Blog

Stargazing Evening Saturday 30 March 2019

Stargazing Evening Saturday 30 March 2019

Southern Cape Astronomy Club

Come and catch some starlight and join us on the Village Green at Pearly Beach for an evening of stargazing on Saturday 30 March from 19:30 onwards. Two of the targets on the evening will be the globular cluster NGC 5139, also known as Omega Centauri, and the open cluster M46 with the planetary nebula NGC 2438 appearing within it.

Another target nearby Omega Centauri that we will visit is NGC 4945, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Centaurus, visible near the star Xi Centauri. The galaxy was discovered by James Dunlop in 1826 and is thought to be similar to the Milky Way Galaxy, although X-ray observations show that NGC 4945 has an unusual energetic Seyfert 2 nucleus that might house a supermassive black hole.

Don't forget Saturn is occulted by the Moon in the early hours on the 29th March (Friday), details to follow.

Attached images are some of the targets that we will slew the telescope too.

Stargazing Evening Saturday 30 March 2019

Kos Coronaios

Southern Cape Astronomy Club meets at least once a month for stargazing or observation evenings close to new Moon or during astronomical related events. The well-established club is based in Pearly Beach just outside Gansbaai.

View Profile

What is Xplorio?

Xplorio is your local connection allowing you to find anything and everything about a town.

Watch the Gansbaai Video
Read More

Recent Posts

Messier 17, Messier 18, Cat's Paw & Lobster Nebula Astrophotography

Messier 17, Messier 18, Cat's Paw & Lobster N...

Tried to rework these four iconic DSO's, but the weather was having none of it.  

Comet 10P Tempel 2 Visible in August 2026

Comet 10P Tempel 2 Visible in August 2026

If Pearly Beach does not have clear skies, there's always the Little Karoo just around the corner. 

Lunar Occultation of Saturn & Titan

Lunar Occultation of Saturn & Titan

The Moon occults Saturn and it's largest moon Titan early on Friday morning...

The Western Cape bolide (meteor) of 2019 January 16

The Western Cape bolide (meteor) of 2019 Janu...

Jaco Koekemoer provided an excellent description of the event "Suddenly out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blinding gold-coloured flash in the direction of Gansbaai.

Planets for March, a comet and a Saturn/Moon occultation

Planets for March, a comet and a Saturn/Moon ...

Where to find the naked eye planets in March and comet C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto) is visible in our evening skies...

Full Moon - 19 February 2019

Full Moon - 19 February 2019

It's full moon tomorrow 19 February 2019 at 17:54.