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Southern Cross - February 2002

• Monoceros by Ross Gould
• Leonids by the thousand from Coober Pedy
  by Albert Brakel and Vello Tabur
• "The Long Shot" by Peter Enzerink
• The Galaxies of Dorado by Jenni Kay

Monoceros

Ross Gould

Monoceros is a constellation easily over-looked because it lacks first-magnitude stars, and the brightly conspicuous Orion and Canis Major are adjacent and distract the eye. The Milky Way runs through Monoceros, and provides plentiful rewards for the amateur observer, with a miscellany of open clusters, some galactic nebulae (including the Rosette), and some fine double stars, the best being the brilliant triple Beta Monocerotis.

Open Clusters (including nebulous clusters)

There are dozens of open clusters in Monoceros. The following are some of the brighter and more interesting; a good star atlas will show quite a few more.

NGC 2244 (0632.4, +0452) An open cluster with nebulosity - the famous Rosette Nebula which needs a huge telescope field to see all at once, being some 90 arcminutes across. The low surface brightness of this nebula means a filter greatly improves its visibility. The cluster of stars is quite bright, and nearly centred within the nebulous ring. The best view I've had of the Rosette was with the CAS 14-inch and a nebula filter plus a very low power eyepiece.

NGC 2264 (0641.1, +0953 ) The cluster has yellow 15 Mon (S Mon - m4.8 but variable) as its brightest star and a broad gathering of other stars. Hartung comments "there is a good deal of scattered nebulous haze" - this is the emission part of the Cone Nebula, striking in photographs. A nebula filter and reasonable aperture help here, but the full effect only shows in photographs. S Mon is a fine double star, mags. 4.8var and 7.6 at 2.9" - visible at 100x, it became easy at 180x. There are three obvious doubles nearby in the field. A fine effect.

NGC 2301 (0651.8, +0028) A bright cluster, with a compact centre (including contrasting white and orange stars) and extensions to about 20' wide. A fine object.

NGC 2323 (0703.2, -0820) This is Messier 50 - easy in small scopes, it's a fine group some 20' wide. It includes pairs and little groups of stars.

NGC 2353 (0714.6, -1018) Another good cluster, some 25' across, lying between two orange 6th mag. stars. A loose group with more concentrated areas, it shows well with 15-cm.

Nebulae

NGC 2245 (0632.7, +1010 ) A fan- or comet-shaped nebula, visible but not bright in moderate apertures. Visually it is about 2 arcmins long. 15-cm will show it, and larger scopes may bring out the nearby NGC 2247, as a little patch of nebulosity adjoining an 8th mag. star, some 12' NE.

NGC 2261 (0639.2, +0844) Hubble's Variable Nebula can be readily seen in moderate telescopes - it is small and fan-shaped, with the variable R Monocerotis at the southern tip of the nebula, which widens out northwards for about 1 arcmin or so.

Planetary Nebula

NGC 2346 (0709.4, -0048). A smallish and not bright object, some 40" across, and visible with 20-cm. It has a variable central star, that ranges from 11th mag. to below 13th.

Double Stars

There are many double stars in Monoceros, with more than a hundred available with 20 cm aperture. It is particularly rich in pairs of moderate brightness, 7th to 9th magnitudes. The best is the beautiful Beta Monocerotis (0628.8, -0701). Visible in small telescopes, Beta Mon is a bright triple with all three stars white. The magnitudes of the closer pair (2.9") are 5.0 and 5.3, with the wider star mag. 4.7. At 100x with 18-cm aperture it's a brilliant elongated triangle.

3 Mon (0601.8, -1036) requires good seeing because of the brightness difference of the stars, mags. 5.0 and 8.5 at only 1.8" separation. Medium magnification helps here, and I found 180x with 18-cm showed the companion plainly.

Epsilon Mon (0623.8, +0435) is a fine and easy bright pair, the stars shades of yellow; 50x suffices to show it. The field is attractive.

STF 921 (0631.2, +0254) is a bright easy uneven pair, mags. 5.9 and 8.1 at 16".

