Lovely clear sky..... Sagittarius visible!

[Stu]

I didn't put the scope out last night unfortunately, but popped out with the binocs briefly. There was some patchy cloud around but in the clear gaps, the sky looked very dark.

I think the recent rain must have washed a whole load of muck out of the atmosphere, because I could see stars right down to the horizon where there is normally horrid orange haze. NELM was around 5 which is good for here, and could just about suspect the MW through Cygnus.

I wandered down to the bottom of the garden and rather to my amazement, found that I could see the top half of the teapot asterism in Sagittarius very clearly in a gap between the houses, something I've never seen from here before. In the binos I could pick out the lagoon and Trifid nebulae, and M22 was very clear! I need to get out there with the scope soon before it disappears until next year, and hope that the skies remain this clear for a few days.

To me it was just interesting that, despite living here for four years, I'm still discovering new angles and possibilities to observe.

Cheers,

Stu