Simple Pleasures

[pbyrne]

Hi all

Last night, around midnight, I popped my head out the back door, the sky was clear, went back inside and grabbed my 10X50 bins.  A chair from the shed was setup in the corner of the garden, streetlights blocked by the walls and had a most enjoyable couple of hours.  The seeing and transparency were very good.

The true glory of the Milky Way was diminished by my urban location and the fact that the sky never gets truly dark around mid-summer.  Sweeping down the spine of Aquila I came across the Wild Duck Cluster, looking like a globular in the bins, further south the concentration of the Milky Way was evident in Sagittarius and sweeping across to Antares I was able to locate M4, M80 remained hidden.  Jupiter revealed a pair of moons, it is very low, Saturn showed its unusual shape.

Heading back north, M13 was magnificent, as always, the Cygnus starfields sparkled, the Cygus Rift apparent, tried for M57, no joy.  More success with M27 and the Coathanger.  Delphinus was on its side when I observed it and it looked like a smiley face.  M81/M82 were glowing faintly, M51 remained unseen.

Just sweeping the bins across the sky slowly revealed so many wonderful sights, even the satellites were not a nuisance. 

The weather was warm, the night still and being so relaxed it was one of the better nights I have had in some time.  Normally I go out with a plan, this impromptu session showed what no planning can do.

With the fickle weather we have in this part of the world, it is not hard to be jealous of those lucky enough to live in warmer climes were such warm nights are more frequent and not needing five layers to observe.

A night of simple pleasures.

 

Edited June 30, 2019 by pbyrne

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Paul

Sounds like a magic couple of hours spent relaxing in what otherwise can, at times, be a chaotic world 🙂 

Something to be treasured. Thanks for sharing.

Steve

Edited June 30, 2019 by teoria_del_big_bang

[Geoff Barnes]

Well done Paul.

Always nice to hear when someone's had an enjoyable session, especially when unplanned.

I'm supposed to be living in warmer climes down here but half an hour out with the 12 inch Dob and I'd all but lost the feeling in my fingers! However in that time I had another great view of Jupiter, counted a dozen separate bands on the disc from top to bottom and the GRS was in centre stage. With the Morpheus 6.5mm I could make out the pale border that has formed around it and had glimpses of the darker red spot in the centre. There appears to be another small darker spot up against the border of the GRS which I've also noticed in Astro Avani's amazing images.

While in this region of sky I had a go at splitting Antares again and it was quite easy tonight. Also nearby was M4, the great cluster filled the EP completely with countless stars, not the densest of globs but a grand sight nonetheless.

Clouded over at this stage and I was quite happy to go inside to warm up.

Hope you all enjoy your warmer evenings and nights up there while they last, it does make for much more enjoyable viewing!

[mark81]

Sounds likes a great session Paul.

The Coat hanger is one of my favourite binocular targets and of course anywhere around Cygnus is a great place to get lost for a while.