STF 930 (0634.1, +0759) is not bright - the yellow primary (m8.5) has a companion fairly wide to each side, a little pair 2' east, and a fainter one 1' north. 30' north of the triple is the rambling loose cluster NGC 2251, not bright but quite good. All this with 18-cm at 100x.

STF 987 (0654.1, -0551) is an even very close pair at 100x with 18cm; 180x makes it a cleanly split bright pair, mags. 7.1 and 7.2 at 1.3". The field is faint, but 30' NW is a loose rambling asterism.

Galaxies

Monoceros is starved of bright galaxies - masochists and the C14 club might like to attempt NGC 2377 (0724.9, -0940). I haven't seen this Sb spiral, but it has been recorded as visible with a 12-inch 'scope.

Leonids by the thousand from Coober Pedy

Albert Brakel and Vello Tabur

In the light of the prospects for a Leonid meteor storm this year, we decided to drive to either Mt Isa or Coober Pedy, depending on the weather forecasts. Just minutes before setting off on the morning of Friday 16 November, we still hadn't made a final decision on where to go, and the choice was agonizing. The heart said Mt Isa with its higher radiant, but a final consultation of the 4-day prospects on 3 weather websites indicated it was more risky weatherwise, so we played safe and set off for Coober Pedy in the middle of South Australia.

It only took 2 days, and left us a day to inspect possible observing sites and make contingency plans in case the scattered cloud did not clear up. Coober Pedy is a unique opal mining town, with a good proportion of the inhabitants living underground quite comfortably, and we spent 2 nights in an underground motel. The town's internet café saw us anxiously monitoring every cloud bank on satellite images that could be a threat, especially a wide band of cloud along the whole of southern Australia that extended inland to our latitude. By late afternoon, however, all the cloud had gone from the sky.

We chose a site about 6 km out of town on the Oodnadatta road, with a 360-degree view - what a delight it was to have no hills or trees in the way. The sky was not the inky black we had expected, as a fresh gusty wind blowing all day had stirred up some dust, but the limiting unaided eye magnitude was still between 5.5 and 6.0.

We began looking at about 1:30 am (AEDT - we stayed with eastern daylight time despite being in SA). Almost immediately we started seeing the occasional Taurid - a minor shower also active at the time, with slower-moving meteors. The Celestron C8 was set up to do some deep sky observing while waiting for the Leonid peaks, but the gusty wind vibrated the tube too much. After quick looks at Jupiter and Saturn, and a good view of Comet 2000 WM1 (LINEAR) then at mag. 6 in Perseus, we gave away that idea, and set the 'scope onto the target star for an occultation by the asteroid 1263 Varsavia due at 4:34 AEDT, just in case the predicted Leonid peak at around that time failed. When the time came, we were too busy looking at Leonids to even remember to monitor the occultation.

The first Earth-grazing Leonids began arriving even before the radiant had risen. The rate gradually increased as we enjoyed the show, and at 3:38 am we did a count for 5 minutes to get an idea of what the rate was (it was 8, equivalent to an hourly rate of 96). We then decided to keep up the 5-min counts, getting more and more excited as the rate spiralled upwards. The first peak came between 4:43 and 4:48 with 71 (equiv. to 852/hr) about 20 minutes after the Asher/McNaught prediction. The Big Peak was 92 between 5:08 and 5:13 (1104 /hr!!). The next two 5-min periods scored 86 and 88 respectively (1032 and 1056/hr), so if you're happy with the definition of 1000/hr as a storm, we had 15 minutes of storm, and in a dark sky. The time was pretty much as predicted by the Asher/McNaught and Lyytinen/Van Flandern models.

The results of the counts are given in Fig. 1. We make no pretence of scientific accuracy, because we used two sets of eyes instead of one, and both of us from time to time had to attend to cameras set up on tripods for long-exposure photos. In the interval 5:03-5:08 both of us had to do this, so the count of 66 would be lower than it should be. Recalculating the rates to try to get true ZHRs would therefore not be justified. Nevertheless, as intended, the count clearly shows when the peaks occurred, particularly when the results are binned into 10-min intervals (Fig. 2), which smooths out most of the irregularities (as the photo exposures tended to be 10 minutes).

