Dark site views; New Forest.

[cotterless45]

Just returned from the Forest, mindblowing.

Got dark enough at 10pm, 5 hours later on 2 nights packed up with mist rolling in. It's a good sign when the only light pollution is where the Sun has gone down.I set out with the intention of seeing new things and comparing old to our normal home polluted site.In the end there was too much to see!

The Milky Way through Cygnus was as wide as both hands side by side at arms length. I could see at the "rips and tears", it looked like a piece of tissue paper pulled apart. It was difficult to make oot the constellations, Cassiopiea was just hidden in clusters.Sagittarius was just visible in the South along with adjacent Ophiuchus, with Cepheus being at the tail of Gygnus, nice.

I had a look at about a dozen open clusters in Cygnus, of which NGC6910 actually looks like a small rocking horse.Then The Blue Flash; NGC6905 a small planetary nebula, it did flash.Then over to M27, which with a 15mm 82degree EP just glowed with a mass of filaments , it was really bright and not the condensed version.

Then to Ophiuchus and the globular clusters M10,M12 and M14. M10 being bright with a grainy core.I got as far down as M107, before trees cut off the view.

Then a view of Andromeda's M31 group. The galaxy extended right across the view at x30, this really is a wide beauty.

Finally M11 which was high enough to have a backgound of satin black. The more that I looked, the more shapes I saw, it is one of the most gorgeous clusters.Well worth finding...NOW!

Cephius was a surprise, being packed with clusters; IC1396,NGC7160,7235,7261,7380,7510,188,6939,7142,7281,7419,188 (most distant),7762, M52,129,776,7510.

There were 2 globulars in Delhinus and 2 small planetary nebulae; NGC6394,7006,6891 and 6405.

The GOTO earned it's breakfast!

Object of the night was Graff's cluster IC4765 (mag +4.6 ) to the N W of M11, this one is really worth finding. I was amazed at it's colours and beauty.

Sites; Turf Hill car park and the common at Woodgreen.

Still blown away by the black deep sky!

Nick.

[swamp thing]

Mwahahaha Another dark sky convert me thinks.

You just cannot beat dark sky observing can you? As the nights get longer and darker the pull of them is like a black hole. No escape

[Double Kick Drum]

Sounds like a blinder.

A very nice Cepheus haul and a Milky Way I can only dream of (i'm happy to just see it from my place, never mind detail).

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get some clear centrtal Swedish skies in three weeks time or so. Unfortunately, I will only have my 15x70s with me but I am still excited.

Thanks for sharing.

[KevUU]

Object of the night was Graff's cluster IC4765 (mag +4.6 ) to the N W of M11, this one is really worth finding. I was amazed at it's colours and beauty.

Sounds like you had a great time!

I just had a nose around for more info on Graff's cluster; incase anyone else wants to do the same it's IC4756 (minor typo in the OP).

Cheers

[Viv]

Geat report.

I'm off down that way for a weekend (end of Aug), so will see if I can get some time out .......