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List of Suggested Targets

Once you have booked your Live Observing slot, you can plan out what you’d like to see in the sky! The location of your telescope will depend on whether you have a morning (am) slot or afternoon (pm) slot. Morning slots are for Faulkes Telescope South in Australia. Afternoon slots are for Faulkes Telescope North in Hawaii.

After checking the location, you then need to choose your targets. We have given some suggestions on this page. Each one has been chosen because of their size (to fit the camera's frame of view) and position in the sky (so they'll be visible throughout the entire 30-minute session).

Here's an explanation of each table column:

Target Name

This is the name of the object. The letters usually stand for a catalogue of some kind (e.g. M being Messier, NGC being New Galactic Catalogue), and the number is just the object’s place in the catalogue.

Any other names for the object are given in brackets.

Classification

This tells you what the object is (e.g. star cluster, nebula, galaxy).

There might also be some extra information about it's classification. For example, the star cluster may be globular or open.

Image

This gives an idea of what the object looks like. Where possible, these have been taken with the telescopes available in the Live Observing sessions (which are credited to Las Cumbres Observatory). Some are taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and have been processed into 3 colour images. You won't see these colours when using the telescopes in your Live Observing sessions.

Note: images are not a true indication of what you will observe. There are many factors (such as weather, moon phase, light pollution, etc.) that can affect the observing conditions from night to night. 

Viewable Site/s

This tells you which location (Australia and/or Hawaii) the target will be visible from.

Remember to check the time of your Live Observing slot to know where your telescope is based – morning (am) slots for Australia and afternoon (pm) slots for Hawaii.

Right Ascension

Part of a celestial coordinate system that lets us measure the locations of objects in the sky. It is a set of three numbers: the first is given in hours, then minutes, and the last is seconds.

For simplicity, these have been left out of the table below and the numbers are separated with a colon. This is how the right ascension needs to be inputted on the Real-time Interface (if using manual mode - read the Guidance for Live Observing for more information).

Declination

Part of a celestial coordinate system that lets us measure locations of objects in the sky. It is a set of three numbers: the first is given in degrees, then arcminutes, and the last is arcseconds.

For simplicity, these have been left out of the table below and the numbers are separated with a colon. This is how the declination needs to be inputted on the Real-time Interface (if using manual mode - read the Guidance for Live Observing for more information).

Exposure Time (s)

This is how long the camera needs so it can take a good image. It is measured in seconds (s).

Enough light must be collected so that we can see the object. Faint, far away objects will have a longer exposure time than objects that are bright and closer to Earth.

The exposure times are the same for each filter - red, green, and blue. For example, suppose an object has an exposure time of 30 seconds. You would input that into the exposure time for the red filter, green filter, and blue filter.

These pictures are taken simultaneously. So, going back to the example object, you won't need to wait 1 minute and 30 seconds to have all 3 images. Once the telescope has found the object, the camera begins exposing, and the red, green, and blue pictures will have been taken after 30 seconds. You'll be able to view these when they've been processed.

Read the Guidance for Live Observing for more information about taking and viewing images. 

Check the exposure times and decide the number of targets for your session. You’ll also want to look at your images – even if only quickly – when they’re ready to view, so factor this into your planning as well. And remember that the telescope can sometimes take a few minutes to move from one object to another, depending on where it is in the sky.

But it is always better to have too many targets than not enough! If you don’t get to see everything, you can always book another session.