The meteors were orange-yellow or white, with bluish trains, and it was nothing unusual to see them streak across 120 degrees or more. A couple of trains were luminous for some minutes, drifting and distorting in the high altitude winds. Most magnitudes were about +1 or +2, only a relative few fainter and some brighter, but rarely brighter than Jupiter. The brightest was a double-bursting fireball that lit up the ground. Another that would have done the same if it hadn't come near the start of civil twilight was the only green one we saw, moving down from the radiant. This one had a train more than half as thick as its foreshortened length.

Pairs and short bursts of 5-6 per second came quite often. If you take the statistically risky step of converting this to an hourly rate you get about 21,000/hr! So for the briefest of moments we even had a taste of what heavy storm activity is like, when it goes on like this all the time. One memorable sight was three meteors coming out from the radiant simultaneously to give a starburst effect. In fact by looking at the radiant we could often see successive meteors with trains overlapping in time, the first time we've had a visual impression of a radiant. Two of the photos showed the effect well. Even a point meteor appeared near the centre at one stage.

We kept counting until 5:58 am AEDT, when the sky was so bright it was no longer giving us a measure of the true activity. In the last 5-min period we still got 23, about twice the rate for a whole hour in a normal Leonid "off" year, and we kept watching for another half hour as the brighter ones kept coming through. The total count was 1260 between 3:38 and 5:58 am not counting sporadics, and the ones we saw before and after would raise this to somewhere between 1300-1400.

With the peak ZHR predicted to be 8000-8500, equivalent to 3060-3250/hour at our site, the observed peak rate of ~1100/hr fell short of expectation. Despite this, the unforgettable spectacle was one of the highlights of our lives, and well worth all the trouble of getting to a place with a good view. Memories of the effort it took may fade over time, but memories of the 2001 Leonid storm itself and the emotions it generated will be lasting.

"The Long Shot"

Peter Enzerink

Like many, I was intrigued by the discussions around the potential for the Leonids in 2001. I consider myself a very amateur, though enthusiastic astronomer and was unsure whether to spend the time, effort and money to see this spectacle given that there were much uncertainty around the predicted rates and the predicted weather.

Peter Anderson had consolidated a lot of Leonids information on his web site and it became clear that I had to get well away from Canberra in order to see much of anything regardless of the dubious weather forecast.

As I had not had a single day off work in 2001 I decided I could not live with myself if I did not try to see this once in a lifetime event. My wife agreed that she couldn't live with me either in those circumstances, so I booked my flights to (very) sunny Mount Isa!

The flight from Brisbane to Mount Isa on the Saturday morning had many odd looking people clutching astronomy magazines and there was a growing background hum as a number of us met and chatted about the forecasts for rates and weather.

There had been a big thunderstorm the night before and the forecast for the remainder of the weekend was uncertain. I had a hire car and spent some time poking around Mount Isa, but it was very hot I eventually decided to simply rest and relax in my motel room in anticipation of a clear Sunday night.

Len Fulham of the local astronomy group had made his group's facilities available with many people staying at the Lions Youth Camp about fifty metres from the group's viewing site. Len and his colleagues did a great job in providing support and activities for a range of folk from many parts of the world and certainly made us out-of-towners very welcome.

On Sunday I headed out to the local astronomy society's Moondarra observatory at Lake Moondarra. On the way there is a lookout from which you could gaze back towards Mount Isa over the large manmade recreational lake, while in the opposite direction there was a natural bowl with a low range of hills surrounding it.

It was an interesting view as the vegetation in the bowl was much greener with a clear line where green became brown half way up the hills. I assume this was a result of higher humidity in this somewhat sheltered environment.

