U 449
10:12 to 11:24
-61° to -72°
Car, Cen, Mus
Jan-Jul

THE BOLD NAKED-EYE Theta Carinae open cluster occupies pride of place on this far-southern map, devoted mostly to Carina, the Keel of the Ship. Theta, and Omega Carinae to the south-west, form the easternmost side of the Diamond Cross.

The sprawling Eta Carinae complex just nudges in along the northern edge, but more properly belongs to Chart 427.

FEATURED OBJECTS: ESO092-SC018, NGC 3211, Mel 101, IC 2602, Cr 236, Boch 12, IC 2621, NGC 3519, Ru 93, NGC 3576, NGC 3579, NGC 3581, NGC 3582, NGC 3584, NGC 3586, NGC 3603, IC 2714, Mel 105.

ESO092-SC018

RA 10:14:57
Dec -64°36.7'
Gcl

NGC 3211
ESO127-PN015, PK286-04.01
RA 10:17:50
Dec -62°31.2'
Pln

This planetary nebula was discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "planetary nebula, delicate, exactly round, = * 10 mag a little dim at edges; white; with 320 [power] considerably hazy. In field with at least 150 stars." His second observation records it as "perfectly round; very well defined, with a perfectly uniform light, not at all mottled; = a star 10th mag, of which brightness there are 5 or 6 more in the field, and not less than 150 others less bright. Examined by both Mr Maclear and myself with 240 [power] which shows it proportionally magnified; quite round and planetary; a little hazy at the edges, but not more so than is due to the decidedly bad definition of the night, and the imperfect figure of the mirror, which has been injured by careless polishing on too soft a polisher."

Hartung writes: "In a beautiful starry field is a small even pale blue disk about 10 arcseconds across, fairly bright with no visible central star and a single prism image. It may be picked up easily with a four-inch, but both nebula and prism image need care with a 3-inch."

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

Mel 101
ESO093-SC001, Cr 227, Rb 86
RA 10:42:10
Dec -65°05.6'
Ocl

This open cluster in Carina contains 50 stars spread out over 13' with a total magnitude of 8.0. Burnham calls it a moderately concentrated cluster of 40 faint stars. Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 15 2 2 m.

See also: Braes L L E "Photoelectric Photometry of the Galactic Cluster Mel 101" MNASSA p 16 10.15.2 The observations were made with the Cape 24-inch refractor. The author notes: "Mel 101, consisting of a rather dense group of stars fainter than about 11th visual magnitude, it situated at the southern edge of the Theta Carinae cluster. The paper includes a 16'x12' map of the cluster and a table of data for 22 cluster members with V mags between 9.73 and 12.60.

11x80: Mel 101 is visible as a ghostly presence, an irregular area of haze with a 9th mag star near the southeast edge. It competes exceptionally poorly with nearby IC 2602! (suburban skies) [AS]

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: This cluster lies just south of IC 2602, and presents a most incredible contrast to its brighter neighbour. It is about 15' across and consists of 10th mag and fainter stars. These swarm together in an irregular grouping which is clearly seen at 30x. (suburban skies) [AS]

IC 2602
Mel 102, Cr 229, Rb 87, vdBH 103
RA 10:43:11
Dec -64°23.0'
Ocl

This cluster was discovered by Lacaille and included in his 1755 catalogue as Class II No. 9. In his half-an-inch 8x telescope he described it as "Theta Argus, 3rd magnitude at least, surrounded by many 6/7/8 mag like the Pleiades."

Described in the NGC by Bailey as a "coarse cluster including Theta Carinae."

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 65' and the class as 2 3 m.

Burnham calls this cluster " a very very large, bright scattered group, 70' across, containing 30 stars brighter than 9th magnitude and an intermediate number of fainter members. Of the bright stars, 23 have spectral types of B and A; the remainder range from F0 to K5. The entire group is more than a degree in diameter, requiring wide-angle low power telescopes."

Sanford notes that the cluster somewhat resembles M7 in Scorpius in size and shape. The cluster is a member of the Scorpius-Centaurus Association.