 

Target NameClassificationImageViewable Site/sRight AscensionDeclinationExposure Time (s)

NGC 6744

 

Spiral Galaxy

 

A spiral galaxy angled face-on against a black background with white dots of stars. The galaxy has a small, circular, bright, white centre and dusty grey spiral arms sweeping around it.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope South) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International

Australia

 

19:09:46.13-63:51:26.9180
NGC 1232 (Eye of God Galaxy)Spiral Galaxy
A spiral galaxy angled face-on against a black background with white dots of stars. The galaxy has a small, circular, bright, white centre and dusty grey spiral arms sweeping around it.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope South) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Australia3:09:45.51-20:34:45.48120
NGC 1365 (Great Barred Spiral Galaxy)Double-Barred Spiral Galaxy
A spiral galaxy angled face-on against a black background with white dots of stars. The galaxy has a small, circular, bright, white centre with a bar-like structure, and two dusty grey spiral arms sweeping upwards and downwards.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope South) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Australia3:33:36.46-36:08:26.37120
NGC 6584Globular Star Cluster
Lots of stars against a black background. Each star is a dot of varying sizes, and colours varying from white to orange to yellow. Though some are scattered around the edges of the image, most are concentrated in the centre which glows brightly as a result.
This work by Sloan Digital Sky Survey is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Australia18:18:37.6-52:12:56.830
M54Globular Star Cluster
Lots of stars against a black background. Each star is a dot of varying sizes. The colours are mostly white with a few more yellowish. Though some are scattered around the edges of the image, most are concentrated in the centre which glows brightly as a result.
This work by Sloan Digital Sky Survey is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Australia18:55:03.33-30:28:47.515
NGC 1097Barred Spiral Galaxy
A bright white circle glows in the centre. There is a grey fuzziness around the circle, stretching towards the upper right and lower left, with a small curl at either end. The background is black with a few dots of white stars. Towards the upper right is a small, fuzzy, white blob.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Australia2:46:19.06-30:16:29.68180
NGC 1313 (Topsy Turvy Galaxy)Irregular Galaxy
A spiral galaxy against a black background with some small dots of stars. The centre of the galaxy, in the middle of the image, appears almost like a thick, white, vertical line. A spiral arm extends away towards the left and the right, with fuzzy grey around the galaxy's centre and spiral arms.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope South) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Australia3:18:16.05-66:29:53.74180
M1 (The Crab Nebula)Supernova Remnant
A cloud in the shape of an elongated, stretched oval (pointing towards upper right and lower left corners) sits in the middle of the image against a black background with small dots of white stars. The cloud is various shades of grey and white.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope North) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Hawaii5:34:31.822:01:03180
NGC 2359 (Thor's Helmet)Nebula
A wispy, grey cloud-like shape against a black background with small dots of white stars. The cloud is circular in the middle, and has two protrusions pointing towards the upper and lower right.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope South) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Hawaii7:18:30-13:13:36200
M82 (Cigar Galaxy)Starburst Galaxy
An elongated white oval pointing towards the upper left and lower right of the image. There are some squiggly lines in different shades of grey and thicknesses that cross over the shape. The background is black with small white stars dotted around.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope North) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Hawaii09:55:52.4369:40:46.93180
M100 (Mirror Galaxy)Spiral Galaxy
A spiral galaxy angled face-on against a black background with white dots of stars. The galaxy has a small, circular, bright, white centre and dusty grey spiral arms sweeping around it.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope North) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Hawaii12:22:54.9315:49:20.30120
M66Spiral Galaxy
A spiral galaxy angled face-on against a black background with white dots of stars. The galaxy has a small, circular, bright, white centre, and two dusty grey spiral arms sweeping upwards and downwards.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope North) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Hawaii11:20:1512:59:29120
NGC 1931Open Star Cluster (with Nebulosity)
A grey, sphere-shaped, cloudy nebula against a black background with small dots of white stars. Slightly to the left of centre is a small, bright, white patchy area with the cloud around being shades of light grey. The nebula is darker grey towards the bottom and bottom-right of the image.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope North) is licensed under All rights reserved
Hawaii5:31:22.834:13:5990
M78Reflection Nebula
A circular shaped nebula against a black background with some white dots of stars scattered around and inside the nebula as well. A few shine brightly inside the nebula. The nebula is in various shades of grey.
This work by Las Cumbres Observatory (taken with Faulkes Telescope North) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International
Hawaii5:46:45.80:4:45.1230