That night I had a great BBQ dinner with others who had also chosen Lake Moondarra as their strategic viewing point. There was a very warm breeze blowing continuously and I found myself napping on the grass while waiting for midnight. As a teaser we saw a number of (Puppids Albert?) meteors between 10-11pm which appeared as soft, intense white dabs of a paint brush that quickly faded.

A contingent from Japan had not only come over to view the Leonids but had been enterprising enough to hire a mobile satellite relay in a van along with operator which had been driven up from Sydney. As it turned out, they were intending to broadcast the Leonids live back to Japan!

An impressive demonstration of technology, though I was slightly wary of so much delicate electronic equipment potentially having a failure at an inopportune moment, resulting in lights being turned on and a mobile generator brought into action. On the spur of the moment I decided that I should head off on my own to absorb the experience on my own without potential interruption.

At around 12:30am someone announced that the radiant should now be at the horizon. On queue, a gray/green object rose above the horizon crossing directly overhead and traversing most of the sky to the opposite horizon with a very evident 20-30 degrees trail behind.

After a chat about appropriate exposures for my SLR and digital camera from some more experienced observers, I snuck away to return to that lookout that had caught my eye earlier.

I didn't try doing any counting myself as I was already overwhelmed by the spectacle of the large number of grazers that started the nights show. It really is difficult to convey the raw emotions I felt standing on an elevated part of the local landscape with a completely unobstructed view in all directions as more and more meteors raced across the sky at different speeds and intensities.

I set my cameras up with cable releases and sat back to simply view the show. For five hours I witnessed the most amazing natural display I have ever seen in my life. It was truly a humbling experience and it really is impossible to convey the awe of seeing washes of meteors radiating out across the sky.

A storm front building on the very distant horizon added some more fireworks of its own but never approached close enough to be more than a patch of activity on the horizon. Although the sky did become partly cloudy at times during the evening, that also did little to reduce the impact.

The meteors ranged from slow and elegant to brief flashes of light. One bright meteor appeared to slice through Jupiter! At many times there were more meteors zipping around than I could take in with my eyes. In one two minute wide angle exposure on my SLR I estimate around 30-40 meteors (hopefully) passed through the frame centred on the Southern Cross.

I took many photos but unfortunately due to new work commitments I have had little time to examine these closely. I suggest you visit Leo Stachowicz's Leonids 2001 web site for some excellent photos of the location and Leonid meteors. The photo of Lake Moondarra appears to be from my personal vantage point. I'll try to get some photos up on the CAS web site in the near future.

One thing I learned about taking these photos is that you should take one normal shot at the beginning of the roll, otherwise you will have some very odd looking shots as prints may overlap more than one frame leading to some real challenges in recognising the star field. You should also avoid getting prints done at places like K-mart as their automated machines don't like really dark photos.

Even as I drove back to Mount Isa at around 5:45am with dawn well on its way, there were still streaks of light in the sky above the mine creating a surreal image with the golden hue of the mine lights offset by golden flashes in the blue sky above above.

I'm really glad I took the risk of traveling to Mount Isa, well aware of the risk of being rained out and having made the journey for nothing. As it is, I had a provocative experience that has given me a different perspective on life and I encourage anyone contemplating making the effort to view a significant astronomical event to bite the bullet, even if it is a long shot.

Note: All times in this article are in local time which is UT+10 as Queensland does not observe daylight saving.

The Galaxies of Dorado

Jenni Kay FRAS

While the first thing you think of at the mention of Dorado is usually the Large Magellanic Cloud, there are some other surprises in this constellation. It actually harbours quite a number of bright and spectacular galaxies. A good many nights of observing can be spent touring through this constellation tracking down these bright galaxies. And the view of these objects is very rewarding. Furthermore, I found it easy to navigate and star hop from one galaxy field to the next, using bright field stars as trails.

Since there are a good many galaxies in this report that I would class as glossy, I have indicated this in the records below.

The following observations were made with a 12.5" f/5 Newtonian, from my semi-rural home site in Lobethal, SA. The skies here typically offer a limiting naked eye magnitude of 6.1; with the seeing rated at Antoniadi II-III.

