This year the months are flying by, here we are on the verge of May already!
The last week was kind to me and I managed a few hours of observing time, was a really good session and is documented HERE.
Let's take a look at the coming week and what we can expect from the night skies. This week in the DSO I have listed a target that is observable from some of the northern latitudes as well. It might not be as bright due to it being low on the horizon but give it a try.
THE MOON AND PLANETS.
With the Moon at last quarter and rising just after 1 AM tonight and then a little later each night until it reaches New Moon phase on Sunday 5 May, it will give us more dark sky to pursue, well as dark as my urban backyard will allow.
Mars is now fast fading from our views, catch it shortly after dusk before it sets in the North Western skies. Look toward the constellation Taurus to see the planet.
Jupiter is also a early evening object and is easy to spot in your Eastern evening skies, look toward the constellation Ophicuhus to see the giant planet and it's four visible moons.
Then another giant emerges a little after 10PM, look to the constellation Sagittarius in your Eastern skies to find Saturn.
Now a look at our early morning planets.
Neptune rises at about 2AM in our eastern skies in the constellation Aquarius, this will only be visible in the scope. Then we see Venus rising in the early mornings in the constellation Pisces in your eastern skies.
Mercury has long passed it's greatest elongation West and is slowing creeping closer to the Sun, it will only rise a maximum of 16° above the horizon here in Durban before the Sun rises.
So get out there and take a look at the planets!
The images below are taken from SkySafari, a link to the webpage is under the "Useful links" tabs in the right column of this blog.
DEEP SKY OBSERVING(DSO).
This week I will only suggest a single target that is actually two.
NGC 6193 and NGC 6188, a cluster embedded in an emission nebula.
NGC 6193, Open Cluster in Ara, Magnitude +5.19.
This is a nice bright cluster that contains 27 stars and is visible to the naked eye from truly dark skies.
NGC 6193 formed some 3 million years ago and is rich in close binary doubles. It is a easy pick up in the scope even under light polluted skies.
NGC 6188, Bright Nebula in Ara, Magnitude +5.19.
This nebula is located 4300 light years away, NGC 6188 is home to the Ara OB1 association, a group of bright young stars that are spread over full degree of the sky, at the heart of this association is the open cluster NGC 6139.
From my backyard this nebula needs a filter to show up and even then it is dim, I found the OIII and UHC filters to work well here.
The charts below are from Cartes Du Ceil and show a wide field chart to give you an idea of where in the night sky they are and the other shows a closer up view.
A link to the Cartes Du ceil webpages are under the "Useful links" tab in the right column of this blog.
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS).
We do not see any passes from the international space station this week. To find when next you can see a pass please click on the spot the station link under the "Useful links" tab in the right column of this blog.
Have a super week and if you have clear skies get out there and keep looking up!