ASV Journal Vol 24 No 3 June 1971: "Contains 'Five of Diamonds'." [This is a very fitting name for the eastern bowtie shape - AS]

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: The 10-inch shows this really splendid grouping of stars very nicely in a 1 degree field; there are 17 bright members and many more fainter stars scattered around the field. The cluster has always appeared to me to consist of two parts; an eastern group of 5 stars forming a bowtie (Orion?) shape, and the western part, dominated by Theta, having a general curved shape. The distinction between the two parts is very clear, being separated by an almost starless band, containing only three or four 10th mag stars. Melotte 101 just south presents a striking contrast. (suburban skies) [AS]

Cr 236
ESO128-SC023
RA 10:56:51
Dec -61°07.2'
Ocl

11x80: This cluster appears as an elongated milky way patch, 20'x13', well-separated from the extremely rich field. It has several 9th mag stars lie in a rich bed of tiny sparkling points. It is surprising that it appears so distinct; due in part to the greater star-density in the cluster, and also the impression that it lies within a darker (black) patch which seems to surround it. Clearly my estimate of the size includes the neightbouring 9th mag stars, since the catalogued size is only 7'.(suburban skies, dewing) [AS]

Boch 12

RA 10:57:24
Dec -61°43.0'
Ocl

IC 2621
ESO093-PN004, PK291-04.01
RA 11:00:20
Dec -65°14.9'
Pln

This stellar planetary nebula was discovered by Fleming at Harvard Observatory (No. 106). It was independently found by J. Lunt at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. He described it as "A stellar nebula found visually with the 24-inch o.g. prism. Mag 10-11. Immediately N.p. CPD -64 1588".

It is recorded in the IC as "planetary, stellar, 10.5 mag." The nebula measures 6 arcseconds across and Vorontsov-Velyaminov describes it as stellar.

Hartung writes: "This is a good example of a 'stellar' planetary nebula, only to be distinguished from the starry field by the single prism image, though with care a minute bluish disk can be made out . . as a guide, the object forms the obtuse angle of a small flat triangle with two faint stars."

Burnham reports a magnitude of 10.5 and a diameter of 2 arcseconds.

NGC 3519
ESO128-SC030
RA 11:04:06
Dec -61°22.1'
Ocl

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "Chief star of a pretty rich cluster, class VII."

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

Ru 93

RA 11:04:24
Dec -61°21.0'
Ocl

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: This cluster can be seen with some attention at 30x. It shows as a faint gathering or nebulous patch, with some stars seen. At 120x it shows as an irregularly distributed group of small stars, made up of several groupings of two or three stars, forming an irregularly shaped, dim cluster. It requires some attention to be noticed at 30x, since the milky way background is very rich. (suburban skies) [AS]

NGC 3576
ESO129-EN005
RA 11:11:32
Dec -61°21.8'
Neb

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "Faint; oval. The first of a group of six." These six are NGC 3576, 3579, 3581, 3582, 3584 and 3586.

Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII, identifies his No. 38a with this grouping. Gum 38b is NGC 3603, and he writes: "Two objects linked together with nebulosity (overall dimensions 45' x 15'). Each is of complex structure." For his 38a grouping, he gives the size as 20' x 15' and identifies the group with No. 113 in Sven Cederblad's 1946 catalogue. The combined grouping of Gum 38a + b are also known as RCW 57, which is commented with "Appears obscuration-bounded and contains bright crescent shaped region 50' x 20'."

NGC 3579
ESO129-EN008
RA 11:11:56
Dec -61°14.7'
Neb

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "Faint; oval. The first of a group of six." These six are NGC 3576, 3579, 3581, 3582, 3584 and 3586.

Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII, identifies his No. 38a with this grouping. Gum 38b is NGC 3603, and he writes: "Two objects linked together with nebulosity (overall dimensions 45' x 15'). Each is of complex structure." For his 38a grouping, he gives the size as 20' x 15' and identifies the group with No. 113 in Sven Cederblad's 1946 catalogue. The combined grouping of Gum 38a + b are also known as RCW 57, which is commented with "Appears obscuration-bounded and contains bright crescent shaped region 50' x 20'."

