Hercules : finale on a cracking night.

[cotterless45]

Yo astronauts, the very needed clear ,dark and crystal night. Down to a crunchy -5 on the patio.

I managed all the Messiers in the Virgo and Coma galaxies. Additionally I spotted "the Eyes" NGC4435 and NGC4438 gently glowing and quite surprising!

NGC4565 in Coma was really bright.

M53 was lovely, find this bright compact globular half way between Danebola and Arcturus.

A quick look at Leo showed the galaxies NGC3607,3608,3605 and 3626.

A look at M82 in UMa showed it to be the brightest granulated detail that I 'd seen.

M5 in Serpens looked awesome, really worthwhile seeking out. Then onto the fabulous

Hercules, now high and dark enough to show M13 sparkling with the adjacent NGC6207 as an oval smudge galaxy nearby.

M92 looked dazzling as did NGC6229 a smaller globular to the north.

NGC6210 is a bright planetary to the south, even up x200 it blinked in and out. As did

NGC6058.

Later on everything overhead was full of stars, I'd never seen Bootes so full.Cygnus climbed high in the north east and Saturn clung low in the south.

Still in a state of awe at the clarity of the seeing and hoping for more clear skies, who needs sleep ?

Nick.

[nightfisher]

Sounds like you had a right old night, well done

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report of a great night. Some you got some lovely objects there. I haven't spotted NGC 6058 yet (trees got in the way the last time I tried), and NGC 3605 was very hard for my 8" scope. Might have a bash at the Coma-Virgo region again tonight

[Double Kick Drum]

Nice to read a bumper report.

Not managed the Leo galaxies NGC 3605 and NGC 3608 or NGC 6058 in Hercules.

Intermittent gaps in the cloud where I am. No visual observing last night but plenty of wide angle AP practice (just in JPEG format for now) which I have posted to my gallery. You can pick out a few fuzzies in the better shots with a keen eye but the exercise was more about getting a feel for ISO, focal ratio, shutter speed etc.

Clear skies!

[cotterless45]

Oh no !

You can't go over to the Dark Side. Some of these imagers have been sneaking the odd post here to lure the unwary , resist !

Nick.

[WaveSoarer]

That's a great report Nick.

[faulksy]

sounds like you had a great night, very lucky. i have seen the leo triplet a few times which is lovely especialy when you start thinking how far away they are and you can see all in the same fov even in a sct. but never heard of ngc 6058 and have viewed m13 loads of times will have a look for that

[Special K]

Sleep? You must be kidding! That's a good ol haul and a great report. M13 was great for me that same night. Boötes is pretty fetching lately isn't it? I need to research as there must be something of interest there like some doubles.