This year, as part of my constellation upgrade process I'm planning to pay more attention to a single constellation each time I go out to observe. That way I can get familiar with it before I then move on.
I started last night with Carina, which is a pretty big constellation, so I think it will take a couple of evenings to cover fully
Starting at Canopus, I then hopped up to Avoir and underneath that found the open cluster NGC2516. From there I hopped across to Aspidiske and worked my way down the open clusters NGC3144, NGC3293, NGC3532, and NGC3766 that wrap around the asterism 'the false cross' and down to the real cross Crux. (and a quick diversion into splitting the binary stars in Acrux)
The find of the night was stumbling across a nebula with a orange star in it. I'm sure I should know it, so I'm going to research and put my findings here...
(some research later...)
OK - wow. I guess this is the result of mostly observing in city skies and usually with some moon interfering as well, but last night the quarter moon had already set - leaving the sky dark enough to make finding NGC 3372 easy. Otherwise known as the Carina Nebula, the Grand Nebula or maybe the Eta Carina Nebula! Returning to this object is going to be a regular challenge now as I continue to add hits to my NebulosCity roster. It is a beautiful structure, showing three lobes, divided by a distinct dust lane down the middle. I'm looking forward to looking at it more closely under better conditions and seeing even more details.
Its interesting that I haven't identified this nebula before especially since I went looking for Eta Carina some time ago, and found it. The night must have been too bright to make out the nebula around it. I've got this one dialed in now, so I'll be returning to it as frequently as I return to Orion.
Then I finished up the evening looking for a planetary nebula above Carina - but I was getting tired and packed it in before succeeding, those can be for another evening.
I started last night with Carina, which is a pretty big constellation, so I think it will take a couple of evenings to cover fully
Starting at Canopus, I then hopped up to Avoir and underneath that found the open cluster NGC2516. From there I hopped across to Aspidiske and worked my way down the open clusters NGC3144, NGC3293, NGC3532, and NGC3766 that wrap around the asterism 'the false cross' and down to the real cross Crux. (and a quick diversion into splitting the binary stars in Acrux)
The find of the night was stumbling across a nebula with a orange star in it. I'm sure I should know it, so I'm going to research and put my findings here...
(some research later...)
OK - wow. I guess this is the result of mostly observing in city skies and usually with some moon interfering as well, but last night the quarter moon had already set - leaving the sky dark enough to make finding NGC 3372 easy. Otherwise known as the Carina Nebula, the Grand Nebula or maybe the Eta Carina Nebula! Returning to this object is going to be a regular challenge now as I continue to add hits to my NebulosCity roster. It is a beautiful structure, showing three lobes, divided by a distinct dust lane down the middle. I'm looking forward to looking at it more closely under better conditions and seeing even more details.
Its interesting that I haven't identified this nebula before especially since I went looking for Eta Carina some time ago, and found it. The night must have been too bright to make out the nebula around it. I've got this one dialed in now, so I'll be returning to it as frequently as I return to Orion.
Then I finished up the evening looking for a planetary nebula above Carina - but I was getting tired and packed it in before succeeding, those can be for another evening.
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