oh what a night

[timetraveller]

hi all, decided to go out last night and really give my new scope something to do .And oh boy, am I glad I did " wow "what a night the seeing was exceptional for my location. I have never seen the stars that still, just fixed points of light no sign of sintering. I originally planed on spending just an hour observing , but I finally crawled into bed just after 3.am , only because i couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. .. All that frustration and patient waiting, finally justified .

So what did I actually get to see ,I hear you all asking. .. Well started off on M31 spent around 30 to 40 minutes carefully studying ever increasing detail ,then slewed the scope for what seemed like ages following along the length of the edge of the galaxy the only words i could say was wow ,totally blown away.

Then out of the corner of my eye noticed this apparent misty patch below Andromeda , so slewed the scope donwards and there in centre field for my first time ever look at M32 oh wow" this new scope rocks " then after spending a good few minutes taking that in the tracked across to Cassi and yep there in frame was M 103 just a slight misty patch because I'm into street glow in that direction but still in view, another first time viewing . Then tracked across to NGC 663 first time for that too wow what a great night viewing ,and still not done. After that i had to wait awhile as either a cat or fox triggered my neighbours security lights which rather did for my night vision for a half an hour( note to self send letter to neighbour requesting switching off of light once in bed and asleep please). After I got my eyes re accustomed to the light noticed i could see the Pleiades just rising above the roof tops to the east so trained my newt on that its one of my favourite objects but because of the usual streetglow on lowish cloud i don't get to see them very often so spent quite a long time with my 15mm wide angle eyepiece just gawping at that, then I decided ,I would finally go take a look and see if i could find the double cluster in Perseus NGC 869 and 864 ,as i have not seen them before .But i didnt have to worry as they came into view ,that was that particular duck broken too .

So all in all finally got a fair amount ticked off the list of objects, I've wanted to see.... But the thing that stands out mostly is the amazing stillness of the air. I really cannot recall having that good a seeing at this location, the only thing that spoilt it slightly was a very few odd scattered clouds that hardly seemed to move then to top it all in the space of about 3/4 of an hour spotted 5 meteors skimming across the night sky at almost my zenith I really hope that all you guys and girls had as good a night as i have just had regards

Pete

[stefski]

I agree, it was a great night. had a lovely time 'playing' with my Meg72! :hello1:

Stef

[Astronut]

You southerners get all the breaks :crybaby: It's a permanent cloud trap up here.

[Doc]

Great report Pete sounds like you had a fantastic night.