U 363
08:20 to 09:00
-28° to -39°
Pup, Pyx, Vel

FEATURED OBJECTS: ESO370-PN009, NGC 2580, NGC 2579, NGC 2588, Cr 185, NGC 2587, Cr 187, Ru 61, ESO313-PN001, Pismis 3, ESO370-PN018, NGC 2627, NGC 2635, Ru 66, Pismis 7, ESO371-PN006, NGC 2658, Ru 68, Cr 196, Cr 198, Ru 72.

ESO370-PN009
Aker 99
RA 08:20:56
Dec -36°13.8'
Planetary nebula

NGC 2580
Cr 183
RA 08:21:42
Dec -30°17.0'
Open cluster

h: "Cluster 7th class; round, pretty rich, insulated, 10' diameter, stars 12th mag, nearly uniform."

Tom Lorenzin: “11M; 9' diameter; fairly large and rich; 40-plus 12M and dimmer members; clusters N2567, N2571 and N2587 are nearby.”

Steve Coe, observing with a 13” f/5.6, notes: “Pretty bright, pretty large, rich, somewhat compressed, 26 stars of mags 11 and lower counted at 135X. This irregularly round cluster has a very fuzzy backround of stars.”

NGC 2579
Cr 182 / BHe 13A, Gum 11
RA 08:22:11
Dec -36°24.0'
Open cluster/Bright nebula

h: "a double star, surrounded with very evident nebula which seems to belong to both stars." On a second occassion he called it "a double star, or a star and a nebula, very close and involving the star ... the field contains about 70 stars, of which 8 are about 9th mag. I cannot be quite positive that the neb extends beyond the large star, or that the small one is not a mere condensation of it. However, I remain pretty well satisfied of its investing both." His third observation was recorded as "A nebula attached to a star 12th mag, but involving it." The final record reads: "A double star (h4083) involved in pretty bright nebulosity, which seems to belong to both stars; but of the two the smaller is more nebulous; diameter 50 arcseconds; in a pretty rich patch of the milky way."

Van den Bergh and Herbst include this object as No. 13a in their Catalogue of Southern Stars Embedded in Nebulosity (Astronomical Journal, 1975), noting that it had a very high surface brightness and was very prominent on the red plates. The maximum diameter on the red plate was 1.3' whilst the blue plate measurement was 1.1'. They comment that the nebula "looks a bit like R Mon."

Steve Coe, observing with a 13” f/5.6, notes: “This object is a cluster with nebulosity. The cluster is pretty faint, large, irregularly round with lots of dim members. There where 21 stars counted at 135X. The nebula is pretty bright, pretty small, elongated 2X1 in PA 90, it is brighter on the east side. The UHC filter will enhance the contrast of the nebula.” On a second occasion he noted: “Pretty bright, pretty large, pretty rich, somewhat compressed, 28 stars counted at 150X. Installing the UHC filter brings out a faint, small round nebulosity on the south side of this nice cluster.”

NGC 2588
Cr 186
RA 08:23:11
Dec -32°58.0'
Open cluster

h: "A small faint cluster of stars 15th mag, 3' diameter, round, gbM, not very rich."

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 2.5' and the class as 2 2 p.

Steve Coe, observing with a 13” f/5.6, notes: “Pretty faint, small, somewhat compressed, 19 stars of mags 12 and lower counted at 135X.”

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 12.0 mag open cluster.

Cr 185
ESO370-SC011
RA 08:23:20
Dec -36°20.1'
Open cluster

NGC 2587
Cr 184
RA 08:23:28
Dec -29°29.0'
Open cluster

h: "A milky way cluster 7th class; irregular figure, pretty much compressed in the middle. Stars 10..13th mag, one 9th mag."

Tom Lorenzin: “10M; 6' diameter; irregular in shape; small and compressed; 30-plus 9M and dimmer members.”

Steve Coe, observing with a 13” f/5.6, notes: “Pretty faint, pretty small, somewhat compressed, 16 stars counted against a fuzzy backround at 135X.”

