NAN, Eagle and Swan (again)

[GavStar]

But this time in London...

After the excitement of the lovely dark skies in the Isle of Wight, I was brought back to Earth with a bump a few nights ago when the viewing in my back garden was truly horrible by comparison. 

It does seem to happen like this, where I get spoilt by a great session in dark skies and then wonder why I bother observing in London.

However, forecast looked good for tonight and I really wanted to have another crack at the eagle and swan in London as the weekend was my first time of seeing these lovely objects. So I got up at 3am for a quick look.

I went very low mag for this session with my night vision, only 1x and 3x (using my afocal magnifier which vignettes very significantly as you can see from the photos below).

But I was really pleasantly surprised tonight and have got my London astro mojo back ?

I started with the North America nebula and Gamma Cygni. Although not as bright and clear as in the iow, these objects were both quite high in the sky at 3am and this clearly made a big difference compared to a few days ago. Lots of detail available in the eyepiece and at 3x despite the vignetting the views were really good. ?

Then onto Sagittarius to finish off the quick look. With the 1x I actually got all 4 (actually 5 with Sharpless 54) of eagle, swan, triffid and lagoon (lagoon just peeped over the rooftops at about 14 degrees high) in the same fov. All bright and obvious but given the low mag they just really looked like fuzzy patches.

Finalky I popped in the 3x and got some more defined views of the eagle and swan. The lagoon and triffid had disappeared behind a tree by this stage disappointingly. 

The views had started deteriorating and I could see the sky brightening with the sun approaching, so packed up.

But a nice little session and I’ve got a smile on my face as I head back to bed for a couple of hours...

 

[Stu]

Looking surprising good Gavin. The 3x works pretty well doesntbit? The vignetting doesn’t bother me.

Glad you are feeling happier with the views from home  

[PeterW]

Add a lens tube to shield against ambient light (depending on your local light pollution situation), can improve things (well it does for me, but I have room lights and street lights to contend with). 

PEter