U 450
11:24 to 12:36
-61° to -72°
Car, Cen, Cru, Mus
Jan-Jul

FEATURED OBJECTS: IC 2872, Ru 94, NGC 3766, IC 2944, IC 2948, Stock 14, IC 2966, Ru 98, NGC 4052, NGC 4071, NGC 4103, NGC 4184, NGC 4349, NGC 4463, Ru 105.

IC 2872
ESO094-EN001, RCW 60, Gum 40
RA 11:28:08
Dec -62° 59.3'
Bright nebula

This nebula was discovered photographically by R.H. Frost on plates taken with the 24-inch Bruce refractor at the Arequipa station of Harvard Observatory. It is described in the NGC as "very large, much elongated, brighter in the middle."

Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII, lists this object as Gum 40. He gives the size as 12' x 4' and the intensity, or "visibility in the particular section of the Milky Way in which the object occurs" is rated as "faint" on a scale of vf - f - mb - b - vb. He notes that it may be associated with the 9.3 mag B8 star HD 99898, and adds that it corresponds to No. 115 in Sven Cederblad's 1946 catalogue. In his Notes to the catalogue he says: "This fragment may be associated with Gum 39."

In the catalogue of southern emission regions by Rodgers, Campbell and Whiteoak (1960), they compare their RCW 60 with IC 2872 and both Gum 39 and Gum 40. They described a large nebula, 50' x 50', centred at 11h 26.5m 32 30' (1950.0). They note that it is an outlying part of the Lambda Centauri nebula, which contains two bright regions: one at 11h 28.8m -62 37' (2000.0) which measures 21' x 18', (most probably Gum 39) and a second at 11h 28.8m -62 58' (2000.0) which measures 15' x 10' (most likely Gum 40, IC 2872). Gum 39, according to the author, appears as "half a disk. HD 99897 [8.6 mag B5] although towards the edge of the nebula would be at the centre of the disk if it were completed. The spectrum is B5 but deserves reclassification."

Ru 94
ESO094-SC002
RA 11:30:37
Dec -63° 26.2'
Open cluster

11x80: Not found. (suburban skies, Full Moon) [AS]

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: As seen at 30x, this cluster looks like a more distant version of NGC 2437, M46. The cluster members are very faint, brightest about 10th magnitude. It shows as a field of finely sprinkled dim stars, but is nevertheless easily visible at low powers. Averted vision shows it more prominently, making for an attractive sight. (suburban skies) [AS]

NGC 3766
Mel 107, Cr 248, Rb 92
RA 11:36:05
Dec -61° 35.0'
Open cluster

This cluster was discovered by Lacaille and included in his 1755 catalogue as Class III No. 7. In his half-an-inch 8x telescope he saw it as "three faint stars in nebulosity."

Dunlop 289: "A pretty large cluster of stars of mixt magnitudes, about 10' diameter. The greater number of the stars are of a pale white colour. There is a red star near the preceding side; another of the same size and colour near the following side; another small red star near the centre; and a yellow star near the south following extremity, all in the cluster."

h: "the preceding of two chief stars of a fine, large, loose, round cluster of stars 8..12th mag; gradually pretty much brighter in the middle, fills field; 150..200 stars." His second observation recorded "A very fine cluster class VII; nearly round, 8' diameter, slightly compressed in the middle, stars of 9..15th magnitude; place that of an orange star 9..10th mag following the centre."

Hartung calls it a "fine scattered cluster with broad central condensation [which] is effective even for small apertures. It is at least 15' across, merging into a rich field with a pattern of star loops giving a lobed appearance and containing orange, yellow, white and bluish stars."

Burnham calls it a pretty large, pretty rich compact cluster, 12' across, containing about 60 stars of 8..13th magnitude, including Inness 421, a double star of 7th and 10th mag components 1.5 arcseconds distant in PA 117 .

