A Gratifying Night

[ZiHao]

I traveled to a truly pristine dark site last week, intending to perform some visual observation there. The dark site is about 130 kilometers away from my location , with 21.41 Magnitude which is a big difference to my light polluted site ( 18.25 ). After I reached the destination, it took me about 3 minutes to trudge up to the small hill ( the observation site ) carrying with my weighty equipment. Then me and other amateur astronomers set our telescope up on the grey concrete platform on the hill ( 7 telescopes in total ).

Date and time: 16 June, 7.30 pm to 12.30 am

Sky Condition: Moderate 

Telescope: SW 750/150 Reflector

Constellation: Scorpius, Sagittarius, Hercules, Crux, Centaurus etc..

Moon and Venus

Crescent Moon and Venus above western horizon was a good kickstart of the night. I also think that it is one of the best conjunction in the sky.

ISS Passover

The passover began in the North and ended somewhere in the East/ South-East. I was able to catch a glimpse of its brightest stage, and by the time I called my friends to see the passover, it vanished into the clouds.

Ptolemy's Cluster

An easy target and bright star cluster, it is clearly visible in my 6x30 finderscope. Can't really notice the differences between observing M7 under a dark sky and light polluted site.

Omega Centauri

Perhaps due to the hazy, humid conditon above the southern horizon, this globular cluster was really dim, what I could see was just a faint smug with no details. My friends thought I was deceiving because there was almost nothing in the eyepiece. Near the cluster, I tried to hunt for Centaurus A, but failed. Although I'm sure that I was pointing at the right direction, I saw nothing...perhaps it was because of the poor sky conditon in the South. 

M13

This one was much brighter and easily discern. It is exquisite and quite similar to dandelion seeds ?.

Jewel Box Cluster

Not many stars in the field of view. It is more like a A-shaped cluster. Beautiful and perfectly 'designed'.

Lagoon Nebula

The stars embedded in it were visible in the finderscope. The nebulosity was somehow noticeable in the eyepiece. I should spend longer looking at it to boost the amount of details as much as possible.

Sagittarius Star Cloud

Just stars, yeah... STARS

No Milky Way and galaxies this time... But it still feels good and happy to spend some time with the Universe and people who share the same interest. Thank you for looking, not descriptive, but I've tried my best  

Clear Skies!

[mark81]

Nice report, you picked out some good targets there. As for driving 130km? That's what I call dedication! ?

[ZiHao]

1 minute ago, mark81 said:

Nice report, you picked out some good targets there. As for driving 130km? That's what I call dedication! ?

I am studying in high school, so... you know?... sleeping in the car haha

[Paz]

Thats a good list of objects for one night. I hope to be able to see omega centauri some day from somewhere on the pkanet  where it is visible high in the sky.