NGC 1500 : 03 58.2 -52 19 (13.4v; 1.0' x 0.7'; Surface Brightness 13.0v; Position Angle 98d.)

105X: With some care and averted vision, I briefly caught on several occasions an extremely faint, small, round, hazy glow. 150X: Improved view - extremely faint, round, 30" in size, low surface brightness. The galaxy is stronger at this power and can be detected more easily. NGC 1506 lies nearby to the SE.

NGC 1506 : 04 00 -52 34 (13.5v; 1.2' x 1.0'; SB 13.5v; PA 71d.)

24.0' SE of NGC 1500. 105X: Requires care and averted vision - extremely faint, very small, round, fuzzy spot. 150X: Improved view - very faint, very small, round, 15" in size, with a low surface brightness.

NGC 1515 : 04 04.1 -54 06 (11.2v; 5.5' x 1.4'; SB 13.3v; PA 17d.) Glossy.

105X: Obvious enough - relatively bright, long and broad, smooth, hazy wisp. 150X: Quite impressive - almost cigar shaped, long, broad, 3.5' x 40" in size, major axis lies SSW - NNE, with a high surface brightness. I would place this galaxy on a glossy hit list. Best view at 150X. NGC 1515A lies 2.0' to the SW, but at 15.4 (P) magnitude, it was too faint for me to detect.

NGC 1522 : 04 06.1 -52 40 (13.0v; 1.1' x 0.7'; SB 12.6v; PA 37d.)

105X: Requires some care and averted vision - faint, small, round, hazy glow, with a 14 mag. field star nearby to the NE. 150X: Much improved - relatively faint, small, round, 25" in size, with a low surface brightness.

NGC 1533 : 04 09.9 -56 07 (10.8v; 3.0' x 2.8'; SB 13.0v; PA 139d.)

105X: Obvious - bright, small, round, hazy glow. There a two 12 mag. stars to the NE, and along with the galaxy, all three shape a dainty curving chain. 150X: Improved - bright, small, round, 30" in size, high surface brightness, smooth and even glow from edge to edge. The first of four with NGC 1536, NGC 1546, NGC 1549, and NGC 1553. NGC 1536 lies in the same general field to the SE.

NGC 1536 : 04 11.0 -56 29 (12.6v; 2.3' x 1.3'; SB 13.6v; PA 169d.)

24.0' SE of NGC 1533. 105X: Requires some care and averted vision - extremely faint, small, round, dim glow. 150X: Improved view - very faint, round, 35" in size, even glow throughout, low surface brightness. The galaxy is obvious enough at this power that in a slow sweep of the field it would readily be noticed. NGC 1546 lies nearby.

NGC 1546 : 04 14.6 -56 04 (11.3v; 3.4' x 1.7'; SB 13.1v; PA 147d.) Glossy

40.0' NE of NGC 1536. 105X: Little gem - relatively bright, relatively small, soft, elongated glow. Set at the NE end of a small chain of three 11 mag. field stars. The visual effect is attractive! 150X: Much improved - bright, relatively small, 40" x 15", major axis lies SSE - NNW, high surface brightness, and a very even glow throughout.This is another for the glossy list. NGC 1549 lies to the NNE.

NGC 1549 : 04 15.7 -55 36 (9.5v; 5.4' x 4.8'; SB 12.9v; PA 149d.) Glossy

30.0' NNE of NGC 1546. 105X: Very obvious - bright, small, round, hazy glow with a brighter centre. There is a loose group of four 11 mag. field stars nearby to the SW adding extra charm to the view. 150X: Much improved - very bright, round, 1.0' in size, with a brighter, central core, 30" in size, and an even brighter, stellar nucleus. Overall, the galaxy has a high surface brightness. This too can be included in the glossy list. NGC 1553 lies nearby to the SSE.

