Keystone cop

[domstar]

A wonderful silent session with lots of famous targets. The Andromeda galaxy, almost direct vision naked eye, stretched out spectacularly. Bodes low but beautifully bloated in the darkness. The Ring nebula looking donut-like for the first time to me. The Wild Duck going from mostly nebula to dozens of tiny points with a flick of averted vision. The Double cluster, the Spiral cluster, Tweedledum cluster and Graffs cluster all fantastic. M10, M12, M22 all pretty globs considering my lack of aperture. The Dumbbell bright and round with a brighter hourglass and the Veil the star of the show- the eastern part is difficult to describe- 'clearly ghostly' is the best I can do.

Not everything was a success, though. I couldn't find M2 as usual. It's just too far from Sadalsuud to jump to reliably. An unsuccessful search for Uranus took about 20 minutes and I probably found Neptune but couldn't be sure. I find Neptune awe-inspiring but '80 percent sure it's Neptune' didn't float my boat.

The last thing was the strangely illusive M13- the great cluster in Hercules. For the third time this summer, I just couldn't find it despite kneeling, sitting, lying on the ground to get a good look through the finder. It turns out that there are quite a few groups of four stars in a trapezium shape. I'd been looking in Draco- a more compact and may I say better keystone than the one in Hercules. I found it in the end but I was too annoyed with the cluster rather than myself to enjoy it.

All in all a night of peace and wonder. Thanks to @clarkpm4242 for indirectly leading me to NGC 6633 the Tweedledum cluster- a real beauty.

Thanks for reading.

Dominic

[cotterless45]

Lovely report , both M11 and Graffs are beautiful views,

Nick.

[clarkpm4242]

NGC 6633 and IC 4756 make a great pair through binoculars or wide field scope under dark skies  :)cheers

Paul

[Eastman]

Great report Dominic,

14 hours ago, domstar said:

The Wild Duck going from mostly nebula to dozens of tiny points with a flick of averted vision

Lots of nice objects, I am a great fan of M11, in my 10"dob it looks a bit like a galaxy with it's center star and arm like star formations on the outside of the cluster.

 

[estwing]

I struggled with M2 using my Telementor due to not having a proper finderscope....tis worth the effort!, thanks for sharing.....clear skies 

[jetstream]

Congrats for a fine observing session!

[5haan_A]

I can really relate to finding m13 difficult to spot there are so many stars in that region  that are a trapezium. 

So far in my short experience I am yet to see it!