Clear sky and the beast !

[cotterless45]

Just wonderfully clear , at the zenith more and more stars popped out. But the seeing , OH DEAR ! probably worst this back end. I think over the houses folk had switched on the heating , bit chilly. Real wobbly time when you think there's something wrong with your eyes , scope , eyepieces or something !

Before midnight there was a huge crashing of foliage behind my screening hedge. I wasn't staying around to meet the beast and headed indoors for a cuppa. Just scanning around and the transparency gave great views.

M76 showed its shape. A great glare of nebulosity from the Veil, a core from NGC 7331 and a stunning M31 group. Onto a bit of exotica, " Ghost of the Moon", NGC 6781 in Aquila ,lovely and bright with a UHC filter. Followed by , in Aquila , a diffuse NGC 6751 "Dandelion puffball" and another planetary NGC 6804.

The "double cluster" gave a beautiful view against a dark background as did M2 and Graff's cluster  IC 4756. A huge glowing M27 filled the view at x100. Have a look at the "hole cluster" , NGC 6811, a lovely ring with plenty star cloud action nearby.

Waiting until Andromeda to rise high , the Milky Way was right across the sky , rare from the edge of town. Then off to Andromeda binaries. For a super x50 view, try Miram , gold and blue (eta Persei )top of Perseus, that's a mega multiple group. For cheery colour ,Almach is stunning. Last night's sky gave a ghostly glow producing orange and green.

Clear Skies ! 

Nick.

[wookie1965]

I am stuck right in the cloud covered middle of England not been out for weeks so I am doing my Astro through these reports as well as gaining more objects  to write down.

[Pig]

Nice one Nick ? some great skies here in Northampton last night also, I didn’t start the session until around 2am and the sky around Cassiopeia was absolutely stunning, it was also nice to see Orion and the trapezium again.

[xtreemchaos]

great report nick, i too got a look at the pleiades 1.30ish am, m42 2.15 am seeing was not too good i could not make out the trapezium but neb was visable in both m42 and plieades but thay was low, a few more weeks and thay should be in a better positon. clear skys. charl.

[Stu]

Glad you escaped unmolested Nick. A fine set of targets, poor seeing and great transparency is DSO time!

What scope are you using mostly these days? Dob?

[RobertI]

Lovely report, some interesting targets for me to note down for the future. Looks like it might be clear here tonight.

[cotterless45]

"What scope are you using mostly these days? Dob" yo Stu, still mainly the yard cannon. The Dob's waiting for Dumfries and Galloway , unfortunately same week as SGL Hereford. Would have loved to have gone for the crack, old Nick.