Best Bonfire Night Ever!

[Fordos Moon]

...and the first one I've been sat in the garden, just me and my relatively new 200P.

A few low level fireworks as I waited for things to acclimatise and then I got started. Admiring epsilon lyrae and albireo I couldn't resist another viewing of the ring nebula who I am falling in live with since the other night and this time she looked good for me, even with my stock SW eps.

The dumbbell nebula did not want to be found so something new was required and that came in the form of M15 via a wonderful star hop from Altair, the 3 stars below it guiding me to a circle if stars, around which I went with my telrad and finderscope, catapulting off Baham and Enif to the globular cluster itself.

I enjoyed finding it as much as looking at it, I felt like I'd taken the trip around the stars myself, as I begin to explore the peripheral edges of the west facing garden.

What a pleasure this hobby is!

[Fordos Moon]

Oh, all with the help of Turn Left at Orion, obviously!!

[Double Kick Drum]

The Dumbbell does take a little finding but is unmistakable when you get there.

Congratulations on bagging M15. A very nice globular cluster indeed.

I had the scope out myself but a few lurking clouds and persistent fireworks meant I gave up before I got started. Grrrr!

[dtr42]

the dumbell is tricky but you should get it with your 200p . get m57 ring then go east half way between albeiro and m57 is m56 a globular cluster east again to albeiro the bottom star of cygnus then roughly the same distance as m57 to albeiro is the dumbell [use your telrad rings and that will help also a wide angle ep will be useful [i have a 32mm revelation ep for doing this] although ring nebula and m92 are my 2 fav dso's

[Fordos Moon]

Thanks chaps will give it a go next time the nighttime clouds clear!

[stevetynant]

Dkd, should have stuck at it, once the smoke cleared tonight has been a wonderful observing night so glad I persevered ( having said that I live on a mountain so the smoke cleared pretty quickly... It was like pea soup lower down the valley earlier in the evening)

[Special K]

Very nice conditions this evening for star clusters. The double in Perseus was very nice indeed and the clusters in Cas were in top form. The owl cluster 457 is really cool though it looks more like a robot to me!

i started by looking for the M56 globular cluster but unable to tease it out. Brocci's Cluster is also for another night. Happy hunting!

[VigdisVZ]

Thanks for sharing your report. Always inspiring to almost "look over the shoulder" of others.

[KevUU]

I felt like I'd taken the trip around the stars myself

Love it.

Thanks for the report, glad you had a good night. I didn't have much luck with the murk round here...