Dodging high clouds in Astro Twilight

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Three times this week the weather app has promised (?) a couple of hours of clear sky around 12 midnight.

Three times I have put the scope out.  Three times I have been clouded out!  Never even got the dustcaps off.

On Thursday, Clear Outside was forecasting 2 or 3 hours of clear(ish) skies & the forecast was improving. I am a glutton for punishment so I set up the 200p at about 10pm.

Noticing that the crescent Moon was about to disappear behind my neighbour's satellite dish I had a quick look without cooling the scope. At an altitude of about 15 degrees it looked very yellow in the twilight & displayed a nice low angle perspective of Mare Crisium. The image was shimmering slightly but even at low power Swift, Peirce & Picard craters were prominent with their western walls in deep shadow. At this low angle I find it easy to imagine what it must be  like to fly towards the moon rather than just look down on it's surface from a distance.

I went indoors to let the scope cool & watch the end of the England-Holland football match. (Don't ask ! ) 

Back out at 11.15 (still not very dark) and the sky is mostly high cloud some of it quite thick, but I am determined to observe some targets, if only to see how they look in poor conditions.

Aligned on Rasalhague (Alpha Oph) & then Rasalgethi (Alpha Her) which splits easily (4.6") at x140 into a yellow primary with a faint blue companion.

NGC 6633 a faint open cluster in Oph looked good in a 10mm Plossl.

IC 4665 (Oph) The Summer Beehive is a sparse open cluster compared to it's more familiar cousin, M44 but is nicely framed in a 20mm EP.

M13 (Her) proved unimpressive with such bright skies, just a fuzzy patch.

Now the Goto had a brain fade. It was spot-on with M13 but the next target was way out- not even in the finder. It does this occasionally. Not sure if it's a bug or a wifi glitch. I should have re-opened the Onstep app & done another 2 star alignment but the clouds were thickening so I just loosened the clutches, manually pointed the scope at Vega and synched on it in Skysafari. This worked surprisingly well. Subsequent Goto's were not bang-on, but good enough.

M57 Ring Nebula. This is brighter than you might think. Despite the sky glow it was not only visible, but recognisable  at x31 (32mm) & the hole in the middle was very obvious in  a 10mm Plossl. (x100)

There is a pleasing group of stars, more or less centred on Delta2 Lyr (very orange). This is named as Stephenson 1 in Skysafari. I could see about 25 stars of mostly similar brightness  framed in a 25mm EP.

Cr 399 The Coathanger. I had previously only seen this asterism in Bino's or in the finder scope (in which it was almost invisible tonight) but it just fits in my  recently acquired 32mm Plossl which also shows it the right way up!

To finish I chose Beta Cyg, Albireo. This easy orange & blue double is so bright & colourful that it looks beautiful through any instrument in any conditions.

I packed away with a smile on my face. 😀

 

 

 

 

[Trikeflyer]

Nice report. I’m only near Walsall and did pretty much the same as you. Sadly when I went back out, it was 90% cloudy so I came straight back in. Sounds like I had a night like the previous ones you’ve had. Glad you got to see something though.

Steve