A moonshadow, and some deep sky treats.

[Swithin StCleeve]

Had a good session on Saturday night with the 10” reflector on a dobsonian mount. One of the highlights was the unexpected Jovian shadow transit of Ganymede. From around 1am to 2am I watched the shadow of the moon travel across the disc from left to right, (left to right in eyepiece). I saw later the transit was discussed in the July Sky at Night magazine, but I missed reading it, so it was a nice surprise. There are more shadow transits later this month.
Deep sky stuff; I started off in Sagittarius with one of my favourites that never gets very high in the UK, M8 the Lagoon Nebula, which also has open cluster NGC 6530 in the same field of view. It took a few minutes for the nebulosity to ‘grow’, but I managed to make a sketch. This is one of the most distinctive deep sky objects.
A failure tonight was the globular cluster M4 in Scorpius. I’ve never seen it, and still haven’t, though I suspect I wasn’t looking in the right place. After checking my Glyn Jones Cambridge Messier book, I was looking too far to the left I think. I’m pretty sure the 10” mirror should have picked up this 6.4 mag cluster, despite its low altitude.
Back to Sagittarius, and Near M8 are globular clusters M22 and M28, which were easily found, and both markedly different is size and contrast. M22 is smaller in the eyepiece, bright and compact, and M28 much larger and ghostly.
With Capricorn so high, I was able to make my first observation notes on Messier objects M72 and M73. M72 is a loose, quite open globular cluster, 62,000 LY away. Easy to find by star-hopping from Capricorn (though M72 and M73 are technically in Aquarius). M73 is a four star asterism, and a quirk of the Messier list, (like M40 in Ursa Major).
Because I was looking mostly towards the south, it was an evening for bright globular clusters. M13 (Hercules), M5 (Aquarius) , all really bright, contrasty and resolvable.
M11 – The Wild Duck cluster is one of the Summer’s jewels. When doing a 10x50 Opticrom bino tour of the Scutum area I noticed a bright patch below it, which I found was the cluster M26. Not often visited by me, and a little underwhelming in the scope. A better binocular object?
Galaxies are a challenge in nautical darkness, but I managed observations of M101 (the Pinwheel) and M94 in Canes Venatici, which was surprisingly bright.
Around 2.45 the Milky Way disappeared, almost within minutes! The Sun was making its way towards the horizon and I just managed some binocular observations of M31 and the rising Pleiades open cluster (M45) in an adjoining field, rising in the east.

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Swithin StCleeve

[Jiggy 67]

Sounds like a great night…..Loving the caravan!

[Swithin StCleeve]

I've missed out a few objects I see. M71 in Sagitta is so easy to find, I always visit it these days. I always think it's a globular that looks like an open cluster. And the two planetary nebula in that part of the sky, M27 and M57. The latter was really, really bright. The words 'faint fuzzy' don't belong anywhere near this object in the 10" mirror. I almost think a smaller aperture scope might show the dumbbell shape better  possibly. The edges are less defined at bigger power, as the fainter outer parts of the nebula are bought into view. 
Glad you like the van Jiggy. It's an old 1970's van I bought for a few hundred. I renovated it, and use it for music festivals and astro weekends.

[callisto]

6 minutes ago, Swithin StCleeve said:

Glad you like the van Jiggy. It's an old 1970's van I bought for a few hundred. I renovated it, and use it for music festivals and astro weekends

Cooooooool 😎   👍

[wookie1965]

Nice report and some great objects. 

[SuburbanMak]

12 hours ago, Swithin StCleeve said:

I've missed out a few objects I see. M71 in Sagitta is so easy to find, I always visit it these days. I always think it's a globular that looks like an open cluster. And the two planetary nebula in that part of the sky, M27 and M57. The latter was really, really bright. The words 'faint fuzzy' don't belong anywhere near this object in the 10" mirror. I almost think a smaller aperture scope might show the dumbbell shape better  possibly. The edges are less defined at bigger power, as the fainter outer parts of the nebula are bought into view. 
Glad you like the van Jiggy. It's an old 1970's van I bought for a few hundred. I renovated it, and use it for music festivals and astro weekends.

Super report thank you on areas that I’ve been touring recently. Like you i’m struggling to pick out M4 despite it being theoretically easy to locate.  Oddly I have M71 in that bracket too - some good additional target descriptions here. 

[Swithin StCleeve]

I was the same with M71. For years I almost believed it wasn't there. It was only when I started observing from rural sites did I find it. It's a globular in name only really, it's very loose and looks like a not-very-bright open cluster. Because it's so close the Sagitta it's easy to locate, (I always star-hop to find stuff, I don't use a go-to).
Galaxy M101 was another object it took me ages to see. Ironically, after looking for it for years in a telescope, it was the 10x50 bins that located it in a very dark field in the Shropshire hills. 

[woldsman]

Well done spotting M72 - you must have had a great night sky. From my location, I have not succeeded in observing this globular with either an 8 inch reflector or a 5 inch refractor or 10x50 binos. Even stacking 30 x 10 second images, it appeared as a very faint blur and I had to platesolve the image to identify it.

[woldsman]

PS I love your caravan set-up!