The skies are alive!

[RobertI]

A quick session with the 150PL on the Skytee 2. A beautifully transparent and dark night, with the milky way pulsating overhead, meteors flashing across the sky and fast moving satellites, seemingly in a hurry to get somewhere.

Jupiter was low over the garage rooftops and so in turbulent air, but the GRS was immediately apparent, and in moments of calm the spot was bright orange with surrounding belts of brown, orange, grey and white. Plenty of swirls were visible during the very fleeting moments of super calm. I spent most of the session teasing out details and by the end the GRS had moved quite a lot. The scope is clearly capable of seeing plenty (its relatively new to me) so I may try it out the front of the house where I have clearer skies. I may have a head to head with the C8 for interest. 

Finished with a look at the challenging Pi Aquilae, it took 140x to split the components which are 1.4", the seeing was pretty good I think.

Had a quick scan with the 10x50s. First was a strking triple (not related) comprising a orange, white and blue white star - these were Omicron1 Cygni, 30 Cygni and the unforgettably named HD192579. Omicron2 also lay nearby, another striking orange star.

Alberio looked beatiful, very close through bins.  Heading south from Alberio was the rusty orange Alpha Vulpeculae (Anser) with 8 Vulpeculae making a pretty unrelated pair. South again and we have the Coathanger asterism, a really lovely collection of stars.

Short but very sweet.

 

[JeremyS]

What a fantastic session!