NGC 5189

NGC 5189

This one has a bit of a spin to it.

This object was brought to my attention by Alan(KT4HX) on AF.net(see the useful links top right).
He posts a a very popular blog there with monthly targets for you to observe, ranging from the easy to difficult.
He posted NGC 5189 in the June edition and I was keen to see if I would be able to crack this one in my light polluted urban backyard.
Usually planetary nebula like these tend to hide from me in the light pollution but I was willing to try.

I set up my dob along with the laptop outside to run Stellerium.
After a hour cool down time for the scope I got out and took in a few old friends first to get my "seeing" eye in.
Once I was comfortable and ready to do some deep sky hunting I took aim at NGC 5189.
The star hop was not too tough and within 10 minutes I was on target.

It presented itself as a small oblong smudge running north to south in my eyepiece view. Trying various filters I found the OIII filter brought out a few brighter patches in the smudge.
I was very pleased at this find and felt a sense of euphoria and elation on the find. It always feels good to do a star hop and find your target, certainly more satisfying than using the goto scope.
In a way this reignited my love affair with the dob and there are many more nights planned for her.

Feeling good I decided to have a go at a sketch of NGC 5189.
So I went in, careful to keep my observing eye shut to preserve my night vision and returned armed with my sketching bag of tricks.

And this was the result of the sketch with the view as seen through the eyepiece with the dob.

I also started playing with the idea of imaging this target. So on the next evening I had the imaging scope out I was ready to shoot.
Set up as follows:

Skywatcher 102 ALT/AZ Synscan goto .
Canon 1200D.
ISO 800.
50 X 25 second light exposures.
50 X 25 second dark exposures.
Stacked with DSS and processed in Star tools.

So this was a interesting target and I got to practice my visual, sketching and short exposure astrophotography skills.
Maybe some night I will point the Mallincam at it for good measure!

Thanks for reading and clear skies!