Far Centaurus
Jay Reynolds Freeman
"Avast, ye scurvy swabs, the solar wind be fair! 'Tis for far
Centaurus we sail!" Thus I replied to a friend's EMailed comment,
that with the eye patches we often wear, deep-sky observers look like
pirates. Yet though a chorus of hearty "Arrrrr!"s greeted me at
Fremont Peak on January 10, 1997, I had better things to do than hoist
the Jolly Roger.
What a night! The air had quieted after frontal weather earlier
in the week, so no low-level cumulus clouds impeded visibility. The
next system was still far off, so the high sky stood clear. Calm
conditions meant that the thick, wet fog forming in the damp air slid
downhill and stayed there, turning off the lights of cities and towns,
leaving a spectacular view, clear to the horizon, in all directions.
For almost twenty years, my deep-sky observing program has been to
observe all the galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae listed in
Burnham's _Celestial_Handbook_, at or north of 45 degrees south
declination. That boundary encloses 85 percent of the sky. From
observing sites at 36 or 37 degrees north latitude, it is a tough
limit -- it takes good sky, good equipment, and moderate skill to
chase down a 13th magnitude galaxy more than eighty degrees off the
zenith. Since clear weather is scarcest, and I am laziest, in the
cold months of the year, the last handful of unobserved objects lie
far to the south, at right ascensions best placed in the dead of
winter. But on such a night as this, surely I can get a few more.
I set up my six-inch Maksutov, and swing it south and east.
Maybe, but not now -- that part of the sky is too low. Brrr, it will
be some hours yet. I zip up my down vest, double my fists inside my
mittens, and settle down to look at less exotic objects for a while.
Yet my eyes are drawn to the great cluster of suns on the far side
of Sirius. I think of my eye patch in whimsy -- for in truth, there
is a pirate ship in the sky.
She is the Argo, the trim fighting galley of the Greek corsair,
Jason. She sails upon the southern Milky Way. Modern astronomical
cartographers have separated her vast bulk into four separate
constellations, yet her form remains. Canis Major must be a salty sea
dog, for he dances on the aft rail of her poop deck, the constellation
Puppis. Pyxis is her small and stubby mast -- galleys are driven
primarily by oars. Vela comprises her sails. And there is one more.
In this region lie dazzling stars, blue-white diamonds that shock
the eye with cold actinic fire -- zeta Puppis, gamma Velorum, and a
generous strew of others, a great thunder of suns. If this is
pirates' booty, it is treasure rare indeed. And there is one more.
I climb the hill with my 10x50 Ultraview binocular, red
flashlight, and an old Norton's _Star_Atlas_. Fremont Peak stands
above most of the surrounding terrain, and the view to the south goes
to the true horizon. In the crystalline air, I star-hop through
unfamiliar heavens, south of Sirius, through Puppis, south, and south
again. I pause at a particularly bright star, a few degrees above the
distant skyline, near an airplane landing light that winks off and on.
Can that star be...? No, it's just tau Puppis.
The airplane light has risen slightly, and brightened enormously.
I put down the binocular, for it is easily visible to the naked eye.
It drowns tau Puppis. I try the binocular again. The light is not
moving with respect to the stars. It brightens further, regularly
flashing reds, and yellows, and all the other colors of the horizon,
but now and then exhibiting the same diamond purity of the lesser
luminaries higher up. It is Canopus, the brightest star in Carina,
the keel and fourth constellation of Argo. Canopus is second only to
Sirius for brightness among the nighttime stars. Even at a degree
above the horizon, it is *bright*. I have never seen it before, nor
anything else in Carina. For the first time in my observing career,
all the parts of the Argo lie before me. I take it as an omen.
I descend to my telescope and dig out Burnham's. Quick, quick,
get two clusters and a nebulous wisp in western Vela, before they drop
below the shoulder of the hill. Phew! More leisurely now, swing the
telescope up to Antila for nine or ten galaxies, none much below 32
degrees south. Then back to Vela, for three galaxies in the eastern
part of the constellation, that lie near my 45-degree southerly limit.
There is just one object left. It lies another hour of right
ascension to the east, not yet high enough to see, so I kill time
chasing down the Messier galaxies in Leo and Virgo with the 10x50 -- a
cinch, the only problem is keeping track which is which. I started my
Burnham's observing program in 1978, with a 7x50. The object that
remains is bright enough to find with a binocular, but it will be more
fun to end on a different note. A friend has a Meade 12-inch LX200, a
computer-controlled telescope with capabilities unheard of in 1978. I
ask him to dial up the object for me, not telling him why until I am
certain of success.
And there it is. At 88x, we resolve open cluster NGC 3680, the
final entry in my doggedly-pursued and at last finished deep-sky
program, above the prow of the Argo, in far Centaurus.
--
Jay Reynolds Freeman -- fre...@netcom.com -- I speak only for myself.
Matt Tarlach
Jay -
Shiver me tripod, but that was a fine yarn, matey! :-)
- Matt
Bill Arnett
In article <freemanE...@netcom.com>, fre...@netcom.com (Jay Reynolds
Freeman) wrote:
>... Pyxis is her small and stubby mast...
