Another fantastic night.

[cotterless45]

The best night for a least three years. The sky darkened and became crystal like with superb contrast. LeeB turned up and we saw a bright Milky Way with signs of dark areas behind Cygnus and through down to Albireo. It was so still without a breeze, almost as if the sky was holding it's breath.

M11 (The Wild duck cluster)was just sparkly and wonderful , just the very finest of clusters.Catch it now rising high in Scutum.

NGC 7789 ( Caroline's Rose) in Cassiopeia resolved into a carnation like flower of dark lanes.M52 just resolved into detail, not the usual small fuzz.

I had a look at some clusters in Lacerta,

NGC 7209 is edged by three bright stars and wonderful swirls at x50.

NGC 7243 is equally sized with chains of stars.

NGC 7296 at x40 was packed with stars.

Then onto the stunning multiple star group of 8 Lacertae at x50 is just an ultimate view. I tried a quick sketch below. Find this if you want to see a very fine view !

There were so many other targets, just at their very best .

NGC 7331 showed up with another galaxy above Pegasus with some of the other lower galaxies. We also very much enjoyed the "Blue Snowball" of Pegasus and the "Blinking" of Cygnus. I found the lovely "y" cluster NGC 6910 in Cygnus. This time it was just a thick shape full of stars. Looking up Cygnus had another full length wing with so many stars becoming clear !

M27 just glowed like a fluorescent puff of cotton wool. I can't recall seeing it so fine. Andromeda was rising and M31 presented dust lanes at x80. We also had stunning views of the double cluster and a few of the Cassiopeia clusters.

Later, I saw M45, The Pleiades over the roof tops. Auriga had risen and a low power x30 scan picked up comet C/2014 E2 Jacques. This is really bright, standing out well . The brightening sky just showed a bright core and a surrounding fuzz, but I'm really surprised at how bright and fine it looked. This is going to be one to watch.

Hope that you are enjoying these

Clear skies!

Nick.

[Paul73]

Sounds fantastic. Makes all of the cloud gazing worthwhile.

I put my scope out under slowly darkening skies. Checked out a couple of bright doubles, noting the great seat seeing. Then got my head down for an hour in anticipation of a great night under the stars.

Woke up about 20mins ago.....

Paul

[nightfisher]

Nice session Nick, good on ya

[cotterless45]

Catch the comet !

Nick.

[estwing]

well done Nick some nice targets there...that wild ducks a wonderful sight...and whats this? M45 already!,clear skies...

[LeeB]

Great night Nick, sorry I had to leave a little early, Cygnus naked eye was amazing, the wings had real depth and the rift in the milky way was clearly visable, something I havent seen from our urban skies. Caroline rose was that good I thought my eyes were playing tricks, almost 3D. M13 was awesome and just pointing the scope anywhere in the milky way meant diamonds on velvet. Excellent.

[stevend]

Nice report. Oh wow, I was out all evening until c1am enjoying the views through both my scope and binoculars looking in the same area as you. I similarly found wonderful views of the Milky Way from Cepheus through to Cygnus an area I spent a lot of time in. I then moved on to Lacerta and lastly Cassiopeia. My list included mainly doubles plus M29, C4, C19 M39, M29 and M52. But at times I just got lost in the beauty of it all not knowing what I was looking at - I could/should have planned my session a little better but the sudden clarity of some areas surprised me.

Thanks to your post I now have some specifics to look at.

Finally, M57 was beautiful at 100x.

[stevend]

just pointing the scope anywhere in the milky way meant diamonds on velvet.

Lovely description.