1st July Summer Triangle

[johnfosteruk]

Just come in from a very nice hour in and around the summer triangle, started off with picking out the triangle with bins while the telescope cooled just to take in the rich star fields in all their majesty. This area really gives a sense of the immensity of the universe for me. Seeing and transparency were both reasonably good.

Then it was over to the telescope starting with the double double, the pair resolving easily and each component splitting with the 8mm and 2x barlow at about 224x Then it was onto a very faint M57, DSOs are always going to take a lot of concentration under the light polluted city skies at home in Plymouth but with averted vision I'm happy to have glimpsed the Ring.

Then it was Albireo's turn, split easily at 25mm, about 36x, I popped the bins back out again to take in the surrounding star field.

I've wanted to really focus on some clusters so I hopped to M39, I think I could see about 40 stars in the cluster, standing out well from the background, but nothing bright enough to determine colour. NGC 7243 in Lacerta on the other hand was beautiful, completely filling the field at 112x with the 8mm, a rich cluster, 50 to 60 stars visible with a fair amount of bluish specimens to my eye. There's a number of chains visible which I like. 

I'd have liked to have stayed out longer, the Dumbell, the group of clusters near Zeta Cephei and those near Sadr/Gamma Cygni were on my list too but it started to get a little cloudy and I've got a busy day tomorrow so we'll save those for another night.

The Deepskyhunter atlas I had printed has been a great tool on it's first night out. I've nowhere near used it to it's potential looking for really deep objects, nor will I for some time but for what I viewed tonight it was orders of magnitude easier to hop to targets than using SkySafari so that's a win.

The big story from tonight is the rich fields, DSOs are amazing and intriguing, but when you look through that glass and the sky pops out at you it really is a source of awe for me, especially with the wider views.

Clear skies

[rockystar]

nice report, lovely area of the sky to look at

 

 

[cotterless45]

Following a dodgy forecast I went to bed , tired. Got up at 1.30 and just stood out in the garden. The sky was really dark with the whole of Pegasus up in the north. Overhead , the tail end of Cygnus was packed with stars and the Milky Way ran right through. I was tired, I went back to bed , so tired very tired. That's the first time that I recall that happening.

Bravo to you for enjoying this most beautiful sky. Going to get sleep sorted next time !

old Nick.

[estwing]

so many treats in this part of the sky...pity we cant be enjoying it in T-shirt!

[RobertI]

Very nice report on an interesting selection of objects. I very briefly made it out at 1pm, literally for five minutes to try out my new Giro-WR mount, and it seemed like a nice transparent night.

[laudropb]

Lovely report. It's my favourite area of the summer sky. Unfortunately clouds have prevented any sessions so far this year.

[Davesellars]

Great report and well done for getting out there and putting in a good session.  This time of year for me can be spectacular with the likes of Sagittarius and wide field just works very well to soak in the Milky Way and all those clusters.

The transparency was particularly good last night here after a strong wind in the evening seemed to blow away all the rubbish in the air.

[Size9Hex]

That's a lovely report of a lovely session. I think you're spot on with the awe and immensity of it all. Sometimes easy to overlook when you're scrutinising something at high magnification, but those wide views (and even naked eye) bring it all home beautifully.