Harrington writes that "smaller instruments show this open cluster as a very pretty, compact swarm of stars buried within the nebulous glow of fainter suns. A 6-inch telescope resolves about 80 stars of 7th to 13th mag set in an arrowhead. The brighter stars - some appearing golden, others bluish - form an arc across the cluster's northern perimeter."

Gerd Bahr-Vollrath (Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia) writes in the The Webb Society Nebulae and Clusters Section Report No. 11, January 1993: "Fairly large, rich and bright. Set in a dense and rich region of the southern Milky Way, it is difficult to tell how many stars actually belong to the cluster. My guess is about 60, these ranging from mag 8 downwards. Many apparent chains and loops of stars make NGC 3766 a very attractive cluster. (8-inch f/12 SCT)"

10x50: Small bright triangle, very distinct from background. Seven brighter members can be resolved in the cluster. Taken together with the surrounding star field, forms a 2-shaped asterism (suburban skies, dew) [RH]

11x80: Magnificent! A beautiful tight grouping of stars; grander version of nearby 4103. Lies in a rich field; part of a four-degree long snaking chain of bright stars. Due north of the cluster is a nice triangle of 7th mag stars.
The triangular cluster appears like a lop-sided Jewelbox (elongated 2.5 : 1, pointing northwest). Three bright stars in a narrow triangle, with stars scattered between them irregularly. The two stars forming the northern edge of the triangle are a remarkable deep red. At least 15 stars can be make out as fine points of light, and averted vision shows surrounding glow of many more.
Chains! A short chain of about five stars, starting north of the cluster, crosses the northern leg of the triangle and then, inside the triangle, appears to curve back, forming a stretched S-shaped chain.
Rui Henriques pointed out that the long snake-like curve of field stars can be made to look quite like a “2” - this asterism lies between 11:48 and 11:46, -61 and -63.5; contains Lambda Cen in the tip. (suburban skies) [AS]

4-inch f/15 Unitron refractor: A beautiful, 9 arcmin, scattering of bright and faint stars, well resolved in the 42x sweeper eyepiece. Shares this wide field with very bright stars (two west-ish, one east). The 25 arcmin field of the K18-eyepiece frames the cluster perfectly, showing a wonderfully intricate grouping of large and small stars - sketch made. The cluster has a vague oblong shape, north-east to south-west. Very rich, and large brightness range - six or so bright stars in the grouping, filled in by a host of smaller ones. There are two distinct orange stars - one on north-east and the other on south-west edge of cluster. (suburban skies) [AS]

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: A wonderful tight compact grouping in a rich field filled with bright stars. The cluster sports two red beacons on opposite sides. At 30x, direct vision shows about thirty stars, but averted vision brings out the fainter members, filling in the empty spaces, resulting in a fine sprinkling of large and small stars making up this very rich cluster. At 120x the cluster is framed beautifully, showing it to be very rich in small 10th mag and fainter stars. (suburban skies) [AS]

IC 2944
Cr 249
RA 11:36:42
Dec -63° 00.0'
Open cluster

This object was discovered photographically by R.H. Frost on plates taken with the 24-inch Bruce refractor at the Arequipa station of Harvard Observatory. It is described in the NGC as a star of magnitude 3.4 (Lambda Cen) within an extremely large nebula. Modern catalogues view IC 2944 as an open cluster associated with the nebula IC 2948.

Cluster includes the multiple Inness 422. The latter star has three components, closely situated, of magnitudes 7.5, 10 and 12.

A. D. Thackeray, in MNASSA Vol 15, p20, March 1956 wrote an article "IC 2944 - An O-type Association" and concludes that "IC 2944 [stars and nebulosity] represents an O type association and that its distance probably exceeds 2 kpc, consdierably greater than previous estimates. Such associations are commonly regarded as 'tracers' for spiral arms within the galaxy. This result emphasises the need for accurate classifications and absolute magnitudes before reliable tracings of arms can be carried out."

