Constellation tour in Winter
Eridanus & Fornax (The Furnace)


Click on image to enlarge

Date & Time: Dec 12 2020, from 22:12 to 22:40 JST(+0900)
Composed 8 shots with 4 minutes exposed
Optical: TAMRON 17-35mm Di OSD (f=17mm, stop: F4.0)
with IDAS LPS-P2-FF & Kenko Softon Clear filters
Auto-guided with Kenko SKYMEMO Equatorial
Digital Camera: Canon EOS 550D (Remodeled)
Location: Ooizumi, Hokuto city, Yamanashi pref.

Camera Settings: Recording Format...14bit CCD-RAW, converted to 16bit TIFF(5184×3456)
Sensitivity...ISO800




Astroarts StellaNavigator
"Eridanus" is a name of river in the Greek mythology. The river starts at the left foot of Orion, at Rigel, in the north, flows southward meandering a few times, and ends far to the south at Achernar, meaning the end of river. The star, alpha Eri is bright over the first magnitude, and is only visible in latitudes south of 33 degrees, which eliminates most of Japan.
The story of Eridanus is related with Phaethon, son of Helios the Sun God. One day, Phaethon borrowed the celestial chariot from his father, the sun was seen as carried on a chariot driven by Helios. But Phaethon failed to control the chariot driving on the original road on which the sun should be carried. As he galloped so far in the sky, and the earth was to freezing, then he plunged so close to the ground that the earth was burnt. Zeus was very angry when he knew this nonsense, and sent a thunderbolt by which killed him. And the story tells that Phaethon fell into the river Eridanus.

You can see a very minor constellation of Fornax that is seen being held in the Eridanus. The constellation was invented by Lacaille in 16th century, and represents a furnace for chemical experiments.




Guide for Deep Sky Objects

IC2118 .....Faint nebula 3 deg. length in NS reflecting light of Rigel.
Molecular Cloud around IC2118 .....Distribution of dimmed molecular clouds in SW of IC2118
NGC1084 .....Small face-on galaxy positioned near border to Cetus.
NGC1097 .....A medium-sized bared galaxy in central region of Fornax.
NGC1187 .....Small bared galaxy in central region of Eridanus
NGC1200 & Abell 415 .....Small lenticular galaxy and neighboring galaxy cluster at 3.6deg. SE of ηEri
NGC1232 .....A spiral galaxy with clear arms in center of Eridanus
NGC1253 .....Interacting galaxy in NW edge of Eridanus
NGC1255 .....Medium-sized spiral in north of Fornax, 65 million ly away
NGC1300 .....Well-proportioned bared galaxy about 2.3deg. north of tau4 Eri.
NGC1315 .....Small galaxy in central region of Eridanus
NGC1316,NGC1317 .....Large-sized member galaxies of Fornax Cluster
Fornax Cluster .....Fairly close galaxy cluster distributed between Fornax & Eridanus
NGC1325, NGC1332 .....Small spiral & lenticular galaxies in central region.
NGC1337 .....An edge-on bared galaxy in northern region of Eridanus
NGC1350 .....Member barred galaxy of For. Cluster positioned at 6deg. SW of αFor
NGC1360 .....A dimmed and elliptic planetary nebula in NE of Fornax
NGC1365 .....A medium-sized bared galaxy in NE region of Fornax.
NGC1371 .....A medium-sized galaxy in northern part of Fornax, 60 million ly away
NGC1395 .....An elliptic galaxy positioned in central region, 60 million ly. away.
NGC1398 .....Small & round galaxy in NE of Fornax.
NGC1407 .....Small elliptical galaxy and surrouonding group in central region
NGC1425 .....Medium-scaled spiral galaxy at 2deg. north of δ For
NGC1518, NGC1521 .....Two small galaxies positioned at 3 deg. NE of tau9
NGC1532 .....An edge-on galaxy with 15' in length 3deg. NW of upsilon4 Eri
NGC1535 .....Compact Planetary Nebula positioned in NE region
Around NGC1622 .....Three paralleling galaxies just north of nu Eri.
NGC1637 .....A round spiral galaxy in northeast edge.
NGC1723 Group .....Small-scaled galaxy group at 4.6deg. SW of Rigel
HCG21 .....A compact galaxy group at 50' north of τ1, on the boundary on Cetus
HCG23 .....A compact galaxy group at 2.7deg. ESE of ηEri
HCG31 .....Compact galaxy group at 1.8deg. NW of βEri




Orion

Canis Major


Copyright(c) 2020 by Naoyuki Kurita, All rights reserved.
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