Fireworks with the " Yard Cannon"

[cotterless45]

The sky was incredibly dark and the seeing superb. I wheeled out the C6r and got NGC 1023 straight away. As the night wore on the dew increased and cloud began to roll in about midnight. Spotting Diphada again , I had a few goes in Cetus.

Then a real surprise, a tour of Aquarius. This wasn't helped by the 30 ft oak tree due south of here, but some gorgeous double stars there that I'd never seen before.Even at x40 there were some stunning sights. Try and catch the delicate Σ 2809 , one degree from M2.

I had a look at the Auriga clusters, getting the whole of M37 to fill the fov at x150. It was like looking into patches of bright granulated sand, just amazed at the view and the dark lanes meandering through.

Favourites around last night,

Σ285 in Triangulum , a bright 1.8" split.

Σ2878 in Pegasus, a nice 1.5" split and

Σ 2799 in Pegasus , a neat 1.9" split.

In Aquarius, 29 Aquari, Σ 2862 and Σ 2838 provided lovely sights around 22h RA.

Skipping around the Messiers showed what a good night this was. The Milky Way was quite obvious from Perseus into Cassiopeia and brushing the base of Auriga. Uranus popped up in the north. Quite pea like.

A pleasure to be out just in a t shirt ( and trousers) ,a good session under those expected

Clear skies !

Nick.

[wxsatuser]

Nice one.

I did notice how clear and crisp the sky looked after all the wind and rain.

To much cloud around to bother imaging

[FenlandPaul]

Great report Nick. Your sketch of NGC1023 is spot on - exactly as it appears in the eyepiece. That's quite a skill!

P