Sky and Telescope - May 2018 - 67

In summary, our top three visual southern objects were
Omega Centauri, Centaurus A, and 47 Tuc. It's no surprise
that two of them are globular clusters. Indeed, these massive
aggregates of stars, when viewed with large telescopes from a
truly dark location, gained a lot and become more comparable
to long-exposure photographs. Centaurus A, on the other
hand, looked exactly like it does in popular photographs - a
rare situation for galaxies viewed through the telescope.
In addition to the typical southern targets, we could see all
the deep-sky objects of Sagittarius and Scorpius close to the
zenith during July and August from Arkaroola. These usually require binoculars in Europe, but they suddenly became
naked-eye targets! At the end of the night, our familiar
winter constellation, Orion, and its bright M42 nebula could
be seen at an altitude not possible from Europe or the continental United States. This, combined with the extremely good
weather conditions in Arkaroola, made it possible for us to
view the nebula directly in living color!
One night we tried for one of the difﬁcult objects of the
Northern Hemisphere, the famous Helix Nebula (NGC

t WORTH THE TRIP The
Eta Carinae Nebula tops the
list of "most desired targets"
for almost every amateur
astronomer, but at a declination of -60º, it requires
northern observers to hit the
road to see it. This stunning
view was captured with forty
5-minute exposures with a
DSLR mounted on an 80-mm
apochromatic refractor.

ion galaxies of the Big Bear, M81 and M82, and the Great
Andromeda Galaxy (M31). The latter can be seen from Arkaroola, but it's very low on the horizon, while it's a magniﬁcent binocular object when close to the zenith from northern
latitudes (August-October). So, the southern skies seem to
have more, and more interesting, objects to offer stargazers.
The other clear advantage of the southern skies is that the
entire shape of the Milky Way is better seen during the long
nights of the Australian winter.
Of course, we didn't leave out Saturn, which was ruling
the zenith with Scorpius in July-August 2016. Through the
16-inch Dob, the ringed planet was steadier and sharper than
we had ever seen it before. The Cassini division was apparent all the way around, and one could clearly see seven bands
on the planet's "surface" in color. A simple Dobsonian was
enough - no need to use the expensive 15-cm APO.
After 17 days of pure astronomical pampering at Arkaroola, we returned to Adelaide, where boarded our plane to
ﬂy back to Europe via Doha. We were very pleased with our
astro-vacations in the Southern Hemisphere and promised

u DOUBLE THE FUN The
Magellanic Clouds, Large
and Small, are members of
the Local Group and orbit
our own Milky Way Galaxy.
Separated by 21º on the
sky, the duo is visible to
the naked eye. A telescope
reveals not just more of the
galaxies' structure, but a
wealth of deep-sky objects
to explore as well.

7293). We located the object with the 16-inch and 31-mm
eyepiece. We were, however, a bit confused, because at about
50× magniﬁcation and a very wide ﬁeld of 1.6°, the object
appeared too big for the planetary nebula, and the expected
"donut" shape didn't seem to have a hollow. We exchanged
the eyepiece for the Ethos 17-mm (88×), and we're happy to
report that the Helix returned to its normal donut shape.
Later the same night we tried for another stunning object
hardly visible from latitude 50° north, where it lies about
7° degrees above the horizon. This was the famous Great
Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253), also known as Silver Coin
Galaxy. From Arkaroola, it was almost at the zenith. What an
amazing, detailed view we had using the 16-inch Dob with
the 17-mm Ethos. The same could be said for our view of the
nearby, smaller Milkweed Seed Galaxy (NGC 247).
We wondered: Which splendid northern deep-sky objects
cannot be seen from here? It appears that only three such
objects could be named without doubt: the two compan-

ourselves we'd return one day to experience the Australian
wilderness together with truly dark skies.

¢ JURIJ STARE is an experienced astrophotographer who
runs a software firm dealing with GIS in Slovenia. He's also an
activist for the International Dark-Sky Association. ZBIGNIEW
ZEMBATY is a professor at Opole University of Technology in
Poland, where he conducts research in civil engineering and
geophysics. A life-long amateur astronomer, he uses a 20-inch
Dobsonian for visual observations. Whenever possible, he
travels to stargaze from remote locations with truly dark skies.
FURTHER READING: For more astro images taken from Arkaroola by Jurij Stare, see https://is.gd/AustraliaObserving.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e . c o m * M AY 2 0 1 8

https://www.is.gd/AustraliaObserving http://www.skyandtelescope.com

Sky and Telescope - May 2018

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