Another mixed bag ......

[John]

Some clear patches of sky tonight after 3 days of misty rain and heavy clouds. Had to get a scope out !

The ED120 has a new diagonal that I wanted to try out so that was the one that went out tonight. I was dodging cloud patches for much of this session so it's a bit hit and miss. Managed to get the following though:

Double stars + Saturn to test the diagonal at high powers:

Delta Cygni, Epsilon Lyra, Marfik (Ophiuchus), Pi Aquilae all split nice and cleanly. Saturn a bit shaky but thats seeing / altitude rather than optical. Crisp detail for moments long enough to prove that the optical system is fine.

Then to some DSO's:

Vulpecula / Sagitta:

M27 (Dumbbell Neb)

M71 (Globular Cluster in the shaft of the arrow of Sagitta)

Collinder 399 (Brocci's or Al Sufi's Cluster, loose and not thought to be a true cluster these days. Nice jewels on velvet look though)

Scutum :

M11 (The Wild Duck Cluster, simply glorious, rich and very un-duck-like, to me )

NGC 6713 (8th magnitude globular cluster. Just gently resolving into pin points of light against a misty core)

Here comes a large cloud bank so over to .....

Perseus:

NGC 867 and 884 (The Double Cluster AKA the "Sword Handle" by some. Glorious and a "must see" though any scope or large binoculars)

More and larger chunks of cloud getting in the way so packed up and had a glass of chilled wine while I type this

[alan potts]

M11, not very ducky is it, I do sometimes wonder where they get the names from, one of my favourites is Pete Lawance's Space Shuttle for M35, though up the other way it looks like a single blue bell flowering.

I think some of the nebula do look like their names when seen after a few hours on a CCD device, gives me apperture fever when I see them but I would think 50 inch plus would be required and my pockets are not that deep.

Alan

[Paul73]

You are pretty persistent John. I had a look out about midnight and decided that it would be more trouble than it is worth. Glad that you made the most of it.

M11 is a favourite. Dead easy to find and easily resolvable into a plethora of varied stars. It does sort of look like a flying "V" if I am being kind to the namer and using very low magnification. I agree about the nebulae. Ring, Swan (Nothing like Omega), Trifid, Blue Snow Ball, Cat Eye, Saturn. Often it is about the magnification/aperture at which we observe. ie, the Dumbbell looks more like a Moterway Cheese & Bacon turnovers under high magnification with my 10". With a much smaller scope. Hey Presto! Dumbbell!

Friday is night is looking good. New scope and a good forecast...... I might try some comparisons.

Paul

[Walshie79]

Some of the names are a mystery to me- the Beehive? Not the first thing I see when I look at that. For years I wondered why it was called the Plough, until I saw an old-style plough in a museum somewhere. Then all was clear, it looks very like one of them.

I always think "Christmas Tree Cluster" would be OK for M39, but that name's already used for another object. So maybe the Arrowhead? Spear Point? It's distinctly triangular to me. And the "Little Pleiades" is what M29 looks like to me.

[alan potts]

Paul,

The flying V is a guitar made by Gibson and was used a fair bit in the 70's and early 80's . I know what you mean though i can see the V shape maybe the namer should have called it the flying Wild Ducks in V formation, I don't get the M44 Beehive either. .

We would need our AP friends but a thread of show us your formation that actually looks like the name sound like a starter for 10.

I looked in on a couple that John viewed but the seeing here was from so so to awful, the heat in the day of 36 degrees would not have helped. At 9.30 this morning it was already 30.

Alan