A Totally Unprovoked Attack of Clear Night Sky

[Noseypixie]

After a horrendous day of howling wind and driving rain up here in the North of England, I decided to pop my head out of the door about an hour ago to check on the sky, and lo-and-behold it was beautiful and clear. An impromptu poke around the sky with the scope soon followed.

Whilst it was still up there I decided to have a look around the Summer Triangle, starting with Vega, looking big and bright and blue.

I then had a bash at the so-called "double-double" which I think I found but couldn't split them with the size of my scope, a Skywatcher 130P.

Then I successfully found the Ring Nebula, which I was rather pleased with, and on my highest power I could definitely see the ring shape, but maybe it was just the excitement of being out there that made be a bit giddy and deluded.

Then I had a look at Albireo, and the gold and the purple of this double star were looking striking.

A good impromptu session.

I'm gonna have a look the other way now and see if I can spot any of Patrick Moore's 50 winter targets.

See ya later.

[Double Kick Drum]

Always nice when you get an unexpected session. Feels like a bonus.

Thanks for sharing.

[KevUU]

Sounds like a good yield, well done.

The double double should be do-able in your scope - it's close but makeable in my 80mm refractor (people who know better can suggest how much difference frac vs reflector makes here though...). I guess LP may be the biggest factor here?

I too queried my powers of self-suggestion when I made out the ring for the first time, but after a few different sessions I assure you it's really there to see even with smaller apertures

[Noseypixie]

Maybe I wasn't looking at the "double double", it was a bit of an unplanned session, so perhaps I was looking at something else. I'll give it another go some other time.

[Bart]

That is shocking! Hopefully it won't happen again! Sit down and have some sugary tea for the shock

Nice to get those treats

Barry

[DazC]

The ring nebula is one of my favorites. I too thought it was my imagination in overdrive when i could see a little smoke ring in the sky, but after seeing it a few times, my mind was at rest.

It's one of those targets you just keep going back to.

D.C

[dtr42]

we had the same last night in glasgow wall to wall grey then 8.30 crystal clear . was with the glasgow astronomy club at their darksite near glasgow , loads of meteor's an iridium flare and a hour viewing some global clusters with bins , all in all a great unexpected night , as it looked more like a coffee meeting and slide show b4 the clouds broke and the ring is lovely and along with m13 and m92 its one of my fav sightings

[Stu]

Nice little session you had there, good stuff

You should be able to split the double double in your scope, but being a reflector it needs to be well collimated and cooled. You also need decent seeing too, it's not always possible if the skies are turbulent.

I popped out for an hour or so with the binos and little 66mm frac last night as it was unexpectedly clear, had a nice little session, including splitting the double double myself. Alberio is lovely isn't it? Always love looking at that.

Hope you get more clear skies soon

Stu

[Bart]

the ring is lovely and along with m13 and m92 its one of my fav sightings

Absolutely agree dtr42. Poor old M92 is vastly underrated. Its one of my favs. M2 is nice too at the moment. Lets not forget M37, a cracker of an OC. Better stop there...

[MarkMayf]

What you experienced was pub night weather. It only happens when I go out.

Persevere with the double-double.

I manage it quite easily with my Heritage 130P. Looked grand it did too!

[m_j_lyons]

The title for your thread cracked me up...within easy travels from Vega there's a lot to be seen. With my old 4.5" scope I couldn't split the doubles of the double...they just appeared elongated. But at 10" the split isn't difficult...so the limit is somewhere in between.

[Dunkster]

Great title - glad you had a good unprovoked sesion

The Ring shouldn't be a problem with your 130p... first time I saw it was with a 127 Mak and the smoke ring shape jumped out at me from my poor LP garden, had me checking the end of the OTA