Deep-Sky Targets for New Moon - April 2021

The New Moon is fast approaching! Here are some deep-sky target suggestions for imaging on the Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) remote telescope locations by Insight Observatory's partner, Telescopius.com...

	M4 - Globular Cluster Constellation Scorpius Mag.: 5.40 - Size: 36' RA 16hr 23' 35" DEC -27º 28' 30" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 87.1º at 05:29 hrs
	Tr 16 - Open Cluster Constellation Carina Mag.: 5.00 – Size: 10' RA 10hr 45' 06" DEC -60º 16' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 87.1º at 05:29 hrs
	M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy Constellation Ursa Major Mag.: 7.90 – Size: 28.8' RA 14hr 03' 12" DEC 54º 20' 58" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 70.0º at 02:34 hrs.
	M67 - Open Cluster Constellation Cancer Mag.: 6.90 – Size: 25' RA 08hr 51' 17" DEC 11º 48' 59" ATEO-2A - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 67.5º at 21:22 hrs.
	M8 - Lagoon Nebula Constellation Sagittarius Mag.: 5.00 – Size: 45' RA 18hr 03' 41" DEC -25º 37' 00" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 84.9° at 07:09 hrs.
	M3 - Globular Cluster Constellation Canes Venatici Mag.: 6.30 – Size: 18' RA 13hr 42' 11" DEC 28º 22' 34" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 84.1º at 02:13 hrs.
	IC 2948 - Bright Nebula Constellation Centaurus Mag.: 7.00 – Size: 1.3º RA 11hr 39' 24" DEC -64º 31' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 56.0° at 00:45 hrs.
	HCG 44 - Galaxy Cluster Constellation Leo Mag.: 10.00 – Size: 16.4' RA 10hr 18' 00" DEC 21º 48' 43" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 77.5º at 22:49 hrs.
	NGC 3324 - Gabriela Mistral Nebula Constellation Carina Mag.: 6.70 – Size: 16' RA 10hr 37' 18" DEC -59º 19' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 60.8° at 23:43 hrs.
	NGC 5033 - Spiral Galaxy Constellation Canes Venatici Mag.: 10.20 – Size: 10.7' RA 13hr 13' 27" DEC 36º 35' 36" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 87.7º at 01:44 hrs

Help support Insight Observatory's educational outreach efforts by submitting your deep-sky image requests today on our Personal Image Request (PIR) application or logging in to your ATEO Portal account to request on our Basic or Advanced Image Request forms.

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Telescopius - Astronomy Planning Made Easy

Insight Observatory recently developed a beneficial partnership with Telescopius.com (formerly known as DSO-Browser). Telescopius is a great online tool for astrophotographers who are planning an astrophotography session. The website provides plenty of useful information covering the deep-sky objects visible from your telescope's location and hosts an active community with an image gallery to share your images.

The Insight Observatory Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) locations are listed in the Telescopius Observatory Parameters section.

Since developing and releasing the ATEO Portal, Personal Image Request (PIR), and Educational Image Request (EIR) online applications for accessing Insight Observatory's three remote telescopes, we have always provided a link to Telescopius.com to allow imagers to get some recommendations for deep-sky targets. Our online applications, in text, provided the ATEO remote telescopes' geographic coordinates and locations so the user or student could enter them on Telescopius.com to view and choose targets from our two remote observatory locations. Recommending using Telescopius to our users was very helpful with selecting targets both in the classroom and for personal use.

In late February this year, Insight Observatory and Telescopius partnered up to bring the perfect deep-sky target selection possible with the use of the ATEO remote telescope network. Insight Observatory's two remote telescope locations are now integrated into the website. When a user or student chooses one of our three telescopes to image with, then clicks telescopius.com to look for target recommendations, the location of the telescope and observatory is immediately selected. There is no longer a need to enter in the coordinates and locations manually. If you go directly to telescopius.com and click in the "Observatory Parameters" field, you will see Insight Observatory listed. When clicked on, it displays all three ATEO remote telescope locations. SkyPi Remote Observatory for ATEO-1 and ATEO-2A and Deep Sky Chile for ATEO-3. One of my personal favorite "What's in the Sky Tonight" features is the hourly and monthly altitude graph that displays the rise, transit, and set times of a deep-sky target. That gives the imager information for the best time to capture that object.

Screenshot of Telescopius.com's Telescope Simulator tool demonstrating the field of view of M45, The Pleiades through Insight Observatory's 16" f/3.7 astrograph reflector, ATEO-1.

Telescopius' owner and developer, Sebastian Garcia, went above and beyond in addition to the features he developed previously mentioned. Sebastian also added all three ATEO remote telescopes to the Telescopius Telescope Simulator. This tool allows users and students to select a telescope and deep-sky target to analyze the field of view (FOV). There have been numerous occasions when working in the educational environment when we would receive questions from instructors asking which telescope would be the best to image certain objects. Now users and students can see how the object "fits" in the field of view of the telescope they are choosing. This makes the process of our educational programs more intuitive than they already are.

Insight Observatory would like to thank Sebastian Garcia for his contributions and efforts to our ongoing mission of "Bringing the Universe to Classrooms Around the World!"

Telescopius is a free online application and is funded largely by donations via Patreon and PayPal.

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