What a lovely night at last....! :)

[Psychobilly]

I went to bed and woke up under cloud - again

[JamesF]

Arggh, you guys are nuts reading some the the times you posted at!! I've got too many obligations during my waking hours (early start at work) to stay up that late... Astro twighlight still exists in my area so I'm waiting until early August to get back into it.

Martyrs to the cause, the lot of us I freely admit that I felt awful when I was woken up this morning by my wife throwing the curtains open and having the sun stream in It's been a sluggish start to the day.

James

[Matthew]

I've been observing the Veil tonight as well Matt. So nice to have a night like this after all the rubbish that the past 6 weeks or so has thrown at us. I managed to pick off a number of galaxies and globular clusters as well as the nebulae. Nothing really new but so nice to say "hello" to old celestial friends

The Veil is still firmly my favourite summer object though. So much detail with a 31mm Nager and an O-III filter - especially the "Bridal Veil" segment

The "Bridal Veil" was stunning last night,using the 20mm es 100 with a OIII filter it just jumped out at you.There was 4 of us setup and it was great to jump between scopes the forecast is even better for tonight

Thanks for the view Matt! Now I want a 200P even more!

It was also great to see the ring nebula. It even looked great through my scope!

Can't wait for the next clear night - I want to find the Dumbbell now!

No problem Ant its a pity you couldnt have stayed another hour the milky way was stunning.

[x6gas]

Great night for me too...

The sky seemed quite light but the Milky Way was clearly visible....

Got some good subs on M27, at least they looked ok when I checked quickly this morning.

Also had the Big Cat out and was looking at M27 through that too... Least I think that's what it was! To be honest I couldn't really see the dumbbell shape....

[skywatcher250]

im setting my alarm for 1:00 tomorrow morning - so fingers crossed - weather looking good today so heres hoping !

[x6gas]

.... There's no rush. I'm on my way to Japan for a week and it's always great stargazing when I'm away!

You'll have six unbelievable nights on the spin - you mark my words!

[Prador]

It does feel great to get out under the stars especially after our recent poor weather (don't change please now I have said that!)

I am going to take the opportunity to gather lots of data so I can process it when it inevetably deteriorates again.

Glad the jetstream went back oop north

[Hermit]

I let my 8 year old daughter stay up until 10.30 to see Saturn through the Skywatcher Heritage 130 at last - priceless!

Now she wants to see more - my plan is working, I'm just waiting for the boy to be old enough so I can work on him too...

[Ganymede12]

Glad the jetstream went back oop north

You fool, you've doomed us all!

[John]

.......The veil is now definitely on my list to see next......

It's an amazing object but you really need a UHC or O-III filter to see it well. When I removed my O-III filter from my 10" newtonian it was virtually invisible - I could only just detect it because I knew exactly where to look.

[Tinker1947]

M27 isn't the most inspiring DSO i have come across, If i remeber right this image is what it looks like through a 6mm EP or there about......this is a single 800iso 60second Jpeg.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Was good to be out. Think I saw m13 for the first time, wasn't as bright as I was expecting. More of a grey blob, could see it was stars though, maybe as nights arnt truly dark dark? Couldn't be out late enough for jupiter though

[Andymarrison]

I also spent a bit too long outside last night, and will probably do the same tonight! Had a lovely view of M13 and M92 with the BST 15mm Barlowed to 10mm, and also M57 with the same combination. Tonight's plan is to have a go at a few doubles, especially the "double double" in Lyra. Starbucks will be getting a lot of my money tomorrow I think...

[chiltonstar]

It was certainly stunning here in rural Oxon, with the Milky Way through Cygnus a joy to behold! - Not that dark though, even at 23:30 - interesting how much background there was in a widefield image with a 20 sec exposure.

Chris

[euphony]

Glad I'm not the only one to have had a great night last night

It took a while for the sky to darken enough, but i then got a bit carried away and before I knew it, it was 1:45 am..ooops

Grabbed the usual's, M57, M56, M13 etc, and they were all very clear, and also managed a load of new Messier's as well some NGC's and Caldwell objects. My best view of the night was seeing Andromeda for the first time, it's so spectacular. I was disappointed that I could only generally see the core and the haze surrounding it, but I put that down to the fact it wasn't astronomical darkness, it was generally low (ish) in the sky, and I was in my back garden with the usual light pollution from surrounding streets. Was still magnificent to see, and I can't wait until the skies are much darker

Overall, from 11pm, I managed 15 open clusters, 8 globular clusters, 8 nebula's and 5 galaxies. It took me a while to get to sleep after that as my mind was racing!

[Si W]

eeeerrrrr , still waiting for clear skies up here in Manchester , totally jealous of you lot .......

[John]

I'm not knocking the photo but M27 looks a lot better than that with my scopes - in the 10" last night the "apple core" shape and surrounding bubble of nebulosity was really well defined and at 200x (6mm eyepiece) it looked very large in the field of view.

M27 isn't the most inspiring DSO i have come across, If i remeber right this image is what it looks like through a 6mm EP or there about......this is a single 800iso 60second Jpeg.

[sunshine185]

The "Bridal Veil" was stunning last night,using the 20mm es 100 with a OIII filter it just jumped out at you.There was 4 of us setup and it was great to jump between scopes the forecast is even better for tonight

No problem Ant its a pity you couldnt have stayed another hour the milky way was stunning.

Where were you guys viewing from? Its my dream to see the milky way.

[Pete Presland]

first decent night for many months and no work till Thursday, meant i could stay out till it got light spent a couple of hours getting used to the upgraded heq5 and re-doing the drift alignmencheckeded out M13, M57,M71,M31 and a few fav stars and double finished off watching Jupiter, Venus rise could not resist taking a few pretty poor snaps , simply a lovely night.

[Codmate]

Showing friends adds an extra level of pleasure, doesn't it

Helen

For sure!

In-fact, sometimes I think I enjoy showing other people more than observing myself.

Then I see something new

[NickK]

First sub (unprocessed other than a stretch).. 5 minutes at 1370mm.. first since.. well March intact!

Almost makes up for the lack of blood thanks to the mozzies..

[Matthew]

Where were you guys viewing from? Its my dream to see the milky way.

We are in the south wales valleys,our observing site is above a town called Blaenavon and has panoramic views of the night sky ( there is a little light pollution but nothing major ) but it is 1500 ft above sea level so its a bit nippy.

[Celtic Deacon]

Sunday night first night out for longer than I can remember and managed a few hours just wandering around. Even managed to get some use from new 15mm UWA and 28mm Panaview but had no idea what I was looking at. Had great plans for Monday night and decided I wanted to find at least one galaxy from TLAO. At moment I'm on my 3rd dose of paracetamol and throat spray for some infection I picked up from being outside! Should've stuck to golf.

[petermarknimmo]

It was also great to see the ring nebula. It even looked great through my scope.

Can't wait for the next clear night - I want to find the Dumbbell now!

Don't make the same mistake that I did - having seen the ring nebula beforehand, I assumed that I was looking for something similar, but the dumbell is WAY bigger than the ring. Took me 6 attempts to realise this then last night I found it for the 1st time!

[Tinker1947]

I'm not knocking the photo but M27 looks a lot better than that with my scopes - in the 10" last night the "apple core" shape and surrounding bubble of nebulosity was really well defined and at 200x (6mm eyepiece) it looked very large in the field of view.

I took another look last night, this was before 23:00 so not dark,dark, but in the 5mm Pentax i would think it covered 3/4 of the FOV, 2 large grey objects joined in the middle, i did mean to go back a bit later but other DSO's took there toll on the time so maybe i will try again tonight around 01:00 in the morning...