Some more DSOs from last night

[Stub Mandrel]

As well as M31 I managed to have ago at a few other targets last night. Things in the east were MUCH easier to image than in the west this time, so it isn't my imagination, I have to be much more careful about scope balance. I can tell when the setup is 'west heavy' as the stars have one or two little spots next to them where the drive has suddenly picked up some backlash.

To the point, though. I started with another attack on M57, but didn't realise the backlash issue and lost most of my subs, a shame as I am starting to get some of the red detail out of it and the central stars are getting better.

I was really chuffed by the colour of open cluster M103 in Cassiopeia:

I managed to find M33, but it's a lot dimmer than M31 and it needs to wait until I can reliably get longer subs.

Finally I spotted this red blob marked '404' on top of a star in Andromeda, as the star was easy to find... turns out this fuzzball is a dwarf galaxy known as Mirach's Ghost, and for this one at least the long FL of my scope was an advantage.

This cloud is such a pain, each session is a huge learning experience, and I know I could do so much better if I could do a couple of nights week rather than a month!

Even so, I accomplished a lot more than I expected last night!

[xtreemchaos]

great set mate,you did well with where the moon was.thanks for sharing.charl.

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks Charl,

I did get better than I deserved to!

[JR1987]

Everyone knows how you feel about the cloud and how frustrating it can be! If its not clouds.. Its the moon, or its awful seeing. 

Thats the UK for you though! Could move to Hawaii?

Im still learning myself.. But I found I really started getting somewhere when I preplanned my target for the night and dedicated myself to it.

One target and as many subs as I could manage before clouds or snoozing got the better of me. 

It can be tempting with so many beauties in the sky.. But remember there not going anywhere and they will out live all of us,

So take your time

[Tim99]

I enjoyed your pictures ... thanks for sharing.

[laudropb]

Some nice images. Thanks for posting