Big Five

The Big Five of the Southern Hemisphere

The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) is a body consisting of both amateur and professional astronomers. Membership is open to all interested persons, regardless of knowledge or experience.
The ASSA Council serves as the umbrella body for the autonomous Centres of ASSA, which are situated in various parts of the country. These local Centres hold regular meetings to which visitors are welcome. Full members of any Centre automatically become members of the national organisation. Prospective members of ASSA are encouraged to join the Society via one of the Centres, but for persons who are not able to do so, a separate class of membership (Country Member) is available.

The Deep Sky Section of the Society has a number of interesting projects and challenges for amateur astronomers of all skill levels. One of the most interesting challenges is to identify and plot/draw the so-called Big Five celestial objects of the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern sky is richly sown with a treasury of deep-sky objects, consisting of star clusters, bright and dark gas clouds and galaxies. From these, five specimens of each class of object were selected to represent the so-called celestial Big Five.

The representative of open star clusters is the Southern Pleiades. Omega Centauri was selected to represent the globular star clusters, bright nebulae are represented by the majestic eta Carinae Nebula and the dark nebulae are represented by the Coal Sack. Needless to say, our own Milky Way Galaxy represents the Galaxies.

The challenge is to observe each of these objects and report on what you have witnessed. All submitted observations are carefully evaluated by the Society and feedback is provided. The names of all participants are acknowledged on the ASSA website. Observing certificates are awarded only on merit and are issued by the Deep-Sky Section of the Astronomical Society.
Full details of the challenge can be found on the Society’s website at: https://assa.saao.ac.za/sections/deep-sky/big5/