cotterless45

Yep , it's the "yard cannon ", about 11 kgs all up on Neq6. Lucky to get a great frac that does most things ! Nick.

Promising forecast , clear twilight but within an hour the clouds toiled in. Focussed on Jupiter and a first view for our eldest granddaughter. " Wow, what colours and stripes" oh young eyes. Just set the focus and the views will come and go. " Any other planets up ?" " Saturn , a bit later ". Clouds. Took a short opportunity to get cracking on some sub 2" binaries in Pegasus, before the clouds and moon arrived. Superb seeing , really got cracking . Hopefully , clear skies ! Nick.

Trip to the recycling with garden rubbish. Car drew up next to me , lady put lots of wood out of the boot and a scope. Including dovetail, diagonal and 20mm ep. Yikes ! I asked if she minded if I rescued it . I couldn't see out of the objective with debris and dirt which also encased the dew shield. Soon cleaned it all up , not a mark on the doublet. Nice to find two pencil marks which line up to get the best results ! Also noticed three marks on the dovetail for its three outings ! First light was roofs and chimneys out the back. Ace , 70mm f10, hardly noticeable ca and very sharp contrast views. Then it rained hard all night , not my fault as I love to rescue things , upcycling. Got solar plans for this Tiptop scope, under clear skies !

Later it just got enjoyably better with a slight Milky Way at the zenith. A check showed sqm of 19.47, ace for the edge of town. Spent most of the time on Cassiopeia, enjoying the open clusters here . Went for a few lesser known King and Cr clusters. Of these King 12, King 21 , Cr 463 and Cr 36 stood out from the field of stars. Pleased to attach details below, makes a change from the norm ! Into Lacerta and the spectacular sparkling NGC 7209 and NGC 7243. Then a horizontal view , laying down to look at the views overhead and that theatre of Wonder from Cassiopeia to the front of Pegasus. Over to Perseus and the lovely triple Σ 162 (SAO 37536) . A great view of Σ 314 (SAO 23674) showing lovely twins 1.5" apart. Always a wonder to get an insignificant star then observe at high magnification. A brilliant challenge is ψ Cassiopeiae (SAO 11751), tease out the companion to give a triple group. Iota Cass. gave a great view. Pleased to attach a few bits of Cassiopeia. A wonderful calm, dry and warm few hours, under , Clear skies ! Nick.

A smorgasbord of unfavourable forecasts , ignored ! A cornucopia of delights , so very much to see from early darkness. From Andromeda , Pegasus, the Summer Triangle , Aquarius , down to the star cloud in Sagittarius and the glorious Cassiopeia rising in the north. I found last year's observing notes and cracked on . Firstly though , lovely colourful views of Jupiter , soon followed by a very stable Saturn. Full ring details with subtle shading here and the surface. There's such a gap under Aquila , until I remembered M11 , a jewel of summer nights. Checking my list of Caroline Herschel's discoveries , I followed in her footsteps. NGC 6819 was the most spectacular here , with that powdered glass which gives the best open clusters such impact. It's no bad thing to get a little brightness , it gives great shape to the main stars . This gives odd shapes , such as the disco dad of M34. Such a range to observe from the merest sliver of galaxies to the blast of M31. My favourite just now is the obviously blue " blue snowball" , NGC 7662 in Andromeda blinking in and out of view. Superb seeing added to the excitement , getting a clear 1.2" split of 36 Andromedae and a quick drawing of Σ 2609 easier at 1.9" . Set in one of those wonderful Cygnus star fields. A lovely few hours , once again accompanied by our noisy snorting hedgehog, under , Clear skies, Nick.

Quite a promising start , but after an hour cloud drifted in along with the idiot two doors away and his back garden plastic and rubber fire. Had a useful look at Cygnus, ψ Cygni ( SAO 32114). δ Cygni ( Rukh) lovely secondary just out of the glare. 17 Cygni ( SAO 68827) in a great wide grouping. Σ 2588 (SAO 48866) . Looking through my old notes, I found ΟΣ 410. I recorded this as a wide binary . Switching to x216 ( 5.5mm Meade UWA) and the secondary easily split open. I had this down below 1", but it was rock steady and quite mesmerising. Great to see some early darkness , been nearly a month after the heavy rains and low pressure . Getting great seeing helps , under clear skies ! Nick.

Great session , useful targets at this time of year. The GRS never fails to surprise, Nick.

