O it was a beautiful night............

[NGC 1502]

Hi all, after a long hot busy day, I only had the energy to take out my 70mm refractor under the clearish skies last night (Fri 17th)

But the gnats were eating me alive, the Southend seafront sky beams were waving madly around, very loud music was blaring from somewhere, a neighbours dog was barking, another neighbour had left their conservatory light on, a slug investigated my bare toes, I dropped my sky charts and all the pages came out of the ring binder...... ......I went round all the popular summer doubles, then wondered if NGC 7662 (blue snowball) could be seen with my little scope. It was just non stellar at 18x, best view at 80x, what a little gem, but it all the rest was just too much, so exhausted and fed up, went to bed at midnight.

O it was a beautiful night..........not.

Woke at 03.30 needing the bathroom, looked out to see a lovely clear sky with Jupiter & the Pleiades high in the East, could not resist, so outside with my little scope that I'd left in the kitchen, so just popped it out the back door. The Pleiades were a fantastic sight at 18x, 3.8 degree field. Best view of Jupiter was at 96x, lots of detail seen, and the moons a joy to see.

All the hassles of a few hours earlier were gone and I felt a great deal better .

O it was a very beautiful night this time !!

Regards, Ed.

[bullettooth]

all worked out in the end then? glad to here it. total cloud cover here all night. which i pretty much expected as i just received a new ep and sky atlas yesterday. im happy someone got some nice views tho

i think i have to wait until monday night to use my new ep

[Monty]

Jupiter was excellent around 4:30 this morning and so were the Pleiades, just had to stay patient between patches of cloud.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

It was chucking it down here last night so i didn't see anything. At least your 2nd attempt of the evening went well

[andrew63]

Thats the beauty of a grab and go Ed - quick half hour to enjoy the glory of the heavens...

andrew

[estwing]

result Ed...

[Welrod50]

Nice one

Been there myself before now. Pointless at midnight, superb at 3am. I work late noon and some night shifts in my work too, so sometimes find that conditions are ideal during the small hours. Just a shame that summer seems to have largely forsaken us thus far and the only thing visible at night is cloud. I haven't done nearly enough stargazing lately and it is a shame. I'm pleased for your success. Being tired afterwards is worth it!!

The Mrs doesn't understand. Albeit she doesn't feel the same excitement as we do when we see Jupiter, Saturn and M42.

(sigh)

Scott