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David Levi

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Not happy with the trees at my most common observing site in the Brecon Beacons, over the last few weeks I've been looking for a better location. I managed to find a hill top location with 360° panoramic views and last night was my first time trying it out in the dark. It's an extra 20 minute drive from Cardiff but it didn't disappoint.  To take advantage of the site I decided to go after the Messier objects in Sagittarius.

The good weather has led to a build up of muck in the atmosphere but despite this and the short not fully dark nights I managed to view all the targets.

After setting up I had a look at the only object in view, Venus. It displayed a bright slightly greater than quarter phase at 125x magnification.

Jupiter appeared next and presented a really interesting Northern Equatorial Belt. It looked like complete chaos there, very lumpy with contrasts of dark and light brown between the northern and southern edge of it. No red spot on show.

By now Scorpius could be seen and the bright stars in Sagittarius were slowly making themselves visible. After getting my bearings comparing the finderscope view to S & T's Pocket Sky Atlas, I star hopped from γ Sgr (Alnasl) to M6, the Butterfly Cluster.  I could imagine the butterfly shape of this pretty cluster. There was a particularly red star at the edge of one wing.

From M6 I moved down to M7. At -35° declination it was only just above the horizon, perhaps half a degree. This must be the lowest Messier object. It appeared as a sparse dispersed open cluster. I'm not sure that it all fitted in my field of view. All objects were intially viewed with the Delos 17.3mm eyepiece giving 58x magnification in my telescope.

On to the globular clusters (GCs). Star hopping from ε Sgr (Kaus Australis), I located M69.  It's close to an 8 magnitude star. It could be seen directly but averted vision aided the view.

From M69 I attempted to star hop to M70 but ran out of sufficiently bright stars in the finderscope comparing with the atlas. I initially failed to find this globular cluster but went back later when it was a bit darker and managed to find it after taking a leap of faith from my last map found star. It was a very faint cluster not helped by the murk close to the horizon. In fact it was a surprise that the murk didn't interfere with the views to a greater degree than it did.

To get to the GC M54 I started at ζ Sgr (Ascella). There are quite a few magnitude 6 stars around this location which meant that star hoping was easily managed.  It appeared quite bright and there was no trouble seeing it.

The GC M55 is hanging about in the middle of nowhere. There is an asterism made up of omega, 59, 60 and 62 Sagittarii between the Sagittarius teapot and Capricornus from where it was possible to star hop to this large, faint globular cluster. 

The last Sagittarius globular cluster on my mental observing list was M75. I star hopped to it from the aforementioned asterism. It lies just to the side of a faint arc of stars.

Looking up to the zenith the Milky Way was streaming across the sky. I hadn't expected to see it so obviously at this time of year.

After all these faint globular clusters it was time for some stunning views of Saturn. The atmosphere was very steady by now and the planet took 200x magnification with the Cassini Division clearly visible as well as grey cloud shading on the planet.

Mars had risen to a good height but I could not see any surface detail. Over the last few few weeks I've viewed it several times from my back garden and tonight was no different in that I thought that I could see some whitening at the poles.

Before packing up I had a quick look at M13 in Hercules. It never ceases to bring a smile to my face.

It was a warm still night on the hill top last night and the location is second to none but I'm just a little worried that it might be a bit too exposed if it's too windy, too cold or both.

 

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Looks like you have a very good site and capitalised on the higher ground as a vantage point for a wealth of seasonal low lying targets. A great all-round report, particularly for the time of year. I too use a (almost) hill top location, that is quite open to the elements, I have been there on windy occasions when the dob gets buffeted into a spin, try to use the car as wind shield. if too windy of course it becomes impracticable, otherwise a breeze helps with combatting condensation and the higher elevation quite beneficial for some targets.  

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Lovely report David, great to get amongst those southerly Messiers. I think I've only managed M7 once and it was with my old Genesis from the South Coast in Dorset. The sea horizon certainly helped, as did the 5 degree field of view :)

Your site sounds well worth trying out some more, particularly when it's still warm perhaps later in August with full darkness and the MW overhead, should be fab.

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21 minutes ago, Stu said:

Your site sounds well worth trying out some more, particularly when it's still warm perhaps later in August with full darkness and the MW overhead, should be fab.

My thoughts entirely. I don't want to wish my life away but I am looking forward to the longer nights.

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Sounds like a great vantage point. Maybe take some kind of wind break with you for less favourable weather. Picking off M7 from the British Isles is an achievement!  Sounds lovely. I’ve viewed it twice with my ED80 on holidays and is magical. 

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Nice report David, yes the trouble with being on top of anything is wind and general exposure. It wouldn't be too bad here as it is often totally still, though all it has done is rain now for a long time, still air must be cleaner.

Alan

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