AAQ Visual Observing Section

Selected Deep Sky Objects In Columba

With Orion rising higher in the east summer is a great time of year to explore this area of the night sky. Rich in “faint fuzzies” and many beautiful double stars, I have only just touched on some of them in the highlights below. If you have the opportunity, also spend some time in Eridanus, there are many fine sights within this large meandering constellation. All observations were made with a 150mm f8 refractor under dark skies.

NGC 1808 (05h 07.7m RA, -37° 31' Dec) This is a quite prominent galaxy at magnitude 9.9. I could make out quite an elongated shape with a bright nucleus with 85x. Using a higher magnification (120x) did not seem to improve the image much.

NGC 1792 (05h 05.2m RA, -37° 59' Dec) Another magnitude 9.9 galaxy – look for an elongated smudge of light. The nucleus here did not seem to me as bright as that of NGC 1808.

NGC 1851 (05h 14.1m RA, -40° 03' Dec) Locating this globular is easy through your finder scope as it shows a relatively bright out of focus star. With 120x I could resolve some outlying stars, with a very bright core. There seemed to be quite a large area of outliers compared to the nucleus.

HJ 3728 (05h 08.4m RA, -41° 12' Dec) Easily found not far from NGC 1851, this double can be easily separated (10.1”) with 120x. I found the secondary star very faint and difficult to see.

HJ 3858 (06h 25.5m RA, -35° 02' Dec) There is a stunning colour combination of an orange primary and blue/green secondary with this very wide pair (131.7”). Magnitudes are 6.4 and 7.6.

HJ 3875 (06h 35.4m RA, -36° 46' Dec) I could easily separate these two with 85x, but the very faint secondary was just visible.

RST 4819 (06h 37.3m RA, -36° 59' Dec) With a separation of just .5” I was unable to split this pair with a magnification of 240x.

HDO 196 (06h 37.2m RA, -38° 09' Dec) A very wide pair at 35”, with a magnitude 6 primary.

HJ 3860 (06h 26.0m RA, -40° 58' Dec) A fine star field highlights this delicate pair which can be resolved with 85x. Look for the attractive colour contrast between the two components separated by 8.5”.

HJ 3849 (06h 20.0m RA, -39° 29' Dec) Another stunning easy pair with 40x (39.6”). This pair also has a beautiful colour contrast.

Dunlop 28 (06h 24.2m RA, -36° 42' Dec) They just keep getting better! Use 40x and look for the beautiful colours, but also use 85x and look for the much fainter star located opposite the secondary.

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Astronomical Association of Queensland 2006. www.aaq.org.au