DSOs from Chennai apartment balcony

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The Chennai night sky has been brutal since I bought my first telescope, but I had a rare clear window some weeks ago, which is when I dragged the scope to my balcony and saw all of these:

  • NGC: 6383, 6416, 6355, 6563, 6425, 6281, 6563, 6404, 6396, 6242, 6530
  • ⁠Antalova 2
  • ⁠TR 27
  • ⁠Pismis 24
  • ⁠Trumpler 24, 26
  • ⁠M21, M23
  • ⁠Collinder 367
  • ⁠Ptolemy’s Cluster
  • ⁠Butterfly Cluster
  • ⁠Lagoon Nebula

Gear:

  • Celestron StarSense Explorer 12" Dobsonian
  • GSO Coma Corrector
  • Explore Scientific 24 + 14mm 82° eyepieces

Just shows what a 12" aperture can do even from the heart of Chennai (I live literally 200m from CMBT Bus Terminus, so you can have an idea how congested/light polluted the area is!). The scope punched through the haze and light pollution beautifully. The views weren’t the best of course, and in some cases I had to really strain my eyes to make out the object, and there were other things I thought I saw, but didn’t note them down because I wasn’t sure.

3 Likes
2

can you share the pics you captured?

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Perseverance pays off.

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Didn’t take pictures, unfortunately.

  1. Was trying to utilise the rare clear sky window to see as much as possible.
  2. My Dobsonian isn’t for astrophotography anyway. I did get a mobile phone holder, but like I said, was trying to maximise the visual window and not worry about pictures.