A lot of everything tonight! (Except comets)

[Ccolvin968]

Tonight, (20 August 2015) turned out to be the best night I've had out in a while. I moved out to the mid west US from the extremely polluted east coast. I still cant get over seeing the Milky Way every night. I got extremely lucky tonight and it was crystal clear, 60 degrees F, no wind, and best of all. NO MOSQUITOES! Thats unheard of in MN. It's also probably my last night out with my first telescope (Celestron 127EQ) since my new 10 inch Dob will be here on Tuesday. A bitter sweet moment... As for the observing, I always like to start out easy. I started with the moon. It had some really cool details along the terminator tonight. I have to see which mountain/crater it was, but it was on the dark half of the moon and only the peak was illuminated. One of my favorite views of the moon I've ever had. I moved over to Saturn and spent some time with her for a while. It was probably the most clear I'd seen it in a very long time. From here, my entire list of targets I wanted for the night got trashed. I observed the Antares region for some time. Such a beautiful reddish orange color. After that, I tried to hop over to M4. Sadly, that didn't work out. I couldn't seem to find it at all. About 35 miles to my South is the capital of the state I live in. The southern skies are usually pretty bad with LP. I got lucky tonight since my other targets were up higher. I then found the Sagittarius Star Cloud. It more or less just smacks you right in the eye as soon as you see it. Even in my 5" telescope it was gorgeous. I wasn't able to get the entire Star Cloud in my fov with a 32mm ep. Right around this time, I took a break from the ep and just looked over at the Big Dipper. Out of nowhere I say it straight on, a fairly bright meteor. It appears to have come from the k-Cygnids shower. Back to the scope I went... Since I was in the area, I decided to try for the Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid Nebula. The Trifid had ended up being really cool. Just the tiniest bit of nebulosity could be seen around the brightest star in the cluster. Using averted vision I could see a little bit more. I couldn't find the Lagoon Nebula for the life of me. I may have been looking right at it, but if I was, there was absolutely zero nebulosity. From there, I hopped over to M21, and then to M23. Both interesting little clusters. Nothing totally spectacular about either of them, but interesting none the less. I then shifted my attention to the ENE skies looking for M31. It took me forever, since I was using Star Walk 2 on my phone. It actually had M31 a good 10 degrees to the right of it's actual position. I literally accidentally found it after bumping the scope back and forth. I hung out with her for a bit. Nothing but a gray smudge as usual in my 5" scope. I was able to make out the core pretty easily though which was unusual. I then hopped over to Cass in the Northern sky. I checked out NGC 457 and had no issues locating it at all. Very easy at this point with it's positioning to Ruchbah. if you ever get a chance to find this guy, if you try REALLY hard, it looks like a little guy waving at you. Seriously! I hopped over to Achird from there to catch a short hop to the Pacman Nebula. I found it, but only the stars and no nebulosity, Overall, I'd call this a great night out. If you made it to the end of this report, thank you. I love sharing my great nights out with all of you. On that note, It's time for me to close up this post, and my laptop and call it a night. I'm sure my 6 1/2 old month daughter will be ready to eat soon. Until next time... Clear Skies!

[Special K]

Nice report! You never know, you may have more use with the 127 as a travel scope. Enjoy the new equipment and dodging Mosquitos!

[laudropb]

Very nice report. I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks for posting.

[SimonfromSussex]

Lovely report, you can't beat these summer evenings for a session, when it's clear!

Surprised you could not see the lagoon, from the trifid it's just a small nudge down and left and it should be there?

The two are very close and actually I think the trifid is fainter of the two to see? From your description I wonder if you were on the lagoon actually? It's much bigger and has a bit of a cluster in the centre?

Throw the 10" at that area, should be amazing!

[Ccolvin968]

Simon, I thought the same thing. I was able to see M21. From M21 I barely had to bump the scope right and then down. After that, I did try to move it slightly left and down. Nothing at all. Stars, but no visible nebulosity. I'm 99% positive I was looking at the Trifid. I'll get my 10" out and take a look once it arrives.