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

11x80: Not found. (suburban skies, Full Moon) [AS]

IC 2948
RCW 62, Gum 42
RA 11:37:20
Dec -63° 10.6'
Bright nebula

This nebula was discovered photographically by R.H. Frost on plates taken with the 24inch Bruce refractor at the Arequipa station of Harvard Observatory. The open cluster IC 2944 is associated.

In the catalogue of southern emission regions by Rodgers, Campbell and Whiteoak (1960), they call RCW 62 the "main Lambda Cen nebula, which is of uneven intensity." They give its size as 80' x 80' and call it "bright."

Colin S. Gum, in A Survey of Southern H II Regions published in the RAS Memoirs, Vol. LXVII, lists this object as Gum 42. He gives the size as 75' x 50' and the intensity, or "visibility in the particular section of the Milky Way in which the object occurs" is rated as "bright" on a scale of vf - f - mb - b - vb. He notes that it corresponds to No. 118 in Sven Cederblad's 1946 catalogue. He placed it in Class II(IV) of his classification system of nebulae; Class II contains objects "irregular in shape with associated dark matter..." and Class IV contains "fainter objects in which the emission is concentrated in a ring or in a incomplete ring." He explains this in his Notes to the catalogue: "Class II with Class IV tendency. The central portion has been photographed by Thackeray. Early type stars within the nebula are [the second column contains photographic magnitude]:
HD 101008 9.0 B3
HD 101131 7.0 B3
HD 101190 7.2 B3
HD 101191 8.4 B2
HD 101205 6.7 B2
HD 101298 7.6 B3
HD 101413 8.2 B3
HD 101436 7.5 B3.

Stock 14
Ld 465/466/467
RA 11:43:47
Dec -62° 31.4'
Open cluster

4-inch f/15 Unitron refractor: Lies east of a 6th mag star. All I see is a vague Circinus-shaped grouping of four stars. This is just a smidge too far south of the place on the Uranometria, which has the cluster more north -there, I see nothing. (suburban skies) [AS]

IC 2966
ESO094-EN008, BHe 56
RA 11:50:11
Dec -64° 52.3'
Bright nebula

This reflection nebula was discovered photographically by Frost, who described it in the NGC only as "pretty large, brighter towards the middle." Van den Bergh and Herbst include this object as No. 56 in their Catalogue of Southern Stars Embedded in Nebulosity (Astronomical Journal, 1975), noting that it had a high surface brightness and was equally bright on both the red and blue plates. The maximum diameter on the red plate was 2.4' whilst the blue plate measurement was 2.6'.

Ru 98
ESO094-SC009
RA 11:58:40
Dec -64° 35.1'
Open cluster

11x80: Suburban skies: Has a bright star to the northeast, which forms the tip of a triangular-shaped region of 8-9th mag and fainter stars. The cluster lies near the apex of the triangle, near the bright stars. Not sure if I saw any cluster members, since the area is rich in faint stars. The whole triangular grouping plus bright star make an attractive sight.
Exurban skies, dew: Lies between a 7th mag star and a small gathering of stars. Appears as a nebulous patch, mottled but easy to spot. [AS]

NGC 4052
Cr 251
RA 12:01:53
Dec -63° 10.0'
Open cluster

h: "Cluster VII class; loose and scattered, but pretty rich."

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 10' and the class as 2 2 mE. The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 9.0 mag open cluster.

11x80: Full Moon: Not found. No Moon: In a bright, busy starfield lies Theta-1 and Theta-2 Crucis, and just close by lies this dim grouping. No member stars are seen, but averted vision shows a pretty large field richly strewn with faint stars. Looks like an elongated, mottled piece of Milky Way. Best seen with averted vision. (suburban skies) [AS]

NGC 4071
ESO094-PN012, PK298-04.01
RA 12:04:11
Dec -67° 18.3'
Planetary nebula

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "vF, R, 40 arcseconds, has a vS star in centre; in a field of at least 80 or 90 stars."

