Southern Milky Way

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:49 pm

This morning at about 4am the sky was so clear. Spent 1 1/2 hrs watching the southern Milky Way. So many mag 4~4.5 stars can be seen by naked eye. Normally Jewel Box looks like an "A" in S'pore sky, this morning I can see a lot more stars @ 4 o'clock position of the "A". Gamma Vela normally see only 3 stars under bino, this morning saw 6 of them including the mag 9 stars. NGC 3114 normally miss out can be found easily. NGC 3532 was so great with the 25x100 bino that I can see the 3D effect. Not to forget Eta Carina, Southern Pleiades (Theta Carina), Omega Cenrauri. Other open clusters include NGC 3293, 3324, 3376, M41, IC 2944, 2391 and many others. Also found NGC 2808 a small Globular cluster. With the laser "finder" (laser pointer mounted on the bino), I can star hopped with ease this morning.

Can see and focus Southern Pleiades using the 500mm mirror lens (acquired from CY Wu) with the new D300. It covers about 10~20% of the frame. Too bad, my other tripod was kept under (inside) my bed (wife sleeping), so didn't take any picture.

While watching Carina / Volans region, saw a satellite moving southward, followed it until it gone down the horizon. When it 1st passed thru the bino FOV, was wondering why the star moved.

Hopefully coming Fri or Sat will have clear sky, may activate the Turf City Ob group.

More clear skies.

kazumacat · Post by **kazumacat** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:29 pm

WOw~! Great effort going down at 4am, comes with great satisfaction~!
Newbie here, don understand everything you posted,
but could sense it is a rare chance to see these much stars in the sky...

ps. if only u can take your tripod~

Astroboy · Post by **Astroboy** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:00 pm

Hi Guys, I did a short ob at about 6am and yep the sky was clear as. I could see the whole of the southern cross shining bright.

By the way, I would like to ask if Saturn is in the sky at about this time of the morning. I had my scope on it but it did not look like Saturn. It was close to the zenith of the sky at 6am. Do you know what would that be?

Post by **acc** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:37 pm

Wow so many early birds!! Can never wake up at that hour to observe...

Post by **weixing** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:48 pm

Hi,

By the way, I would like to ask if Saturn is in the sky at about this time of the morning. I had my scope on it but it did not look like Saturn. It was close to the zenith of the sky at 6am. Do you know what would that be?

Yea, but Saturn is not that near (around 30 degree away) the zenith at this time. May be you aim at a star instead?? There are quite a few bright star in the sky, such as Arcturus and Spica which is brighter than Saturn at this moment.

Have a nice day.

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:51 pm

acc wrote:Wow so many early birds!! Can never wake up at that hour to observe...

Oops, didn't mentioned that I was about going to sleep after the TV program (soccer and amazing race), saw the clear sky from my house window so setup the bino and watched the night sky. This afternoon compensate the sleep, zombie zombie this morning.

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:57 pm

Astroboy wrote: By the way, I would like to ask if Saturn is in the sky at about this time of the morning. I had my scope on it but it did not look like Saturn. It was close to the zenith of the sky at 6am. Do you know what would that be?

I think you are looking at it, Saturn rise at about 11pm and reach zenith just before 5am in Leo constellation. By 6am, it should be a bit to the West. If the star you saw is still further in the East, then it could be Arcturus. If you scope mag is small, you will see Saturn like an oval shape.

You can look for free star map software like Stellarium or Cartes du Ciel to learn more about the night sky.

Post by **rcj** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:03 pm

was up last night trying to image...manage to see good 'ol Vela once again....a start for many things to come!

Fuzzball · Post by **Fuzzball** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:48 am

Was able to obb yesterday night at my multi-storey carpark which is my normal observation site, I was quite dissapointed that all the carpark lamp are fixed...can't really find a decent place to observe anymore..

But anyway, I was toying with my 20 x 80 Bino and managed to observer, M42, M41, Pleiades, Mars and M79 and some unknown star clusters...

Hope to have clearer skies in the days to come!

raychan · Post by **raychan** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:02 am

Yeah Cliff, please activate the Turf City orb again leh....

As I'm writing this, the sky is so clear at my place...just some slight cloud cover.