My trip to Paraguay was too close to full Moon to promise any good deep sky observing. I was going to spend three or four days in Brazil after that, but the weather forecasts looked so awful that I almost left my 80mm APO at home. My Brazilian friends recommended to bring a SCUBA equipment instead - because of rain. In the end I decided that I would look at Jupiter that was high enough early in the morning from the hotel and brought the telescope with me. My attempts to find an observing spot at the hotel failed. The only access to the roof was through a window and led to a roof slope. I tried to look at Jupiter from the window - only to break the frame. But I saw two belts...
I landed in Brazil on Friday evening. It was the first clear evening in weeks. Seeing was excellent, I showed to my friends Saturn (close to the Moon), Alpha Centauri (through thin clouds) and Alpha Crucis, the views were excellent. After that I looked at poor man's Sirius - Epsilon Canis Majoris - it was very easy, even though the companion could be seen only about half of the time. Rigel was no more difficult than Mizar. I looked at Sirius: in spite of a stationary diffraction ring, I could not see the companion. I felt that it was impossible with 80mm, had I glimpsed it I would not quite believe myself.
At half past five I woke up, Jupiter was high and seeing excellent. Jupiter was very different from what I saw in September: the equatorial belt is much more pronounced now and there are a lot of festoons and plumes in EZ. GRS was not visible, but I saw a dark protrusion from SEB - I identified it as South Tropical Disturbance later. Antares showed the companion preceding (seen at times).
Next evening seeing was bad, but it was clear. I was eager to finish my long-standing observing list - Karkoschka's Sky Atlas that shows about 250 deep sky objects over the whole celestial sphere. I looked at (and showed to my friends) open clusters NGC 2516 (rich, with an orange lucida noted by Herschel), 3532 (oval, rich) and 3114 (with chains of small stars), globular cluster 2808 (grainy, concentrated) and Eta Carinae that showed only little nebulosity, but was beautiful nevertheless with a lot of stars of different magnitudes and colours in clusters of different sizes around it. After that I directly compared the Southern Pleiades, IC 2606, with M45 - in the opposite parts of the sky. Both had brilliant, young white or bluish stars; there were more stars in Pleiades, but the stars were brighter in IC 2606. The dusk was not over when the Moon rose, and I could not see planetary nebula NGC 1360.
On Sunday we had churraska, a magnificent Brazilian style barbecue. It can only be found in Brazil (and reportedly in Argentina) in all its glory, Brazilian restaurants in the US do not come close. One of the guests told me that there is a public observatory nearby, http://www.observatorio.campinas.sp.gov.br . I asked him to call and check if we can go there; they were open to the public on Sunday nights! Needless to say, in the evening we were on our way.
The state-financed observatory is very impressive; there are three domes and several buildings with roll-off roofs which contain several instruments. The biggest of them are an F5 40cm Zeiss astrograph, an F11 60cm Cassegrain (both in their domes), and an F13 50cm Zeiss Cassegrain. The latter was showing the setting Venus to the public. We looked of course, but it was not very interesting. We talked to the guy in charge (his name was Orlando), and he promised to show us around after the public hours!
Meanwhile, it was getting dark (for 45 minutes only), and I set up my refractor. This time I could easily see NGC 1360 and its central star, it was best at low power. 47 Tucanae broke into star dust. Small Magellanic Cloud could not be seen by naked eye, the western sky was still too light. I found two globular clusters NGC 362 and 419 and started to scan between them and below. I saw a lot of condensations of different size and density, IC 1660 and NGC 460 no doubt among them, but I didn't have time to try to identify them. It was very exciting! I looked at the last object in my observing plan, planetary nebula NGC 3132 in Vela that was almost star-like, and Eta Carinae nebula that was much larger and richer with detail than the last time. At this point I noticed a small cloud in the night sky, sighed and packed the refractor. We went to the 50cm scope again and looked at rising Saturn. It was boiling and not much better than in 80mm. At this point I noticed the cloud again, it was at the same place, and I realized that it was Large Magellanic Cloud! I set up the refractor again and scanned it a little, spending some time with NGC 2070, Tarantula nebula. It was pretty bright and showed a hint of detail at high power, but not much more. Then we went into one of the domes and looked at M42 in the astrograph's 15cm finder.
The public started to head to the exit, Orlando came back to us and we went to the 50cm Cassegrain. Orlando suggested to point it wherever I want and showed me the clutches and fine controls. The big telescope moved very smoothly; after a few minutes I managed to point it at LMC. First I saw in the 10cm finder NGC 2048, a 'small' extragalactic nebula, and proceeded from there to the Tarantula. It was bright and big, and had a lot of loops, of which one was brightest. It was practically a photographic view, only much, much better! I changed the 25mm Plössl to my 13mm Nagler for 500x, and the view became even better - really immersive! 40mm Plössl showed some surrounding nebulosity, but the Moon was already out and 13mm worked best. After that Orlando moved the telescope to M42 where I saw six fat stars of Trapezium. I was completely happy and allowed my friends to take me to the car and drive home. Before we left, Orlando told us that he could arrange a trip to 1.6m telescope in the state of Minas Gerais - something to think about!
Next evening was partly cloudy, but it was really dark for the first time. I looked at NGC 2477 suggested by Inge, and its neighbour 2451, packed the scope and stood there for at least half an hour, looking at the Crux/Carina area with naked eye. I could see many open clusters - IC 2602 and 2391, NGC 3114 and 2516. Eta Carinae nebula was large and bright. I looked at a grazing angle at the inner spiral arm of our galaxy winding out in space. What began as a modest attempt to look at Jupiter between the clouds, had turned to a fantastic success. I have looked in 50cm Zeiss telescope at a tremendous nebula in another galaxy, and I almost finished my all-sky Karkoschka list with only two objects left - Barnard galaxy and the Coalsack.
Dmitri