NGC 4103
Mel 109, Cr 252, Rb 94
RA 12:06:40
Dec -61° 13.0'
Open cluster

Dunlop 291: "a cluster of small stars of mixt magnitudes, irregular figure, about 6' long and 4' broad."

h: "rich, large, irregularly round cluster; poor VI or rich VII, stars 10..14 mag; diam 5' with stragglers." His second observation was made under less than ideal conditions: "cluster of stars class VII, pretty rich and compact, stars 10..12 mag, and nearly equal; diameter 5'; the whole field is in a state of wavy fluctuation, owing to the SE wind, and so bad that each star is dilated into a large puff ball." The next sweep recorded it as "A 10th mag star in centre of a pretty rich close custer; 5' diameter; irregularly round; stars 10..13 mag."

Hartung notes that this "open star gathering about 6' across with little central condensation lies in a beautiful region sown with stars; it is well suited to a large field and effective with small apertures. There is a marked pattern of straight and curved lines of stars."

ASV Journal Vol 24 No 3 June 1971: "nice cluster in 4-inch 64x."

10x50: Small cluster, but stands out; faint curve of stars in the cluster, cluster surrounded by four 6th magnitude stars. (suburban skies, dew) [RH]

11x80: An easy star-hop from Acrux, this obvious cluster appears as a bright 6’ partially resolved triangular knot of stars in a rich milky way field, to the south-east of a large triangle of 7-8th mag stars (mini-TrA; two corners are near uneven doubles). I cannot convincingly resolve the stars, which form a tight mass, although the southwestern side appears mottled. The three stars of the triangle, as well as an 8th mag star west-northwest of the cluster are clearly orange. No single star dominates the grouping, and there are no open spaces. Cluster surrounded by a rich sprinkling of field stars. [AS]

4-inch f/15 Unitron refractor: Prominent milky way cluster. In sweeper (42x) eyepiece, about a dozen stars made out it in about 6 arcmin area, set betwixt bright field stars. Very rich cluster; arrangement of the stars dominated by two chains, oriented west-east, and a third inner chain; other starlets are scattered between. (The west-most chain in a crossbow shape) Modest brightness range. Appears distinct from the background due to the structure these chains impose on the eye. Dark areas do not impress as such, and are not insulated. (suburban skies) [AS]

6-inch f/8.6 Newtonian: A bright cluster just outside Crux, towards the Centaurus border. With the sweeping power, it is bright and spread out. The stars are irregularly concentrated, with the brightest members arranged like a crossbow. About a dozen stars in all, and then some fainter ones are scattered in an area 7.5 arcmin across (at least 30 stars counted). No really obvious starless zones. Individual stars too faint in this aperture for colour to be seen. (exurban skies) [AS]

NGC 4184
ESO130-SC010
RA 12:13:31
Dec -62° 42.5'
Open cluster

Discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "Cluster class VI; vF, almost nebulous."

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

NGC 4349
Mel 110, Cr 255, Rb 95
RA 12:24:23
Dec -61° 52.0'
Open cluster

Dunlop 292: "a pretty cluster of extremely small stars, resembling a pretty large faint nebula, about 6' or 7' diameter: the compression is very gradual to the centre; a pretty bright star is in the following side of the cluster, round figure."

Observed by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it during Sweep No. 432 as a "fine rich cluster which fills field." His second observation recorded it as "a large loose cluster of small stars 12..14th mag; irregularly round; not very rich; little compressed in the middle; diam. 10'." His final observation was recorded as "cluster class VI. Very large, very bright, A star about 8..9 mag taken but the brightest part of the cluster is about 4' N.p. Fills field; not much compressed in the middle; stars 12..13th mag; This cluster was found by Mr Maclear in this sweep made with him, not being aware at the time of its having been seen in Sweep 432."