Enough contrast to get cracking at 10.30. Jupiter provided some lovely northern belt details. A lot going on in the equatorial area, much darker than previous sessions. Later , Saturn arrived to give views of the Cassini and surface. Before the moon came up , I had a shot at some Delphinus and Cygnus binaries. Light hazy cloud didn't help, but at 16 degrees C , no complaints ! Cygnus.Σ2666 SAO49438, a 2.7" in a lovely field of view. 26 Cygni SAO49098 gives a very colourful view of this orange giant. Delphinus. Σ2665 SAO105957 giving a 3" split. Σ2679 SAO1060 a wide 24.4" and Σ2723 SAO106443, just about managed to squeeze out a 1.2" split between differing magnitudes. γ (gamma) Delphini gives another wide double double with Σ2725 , lovely contrast here. A beautiful evening , something comforting as the quiet "swish swish swish " of the tracking motor is the only sound under Clear Skies ! Nick.

Awesome view here , nothing doing low in the garden, but upstairs window and wow ! Our granddaughter was here and just amazed at the view and the colour , Nick.

Beautiful night , touch of darkness. Great kick off with Jupiter, surprised to get a good clear view of the GRS and the differences in the belts. Then Saturn , err impossible to draw freehand , but good Cassini and surface details. Turned to Cygnus quite high up , got the arc of NGC 6692 and followed this Veil around to NGC 6695. An Oiii filter at x50 really brought this out. Even better , M17, just glowed and filled the view at x150. Remove the filter to see a remarkable star field here . Of which M24 filled the view. A lot of ferreting about from Graffias to the difficult split of Antares and the low southern Messier's. Watch for Scorpius and Scutum , ahhh M11 just sparkling crystals. Switching up to Cassiopeia / Perseus and a super view of the double cluster . Then a wee tour of the clusters through here to NGC 7789. Pegasus was up and Andromeda gave the view of the M31 group. Right gleeful session, really worth getting out as darkness falls a bit sooner under , enjoy Clear skies ! Nick.

Even before any dusky light , Jupiter blowed fiercely in the south. An early great view, which soon bubbled with hot air bubbles over the town. The southern belt appearing very dark and thinner than the northern. Plenty signs of festoons at x200. Best leaving the focus and let the views appear. Just a cornucopia of delights later on. Serpens gave a bright M5 and the huge Graff's IC 4756 (20 light years across and 1300 light years away ).The stars of M16 were there , but no nebulosity. Completely different wow turning to Sagittarius ,M17, the "swan " was gliding with such nebulosity. Easily spotted , but an Oiii filter really brought this out.Turned to M27 at x150 , nearly filled the view , even catching the brighter end. Saturn was due to transit after 1.30, but the Cassini and surface details appeared as it cleared the roofs . Finer details at x150. A long session chasing more difficult Otto Struves in Cygnus and some glorious views in Ophiuchus. Difficult viewing with brighter skies than of late. Very well finding the very beautiful Marfik. There really is so much to observe. Include planetary nebulae and clusters this time of year. A welcome 15 degrees C session, just a joy to be out there under Clear skies !

Excellent , good to see you back on the saddle again. Some delightful and colourful summer views.Graff's is a genius cluster. It's great to start with a widefield then crank up until binaries open out, Nick.

Lacerta and a bit of darkness around midnight. A cool 8.6 degrees C and a sqm of +9.15. Set in the Milky Way , Lacerta gives great wide field views. These are to me ,a few of the best of Lacerta on offer. h 1735 at x48 gives a wide view of this multiple. Nicely wide components , looking just stunning . 13 Lacertae a lovely very delicate wide companion , glimpsed by averted vision. 8 Lacertae, another great multiple group in an arc. Σ 2902, a full field. Σ 2906 ,a close 4.2" giving a lovely tiny companion. Plenty to view here , hoping for clear skies ! Nick.

Kick off 10.30 . Still very light , stayed light to past midnight. Set up a low comfy 8" OO Newt . Right binary killer , single secondary vane gives clear stars especially on bright clusters. Cygnus . Had a look at M29, M39 and the wee "rocking horse" of NGC 6910 . NGC 6811 gave the "hole in the cluster", a sparkling open ring .Then onto a few bright planetary nebulae, these blink however little contrast . Including, NGC 6826 ("blinking planetary"), the bright NGC 7027 and the "blue flash" NGC 6905 in Delphinus. Caught the lovely 52 Cygni , clear split here in the Western Veil. Rukh gave a wide split , bright , but easily picked apart. Beautiful clear view of the triple S 738. Real sucker for paired secondaries. Not much joy with M57 and M27. Lacerta gave some wondrous open clusters, in order of joy , NGC 7209, NGC 7243, NGC 7245, NGC 7296, NGC 7394 and IC 1434. Had a look at the Garnet Star , mu Cephei , very very bright . Picked out the delightful triple in IC 2396. Grateful to be grabbing another three minutes of dark stuff every night , here's to Clear skies ! Nick.

