Observational report(BEIJING) July 22nd, 2012

[keeplookingup]

As you may or may not have heard, Beijing had the worst rainfall the other day. worse than it has been in 60 years. People died! cars were damaged, houses flooded. what a mess.

but on the good side it left a clear sky for us the next day so i enjoyed it much

this is what i saw

m11 - the first time I saw the wild duck cluster. pretty amazing

m29 - first time i saw this but its not very impressive

m31- an oldie but goodie

others - a large group of clear constellations.

to me the best part of the evening was watching the summer triangle pass overhead and seeing deep into cygnus, lyra and aquila. Also spent some time with Dolphinus and some other lesser groups.

all in all it was great

but the cool thing to was as i panned cygnus i got a view of Cosmos 1656, russian satellite. and it was really bright.

thats it

keep lookingup

[KevUU]

Hey, nice report. Sounds like we were looking at similar things last night, kinda pleasing in a way I can't quite articulate (obviously different timezones but still...)

For all our moaning about the rains here at least it wasn't as bad as you had. Let's hope it stays clear for all of us for a bit

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Sounds like you had a good time. M11 is a stunner, isn't it

[keeplookingup]

yes it is. this year seems to be less clear in bejing and the wife and i are discussing moving south in a year or so.

She's from a rainy area and i want to go into Yunnan because its probably one of the only places that isn't so hot but is south .

who knows, I stayed in Beijing because of work only. but that's losing a foot hold..

opps sorry haha tangent there.

this year was pretty good with the open clusters i got to see in auriga and gemini

i too think its a nice thing to know that people from around the globe can view the same objects . it makes for an interesting way to write live reports.

[Marki]

Recently discovered M36., 37 and 38 myself .

i too think its a nice thing to know that people from around the globe can view the same objects . it makes for an interesting way to write live reports.

I agree this is cool - and knowing about the astronomical distances and sizes of the things we observe makes the distance between beijing and york seem pretty inconsequential

[keeplookingup]

distance seems to be smaller when I consider the distance to objects in space. It kinda humbles me and brings me down to earth. yet somehow I feel small. haha

[rory]

m11 is a favourite of mine. although ive still many objects to see.

thanks for the report.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

M11 really is beautiful.

[keeplookingup]

there will always be something to see. that's the best part of this hobby

[VigdisVZ]

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading this.

[keeplookingup]

thank you too.