A simple observation session under an almost full Moon

[Piero]

Due to the almost full Moon, I had a simple session last night focusing on this bright object and some pretty star system. It was interesting to push the limits even further on some of these targets. Thankfully the seeing was sufficiently good to allow this. 

All the targets below can be spotted and viewed without effort so they could be first targets for newcomers in this hobby. 

Thanks for reading, 

Piero

Date 24/09/2015

Time 21:30-23:20

Temperature 11C (13 km/h)

Seeing 2 - Slight undulations

Transparency 4 - Partly clear

Telescopes Tele Vue 60 F6

Eyepieces Nagler 13mm, Nagler 7mm, Nagler 3.5mm, Powermate 2.5x

Moon - Satellite 69x, 103x, 129x, 256x

Waxing Gibbous, 93 %. The atmosphere was sufficiently steady for pushing the magnification. Interestingly, at 256x, I saw less floaters than at 103x. I think this is due to a very small exit pupil which essentially hid most of the floaters. Now wobbling on the surface due to bad seeing. At this magnification, it was possible to spot some roughness on the lunar surface which was not visible at lower magnifications. The image simply looked as if an antialiasing effect was applied. At 129x I had the most beautiful view: a considerable amount of details yet a crisp view. The positive thing of observing at these high magnification was the noticeable reduction of visible scatter light. Outstanding view also at 69x and 103x. At all magnifications, the terminator showed interesting features and several hills were observable beyond the terminator.

M57 Lyr Pln Neb 28x, 103x

Ring nebula. Easily detectable at 28x. At 103x the ring was visible, particularly with averted vision.

Beta Cyg Dbl Star 51x

Albireo. A wonderful double in the Summer Sky, easily visible with every telescope.

NGC6871 Cyg Opn CL 51x

This cluster is located on the Cygnus' neck and contains two double stars. One pair is actually a triple system with a dimmer third component (almost 10 mag). This dimmer component is not obvious at 51x but makes a nice picture with the other two pairs.

M45 Tau Opn CL 28x

Pleiades. Lovely view of this open cluster at 28x. The field is just perfect. I could spot about 15-20 dim stars. 

[xtreemchaos]

lovely report mate, you got some nice targets there, i settled for some moon avi as i found it was much to bright out of my obsy room window for anything else.  thanks for sharing   charl.

[laudropb]

Nice report Piero. Sometimes it is really enjoyable to keep things simple.

[Astro Imp]

Nice report Piero, like many of us I spent most of the evening viewing our close neighbour. There is always something to enjoy there, I have to admit it took me quite a while to enjoy the moon but started on the Luna 100 and found this really added to the enjoyment.

[Special K]

Very nice Piero!  Looking at NGC6871, it appears there's a third double in the middle of that cluster, but if it's all bunched up, it could be impossible to tell which is which!  I'll try to have a look at this next..............recently got just the EP to do it with

What is fantastic about doubles is they look great in all kinds of magnifications!