Town views, southern nebulae.

[cotterless45]

A quickly darkening sky showed fins binocular views south. Just a mass of clusters and nebulae in Sagittarius and Serpens Cauda surrounds. Lost in the sheer mass of stars there, even from the edge of town.

First up was M17, something there, put in the UHC filter and a lovely glowing "swan " on it's side. Never seen this , had quite a surprise. My horizon cut off was from M6 to M70, anything above this was ok. I started with out the UHC, fitting it as required. Drifted over to "The little gem" of NGC 6818..

Back to my favourite M11, more details flying out at x50.

M26 showed a dark nebula at the centre of an open cluster.

M23 was just stunning at x50. M24 an open cluster.

M22 a faint low glow of the great Sagittarius globular.

M18 the heart shaped open cluster of the "Black Swan".

M8 showed very brightly at x60 with the fine grouping of NGC 6530.

M24 showed the packed star fields in this area.

I had never had such fine views from the edge of town of most of these. The Milky Way was right through Cygnus and through to a glowing Perseus.

Up to the binocular sight of "Graff's Cluster" and a low power scope view of this , IC 4756.

Over to the neat planetary nebula of NGC 6934 in Delphinus , quite obvious at x50.

Twenty past midnight brought a long bright meteor west of Cassiopeia , with a glowing after trail.

To Aquarius and a faint M72, an slightly elongate at NGC 7009. The real stunner here being M2, high and bright. Worth finding and so gorgeous sight.more details coming out at over x200.

I then started my list ! Some wonderful double stars including 27 (delta)Cephei, a yellow orange with a blue companion.

Theta Sagittae, showing the colourful A and B and an optical third at 88". I packed up at 3 with the sky clouding over waiting for comet 141 Machholtz in Auriga. By bins I spotted M37,36 and 38. Cloud beat me to it !

Try M2 and M17 in reasonable aperture. Clear skies !

Nick.

[baggywrinkle]

How come you get so much clear weather....

[baggywrinkle]

Cracking sketches BTW.

[Tzitzis]

Cheers Nick! Another night, another complete list of yours. All these Messier objects must be Marvellous sights.

Hope you get out again soon! 

[cotterless45]

Two secrets to observing,

Ignore the weather forecast.

Get out and do it !

[baggywrinkle]

I will give that a go Nick.

[Stu]

Two secrets to observing,

Ignore the weather forecast.

Get out and do it !

Great report Nick. I agree, last night was supposed to be completely cloudy but up until around 10.30 it was lovely. Seeing like great too, Mizar and Alcor clearly visible naked eye.

Did I have a scope out? Afraid not. Just sat in my garden chair looking up for 20 mins. Nice

[mapstar]

Fantastic report as usual Nick and enjoyed reading it in Awe.

Lovely drawings I'm going to have to get myself sorted out that way and spend more time on the targets I manage to find.

It's a really nice time of year and not one I've perused much.

Damian