Pyxis is the compass (though I doubt Jason had one). According to Levy,
"Pyxis... used to be Malus, Argo's mast, before Lacaille made a compass out
of it."
--
Bill Arnett bi...@znet.com http://www.seds.org/billa/
"I know that I am mortal and the creature of a day; but when I
search out the massed wheeling circles of the stars, my feet no
longer touch the earth, but, side by side with Zeus himself, I
take my fill of ambrosia, the food of the gods." -- Ptolemy
Jay Reynolds Freeman
>>... Pyxis is her small and stubby mast...
>
> Pyxis is the compass (though I doubt Jason had one). According to Levy,
> "Pyxis... used to be Malus, Argo's mast, before Lacaille made a compass out
> of it."
Yes, as a matter of fact I checked Allen (_Star_Names:
_Their_Lore_and_Meaning_, reprinted by Dover in 1983) before I posted.
Allen, you, and I all agree that a compass is an anachronism in the
Argo, so I will stick with the classic interpretation.
Sometimes the modern interpretations are neat; who was the
constellation illustrator a few decades ago who pointed out
pictorially that Ursa Major was obviously a polar bear? And Ursa
Minor a teddy bear, for that matter.
And there are a few relatively recent constellations that the
I. A. U. threw out, that I rather miss; notably Felis (the cat) and
Noctua (the night owl). I like both as critters, and besides, there
is a wonderful science-fiction variant on the familiar nursery rhyme,
that begins "The owl and the pussycat went into space / In a modified
Jupiter-C ..."
Michelle Stone
Hey Jay! Congratulations! It was a fine night... so far the
best for me this year.
Michelle
Peter Dance
> "Avast, ye scurvy swabs, the solar wind be fair! 'Tis for far
> Centaurus we sail!" Thus I replied to a friend's EMailed comment,
> that with the eye patches we often wear, deep-sky observers look like
> pirates. Yet though a chorus of hearty "Arrrrr!"s greeted me at
> Fremont Peak on January 10, 1997, I had better things to do than hoist
> the Jolly Roger.
Dare I ask what your favourite object was? Most difficult?
Are you now going to work through the Hubble Guide star catalog?
Peter
--
Peter Dance p_d...@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Department of Computer Science Phone: (64) (9) 3737-599 x 8267
University of Auckland Fax: (64) (9) 3737-453
Private Bag 92019
Auckland, New Zealand Home: (64) (9) 834-5323
Michael P. Collins
In article <freemanE...@netcom.com>,
Jay Reynolds Freeman <fre...@netcom.com> wrote:
> "Avast, ye scurvy swabs, the solar wind be fair! 'Tis for far
>Centaurus we sail!"
> And there it is. At 88x, we resolve open cluster NGC 3680, the
>final entry in my doggedly-pursued and at last finished deep-sky
>program, above the prow of the Argo, in far Centaurus.
Jay,
Congratulations on the completion of your ambitious observing goal.
I'm sure you must feel a great sense of satisfaction, and your article
was a joy to read.
From these parts (basically, just south of Phoenix), Canopus is
a common sight in the wintertime, and fortuately, my observatory has
a good southern sky all the way to the horizon. Still, we don't do
a lot of galaxy hunting that low, mostly because it's just easier to
find the ones farther north.
-- MC --
--
mcol...@wdc.sps.mot.com
Jay Reynolds Freeman
Peter Dance writes:
> In article <freemanE...@netcom.com>, fre...@netcom.com (Jay Reynolds
> Freeman) wrote:
>
>
> Dare I ask what your favourite object was? Most difficult?
Favorite... Hmn, there are lots. Bright things with lots of detail, such
as...
M31 -- I chased down some globulars in it with the C-14 once. It is
always fun to see whether I can make out dust lanes, or NGC 206.
M42/43 -- One night I was observing double stars with a four-inch
refractor, and decided to take a look at M42 just for a break,
and was marveling at the detail, and then realized
I hadn't changed eyepieces; I was looking at details in
the nebula at 250x, limited by diffraction only.
M45 -- The Merope Nebula is not hard in decent sky, but it is always
tough to decide whether any other fuzz I see is dew on the optics,
or scattering in the air or eye, or really nebula.
M8 -- Summer's Orion Nebula, full of detail.
NGC 6822 -- I am always fond of showing off this one in small telescopes,
particularly to folks who think you need a big Dobson to
see it.
The Veil Nebula -- The eastern and western arcs are bright enough not to
be too difficult, but there is a lot of stuff in the
middle that is harder to see.
NGC 253 -- Rich and detailed.
I could go on, I won't...
Most difficult? I think S147, the "other" Taurus supernova remnant.
The Fornax and Sculptor Dwarf Galaxies would be tied for second.
These are all low-surface-brightness objects, for which dark sky and a
large exit pupil matter most. Of course, even for objects of high
surface brightness, insufficient aperture can make for difficulties
with faint ones. However, a C-14 certainly has enough aperture for a
survey like mine; perhaps even an 8-inch would do it.
