A touch of dark .

[cotterless45]

It cleared and got reasonably dark. Tonight's accompanying bystander being a neighbouring dog left alone to whine away the night. Kicked off with a lovely view of the Garnet star (Mu Cephei) at the base of Cepheus. A huge amount of colour there, defocus and it's a stunning brilliant blood orange.

Put in the Oiii filter to see what was possible with a 150 frac.
Pleased to get the Swan, Triffid ( triple / multiple star here )and Lagoon nebulae down in Sagittarius. Got into the star fields of M18 , lovely cluster and a glide around M24. Even got the most gorgeous M22, but town lights bleached out resolution low in the south.

Good to get the Eastern Veil NGC 6995 .Then a slight sight of the western (bridal) NGC 6992 set around the elegant double 52 Cygni. 

Lovely pass of the ISS, one of four tonight and early hours. Had some targets in Cassiopeia, checked out iota and before packing in ,saw how high Pegasus had risen.
I left the grunting hedgehogs and the whining hound to enjoy the rest of the night.

It's getting there , by one it was very promising ,

old Nick.

[estwing]

Lots of crowd pleasers there Nick...those pesky town lights do spoil the views....here's to darker clear skies!

[knobby]

Lovely report , and a great tip to show star colours ... Defocus slightly.

There is so much info on this forum, even in an observing report.

[Littleguy80]

3 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

A huge amount of colour there, defocus and it's a stunning brilliant blood orange

Fab report, Nick. I never would have thought to try defocussing to look for colours like that. I always enjoy a good IIS pass too

[wookie1965]

I`m Jealous I cannot get out some lovely objects there. The Garnet star is a cracking colour and you Nick put me onto it like many more objects.

[faulksy]

nice report nick, keep em coming lad the skys are getting good

[mapstar]

23 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

Lovely pass of the ISS, one of four tonight and early hours.

It's getting there , by one it was very promising ,

old Nick.

Great report Nick and nice to know its getting there. The scope is ready for it's next outing. I'll probably try the dales next month.  

It was a really bright first pass and I followed it with the finder just making out the square shape. I just caught the second pass too before turning in.