A fine first session for the season

[Bodkin]

It has been about three months since I packed up the telescope for the summer season, but I finally got back into the swing of things last night. 

I rushed around the sky like a kid in a sweet shop sampling a lot of my favourite views.  The visibility was very good and there were a few notable objects that I will remember for a long time

• The Crescent nebula was a particular surprise.  It lived up to its name with a faint but clearly visible crescent in a wonderfully rich star field.  I have often failed to see this one, so it was a good indication of the quality of the sky.
• The Veil nebula showed lots of tendrils and wisps.  Very beautiful
• The Turtle planetary nebula was a lovely blue little fuzzball.  The colour is remarkably strong in my ten inch
• The Omega (M17) and Eagle (M16) nebulas were both full of detail despite the low altitude.  M17 always looks like a swan, sedately swimming across the Milky Way to me.
• M13 and the nearby galaxy NGC 6207 made a lovely pairing
• Globulars, globulars - there are so many around this season - M3, M13, M10, M12, M14, M92, M56, M2, M15 were  all easy pickings.  The good thing is that they each have their own character.  I have a particular soft spot for M15 which seems to have a tiny central core of stars surrounded by a fine halo.  I closed out with two less visited globulars in Delphinus - C42 and C47.

Given that the seeing was so good I probably wasted the chance to bag a few new objects.  However, the session was probably the kind I like best; simple viewing with one telescope (ten inch dob), one eyepiece and no plan. 

[Bart]

Nice. Great to get out again. Well done on the crescent Neb, I tried god that a couple of nights ago and couldn't get it. Thought I did, but could say, hand on heart, it was there. It's certainly glob time at the moment. I WA going to bed on sat morn at about 4am and just spotted Orion peeping up in the east - wow.

Glad you had a good session to get you off into the season

Ps- currently in love with the cats eye nebula, very beautiful thing

Barry

[callisto]

Thats what I love, nice easy viewing

[Bodkin]

Nice. Great to get out again. Well done on the crescent Neb, I tried god that a couple of nights ago and couldn't get it. Thought I did, but could say, hand on heart, it was there. It's certainly glob time at the moment. I WA going to bed on sat morn at about 4am and just spotted Orion peeping up in the east - wow.

Glad you had a good session to get you off into the season

Ps- currently in love with the cats eye nebula, very beautiful thing

Barry

I should have given the cat's eye a go. Next time hopefully; which could be some way off given the wet weather over mid Wales at the moment. 

[Bodkin]

Thats what I love, nice easy viewing

It seems to be an underrated approach, but I like it. 

A new arrival to visual astronomy would be forgiven for thinking that you need three or four eyepieces, half a dozen filters, a coma corrector and a go-to mount to enjoy this hobby.  I love the fact that all this amazing stuff is available these days, but I prefer my thirty year old 10 inch newt on its homemade dob mount plus a couple of eyepieces.  Each to their own.

[callisto]

It seems to be an underrated approach, but I like it. 

A new arrival to visual astronomy would be forgiven for thinking that you need three or four eyepieces, half a dozen filters, a coma corrector and a go-to mount to enjoy this hobby.  I love the fact that all this amazing stuff is available these days, but I prefer my thirty year old 10 inch newt on its homemade dob mount plus a couple of eyepieces.  Each to their own.

+1 to that