a few hours in my backyard

[steviegall]

well i got a clear night on Wednesday during the week so instead of heading to usual observation spot i stayed in my backyard to see the perseids as i didnt want to travel as it was a work night

i got quite a surprise as i found even with being close to the outer edge of a town and having a flood light from a local business shining into my backyard(can be avoided at times, well the directness of it at least through a fence) i was able to make our m31, the double cluster and even parts of the milkyway all easily enough naked eye, probably down to there being less stars visible so the more brighter objects out there

so on to last night, clouds ruined friday night but 1am the clouds parted last night and i got a solid two hours in before they rolled over again

so to andromeda and the first time i spent more than a minute at the eyepiece, i resisted upping the magnification and i smiled, it started to take an oval shape, everytime before i tried i just got a smudge 

and more than that im fairly sure i started making out its partners in grime m32 and m110 , so two more messiers off my list

so i turned to the pocket sky atlas as i remembered m33 wasnt too far off here either, studied the page and realised that its the same distance from mirach as m31 is in the opposite direction, so three tries later m33 down as well

tried hitting m51 after this but the trees outside my garden screwed that up royally, could see alkaid but the trees obscured any attempt to head in the direction so had to give up on that quest

i was in the neighbourhood so i looked up mizar and alcor, beautiful double, revisited albireo to see the lovely yellow and blue again, stunning

on to lyra, hit m57 again just to see what it would look like under the towns lights, was nice enough but i think it was my imagination that i was able to make out the dimness in the middle, then tried the double double while i was in the area, i dont think i was able to split it into 4, seemed like the two stars were elongated though so i was nearly there

got a couple of clusters in then, m13 even under the towns light was stunning, so many stars just out of clarity, the double cluster under cassippeia's W and when searching with my eyes i saw another something i hadnt seen before, it seemed like i tight grouping far below and left of cassiopeia, way past the double cluster, looked on my maps searching for a constellation in the area but to my surprise i found pleiades, once again probably due to the light pollution drowning out the more weaker magnitude stars, it looked beautiful through the scope, in the 25mm(stock) i coudlnt even see all of them so i think my next purchase will be a 25-30mm wide view eyepiece of somekind to replace the stock 25mm

oh and the highlight of the night i searched out herchels garnet star(mu cephi)in cephus, man that one was hard to see,

i could only just make it out with my eyes in the light polluted skies, it took me 4 attempts to find the right star in cephus but when i did, man o man it was something to see, it was so orange i coudlnt believe it, i can only imagine what it would be like from a darker site

anyway it was a great night, i had no idea the sights i could see from my own backyard, opens the door(geddit?) for some short sessions where i dont have to drive 10-15 mins to and from a site on the side of a hill even with its viewing restrictions, i can only see above 20-30o on the northern half of the sky unless i go around the side of the house and incur the wrath of the streetlights

[xtreemchaos]

great report mate,thanks for sharing. charl.

[cotterless45]

Have a look south for M11 and M17. Both these can be good if you can see the Milky Way,

Nick.

[owenjsidge]

Really interesting report. all my viewing is being done in my back garden as neither me or the Mrs drive so reading others backyard reports are great to see.

Owen

[laudropb]

Very good, informative report. Thanks for sharing.