U 374
15:40 to 16:20
-28° to -39°
Lib, Lup, Sco

FEATURED OBJECTS: NGC 5986, NGC 6026, NGC 6072, ESO389-PN009, ESO389-PN014, ESO451-PN013, NGC 5998.

NGC 5986
Dun 552, GCL-37, ESO329-SC018
RA 15:46:06
Dec -37°46.4'
Globular cluster

Dunlop 552 "a beautiful round pretty bright nebula, about 2' diameter, pretty well defined."

h: "globular, vB, R, vgbM, diam in RA 10 seconds; all stars; a star 10th mag follows centre four seconds, and is involved; three stars 13th mag in middle." On a second occassion he called it "globular, fine object, pgbM, diam 15 seconds, composed to distinct stars 13..15th mag, one star 10th mag is eccentric, and 3 of 13th mag in centre nearly."

Houston notes that this globular "is about 10' in diameter and bright at 7th magnitude ... I have seen it with the 4-inch Clark, and some of its stars can be resolved with a 6-inch."

Tom Lorenzin: "8M; 5' diameter; fairly large, bright and round with brighter center; barely resolved into a few 13M stars against diffuse background glow."

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Pretty bright, pretty large, elongated, arrowhead shape, resolved at 135X, with a pretty bright star at the edge."

11x80: “pB, 1' across, R, without a nucleus; a hazy disk with a narrow fringe. Easy to see; located between two bright stars, one of which is h Lup.” (urban; seeing good; transparency below average; dew) [AS]

8-inch Newtonian, 66x: "A prominent globular cluster at 33x. The nucleus is big and it is surrounded by a faint halo. Two stars, one in the north-following halo border, and a faint one in the north-preceding nucleus border, are seen, but occasionally they disappear. Estimated size 3' to 4' in diameter." (suburban skies) [GG]

NGC 5998

RA 15:49:24
Dec -28°36.0'
Nonexistent

Discovered in 1786 by William Herschel (H VII-029) "a cluster of vS stars, pretty rich, 6' long, 4' broad, in the form of a parallelogram."

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a nonexistent object. Their coded description reads NOCL S.

NGC 6026
ESO389-PN007, PK341+13.01
RA 16:01:20
Dec -34°32.6'
Planetary nebula

h: "F, S, R, 15 arcseconds, gpmbM. There are three stars forming a triangle about 60 degrees, N.p. the nebula."

This planetary is discussed in PASP Vol 67, No 399, December 1955 p418 by Gerard de Vaucouleurs. He notes: "In the course of a survey of bright southern galaxies with teh 30-inch Reynolds reflector of the Australian Commonwealth Observatory, a photograph of NGC 6026 was obtained. This nebula is listed in the Shapley-Ames Catalogue as an elliptical galaxy of dimensions 1' x 0.8' and photographic magnitude 12.5. Its appearance - bright central star and hexagon-shaped atmosphere - and location suggested that it might be a galactic planetary nebula rather than an external galaxy . . . A direct photo taken in red light with the Crossley reflector shows the nebula as in incomplete elliptical ring reminiscent of M57 and having dimensions 0.9' x 0.6'." The article has a 30'x30' finding chart taken from a 20-inch astrograph plate and a 2'x2' sketch of the nebula from the red-light Crossley plate.

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Faint, pretty large, just a dim dot with a faint central star at 135X. Averted vision helps the contrast with this object.

ESO389-PN009
Longmore 11
RA 16:03:20
Dec -36°00.8'
Planetary nebula

ESO389-PN014
Longmore 12
RA 16:08:25
Dec -37°08.7'
Planetary nebula

ESO451-PN013
Longmore 13
RA 16:09:44
Dec -30°55.0'
Planetary nebula

NGC 6072
ESO389-PN015, PK342+10.01
RA 16:12:58
Dec -36°17.3'
Planetary nebula

h: "pF, R, vgvlbM, 1', with left eye slightly mottled, but not resolved."

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 14.0 mag planetary nebula.

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Pretty bright, large, round, not brighter in the middle, greenish at 165X. The magnitude given for this object is 14, I estimate it to be much brighter, approximately 12th mag."