Last nights report +a few questions...

[cygnusx1]

Had a lovely night last night, out till 3am even tho it was bitterly cold.

I changed my usual routine from imaging, to purely observing - made a refreshing, and untaxing change.

Equip was C9.25 on HEQ5 Pro, 40mm,25mm,10mm,12.5mm and 5mm ep with 2x barlow.

Started off with m27 which was a faint fuzzy, then on to m31. Seeing was better than normal due to absence of moon and the fact that a lot of targets were high near the zenith.

Pleidaes was as ever, a bespectacled jewel. Popped the f/6.3 in to capture the full view with a 40mm ep. Ahhh.....

Next up was Mars, riding high, got a good focus with 313x and pushed for 470x but that was too much for the conditions.

Nevertheless a 1st seeing Mars so big+bright thru a scope, alltho i expected more detail at that mag and colour seemed more off pink than red.

Saturn is obscured behing my house, and only rises above roof after 4am, so went back for a kip and woke up at 6am.

Unfortunately, i only caught a quick glimpse thru the scope, b4 it set again behind house,and then as i tried to move mount , the clouds rolled in!

Waited, but to no avail...by then the sun had risen.

All in all a really positive, satisfying session. Only wish we had more nights like these, w/out the endless wait in between.

I'll get to my questions shortly, after a break.

[dave1978]

Sounds like a good night! i only made it to 10pm but got through Pleidaes, Andromeda, Mars & the double cluster.

Did anyone else see the shooting star which passed through the Double cluster at around 8:15ish?

[Azelfafage]

Did anyone else see the shooting star which passed through the Double cluster at around 8:15ish?

Afraid not, but I certainly saw (& heard) a Police Helicopter in Cygnus tonight :x They seem to wait for me to get the scope out. It had flashing red & white lights which were ruining my dark adaptation + the noise meant I couldn't concentrate so I gave up in the end.

Amongst other things - had my first views of M15 & Mars - although Mars was too low & too near houses for a good look. Could make out a pinkish orange disc with no details.

And finally.....please add me to the list of those who can't find M33

Regards,

A