NGC 3581
ESO129-EN009
RA 11:11:58
Dec -61°18.3'
Neb

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "fanshaped, adhering to a star. The 3rd of 6." and also as "a star of 12th magnitude with a fan nebula attached."

The NGC records it as a "12th magnitude star with fan-shaped nebula attached, third of six." These six are NGC 3576, 3579, 3581, 3582, 3584 and 3586.

Burnham calls it a "faint, small, fanshaped nebulosity, many faint nebulous patches in field, including NGC 3582, 3584, 3579 and NGC 3586." Sanford calls it "a prominent member of a small group of nebulae in the same area as NGC 3532..."

Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII, identifies his No. 38a with this grouping. Gum 38b is NGC 3603, and he writes: "Two objects linked together with nebulosity (overall dimensions 45' x 15'). Each is of complex structure." For his 38a grouping, he gives the size as 20' x 15' and identifies the group with No. 113 in Sven Cederblad's 1946 catalogue. The combined grouping of Gum 38a + b are also known as RCW 57, which is commented with "Appears obscuration-bounded and contains bright crescent shaped region 50' x 20'."

NGC 3582
ESO129-EN010
RA 11:12:08
Dec -61°16.5'
Neb

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "An 11th magnitude star in the centre of a round nebula. The 4th of 6." and also as "round, has a star in the middle." The NGC records it as a "bright, brighter to the middle like a star, fourth of six." These six are NGC 3576, 3579, 3581, 3582, 3584 and 3586.

Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII, identifies his No. 38a with this grouping. Gum 38b is NGC 3603, and he writes: "Two objects linked together with nebulosity (overall dimensions 45' x 15'). Each is of complex structure." For his 38a grouping, he gives the size as 20' x 15' and identifies the group with No. 113 in Sven Cederblad's 1946 catalogue. The combined grouping of Gum 38a + b are also known as RCW 57, which is commented with "Appears obscuration-bounded and contains bright crescent shaped region 50' x 20'."

Hartung writes: "This is the brightest of a group of small gaseous nebulae in a rich starry field. The group is rather wedge like, about 7' x 4', with a faint star at the apex directed south. It may be regarded as one nebula with dark lanes ... Two detached faint patches lie close south; this is an interesting field but needing a fair aperture."

NGC 3584
ESO129-EN012
RA 11:12:18
Dec -61°13.2'
Neb

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "Faint, large, oval, brighter in the middle. The 5th of a group of 6." and also as "Large, brighter towards the middle, extended in meridian." These six are NGC 3576, 3579, 3581, 3582, 3584 and 3586.

Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII, identifies his No. 38a with this grouping. Gum 38b is NGC 3603, and he writes: "Two objects linked together with nebulosity (overall dimensions 45' x 15'). Each is of complex structure." For his 38a grouping, he gives the size as 20' x 15' and identifies the group with No. 113 in Sven Cederblad's 1946 catalogue. The combined grouping of Gum 38a + b are also known as RCW 57, which is commented with "Appears obscuration-bounded and contains bright crescent shaped region 50' x 20'."

NGC 3586
ESO129-EN013
RA 11:12:28
Dec -61°20.9'
Neb

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "small, oval, elonated in pos approx. 160 ; the last of a group of six." and also as "extremely faint, oval." Herschel notes that "in the first obs only 5 were noticed. In the other a 6th was seen and laid down." These six are NGC 3576, 3579, 3581, 3582, 3584 and 3586.

Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII, identifies his No. 38a with this grouping. Gum 38b is NGC 3603, and he writes: "Two objects linked together with nebulosity (overall dimensions 45' x 15'). Each is of complex structure." For his 38a grouping, he gives the size as 20' x 15' and identifies the group with No. 113 in Sven Cederblad's 1946 catalogue. The combined grouping of Gum 38a + b are also known as RCW 57, which is commented with "Appears obscuration-bounded and contains bright crescent shaped region 50' x 20'."

