Seeing Southern Open Clusters for the First Time

[abumuhannadh]

hi guys,

tonight it was so clear (it is clear always, but tonight i could count more than 100 stars naked eye) so i went on the roof with my binoculars. i am totally new at astronomy. i know Antares is high in the sky, it could be seen and recognized pretty easily. so i started Stellarium and searched about close to Antares before i went up to see what clusters i might find. so it wasn't difficult to find two southern clusters (M7 and NGC 6231). it is probably too low or even invisible to you guys in the upper latitudes

NGC 6231 was pretty dim first, and had to look at it about a minute long to be able to separate the stars.

M7 was great from the first look.

and the moon was about 20 degrees up in the eastern sky.

i have seen only one cluster before, that was beehive, i found it accidentally when looking at Mars last month.

now i can't wait to leave this city of 1+ million with bad light polution to my small home town in Maldives. i have bookings for a later date in this month

[Chris H]

I took my 10x50 binoculars on holiday with me to Maldives in February and they were excellent I could find many of the Messier objects quite easily.

[legion48]

...now i can't wait to leave this city of 1+ million with bad light polution to my small home town in Maldives. i have bookings for a later date in this month

I'm going to the Maldives on holiday on the 13th. We are going to Club Faru which is very close to the capital, Male.

[abumuhannadh]

I'm going to the Maldives on holiday on the 13th. We are going to Club Faru which is very close to the capital, Male.

wish you a very pleasant stay in Maldives .

Club Med at Farukolhufushi is very close to Male' (just over 6km), and even closer to the International Airport (about 3km). so there will be some light polution. Male being only 2 sqkm does not have that much of a light pollution.

but i guess you are not going for sky watching

you would be too busy with the diving and water sports and you will be distracted by the white beaches and crystal clear lagoons (do i seem like a tourism brochure? lol)

[legion48]

Cheers mate, we are really looking forward to it.

[abumuhannadh]

btw, i will be in Male' on 24th June. i guess you guys must have completed your stay in Maldives by then?

[legion48]

No, we are there till the 27th. We get a shopping trip to Male as part of our holiday but I don't know when it will be. It'd be cool to meet up if possible.

[Chris H]

Take some binos with you legion48, well worth it.

[legion48]

My 10 x 60's will be with me, no fear.