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Observations of object "N5139":

NGC5139 (Globular Cluster, in Centaurus)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: Vieques, Puerto Rico, United States
Light pollution: none   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Tue May 22 00:00:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1658

For that past week Steve Borer, his four adult children and one of their friends and I vacationed in Vieques Island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. While the others did their thing, Steve and I did plenty of observing of the southern skies of Vieques. The first thing we went for was the great globular cluster Omega Centauri in the constellation Centaurus. In my 10X50 binoculars Omega Centauri was about two thirds the size of the moon. We couldn't see individual stars in my binoculars but the view was as great as everyone says it is. We also observed Alpha Centauri. Our closest neighbor to the sun had a slight yellow tinge to it. To our great surprise below Centaurus was the Southern Cross. At that latitude, 18 degrees north, The Southern Cross was Lying on its side with only some of its stars showing. If we got to Vieques two or three weeks earlier we would have seen the entire Southern Cross. We also did some predawn observing. The first thing we discovered was the summer Milkyways' southern branch reaches right up to M7 the big open cluster of Scopius. We found the northern branch of the Milkyway was no match for the southern branch of the milkyway. We were able to enjoy the rifts of both branches of the Milkyway with the southern rift being more obvious. We then recieved our second great surprise. Further down the Milkyway was the Coal Sack Nebula. We were completely stunned. Another great constellation we viewed was the Southern Crown. The Southern Crown was slightly more impressive than the Northern Crown which was over our heads. M8 and M21 were beautiful because they were higher in the sky. We did many things in Vieques but astronmy in Vieques was #1.

NGC5139 (Globular Cluster, in Centaurus)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Apr 20 04:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1526

This evening, my friend Mike Dzubaty, his son Mike and I decided to go for the ultimate prize, Omega Centauri, the great southern sky globular cluster. Every spring, Omega Centauri pops three degrees above the horizon here in southern Connecticut. We started to scan the horizon with our 10X50 binoculars and ultimately found our target star Zeta Centauri. Omega Centauri was directly right of it and in our binos, it looked like a large defuse glow. We also saw many other stars in Centaurus including stars that were lower on the horizon than Omega Centauri. Omega Centauri will remain visable in the north for another four weeks or so. Also, this summer, another great southern sky object will be visable to us northerners. This is called the Southern Crown and it will be located below Sagittarius. I've observed the Southern Crown before and it is a lot easier to spot than Omega Centauri.

NGC5139 (Globular Cluster, in Centaurus)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in)
Instrument: 150-mm other   Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat May 7 22:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1230

The sight of omega centauri through my 6 inch telescope was much bright when compared to my small 2 inch refractor. Only the outermost stars were resolved as there was a little light pollution and a slight haze high above southern horizon.Along with a number of stars near it,it looked awesome.

NGC5139 (Globular Cluster, in Centaurus)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in)
Instrument: 50-mm refractor   Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed May 5 22:30:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1192

A 50 mm telescope cant resolve any globular cluster's individual stars but atleast the globulars appear as a fuzzy patch.this was the second globular i saw through my telescope accidentally after M 22 in Sagittarius,when i was searching for the galaxy NGC 5128 in the same constellation (though this galaxy is hardly visible from my scope).looking at the brightest globular in the sky was really a fantastic experience.

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