About six months ago my wife said she wanted to go to New Zealand for the
holidays. After researching the moon phases and the latitudes of different
antipodean locales I decided that beginning the year on the South Island
would be a fine idea.
This was a family trip, not an observing trip, so I brought the bare minimum
-- three eyepieces, SkyAtlas 2000, a pair if 10x50 binos, and an airline
carryon 10 inch dob built by Eric Shrader.
The first part of the trip was not expected to be observing time since the
moon would still be just past full. I did make a quick survey through the
partly cloudy skies from Christchurch on December 26. The first thing I
noticed was that Achernar and Canopus, which dominate the south at this time
of year were truly high in the sky. These stars, which can be seen down
near the horizon from Hawaii at this time of year, were almost approaching
the zenith from Christchurch, which is at latitude 43 south. Mars, on the
other hand, was way down in the distant north below the upside down Orion.
A few days later we were in the capital, Wellington, at the south end of the
North Island. There is an astronomy complex, the Carter Observatory, in the
botanic gardens above the city, easily accessible by cable car. I went up
with my daughter on Saturday December 29th, but the observatory was closed
for renovations, and the public program, which is still on, was cancelled
that weekend, presumably because the whole country shuts down from about
December 20 to January 10. Sort of like Europe in August, combined with
Christmas and New Years -- everyone is on holiday.
I first set up the scope on New Year's Eve (December 30 back here in
behind-the-times California). The sky was incredible -- the stretch of the
Milky Way through Carina is far brighter than what we are used to. After an
initial scare when the split tubes wouldn't separate because the inner
sections got threaded onto the lower sections backwards, I set up on a
partly cloudy evening. The first target was the enormous Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC). I got the scope lined up on 47 Tucana right away. Clouds
rolled in for a while, but I was able to get a view of the Tarantula Nebula
in the LMC before shutting down for the night.
The next night we were in Queenstown, an Aspen-like resort. Our hotel
didn't have an obvious observing site nearby, and I was too tired after a
long drive to wander around more looking for a place. This turned about to
be fortuitous as it was partly cloudy, not favorable for navigating a dob
around unfamiliar precincts. We were on the south end of town and had a
south facing balcony so it was very very dark. Soon a quick peek with the
10x50s turned into a fullblown bino session. The sky was set up very
similarly to page 24 of SkyAtlas 2000, with page 25, on its side, just
below.
I started with the LMC but a bright volunteer open cluster soon caught my
eye. This turned out to be IC 2602 aka the Southern Pleiades. A quick shift
to the left and there was the Eta Carina nebula. In the binos Eta Carina
showed an L shaped dark nebula with a narrow waist in the middle. There was
a bright open cluster below which turned out to be NGC 3532. Both it and
Eta Carina were visible with the unaided eye. Two other open clusters in the
area were NGC 3766, which was quite condensed looking and the largish NGC
3314, above Eta Carina.
Going back to the LMC I spotted the Tarantula Nebula and saw what appeared
to be a cross shaped nebulous patch nearby. Sweeping east I saw NGC 2516, an
open cluster in Carina and then dropped down and identified NGC 3293 a tight
little cluster to the left of Eta Carina.
Going back to the LMC I saw what appeared to be the nebula NGC 2014, which
looked like a dual object. The companion must have been the neighboring
nebula NGC 2020. Another nebula in the LMC, NGC 1966 seemed to hang off a
bright star. NGC 1786, a globular cluster in the LMC was big and bright
even in the binos.
The best object this night was the Coal Sack dark nebula just SE of Crux,
the Southern Cross. It is enormous with several discrete black pools in a
broad lake of darkness. Easy to see with the naked eye, once you know the
spot. NGC 4755, the Jewel Box open cluster, was very compact, but seen
clearly in the binos.
I also easily saw NGC 48333, a globular cluster in Musca (that's right
Musca). I ended the night with IC 2391, a large and sparse open cluster
and NGC 2669 a dimly seen open cluster, both in Vela. No telescope this
night -- every one of these objects was spotted with 10x50 binos from a
comfy chair on a balcony with a refreshing beverage close at hand.
Did I see anything we the telescope? Or did the long white cloud, Aotearoa,
crush my dreams? Part II will reveal the answer.
Andrew Pierce
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Received on Mon Jan 21 02:01:08 2008