NGC 1533 : 04 16.2 -55 47 (9.1v; 6.3' x 4.4'; SB 12.6v; PA 152d.) Glossy

12.0' SSE of NGC 1549. 105X: Very obvious - bright, relatively large, oval in shape, with a brighter, small, round, core. There is a star off the southern edge. 150X: Much improved - very bright, 3.0' x 50" in size, with a brighter core 25" in size, the major axis lies SSE-NNW, high surface brightness, and an even glow throughout. It is most attractive to see two bright galaxies close by to each other. This is another for the glossy list.

NGC 1556 : 04 17.8 -50 09 (12.6v; 1.8' x 0.6'; SB 12.5v; PA 167d.)

105X: Obvious, especially with averted vision - relatively faint, relatively small, little elongated, soft, smooth glow. 150X: Much improved - relatively bright, elongated almost N-S, 50" x 20" in size, high surface brightness.

NGC 1566 : 04 20.0 -54 56 (9.4v; 7.1' x 4.8'; SB 13.1v; PA 31d.) Glossy

105X : WOW - Bright, large, oval in shape, with a very bright, very small, almost stellar nucleus. The halo glow seems uneven, almost mottled, there is even a hint of spiral arms. 150X: Improved - more definite that this is indeed a face-on spiral galaxy. There is a very bright core, within a bright halo 2.0' in size, and a fainter, outer halo out to 7.0'. The major axis lies almost N-S. This is certainly a galaxy for the glossy hit list.

NGC 1578 : 04 23.8 -51 35 (12.9v; 1.2' x 1.0'; SB 12.9v; PA 166d.)

105X: Obvious enough, especially with averted vision - faint, small, round, hazy glow. 150X: Improved - relatively faint, round, 30" in size, slightly brighter towards the centre, high surface brightness. The galaxy is very obvious at this magnification.

NGC 1581 : 04 24.7 -54 56 (12.3v; 1.8' x 0.7'; SB 12.4v; PA 81d.) Glossy

105X: Obvious, especially with averted vision - relatively faint, relatively small, soft hazy glow. 150X: Improved view - relatively bright, relatively small, elongated nearly E-W, 40" x 30" in size, with a very smooth high surface brightness. Every now and then I can briefly catch a stellar nucleus. I would include this view on a glossy list, not so much for the sight of the galaxy, but the intriguing field where it lies. There are five pairs of double stars here, all have the same separation, and are equal in brightness. The pairs range in brightness from 10/ 12/ 13/ and 14 mag. This is certainly worth a look. NGC 1596 and NGC 1602 lie to the ESE.

NGC 1596 : 04 27.6 -55 02 (11.0v; 3.7' x 1.2'; SB 12.5v; PA 19d.) Glossy.

25.0' ESE of NGC 1581. 105X: Very obvious - bright, long and slim hazy streak, with a brighter, central, elongated core. The long halo tapers inwards at the tips. 150X: Much improved - very bright, 3.0' long, with the core region being 40" x 15" in size. The major axis is SSW-NNE, and the galaxy has a high surface brightness. At this power NGC 1602 can be seen nearby. There is quite a contrast between the two galaxies; one is outstanding and bright, the other is soft and dim.

NGC 1602 : 04 27.9 -55 03 (13.3v; 1.8' x 1.0'; SB 13.8v; PA 79d.)

3.0' SE of NGC 1596. 105X: Too faint to detect. 150X: With care and averted vision - very faint, oval in shape, very soft, smooth, hazy glow. The galaxy is 40" x 30" in size, major axis lies almost E-W, and it has a low surface brightness.

NGC 1617 : 04 31.7 -54 36 (10.5v; 4.8' x 2.2'l SB 12.9v; PA 107d.) Glossy

105X: Very obvious - very bright, long and broad, with a brighter elongated core, and a stellar nucleus. 150X: Much improved - the bright nucleus is 30" in size, the bright core is 2.0' x 45" in size, and the softer, outer halo extends to 4.0'. Overall, the galaxy has a high surface brightness, and the major axis lies ESE-WNW. This too is a classic for the glossy hit list. Furthermore, it is very easy to find with Alpha Dor 33.0' to the SE. IC 2085 lies nearby to the north.

