Summer recovery

[AllanK]

I feel that I’ve bought in haste and now get to repent at leisure.

I was late getting the astronomy itch scratched and only got my Celestron C5 and starter mount in the spring…just in time for the nights to get lighter and also to realise just how not dark my garden is!

Anyway, enough about that…we’re hopefully going to get away for a week in early July to near Applecross in Scotland. There should be none to low light pollution, but obviously still lots of natural light until late. I’ve got my TLAO good to go, but what should I be looking to see (clouds permitting) to keep me enthused until the darker nights return?

[Pixies]

Try and find a low southerly view, it'll be the darkest part of the sky and you'll have the galactic-core part of the Milky Way, plus Sagittarius, Scorpio, etc.

You might be able to bag some of the brighter Messier/DSOs especially with a wide-field view or binoculars. Mind you, I can't say how light the skies will be at that lattitude.

[rob_r]

At least the Moon will be well below the horizon by the late evenings into early mornings. Globular clusters and double stars may be your best bet for twilight skies, you'll have Hercules high in the south with M13 Great Globular Cluster. Lyra will be to the left of that with Vega. You might be able to pick out M57 Ring Nebula within Lyra if it is dark enough. By early morning, Jupiter and Saturn will rise in the south east, be it very low for both so a clear horizon will be needed in that direction.