Globulars, planets, asteroids and Panstarrs.

[cotterless45]

Lovely night, overhead was dazzling with stars. Kicked off with the globulars in Hercules and M53. Must say these were vastly out done by M5. It really sparkles with surrounding and foreground stars. The edges are quite resolvable,lovely.

Up to Mars, then Jupiter and later Saturn rising. Using "Luminos" in static mode I found the dwarf planet Ceres in Virgo. The correlation matched "Luminos. "Then onto Vesta, surprisingly bright, Pallas in Leo and the comet C/2012 K1 Panstarrs. This was hanging off the handle of Ursa Major and a real treat at x48. Surrounded by a fuzz of material, a really surprising and exciting view. If you haven't caught it , then it 's worth finding.

Back to Hercules and a struggle to split zeta. Tried filters and aperture reduction. However found superb colour in STF 2063 with a difference of three magnitudes showing a lovely red secondary. STF 2085 also showed a most delicate double with bright yellow separated from tiny blue.

Had a quick scan of the galaxies including the very bright M105 in Leo , NGC 5907 (Splinter galaxy ) in Draco and the "Little Pinwheel" NGC 3184 in UMa. Cygnus was rising in the north east just as the clouds returned.

Packed in really chuffed thinking how lucky we are to have a window on our bit of the Universe,

Nick.

[oldpink]

had a decent night tonight but a lot of cloud dodging
hopefully got some decent data

[pmchugh1961]

Between the cloud dodging I had a great night, encountered M13 for the fist time with my 250px ...amazing!

[StarSapling]

Great report.  Very windy (50mph gusts) and, thankfully, some rain (we really need it) here in Arizona, so I will not be out with the scopes tonight.  M5 is my favorite globular; it has a lot of character.  In my 120mm, it appears somewhat flattened and shows hints of mottled detail, perhaps  the result foreground dust clouds?  Omega Centari used to be my favorite globular, but I understand that it is no longer considered a globular cluster, but is thought to be the core of a galaxy that the Milky Way has gobbled up.

[SteveB72]

Thanks for the report, seeing conditions were not very good where I am then the clouds rolled in, but managed to see 2012 K1 Panstarrs, Mars, Jupiter, quick check of SN in M82 and it was still there.

[SteveB72]

I hope this is appropriate, after looking at comet C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS my 4 1/2 year old son was inspired to sketch what he saw.

[andrew63]

I hope this is appropriate, after looking at comet C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS my 4 1/2 year old son was inspired to sketch what he saw.

Fantastic - a star in the making !

andrew