Southern comforts .

[cotterless45]

Trees to the south make this a difficult area to observe, last night the sky had been washed clear. The beautiful views south were observed with an ancient 127 frac.

Following M11 rewards the observer with a sparkling view of the brightest stars against a granulated cluster. It was lovely at x50 and took x150. Down to the beautiful M23, this being my cut off, M11,  M16 ( open cluster to the "Eagle nebula " , home of the fabulous pillars, the open cluster M18 and the star cloud of M24 followed . I was really surprised to get M17 at x50 without a filter, showing two areas of bright nebulosity. The lovely swan shape picked out easily, this was over the lights of town, give it a shot !

Putting in a simple UHC filter improved the field here and up to Cygnus. The Milky Way ran right through with the brightest part of the Eastern Veil at x50. Go from NGC 6995 to NGC 6992.

Keep looking around at midnight , a lovely long meteor through Cygnus followed by the ISS.

I caught Neptune between trees, the unmistakable blue disc alone in the fov.
There's so very much to spot with UMa in the north west, Lacerta, Hercules,Ophuichus,Andromeda,Pegasus and Cassiopeia . The double cluster was stunning and past Ceph NGC 7789 ( "Caroline's Rose") showed its dark lanes at x50 up to x150. 

The shape of Delphinus was bright and clear , using a 5.5mm Meade ,
13 Delphini showed a faint companion in the glare , very pleased to get this 1.5" split. Much easier to get Σ 2735 at 1.9" and the lovely optical triple of Σ2738.

No summer night would be complete with out the favourites of M57, M56, M71, M27, M13 and Bode's before they arched away northwards. M2 and the gorgeous M22 were just too low to escape the trees. Got to head out south.

So many other gems , NGC 7662, the blinking NGC 6826 and the lovely NGC 752 in Andromeda, just act x50 with modest aperture.

A wonderful night , have a look south to the busy areas of Sagittarius, not too far from our galactic centre, try M17,
clear skies !
Nick.

[wookie1965]

Well that`s more to add to my list if I ever get out, don't think I`m going to get low down in south though as I have house all around but you never know I will check when I eventually get out. Great informative report again.

[DHEB]

Excellent report, Nick, as always. Did you miss M15? I think it is gorgeous!

[cotterless45]

Yep, forgot to put it in the report, it's only outdone by M22 !

Nick.

[alan potts]

Always a pleasure to read Nick, nice report. It is a pitty you can't get on to M22, at least it sounds as if you can't, it is one of my favourites, I 'm sure you have seen it from other sites though. The swan though was one of my wow moments from last year when I saw it for the first time in the 18 inch, absolutely stunning.

Alan

[Special K]

The Swan is a surprising brightness!  Well worth the effort of hunting it down and is a shard of bright nebula in any scope. One of the best views I ever had was on a black summer night on the California coast where the MW was like a white band of cloud, but the Swan and Eagle were satellite puffs of white to the naked eye.  Jaw dropping.

Great report from the southern horizon!