Hartung writes: "In a fine field this beautiful cluster of fairly bright stars is about 20' across; it is open but rich, the stars in small groups, and makes a delicate object in a large field with a four-inch telescope."

Houston, observing with a 6-inch RTF, writes: "NGC 4349 seems to have been particularly impressive. Over 100 stars filled an area 15' in diameter."

ASV Journal Vol 24 No 3 June 1971: "good cluster of faint stars in 5-inch 64x."

10x50: Average size, distinguishable glow from background, 2 very faint members resolved. (suburban skies) [RH]

11x80: Full Moon: Not found; can see two 9m stars to south-east, one of which *might* be extended to the north-west -- very difficult.
Dark moon: Dim but interesting cluster north of Acrux. Diffuse indistinct glow, has a small star in the south-east tip, with the faint cluster stars making an extended glow away from the star to the north-west, looking very much like a comet with bright nucleus. Quite remarkable. (R Cru nearby to the north not definitely red) (suburban skies) [AS]

4-inch f/15 Unitron refractor: Ghostly irregular round glow, best seen with averted vision if the sweeper eyepiece (42x) is used. Like a large patch of frosted starlight. With the K18 eyepiece (83x, 25’): one 9th mag star on the edge of an extremely rich glow of very faint to extremely faint stars. Of these, the brighter members are in small groups, irregularly scattered about. Tried higher powers, but the light too dim - gimme a 25-inch refractor! (suburban skies) [AS]

6-inch f/8.6 Newtonian: A beautiful soft cluster 12 arcmin wide, composed of innumerable tiny stars in an irregular grouping. The cluster is clearly distinguished from the background. There is no evident concentration, the members being evenly spread out into a glow with no chains or spaces. Besides a brighter star on the southern edge, all members are equally dim. The grouping is more defined on the western edge. Look for the orange variable R Crucis lies to the north. (exurban skies) [AS]

NGC 4463
Cr 260
RA 12:29:53
Dec -64° 46.0'
Open cluster

h: "Cluster VIII class; poor; scattered. The northern of two stars 8th mag taken."

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 5' and the class as 1 3 p.

ASV Journal Vol 24 No 3 June 1971: "small U-shaped cluster."

11x80: On the Musca-Crux border, within a beautiful field of dark nebulosity lies this very small cluster. It shows as a tight knot of stars with a close pair of 9th mag stars dominating. The nebulous nature is apparent when sweeping. (suburban skies, dewing) [AS]

4-inch f/15 Unitron refractor: In sweeper eyepiece (38’) two 9th mag stars, lying roughly north-south, in nebulosity. This tiny cluster appears quite lost in the (large) field of view, but its haziness makes it easily seen. Closer attention (72x) shows a coarse cluster, about 5 arcmin across, of large and small stars. Fainter stars lie to the west of the two brighter ones (which show no colour). Using up to 214x on the cluster, not many more stars seen. Sketch made, showing about a dozen stars. (suburban skies) [AS]

Ru 105
ESO131-SC012
RA 12:34:13
Dec -61° 34.1'
Open cluster

11x80: (suburban skies) On the map, this cluster is positioned between stars in a rich field. Averting vision on this spot shows only an elongated rich milky way background - not at all clear if this is the cluster or not. (pristine skies, Sutherland) Looked for this one with attention; position easy to confirm, amid 7th mag stars; after some time, perhaps imagined as a round glow? (suburban skies) [AS]

10-inch f/5 Newtonian: This cluster is a very doubtful find: a 10-inch f/5 with a 40mm eyepice shows a vacant patch of sky; an 18mm eyepiece shows a fair-sized area of sky, sprinkled with very fine stars, but not at all clear or distinct. (suburban skies) [AS]

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"Deepsky Observers Companion" (http://www.global.co.za/~auke) Copyright 1998 Auke Slotegraaf. All rights reserved. Uranometria 2000.0 copyright (c) 1987-1996 Willmann-Bell, Inc. Page last updated 1998 March 01