Unmissable arrow and turtle !

[cotterless45]

What a brilliant night , sort of night that would be a star party showpiece.Some remarkable sights worth spending time on. Kicked off with Alkalurops in Bootes, just a stunning triple with a faint double companion. 

Swung over to the bowl of Virgo and Coma galaxies. The arrow of "Little Sagitta" pointing directly to M104 , the "sombrero" galaxy. "Little Sagitta" is the quadruple system Σ1664 .

84 Virginis always gives a smoky looking companion almost caught in the glare.

A tour of the galaxies , M85,M87, M100( not as bright), M84, M86, M60 confirmed their shapes and fuzzy appearance over town. 

Some brighter sights were NGC 4565 "needle", NGC 4472, NGC 4303, NGC 4374, NGC 4486 , NGC 4649 and a bright M49. Some averted vision helped , the 13mm Nagler certainly pulled out detail and contrast.

Looking around at midnight, UMa at the zenith and a low slung Cassiopeia, I noticed the house of Cepheus and that wonderful mu Cephei , the "Garnet star". Shone bright with a bewutiful orange red colour.

Hercules gave à sparky M92 , but sight of the night was the wonderfully , large and colourful planetary "Turtle nebula" NGC 6210, find this as a must ! It blinks well .Also worth tackling are Izar in Bootes and that rather beautiful Rasalgethi ( alpha Herculis).

Here's hoping for clear skies , careful now ,Nick.

[Kon]

Nice report and thanks for sharing your observation sketches, very inspiring. It sounds you had better seeing conditions that us down south.

[wookie1965]

Wow what a night Nick I am so jealous of you getting those galaxies maybe when I get to a darker site than here I can get them. I am overjoyed that my sketch of μ Bootis matches yours so I am certain I got it.

I am going to copy those NGC`s down for future reference, thank you for posting.