Great Skies

[Stub Mandrel]

Last night the forecast was hit and miss and having gathered some very low-grade subs the previous evening I gave it a miss.

At 1:00 am I had to let the dog out into the garden, it was the best sky since last Autumn. Bootes, Corona borealis and Hercules were distinct and instead of being isolated surrounded by a huge swathe of smaller stars. Cygnus was slightly washed by LP from the nearby town, but was still full of smaller stars. Lyra was hard to make out because of smaller stars obscuring its pattern.

OK my eyes were dark adapted by two or more hours asleep, but the sheer clarity and contrast in the sky was magnificent for my location. I'm sure I could even make out M13. I must have been seeing stars down to below Mag 4.

[cotterless45]

Yep, I got out there, but by 3am the first dawn light brightened up the sky. Had some lovely views of the Summer Triangle, with a bit of bright Milky Way behind Sadr,

Nick.

[wookie1965]

I set up at 1.30 am having had a favourable forecast saying clear skies from 2 until 4 I`m dying to try my newly fixed mount, unfortunately the forecast was wrong  had cloud to much to even get a 2 star alignment.

[Davey-T]

I was setup ready in daylight then paced around until midnight under a cloudy sky, gave up and turned in.

Dave 

[Nova2000]

Monsoons have began here. I won't even dream of a clear sky for 4months. Miss the summer sky

[Davesellars]

I popped my head out of the window at 2am and it was wonderfully clear and just in time to see the ISS fly almost directly overhead.  It was certainly still cloudy at midnight so yeah would have been frustrating if I wasn't busy doing other stuff and planning on a session!

I've not really tried M13 naked eye and not sure what limiting magnitude would be required to see this.

 

[Stu]

6 minutes ago, Davesellars said:

I've not really tried M13 naked eye and not sure what limiting magnitude would be required to see this.

I've seen it a couple of times with averted vision, probably mag 5.5 skies.

Nice report Neil, looking forward to seeing Cygnus under a dark sky later in the summer.

[Stub Mandrel]

18 minutes ago, Davesellars said:

I've not really tried M13 naked eye and not sure what limiting magnitude would be required to see this.

I think I may have been fooling myself into seeing the faint fuzzy, but looking at Stellarium 5 seems about right. Shame I was tired/in dressing gown, I wish I had stayed up.

My subs from the night before are awful.