Hope and Patience win

[Nyctimene]

"Spes et patientia vincunt" - this old Latin phrase (translated in the title) came to my mind, when I closed the door of the astro shed yesterday morning at 04.00 CEST. The afternoon and evening before had not been promising at all; extremely long airplane contrails of up to 150° and an extended whitish glare around the sun were indicating high air humidity; so the chances for DSO observing were worse than the nights before, and I decided to stay indoors. When I awoke at 01.45, the sky looked somewhat better, and I set up the 8" f/4 for spontaneous observing. NELM 5.6, and SQM-L 21.2 an hour later showed a further improvement. But Scorpius deep south was not brilliant; and the galaxy 5746 in Virgo near 110 Virginis showed no details except it's spindle shape, so I went up to objects near the zenith. M 92 was well resolved at 133x; and for the first time, IIRC, I spotted the small globular NGC 6229 (9.4 mag) forming with a pair of 8 mag stars close by a nice triangle (thanks, Iain, for your hint from March 26th on here!). The cluster was granular,but not clearly resolved.

Over to M 102, the "Spindle Galaxy" in Draco. At 9.8 mag, it's 2,5:1 shape could be made out easily with direct vision; a rather "normal" view. I was very surprised, when I followed a chain of three 7.5 - 8.5 mag stars from 102  1°30' to the east to it's neighbour NGC 5907.  At 10.3 mag, I spotted it's 11 arc min extended and extremely "edge-on" shape (about 6:1 axis relation!) best at 100x - 133x with direct (and better with averted) vision; a very rewarding sight! This galaxy should be named as the "Spindle Galaxy", not M 102. The small nearby gx 5879 (11.5 mag) followed. I finished with a look at Saturn: the Cassini division could be seen clearly. Mars was a wobbly disc still deep south. At 04.00 a.m., I glimpsed M 8 without optical aids; and the Summer Milky Way showed more and more structures. So, again a rewarding night, and I was glad for not having given up the chance of observing.

A picture of 5907 added:

Thenks for reading

Stephan

[domstar]

Very nice. M102 is still on my to do list, but when I get round to it (if I can find it), you've given me another target to go for (albeit if I can get to a dark enough sky).Thanks.

[cloudsweeper]

Good work Stephan.

" So, again a rewarding night, and I was glad for not having given up the chance of observing." - Yes,  I find that for most sessions, something interesting and exciting shows up!

Ecce astra!

Doug.

[Charic]

I'm surprised the sites obscenity checker did not wince at your latin ?

 

[Littleguy80]

Great report, Stephan. Whilst observing last week with some members of the local astro society, we talked about how much conditions can change over the course of a session. Objects that seem dull can become bright and impressive 20 mins or an hour later. Always pays to revisit!