The Southern Cross & Jewel box

[yeti monster]

I'd fallen asleep early yesterday evening (it being 01:08 now) after the clouds had thwarted any chance of an evening observing. I awoke around 23:50 and went to grab some scoff, check emails and SGL.

After a mug of coffee and a ciggie I took a walk out on the helideck to see clear sky and good seeing conditions (apart from the orange perma glow to North and south).

grabbing the 20x50s I went out to see what was possible as It looked good for 4 Vesta. I also tried using a t-shirt as a black out to shield stray light from the eyecups and allow my eyes to adapt, and this really works, although I did get a few odd looks from the Philipino ROV techs!

Due to the angle of Leo I'm still not 100% sure about 4 vesta, but I feel that I have to catch it sooner or later.

I popped in to my workshop to check HA and that's when I noticed that Crux was at its best positon, due South at 10-15 degrees elevation. This does place it right in the haze/mugg, but just looking unaided I could see it!

Once in the bino FOV I very quickly spotted a fuzzy jewel box.

With averted vision and occasional clarity of the haze/mugg I was able to define that there were many stars in the jewel box and I can certainly see why it is so called.

The Southern Cross has been on my list since I learnt that it is the constellation on the Austrailian flag as a young lad. And the jewel box since I first read about it and its location.

I'm really chuffed to have seen the Southern cross and even more so that conditions allowed me a few decent views of NGC4755, the jewel box.

Now I know where to look and what the Cross looks like, I'll be as frequent a visitor as I can.

The patchy mist and clouds have become a pain once again. I'll give it a while longer and if no improvement, head back to bed, although whether or not I sleep remains to be seen.

[Talitha]

Well done! Wow, it must be bright if you could eyeball it in the 'garbage zone' (my description of the haze/mugg ). What's the rig's latitude, btw?

[yeti monster]

We're 21 degrees North, I'd all but given up with Crux until now, thinking it would have to wait until I reach Oz or Philipines.

[Doc]

I love reading about objects I can't see from here in the UK, keep them coming YM

[yeti monster]

I love reading about objects I can't see from here in the UK, keep them coming YM

I'll try my darnedest Doc! Crux is about as southern as I'm going to get here I recon, excepting for ultra clear nights (which we do get), when I may be able to push down to 5 degrees elevation.

I'm going to see what else I can hope for during later months.

[yeti monster]

Early to sleep again, this time with my alarm set for 23:00. I awoke 10 minutes before and when to assess the skies. 1st quarter moon washing away just about anything worth looking at to the west as she sank towards the horizon.

I thought I'd have a go again at Crux as I was up anyway.

Easy to find below the "trapezoid" of Corvus, but a lot fainter tonight due to the high humidity, the decks were wet with condensation. My "observing hood" (t-shirt over my hard hat) worked brilliantly, but as there was so much light bouncing off the water molecules in the air, The Jewel Box was mearly as faint fuzzy without even a hint of stars.

So I decided to have a scout around to see what else I could locate.

Higher up and almost enveloping Crux, is Centaurus and one of my targets here is the open cluster, NGC 5139, Omega centauri. With a magnitude of 3.6, this should be a real easy one, but again, with all the light and moisture, little more than a fuzzy blob, allbeit, a quite bright and obvious fuzzy blob. Still, located and logged for future, clearer nights.

Returning to Crux, then using the lower of the 4 main stars, Acrux, as my pointer, I scanned westward about 20 degrees or so looking for the open cluster IC 2606 which surrounds Theta Carina. Once more, the conditions were so unfavourable that I could only make out a faint fuzzy blob, and it is only by the angle that I had moved, that I can be certain this was indeed IC 2606, so +? against that in the book.

Frustrated by the moon, the FPSO, the standby boat, the rig (which arrived yesterday) and the actual conditions, I have decided to leave it for the night, unless things have cleared up when I head back into the accomodation.

[yeti monster]

Opps wrong forum........