: Gamma Virginia is a beautiful double star with white or very pale yellowish equally matched components. A stunner!

M90: I saw this Messier galaxy for the first time. Seen as a hazy faint smudge, getting slightly brighter with averted vision. 

 

I stopped at M90 and called it a night as I had spent considerable time enjoying each object. Thoroughly satisfying observing session which recharged my batteries after a week of clouds. I will be back at Virgo tonight if it stays clear as there is so much too see there. Thanks for making it this far and wishing you all clear skies and happy observing!

 Joe

[RobertI]

Lovely report and nice to hear about some of the southern constellations and objects. 👍

[Epick Crom]

9 hours ago, RobertI said:

Lovely report and nice to hear about some of the southern constellations and objects. 👍

Thanks @RobertI👍

I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

[Captain Scarlet]

Very nice Joe. I too am envious of your SH access. How far do you have to go to get to a dark site? Do you do that?

Cheers Magnus

[Epick Crom]

10 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Very nice Joe. I too am envious of your SH access. How far do you have to go to get to a dark site? Do you do that?

Cheers Magnus

Hi Magnus

To get to a dark site is a 1 hr drive! I do do it, but rather infrequently due to work and family commitments. 

My work regularly takes me into the outback though, where I bring along my 10x50mm binoculars. This is hundreds of kilometres inland and the skies there are pristine pitch black bortle 1! There is no lights for hundreds of kilometres around and it is completely flat in the outback. I see magnitude 6 stars rising on the horizon! It's an observers paradise 😯

When I'm out there naked eye and binocular viewing is incredible, thought I will take my 10 inch dob out there one day. I think that would blow my mind😂

Cheers

Joe

[Kon]

Great report Joe. I really enjoyed reading it.

[Epick Crom]

Thank you Kostas!