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Southern Sky Comments
A Sample of Southern Sky Delights
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- Jim Jackson at Brindabella Station, Australia
- Helen and I visited our daughter who presently lives in Canberra, Australia for five weeks during the winter (Australian Summer) 2006.
Naturally I took advantage of 2 new moon cycles to do some heavy duty southern sky gazing. :-)
While in Canberra I also visited nearby Mt. Stromlo and the
Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex.
- Most of the open cluster work was done over 3 weeks in Canberra, Australia (-35 degrees S latitude) where the skies were suprisingly good.
The critical nebulae, SMC, LMC, galaxies, fainter globular glusters and open clusters, and planetary nebulae were done over 9 days in Port Campbell
(-38 degrees latitude) and Brindabella Station ( -35 degrees latitude).
Both sites had Bortle 1 skies- 21.6 and 21.7 mags/square arc-second respectively
as measured by the Sky Quality Meter.
- Unfortunately logistics ruled out bringing a telescope, so I observed all objects with Fujinon 16X70 Binoculars on a sturdy camera mount.
This set-up proved to be wonderful in the dark skies of Australia. It was even quite adequate for"telescopic" objects, if not ideal.
Frankly it is not likely I will get to such southern pristine skies again,so this was my chance!
- In order to organize my viewing, I intended to use the Astronomical League's Southern Skies Binocular list
as my main objective- and so it was.
But I brought along the information on the
Southern Caldwells
as well as the Southern Sky Telescopic list just in case!
- There is considerable overlap between the three lists, so it is not necessarily an impossible task.
I already had a plan- work on the Binocular list; then turn to
the rest of the Caldwells; then finish up with the Southern Sky telescopic list. I should say in retrospect
that I needed the full 5 weeks in Australia to complete all the lists. Any hope of finishing a list in a few days
on a short trip is probably overly optimistic.
- The first surprise was the weather in Australia. It is their summer and the further north one goes,
the greater the chance of monsoon tropical weather. I didn't bother going to Queensland, but stayed in New South Wales, Victoria
and around Canberra. The weather in Canberra ( which is in the "bush" and not on the coast)
was generally sunny during the day and warm bordering on hot ( 90-98 degrees farheinheit) in the afternoon.
The "interior"-the outback-was clearer but even hotter -40 degrees Celcius- 104 degrees farheinheit. They don't call Australia "the sunburnt country"
without a reason!
So I did not venture into the outback. Many evenings in Canberra were clear until 10-11 o'clock when the clouds
would roll in from the coastal east. Our Oregon Summers are generally sunny with the nights clear and cool
so I had to get used to the difference and star gaze whenever I could. I know-poor me! :-)
- The other pleasant surprise was how dark the skies are in Australia! Outside of Sydney and Melbourne
which are just too big to offer good skies, the rest of south-east and south Australia was astronomer's nirvana.
As soon as one leaves an Australian town, there are no lights and no people! Even in town the street lights are feeble and scarce,
and what light there is is generally shielded. And Aussies don't seem to keep their porch lights on or use yard blasters. Refreshing!
Even though I was in the middle of Canberra, the nation's capitol with a population of 300,000, my Sky Quality Meter gave a 19.7 reading -much better than
my home town of Eugene ( population 200,000) and about what I had experienced at Mt. Pisgah 8 miles from the edge of Eugene.
This was indeed fortuitous as we spent 3 weeks in Canberra and I was able to do a good deal of the star clusters. And what a piece of work
are the Southern Cross, the "pointer" stars- Alpha and Beta Centauri and the Jewel Box!
Of course the Magellanic clouds were not visible and I got skunked on some clusters.
After visiting Melbourne and seeing some old friends we drove west on the Great Ocean Road.
This is a more spectacular version of the Oregon Coast. We stayed at the little villege
of Port Campbell where the famous "12 apostles"
sea stacks are located. There the turquoise Southern Sea points the way to Antartica. The night was clear and the southern Milky Way,
Eta Carina Nebula, Large and Small Magellanic Clouds,and the Coal Sack were revealed in unbelievable grandeur.
My Sky Quality Meter was at 21.6- and this was at sea level!
We then spent 7 nights at Brindabella Station,
60 kilometers from Canberra at 2500 feet.
The nights were now crisper and clear and I gorged on 21.7 transparency. I usually don't do subjective visual estimates,
but I could see the 6.6 mag star with direct vision in the Coal Sack.This is as dark as the Oregon Star Party site.
The southern Milky way was so bright that I'm sure it affected the readings!
- So what did I see? Well I sketched and documented over 90 southern objects. I didn't bother turning my head toward the north
where Orion was "upside-down"- as was everything else in the sky that I was familiar with including the moon!
Anything I could see from Oregon I didn't bother with. I did notice objects that skimmed the horizon in Oregon were at zenith
in Australia!
- I didn't spend all night with my eyes glued to the binoculars. On "rest breaks", I would just
enjoy the unfamiliar scene. Have you ever looked at the foot of Orion and noticed Eridanus leading southward
and disappearing below the horizon? Didn't you feel a regretful twinge that you couldn't see the end?
So I made sure to trace this celestial river all the way down to bright Achernar at -57 degrees S latitude. Now that was fun!
I also made a point of sketching the southern celestial pole through my 4 degrees field of view binoculars.
Not many distinguishing features in this part of the sky; but very satisfying to see the southern pole up 35 degrees for us Northern Hemisphere folks! The only star of note in the FOV was Sigma Octans; but the star closest to the
pole has a nice yellow color!
- Down the left hand side of the web page is a selection of my observations and notes on the southern skies. Note: Most of the photos are from
the NGC-IC Project
Now on to southern sky delights.- enjoy!
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