> Are you now going to work through the Hubble Guide star catalog?
No, though I have been looking at lots of double stars lately. I
could always get more aperture and go for fainter stuff, but I always
seem to run out of aperture before the universe runs out of objects.
I find I can push my skills just as well by using small telescopes
instead of large ones. Or, if I get time, money and initiative, it
would be fun to travel to more southerly latitudes and look at some of
the stuff I can't see from central California.
S Martin
In article <5bhcme$i...@newsgate.sps.mot.com>, mcol...@korat.uucp (Michael P. Collins) says:
>
>In article <freemanE...@netcom.com>,
>Jay Reynolds Freeman <fre...@netcom.com> wrote:
>>Centaurus we sail!"
>>final entry in my doggedly-pursued and at last finished deep-sky
>>program, above the prow of the Argo, in far Centaurus.
>
> Congratulations on the completion of your ambitious observing goal.
>I'm sure you must feel a great sense of satisfaction, and your article
>was a joy to read.
> From these parts (basically, just south of Phoenix), Canopus is
>a common sight in the wintertime, and fortuately, my observatory has
>a good southern sky all the way to the horizon. Still, we don't do
>a lot of galaxy hunting that low, mostly because it's just easier to
>find the ones farther north.
>
Lepus about 3 degrees above the horizon - it turned out to be Alpha
Columbae - a new constellation for me. I was delighted.
We just get to see the tippy tip of the stern of Argo here...
-Steve Martin at 51 1/2 N.
bill phillips
Argo Navis was split up by the first cartographer of the southern skies,
Lacliade (? - forgive my spelling as I don't have a reference book with me) in
the 1700's. This was formalised by the IAU in the 1930's.
It always struck me as absurd as having bits of a ship - like cutting up Mensa
in legs and tops and such. I think it would be a good move to reinstate Argo
Navis. It would cover some 1800 square degrees of sky, but some constellation
has to be the biggest. The next biggest would then come in at 1300 square
degrees.
And while we are at it, Scorpio should be given back its claws, and Libra
abolished - that would worry the astrologers.
Bill Arnett
In article <5bmelt$mkd@cdn_news.telecom.com.au>,
bphi...@qctyno1.telcom.com.au (bill phillips) wrote:
>...
> Argo Navis was split up by the first cartographer of the southern skies,
> Lacliade (? - forgive my spelling as I don't have a reference book with me)
Lacaille
> in the 1700's. This was formalised by the IAU in the 1930's.
>
> ... I think it would be a good move to reinstate Argo Navis...
Well I'm afraid its too late for that now officially. It would mess up too
much software ;-( But there's no reason us amateurs can't pretend. Or at
least teach the historical connection of the four parts to the original.
Perry Vlahos
>And while we are at it, Scorpio should be given back its claws, and Libra
>abolished - that would worry the astrologers.
Careful here Bill, you've been hanging around with astrologers for too
long, we astronomers refer to this constellation as Scorpius! :)
Perry Vlahos
Stephen Tonkin
bill phillips <bphi...@qctyno1.telcom.com.au> wrote:
>Argo Navis was split up by the first cartographer of the southern skies,
>Lacliade
Sounds like a Gallic name to me -- and, aftter all, if Gaul was
divided...
>
>And while we are at it, Scorpio should be given back its claws, and Libra
>abolished - that would worry the astrologers.
I doubt it -- they never look at the stars, and anyway their "signs"
have no relationship to the constellations.
Personally, I'd like to see Serpens made whole...
*** News to my ISP is currently delayed by up to 50 hours, so apologies
if this point has alrady been adequately addressed ***
--
Stephen Tonkin : UK Amateur Telescope Making Pages
<s...@aegis1.demon.co.uk> : <http://www.aegis1.demon.co.uk/atm.htm>
<stephen...@starbase.org> : (50.9105N 1.829W)
Richard Comess
If we really want to pick nits... Back in the good old days a
compass wasn't just
bill phillips
In article <5bndp6$l...@wombat.melbpc.org.au>,
perr...@melbpc.org.au (Perry Vlahos) wrote:
>
>>And while we are at it, Scorpio should be given back its claws, and Libra
>>abolished - that would worry the astrologers.
>
>long, we astronomers refer to this constellation as Scorpius! :)
>
>Perry Vlahos
>
I will have to give up reading newspapers etc and confine myself to Sky&Tel
bill phillips
> M45 -- The Merope Nebula is not hard in decent sky, but it is always
> tough to decide whether any other fuzz I see is dew on the optics,
> or scattering in the air or eye, or really nebula.
Move several degrees. If it was dew or high cloud all other field stars in the
general vicinity would also show fuzz. But they usually don't, and you know
that you have seen it.
Jay Reynolds Freeman
The trouble is, they always all show some adjacent glow, for one of
the reasons I cited or another, even on a clear, dry night. One needs
a differential measurement of how much is present, or a pattern of
glow that is non-symmetric about the star(s) in question; the latter
is one reason why the Merope nebula is easier than the rest of the
Pleiades nebulosity.