Before I go into the observing session, some info about Brisbane:
The city Brisbane was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, governor of New South Wales from 1821-1825. Here's a picture of him I took at the Brisbane City Museum:
Governor Brisbane sought a new site for his colony’s convicts, which was established in 1823/1824 north of Sydney and named in his honor. But his passion was astronomy, establishing the Paramatta observatory on the outskirts of Sydney, the first important observatory in present-day Australia. He hired James Dunlop to run the observatory, who subsequently logged 629
DSOs, publishing a catalog in 1828. John Herschel, in his observations from the Cape of Good Hope less than a decade later, was able to confirm only 211 of them, but subsequent research has shown that about 300 of Dunlop’s discoveries were legit.
Anyways, another observing opportunity presented itself on December 29th. This time, Petar and I drove to another dark site away from the crowds, about 72 miles out of the city where again, we met Ron with his 16”
Dob. Again, the telescope I used was the Orion SkyScanner (3.9"
F/4.0 Newtonian), while Petar had an 8"
Dob.
My targets were galaxies located in the Dorado/Reticulum area. I bagged 3 "new" galaxies in Reticulum in my previous session.
1)
NGC 1574 (Reticulum, mag=10.4, SB=12.9, size=3.4 x 3.1’) – Discovered by J. Herschel in 1834; I observed using 67x, right next to a bright star.
2)
NGC 1566 (Dorado, mag=9.7, SB=13.9, size=8.3 x 6.6’) – Discovered by J. Dunlop in 1826; observed using 67x.
3)
NGC 1549 (Dorado, mag=9.8, SB=13.0, size=4.9 x 4.1’) – Discovered by J. Herschel in 1834; observed using 67x; bright, with
NGC 1553 in the same
FOV.
4)
NGC 1553 (Dorado, mag=9.4, SB=12.0, size=4.5 x 2.8’) – Discovered by J. Dunlop in 1826; observed using 67x; bright, with
NGC 1549 in the same
FOV.
5)
NGC 1546 (Dorado, mag=10.9, SB=12.5, size=3.0 x 1.7’) – Discovered by J. Herschel in 1834; observed using 67x, just visible with AV.
6)
NGC 1533 (Dorado, mag=10.7, SB=12.6, size=2.8 x 2.3’) – Discovered by J. Herschel in 1834; observed using 67x. forms a tight line with two stars.
7)
NGC 1617 (Dorado, mag=10.4, SB=12.7, size=4.3 x 2.1’) – Discovered by J. Dunlop in 1826; observed using 67x.
8)
NGC 1672 (Dorado, mag=9.7, SB=13.4, size=6.6 x 5.5’) – Discovered by J. Dunlop in 1826; observed using 67x.
9)
NGC 1947 (Dorado, mag=10.6, SB=12.7, size=3.0 x 2.6’) – Discovered by J. Dunlop in 1826 (not listed in his catalog, but subsequently found in his handwritten notes). Observed using 67x.
The session was running smoothly for about an hour and a half, until a cloudy haze covered the sky and ended the observations.
Here's a picture of me looking at the Dorado galaxies through my scope (courtesy of Petar):
On the drive back, we stopped briefly, since the skies had cleared up. Omega Centauri was rising above the horizon, so we took a look - the scope was able to resolve pinpoints of light within the cluster at 67x.
And here's a picture of me admiring the Southern Milky Way (courtesy of Petar):
What a way to the end the decade!
Scopes: Reflectors, refractors, and 1 catadioptric. Ranging in aperture from 50mm to 150mm.
