Sagittarius Messier Hunting

[kerrylewis]

What a night! I finally had an almost cloud free view to the south/south west and was able to see some of the delights of Sagittarius that managed to creep over my garden wall and out from behind the house opposite. The Swan nebula looked bright given its position with the 'tick' prominent against the background nebula. The O111 filter helped bring out the definition. M 22 was worth waiting for as it slowly cleared the house - a beautiful cluster with a haze of stars. Others: M16, 18, 80, 28, 8, 26, 24, 23 and 21, With M 5 as a bonus.

I've been waiting for this for a while. Lets hope there is another chance and I can try for the ones that I missed and have time to study the above for longer.

but - note to self: don't take a red pen to do your notes when using a red light!

Kerry

[Stu]

Sounds like a wonderful night Kerry. Its a lovely area of sky, just a shame it is so low from uk skies. Can't get these from my house and cloud always seems to get in the way when I do get somewhere where it's possible.

Hope you get another good view of them soon.

Cheers,

Stu

[cotterless45]

Beautiful and a view into the galactic core. Don't get much south due to a giant oak and the town glow between the ecliptic and the rooftops. Looks like a trip down south for

clear skies,

Nick.

[andrew63]

Glad you got to see some of these southern gems Kerry - it's a short season for this area, so hope you get another chance soon.

andrew

[stevepeverall]

What a night!........I've been waiting for this for a while

Me too! Like a kid depending on Christmas.

I'd almost given up on Sagitarius as it always appears washed out. I ticked off most of your Messiers too for the first time the night before last.

The M24 Star Cloud was the highlight for me.

[kerrylewis]

Steve

I was so glad to get another chance. Too many pints of real ale ruled out Friday and when I saw how clear it was I regretted it - well only partly

But last night made up for it. What a rich area it is but I only have a narrow window in both time and space to give it a go

Kerry

[dick_dangerous]

I had a similar revelatory experience last night - incredible clarity. The thunderstorms have washed all the rubbish out of the sky. I'd always wanted to view this portion of the sky and stupidly didn't while in South America (Although the galactic centre when the limiting magnitude is pushing +8 is something else, as close to a religious experience as this humanist is likely to get...).

M8 didn't disappoint and M22 would now have to be my favourite globular (Although Omega Centauri is quite something - you can't miss it in the Southern Hemisphere!). I think next year I'm going to have to head a long way south in September to have a go at some more of these.

DD

[skfboiler]

I had a si,ilar experience this past weekend as Sagittarius and Scorpius are well above the horizon for me at 41°N. Sagittarius has a lot of Messier and NGC open/globulars clusters and a fair share of planetaries to see . I rank M22 up there with M13 as far as size and viewing pleasure. I forgot about the M24 star cloud. I think clouds came in and I did not get a chance to work my way up that area.

[crashtestdummy]

Also had a similar experience but from my northern base I had to travel 250 miles to swanage and bagged them all in 2 short nights to complete the measures.doubt I would have got m6 and m7 or m83 from up north

[Stu]

Great stuff. Heading to Purbeck myself shortly and hope to get up to Durlston Head to catch a those low down Messiers :-)

Stu

[Matt Scunthorpe]

I need to get out to a dark site to get the rest of these, hopefully manage that tonight. M22 is a stunner though.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Also had a similar experience but from my northern base I had to travel 250 miles to swanage and bagged them all in 2 short nights to complete the measures.doubt I would have got m6 and m7 or m83 from up north

I think this is the problem im going to have too. M7 barely gets above the horizon at the moment if i remember correctly.

[crashtestdummy]

massive agreement on not using a red pen the mark your targets up when using a red light-ive used a red sharpie to tick off targets in my star guide and can hardly make them out under the red light.will try a different colour next