NGC 3603
Cr 244, Gum 38, RCW 57
RA 11:14:39
Dec -61°12.4'
Open cluster/Nebula

This interesting object was discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "A red star, 10th magnitude, the centre of an excessively condensed group of stars 15..18th mag, with a nebulosity extending over 2' diameter." On a second occasion he "Viewed the nebula ... which is a very remarkable object. The centre, when examined with powers 240 and 320, decidedly not a star, and the nebula about it all resolved. Perhaps it is a globular cluster very suddenly very very much brighter to the middle."

The nebulosity was described by Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII. He identifies his No. 38a with the grouping NGC 3576, 3579, 3581, 3582, 3584 and 3586. Gum 38b is NGC 3603, and he writes: "Two objects linked together with nebulosity (overall dimensions 45' x 15'). Each is of complex structure." He gives the size of NGC 3603 as 12' x 10' and notes that it is associated with the 9.2 mag star HD 97950. The combined grouping of Gum 38a + b are also known as RCW 57, which is commented with "Appears obscuration-bounded and contains bright crescent shaped region 50' x 20'."

Hartung notes: "This curious hazy object nearly 2' across seems to be partly gaseous as judged by the prism; there is a central star with many fainter ones clustering round it in the haze, and four-inch will show it."

Van den Bergh and Hagen ("UBV photometry of star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds", Astronomical Journal, Vol. 73, 1968) find that the integrated V magnitude through a 30'' diaphragm is 8.95. They classify it as an open cluster. They remark "Sher finds V=9.19 from observations on two nights through a 20'' diaphragm." Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 2' and the class as 1 3 m.

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: The 10-inch at 30x shows this object as dominated by a bright star. Averted vision shows the area immediately surrounding the star as nebulous. It doesn't look like a small globular cluster, because the contrast in brightness between the nebulous envelope and bright centre is too great. (suburban skies) [AS]

IC 2714
Mel 104, Cr 245, Rb 89
RA 11:17:47
Dec -62°41.0'
Ocl

This open cluster in Carina was added to the NGC by Bailey, who called it only a "cluster, pretty compressed." Burnham reports a moderately concentrated 12' diameter cluster with 150 faint stars. Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 11' and the class as 2 2 r.

ASV Journal Vol 24 No 3 June 1971: "rather difficult in 2-inch 64x."

11x80: A very distinct object, a beautiful large irregularly-round puff of light, like a frosted glass, in a ‘murky’ field of dark nebulosity. Rather like a smaller and brighter version of M46. Appears mottled. Between 10' and 15' across. Look out for its miniature, Mel 105, nearby. Has a 9th mag star very close south -- closer than the Uranometria chart 449 would have you believe. [AS]

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: This cluster contrasts nicely with Mellotte 105, which can be seen in the same low-power (30x) field. It is about 5 times larger than Mel 105, with individual stars visible. The stars are pretty scattered, making for a large, considerably faint group of dim stars, irregularly round in shape. It is quite noticeable in the 10-inch. (suburban skies) [AS]

Mel 105
ESO093-SC007, Cr 246, Rb 90
RA 11:19:40
Dec -63°29.1'
Ocl

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 4 1 3 m.

ASV Journal Vol 24 No 3 June 1971: "resembles a globular - difficult in 2-inch 64x."

11x80: Easy, looks like a tiny, reasonably bright globular cluster, or a miniature version of nearby IC 2714 - only much smaller. Surrounding field is ‘murky’ with dark nebulosity. (suburban skies) [AS]

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: Easy at 30x, appears as an irregular milky patch lying in a milky way starfield, and appears clearly separated from the background. Individual stars cannot be seen at 30x, but at 120x stars are clearly seen, and the cluster appears angular, quite small, the 15-20 members lying close together making a very tight, compact group. At low powers, they merge into an irresolvable milky mass. Nice contrast with IC 2714, which lies to the north in the same low-power field. (suburban skies) [AS]