Southern cross & Jewel box

[yeti monster]

After looking at Venus and then giving up on the western sky, as it was just to moist and LP'd, I went around to look at the old favorites Mars and Saturn. Limited by the small aperture of the scope I was scanning about for anything else to look at and noticed some clarity low and to the south. Picking out the lowest star I was surprised to get a good sharp image, so i removed the 90 degree and made myself comfortable. After a while Iwent to check out what I was looking at and was rather surprised to find that it was Mimosa of the Souther cross, although I hadn't recognised the cross as only Mimosa and Gacrux were apparent. Knowing this, I set about finding the jewel box, and sure enough there it was just below and to the left of Mimosa. Much sharper this time without any fuzzyness and I was able to pull out 10 clear stars, far better than that fuzzy mess that I saw last time.

I'm going back out to see if I can find anything even further south.........

[yeti monster]

Acrux (a Binary) and Hadar (Beta Centuri) allowed themselves to be see, for a while there I thought I'd found Alpha Centuri, but that, it would seem, is too dim for such a low lying object, shame eh? That would have been one for the note book.

Everything has become all foggy again, but seeing how I started before 4am and it is now 10 pm, I can't really complain.

[LukeSkywatcher]

4am til 10pm?

You sure about that?

[yeti monster]

I meant that I was up between those times, not observing! I had to do a 12 hour shift from 07:00 - 19:00.

[Cate]

Where are you yeti monster? The whole Cross is pretty clear with the two Pointers very clear indeed (Alpha and Beta Centauri) - unless of course you're too far north?

The Jewel Box is great when you get it isn't it? I can definitely make out white, blue and reddish ones.

[yeti monster]

I'm offshore in the South China Sea, approx 130 miles south of HK, 21.3 degrees North. This puts the cross about 10 degrees above the horizon at culmination. Not the clearest of views, but surprisingly good at times, although no chance of the fainter stuff.