IC 2085 : 04 31.4 -54 25 (13.2v; 2.3' x 0.5'; SB 13.2v; PA 106d.)

11.0' NNW of NGC 1617. 150X: Obvious enough, with care and averted vision - very faint, elongated ESE- WNW, 1.0' x 15", very soft and even glow. There is an 11 mag. field star nearby to the NE.

NGC 1672 : 04 45.7 -59 15 (9.8v; 6.2' x 3.4'; SB 13.0v; PA 157d.) Glossy

105X: Exquisite - bright, large, oval to elongated, with a hint of a very faint, outer halo. 150X: Much improved view - bright, cigar shape, 4.0' x 40" in size, with a brighter, very small, round nucleus, 10" in size, major axis lies almost E-W. The halo appears uneven, almost mottled. This too would make the glossy list.

NGC 1688 : 04 48.4 -59 48 (12.0v; 2.5' x 1.4'; SB 13.2v; PA 166d.)

105X: Obvious - relatively faint, relatively large, round to oval in shape. It is easy to pick out against the smooth, dark, background sky. 150X: Much improved - relatively faint, oval, 1.0' x 50" in size, major axis lies nearly N-S, with a high surface brightness. It seems brighter along the major axis, almost suggestive of a dust lane. NGC 1703 lies to the E.

NGC 1703 : 04 52.8 -59 45 (11.6v; 2.8' x 2.6'; SB 13.6v; PA 139d.)

33.0' E of NGC 1688. 105X: Obvious enough - relatively faint, relatively small, round-oval in shape. Adjoins an 11 mag. field star on southern edge. 150X: Improved - relatively bright, round, 45" in size, high surface brightness.

NGC 1765 : 04 58.4 -62 02 (12.9v; 1.1' x 1.0'; SB 12.9v; PA 110d.)

105X: Needs some care - sometimes it appears as only a very faint star-like object, others it is more like a fuzzy star. 150X: Much improved, no mistaking it at this power - relatively bright, small, round, hazy spot, 30" in size, slightly brighter towards the centre, with a high surface brightness.

NGC 1771 : 04 58.9 -63 18 (13.5v; 1.8' x 0.5'; SB 13.2v' PA 134d.)

105X: Too faint. 150X: Bit of a struggle, requires averted vision and patience - extremely faint, elongated NW- SE, 2.0' x 30" in size, with a very low surface brightness.

NGC 1796 : 05 02.7 -61 08 (12.3v; 1.9' x 0.9'; SB 12.7v; PA 101d.)

105X: Obvious enough - relatively bright, relatively large, oval - little elongated, smooth, hazy glow. 150X: Much improved - relatively bright, 1.5' x 35" in size, major axis ESE-WNW, with a high surface brightness.

NGC 1824 : 05 06.9 -59 43 (12.6v; 3.2' x 0.7'; SB 13.3v; PA 159d.)

105X: Obvious enough, especially with averted vision - very faint, long and slim hazy wisp. 150X: Slightly improved - very faint, 2.5' x 20" in size, major axis lies SSE-NNW, low surface brightness, and a soft even glow throughout.

NGC 1947 : 05 26.8 -63 46 (10.8v; 3.6' x 3.2'; SB 13.3v; PA 48d.) Glossy

105X: Showpiece - very bright, large, round - slightly oval, with a hint of a faint outer halo. 150X: Much improved - bright, round, 2.0' in size, high surface brightness, smooth glow throughout, with soft edges.

NGC 1942 ( LMC Open Star Cluster) lies 17.0' SW and is worth a mention here too. 150X: Obvious - relatively bright, round, soft hazy glow, 30" in size, with a 14 mag. field star at the N edge.

NGC 2082 : 05 41.8 -64 18 (12.0v; 1.9' x 1.6'; SB 13.1v; PA 37d.)

105X: Very obvious - relatively bright, relatively large, round, soft, hazy glow. 150X: Improved - relatively bright, round, 75" in size, high surface brightness, with an even glow from edge to edge.