Cr 187
ESO431-SC009
RA 08:24:11
Dec -29°09.9'
Open cluster

Ru 61
ESO370-SC012
RA 08:25:17
Dec -34°08.8'
Open cluster

ESO313-PN001
BRABCMS 1
RA 08:30:53
Dec -38°18.1'
Planetary nebula

Pismis 3
ESO313-SC002
RA 08:31:21
Dec -38°39.3'
Open cluster

See: Varraro, G. & Ortolani, S. (1994) “Pismis 3: an unstudied old open cluster” Astron. Astroph., 291, 106-109. Abstract: “We have obtained CCD BV photometry for the open cluster Pismis 3 and a nearby field. This previosuly unstudied object appears to be rich, loose and strongly absorbed. Our analysis suggests that Pismis 3 is of intermediate age and probably metal poor. Adopting the theoretical mnetal content Z = 0.008, which proviues the best global fit, we obtain an age of about 2 Gyr. Simultaneously, a colour excess E(B-V) = 1.35 and an apparent distance modulus (m-M) = 14.70 are derived. These results put Pismis 3 about 1.5kpc distatn from the Sun. The relation of the cluster with the surrounding field is also investigated.”

ESO370-PN018
Wray 16-22
RA 08:36:16
Dec -35°15.0'
Planetary nebula

NGC 2627
Mel 87, Cr 188, Rb 74
RA 08:37:17
Dec -29°56.0'
Open cluster

Discovered in 1793 by William Herschel (H VII-063): “a large cluster of scattered small stars, iF, considerably rich.”

h: "a fine, large, rich, pretty much compressed cluster; irregularly extended, 10' long, 7' broad; stars 12 and 13th mag nearly equal."

Listed by the Herschel Club, described as “some 40 stars, nice small cluster, hard to distinguish, noting nothing special, but loosely scattered. 8-inch, 48x.”

Tom Lorenzin: “10M; 8' diameter; fairly large, faint and very rich; 80-plus 11 thru 13M members; 30' SW of 5M Zeta PYX.”

Steve Coe, observing with a 13” f/5.6, notes: “Bright, pretty large, pretty rich, pretty compressed, 32 stars of mags 11 to 13 counted at 165X. The backround is lumpy with unresolved stars. There is a nice white and light blue double star on the east side of the cluster.”

NGC 2635
Mel 89, Cr 190, Rb 76
RA 08:38:28
Dec -34°45.0'
Open cluster

h: "a pretty compressed cluster of stars, irregular triangular figure, much more compressed than milky way around it; stars 13th mag."

Ostuno calls it a small group of about 15 faint stars, and finds "high powers advantageous in bringing the members of this cluster out from the sky background."

Ru 66
ESO313-SC008
RA 08:40:32
Dec -38°04.4'
Open cluster

Pismis 7
ESO313-SC009
RA 08:41:07
Dec -38°42.3'
Open cluster

ESO371-PN006
Sanduleak 2-30
RA 08:41:08
Dec -36°02.7'
Planetary nebula

NGC 2658
Mel 90, Cr 195, Rb 77
RA 08:43:24
Dec -32°38.0'
Open cluster

This open cluster lies less than 1 degree north of Alpha Pyx. Four 6th magnitude stars form a small, distorted kite shape just above the group. It is about 9th magnitude, with three dozen or more stars scattered across its 9' diameter.

Ostuno calls it a swarm of faint stars surrounding a central knot of three or four brighter stars, and finds "high powers advantageous in bringing the members of this cluster out from the sky background."

Tom Lorenzin: “10M; 9' diameter; large, rich and irregular in shape; 60-plus 12M members; 42' N of 3M Alpha PYX.”

Steve Coe, observing with a 13” f/5.6, notes: “Pretty faint, pretty small, pretty much compressed, somewhat rich, 18 stars counted at 150X. The stars in this cluster are 12th mag and dimmer, there are several dark lanes involved.”

Ru 68
ESO371-SC012
RA 08:44:38
Dec -35°54.0'
Open cluster

Cr 196

RA 08:45:05
Dec -31°37.0'
Open cluster

Ostuno writes that it "appears as not much more than [an] undistinguished group of field stars, and may well be an asterism."

The SAC 4.0 database comments: "Asterism?"

Cr 198

RA 08:45:24
Dec -31°45.0'
Open cluster

Ru 72
ESO371-SC022
RA 08:52:05
Dec -37°36.5'
Open cluster