4 messiers, 3 constellations and a planet, maybe

[algol]

so last night i went out as it was reasonably clear, spent half hour looking for mercury but no use, then all of a sudden i spotted it, it was an orange colour about first mag, and low in the northwest about 8 or 9 degrees above horizon. it had dissapeared in half an hour.

it appeared star like in scope until 130x mag when it looked like one of the eyes off war of worlds, a third green, red and yellow. very strange.

anyway got rather happy with that did a little fance then calmed down.

saw spica in virgo later on so thought that i would try to find the two C's, corvus and crater as they had previously evaded me, well corvus was naked eye, and using that i could find the arc of the goblet in crater.

as for the messiers, i logged m36 and 38 in auriga which were both gorgeous, one of them was vaguely starfish shaped as i have read, hadn't beleived it till now though.

m92 in herc was also found a first, then on to the crowning acheivement m57 in vega, blundered across it at 65x mag whilst scanning the area, faint grey smudge which with averted vision showed definite ring stucture. by this time i was similar to this :wav:

anyway to top it all off i saw altair rising out of the muck to mark a new constellation for me aquilla and the summer triangle.

sorry for the long report but it was an action packed night

[Casus belli]

Well done on spotting the Ring Nebula. Thats a good find in a 130mm scope. I believe its possible in a 90mm scope but I havent managed it yet in my etx 90. I have a new ep, an 8mm Hyperion which arrived today so I'll have to give it a try out.

I still havent seen mercury but hopefully it wont be cloudy again tonight.

[Talitha]

You sure did have an action packed night.. congratulations! :thumbup:

[Andrew*]

Very nice report, Algol,

sorry for the long report but it was an action packed night

:nono: Make them as long as you like. Longer the better for me!

Anyway, what did you think of M92 and how well was it resolved in your scope?

I had to check Starry Night to find out what "Corvus and Crater" were. Never heard of them. Nice one!

Andrew

[algol]

to be honest, m92 wasn't a scope pick it was found with the 8x50 , it was smaller than m13 or dimmer anyway.

found it three times in a row with binos, then when i came to have a dig with the scope i couldnt find it.

defo m92 though checked it on stellarium and the placement and the two nearby stars id it.

i only knew the constellations because i'm sad enough to actually be marking them off as i see em

[Beyond_Vision]

Sounds like a very interesting night you had there Algol.

Regards

Kevin

[Sam]

Great report Algol! Don't worry about the length, the more detail the better! Good on you for finding M57, that can be very tricky - that was one of the first DSOs I saw and it's stunning!! I have to now look up Corvus and Crater to see what they are.

cheers

Sam