The "Swan " and a pair of visitors !

[cotterless45]

A lovely evening and a promise of clear skies, setting up at 10.30 and going through to a still fairly light 1.00 am showed some beautiful sights. It's been a long time since a decent session , so I kicked off with some old favourites . It was first light for an Oiii filter, which gave surprising results . Later the sky gave a mass of stars around Deneb, with a hint of Milky Way bright behind Sadr.

A quick view of Jupiter, then a stunning view of Saturn with the rings open , giving the planet sitting on them. Plenty detail to the surface and the Cassini.

M27 glowed beautifully, it looked fluffacious ! Some hints that the Eagle , Trifid and Lagoon nebulae were there. A bright view of the Swan nebula ,M17, didn't even need a filter , it just swam into view. Really worth finding , not too low in the south.

M11 looked superb, quite high in the east, that fine sprinkling is just stunning.

Time for some planetaries, NGC 6826 ("Blinking") , NGC 7662 ("Blue snowball") and the huge bright "Ghost of the Moon", NGC 6718.  

Aquila is a lovely area, "Graff's cluster", IC 4756 looking wide and wonderful at x30.  Some more planetary nebulae, back to the "ghost of the Moon" followed by the very faint NGC 6741 ("Phantom Streak") , NGC 6790, very star like and blinking. NGC 6807 and NGC 6751 followed.

To the open clusters here, NGC 6709, dusty with bright stars and binaries , a real gem. NGC 6738, nearby with wide chains. NGC 6755, faint and large and a fainter NGC  6756.

As Cygnus was high and in a darker area , I had a shot at the "Eastern Veil ", NGC 6995 area, it just leapt out, NGC 6960 looked faint , but NGC 6992 was very bright. As the great square was up, I had a look at M31 and over to resolve M15.

The whole session was accompanied by a pair of very noisy hedgehogs, very welcome ! Plenty on view , time to get out there !

Clear skies ! Nick.

[Prester John]

Thanks for the trip. Are the hedgehogs wild? they are kept as pets here lol.

[Alan White]

Sounds like a great observing session.

Nice sketch.

[Pig]

Great session Nick, lovely read too ?

[Dave In Vermont]

Great report! Read the title, and thought you'd found 2 comets! But the "visitors" were the 4-legged variety! Cool.

Love your writing style.

Dave

[wookie1965]

Cracking sketch unfortunately at the moment I am stuck without help cannot get my kit out and back in. really depressed at the moment.

[David Levi]

Great report and sketch. I can feel the enjoyment that you were having in the writing.

I haven't got an OIII filter so I would be interested to know of the effect that surprised you.

[Littleguy80]

Fab report, Nick. So many great targets. The Ghost of the Moon is not one I've heard of before and will definitely be a future target. Did the Hedgehogs have a peep through the scope too?

[cotterless45]

The Oiii filter was one step above the uhc filter in terms of making targets very bright and more visible. I look forward to using it in the Dob, very impressed at the wow factor it gave.

The hedgehogs after polishing off the bird food ( fast food snacks ) ,retired to the bushes and make a terrible noise , a cross between a tired steam engine and scraping wall paper ,for three hours. I had the neighbour's DVD going fall blast one side , with some war inferno going on and the hedgehogs the other side ! Oh for a peaceful night !!!

old Nick.

[wookie1965]

I may have to get a OIII filter myself see what I can pick up from here. 

[Chefgage]

Nice report and sketch.  The visitor i usually get is a cat from across the road. It usually walks into our garden from down a walkway between our garage and an out building.  I dont know who jumps the most, me when i see a dark object moving out the corner of my eye or the cat when it realises there is someone sat on the driveway at 1 am