Hurrah , another pilgrim of the skies turning to binary and multiple stars ! For anyone with light polluted skies these are wonderful targets . In addition a colourful range of carbon stars will provide hours of pleasure . A 4" frac will produce the best colour show. Enjoy ! Nick.

Indeed well worth getting up for. It's lovely to observe the huge Jovian disc, coming up to opposition on the 10th of June. Saturn is also a treat. Nick.

Set up at 10.30, upset at 12.25 as cloud rolled in along the southern sky. Hope others enjoyed the views, Nick.

Great report , this time of year you can kick off early with binaries. There's also some cracking carbon stars around , Nick.

Up to a couple of minutes, just put the central target in and fill in the blanks. The direction that the star leave the field is west. Having a shot at drawing is great for observing.Your eye relaxes and picks up lots of detail. Just a pad of black card , a white liner and a chinagraph pencil. Cheap, easy and immediate ! Clear skies ! Nick.

Brisk 1.4 degrees C, sky darkened before midnight giving some stunning and intoxicating views. This time of year is to me , unmissable. We get shots of late winter favourites and UMa hovers at the zenith. Waiting for the whole Summer Triangle to fly high and there's Hercules, Ophiuchus , CrB and the claws of Scorpius to enjoy. Don't miss the bright and wide double Graffias here , hovering south and higher than Antares and a faint view of M4. Hercules provided a great start with the multiple ΟΣ 341, what a view ! I had to get round the back of the shed to pull down some long honeysuckle to clear the southern view. From the house I'd glimpsed my target , thin cloud coming in and Jupiter appeared . As it cleared the roofs it was rock steady and huge Currently a huge 46"! It held x320, although the views were crisp at x160. Even in widefield I could pick out Ganymede parting and the jet black dot of Io transmitting. Very very worthwhile either waiting for or getting up for. The southern pole was very dark, a lot going on in the equatorial region with both bands having dark edges. South is over the town and the seeing soon bubbled with more cloud entering. Jupiter is a mesmerising sight just now. Below are my notes. Even without a filter , M27 looked huge and bright. Of all the clusters , I'd rate M5 (globular) and Graff's as spectacular. "La Superba" YCNv showed as a brilliant glowing coal, a really beautiful sight. Always worth looking at Cygnus clusters , NGC 6819 giving powdered glass. A night just full of different targets. Our hedgehog turned up early for a snack ( hedgehog food from Morrisons ) and a noisy drink. Just a completely dazzling few hours and Jupiter , oh wow ! Clear skies , get those scopes out ! Nick.

Canes Venatici is a happy hunting ground, so much variety , great report, Nick.

For those searching , Σ 1965 is aka Zeta 2 CrB. Find this as SAO 64834 at 15h 40.0m. +36 34'. In the area , the "blaze" star (T CrB) SAO 84129 is always worth a visit, Nick.

Just returned from two weeks in the far north beyond the Wall , it just didn't get dark ! Set up here at 10.30 and a couple of useful hours to get back in the saddle. Tried the Astronomy Now month's star , 20 Draconis. At least it was high and gave a ćomfy view of this 1.1" split. Last time it appeared a smidgen tighter. Seeing was well above good and i managed a lovely .8" split. Just playing about with the Barlow and eyepieces does give different results. A combo of an old school Vixen x2 Barlow and 7.5mm Ultima gave a useful x320. That combined with the "yard cannon" provided some entertainment. Here's to clear skies ! Nick.

Needs sorting pdq. By products of fungal growth are acidic and can eat into the lens coating . Used to get this in doublet objectives in the air gap. One productive remedy is to gently supply heat so that temperature change year round does not produce humidity. Easiest way is a 6W reptile heater pad, under the ota at the covered objective end and Make sure that the ota is dry when put away. Always check and keep an eye on anything invading gear , Nick.

Just totted up 79 night observation sessions which I recorded and sketched some noteables. June, July and August gave the busiest months. I think that it's been a really difficult year. Not only have we been plagued by the curse of New Moon clouds , but the jet stream has paid havoc with seeing. It's also been a fruitful year with Jupiter providing a great start. Hoping we'll be taken into a great season under , clear skies ! Nick.