An unexpected but welcome session greeted my shift swing night, with no work till 4pm tomorrow it was a great opportunity to get out and work on those messiers.

I was firstly chuffed to discover that Venus could help me get early alignment! Using that as a 1st reference I could make the 130 slew to Arcturus which was still not visible to (my) the naked eye. Ditto Capella. I then had the sightly epic feeling of viewing saturn in near daylight! Very odd.

TECH PROBLEMS

Throughout the start of the session I had the oft quoted tech difficuties with my synscan resetting. I tracked this down to a battery that had popped from the holder. Very annoying and a design flaw (like the lack of a caddy to hold the pouch)

After some tests of my IR filter on the toucam using my x2 barlow which i think showed some improvement but its hard to tell, I went on to DSOs as we were in full dark. I will give the IR a go on my x5 Barlow (if and when SnS send me the new one (old one had some poor optical coating)). If I still am not getting what I want its sell on time...

LIGHT

The bete noir of the street lamp has been dealt with today with a replacement SOX fitted and a light shield now in place. The difference is stunning! I am very pleased.

I also noticed for the first time how poor the western sky is at this time of year (or it may be the LP from Peterborough I am seeing) Wheras the Eastern skies are studded with detail the west is very washed out. Winter well tell me if it is LP or just summer skies. As an additional annoyance my best aspect is the west with the east blocked by my gaff.

I made a point tonight of locating Polaris. Making the eventual purchase of an EQ mount easier!

DSOs

Then i went onto my DSO hunting. I have now started logging these in excel so I am almost a proper astro nerd now! I even have a journal (which my daughter is jealous of (its just a lined notebook ( easy birthday pressie for her!)))

M39 was an easy spot of a loose open cluster, I did suffer from FOV and perhaps I could do with a wider view EP...astro purchase is on the back burner.

M5 was a nice capture and easy to get again. It was nice to confirm for my list.

M13 in hercules was well resolved and I was pleased to see (imagine) some granularity in the cluster.

M81 was a tricky one, i still am not sure but I think i had it and was swayed by the central brighter spot. I WANT MORE APERTURE!

I then took in M3 which also showed some granularity

M92 was a nice big fuzzy

I then tried for M53 which was a dodgy one again. I think I had it.

I finished with teh faint blur of M27 and decided to head for bed...where i failed to sleep.

Mixed feelings about the goto today. I rushed through these sights...but can go back. Perhaps my next scope WILL be that big dob. Early days still and lots of sky learning to do...but it is coming.

Clear Skies

oh here is that lamppost