My most productive observing night ever

[skfboiler]

For a change of pace from my white LP zone in my backyard, I decided to go to the local astronomy club observatory site, 40 miles away that is in a orange LP zone. About 10 other observers showed up and this turned out to be an unplanned miniature star party. This is a pretty dark site compared to what I’m used to. There was still some sky glow to the north. This was the first time I ever saw the Milky Way. It was a grayish white cloud band, stretched across the sky.

Most of the objects I found tonight were the first I time seeing these. The first object I wanted to find was M51. I found it but it was very faint. I was only able to see cores of M51 and NGC 5195; no structure at all. Since there was sky glow to the north, I decided to concentrate my observation session to the south. Sagittarius and Scorpius are clearly visible at my 41°N latitude. I found M4, the globular cluster in Scorpius. It was larger than I expected. I could not find M80 nearby. Clouds are starting to roll in now; I did not want to spend too much time on this one. Next, I found both M6 and M7 as they were in the same field of view of my finders scope. Then I viewed them individually. These were all new objects for me.

Then I decided to find some of the Sagittarius globulars. I first went M22 and M28. I found these last week from my light polluted backyard but I wanted to see the difference at a darker site. The clusters were a lot brighter and more stars were resolved. M28 is really small compared to M22. Clouds were still coming in so skipped the other Sagittarius globulars and sought afterM8, the Lagoon Nebula, M20, the Trifid Nebula and M21, the open cluster. I never saw these before, so I was looking forward finding these. M8 and the cluster NGC 6530 were very nice to look at for the first time. I tried my Ultrablock narrowband filter and it enhanced the details. Next were M20 and M21. Similarly, very nice to see. The dark lanes were clearly visible. Again, the filter enhanced it. M21 was a loose cluster of stars. Just as I was looking at my sky chart to go to M17, the clouds came and we were delayed at least an hour. The clouds and somebody said M31, the Andromeda Galaxy was up. I saw this before but this time I was able see it more detail. The core was large. Then I saw a fuzzy gray object. Since it was so far from the core, I thought it was M110. I later saw another fuzzy patch on the other side of M31 and further way from the core. So I determined this is M110 and what I saw earlier was M32. Still working fast because more clouds, I went over to Perseus to see NGC 869/884, the Double Cluster. By this time it is getting late and decided to find to more new objects. I went to Cassiopeia and found M52, the open cluster. Then wrapped the night up and found M92 in Hercules. This was also a small globular cluster. Dew was now settling on my EP’s so I could not see any detail like I thought I should with this one.

This was the most productive night ever since I started this hobby. I revisited objects I've seen before on top of these new ones. I could have found more stuff if the clouds did not roll in a couple of times.

[cotterless45]

Hi ! Lovely report, you certainly made the most of the conditions with excellent results. I can hardly wait to get on holiday to dark and

clear skies,

Nick.

[estwing]

great night..its all about the dark skies..

[andrew63]

Some lovely objects - and being about 10 deg further south than us in UK the Sagittarius area must be a fine sight. Hope you get some more good nights soon.

andrew

[Astro Imp]

Great report, pleased you made the most of your time at a dark site.

Good luck and clear skies.