Late Season Sagittarius

[Epick Crom]

G'Day all! I had a fantastic observing session last night using my 10 inch dobsonian. The transparency and seeing were very good. With the wanning gibbous moon not due to rise until 10pm, I had a 1.5 hr window of "dark" skies with observations starting at 8:30pm local time. The only bane is the omnipresent light pollution from my bortle 7 backyard.

I started the night by targeting Sagittarius, which is slowly going out of season. Using the star Albaldah (Pi Sagittarii) as my anchor, I slowly swept out from it, exploring the region of sky in that area. Reaching the star Xi2 Sagittarii, I found two rather large open clusters, NGC 6716 and Collinder 394. These two clusters are within 40' of each other. NGC 6716 has a rather interesting shape. Collinder 394 is more spread out without any discernable shape. Starhopping to nearby star Nu2 Sagittarii brought a delight right close to it, the globular cluster NGC 6717. Beautiful sight with the yellow Nu2 Sagittarii and the globular cluster nestled close together in the same field of view! I got a nice close up view of NGC 6717 using 480x magnification. At this power I could start to resolve some of the fainter outer stars. This globular appeared slightly elongated and fairly small. A wonderful sight!

 M 22 was nearby so I paid it a visit next. Stimulation overload! Big, bright and well resolved in my 10 inch. Splendid. I moved up to the open cluster M 25 next. Lovely cluster with an interesting patern of stars in the centre of the cluster. Next up was the starcloud M 24. A little bit washed out compared to when I saw it last owing to my bortle 7 skies and being lower than last time but still a special sight. Not far from M 24 is Polis (Mu Sagittarii) a nice unequal double star with components of magnitudes 3.8 and 10.4. This star is a brilliant white colour.

Completing this satisfying session I moved into neighbouring Scutum and tracked down UY Scuti, one of the largest stars known. It appeared as a faint red star, not impressive visually but impressive mentally knowing how massive this star is. I also had my best ever views of Saturn and Jupiter, I watched Ganymede and it's shadow slowly leave the face of Jupiter. A big wow!

 It was a fantastic night, just goes to show there is much to see even in bortle 7 skies. Wishing you all clear skies and bright eyes!!

 Joe

Edited October 12, 2022 by Epick Crom

[josefk]

Sounds like a nice tour Joe. Looking at your location (and being a bit jealous) possibly a t-shirt session too? Nice.

[Epick Crom]

Hi Josef, thanks, yeah it was a very nice tour. Actually I had a jumper on while observing, some spring nights can get rather chilly here! My full name is Josef too 🙂

[josefk]

1 minute ago, Epick Crom said:

Hi Josef, thanks, yeah it was a very nice tour. Actually I had a jumper on while observing, some spring nights can get rather chilly here! My full name is Josef too 🙂

haha. Sorry to disappoint - i'm a common ph Joseph (to my mother and the passport office) and a Joe to everyone else. josefk is an unhealthy Kafka reference because sometimes i empathise with him (the character). 🤪

[Epick Crom]

😄 all good! Everyone calls me Joe as well. What is Kafka? 

[josefk]

Read this and you'll regret you ever asked! its pretty dark Alice in wonderland for adults without a wonderland or funny characters or a happy ending. LOL. TBF and a bit more serious its actually a very prescient allegory for alienation and random cruelty in the the 20th century. Highly recommended reading. 

 

[josefk]

Kafka did write amusing short stories too in case that is a bit strong.

AND very very sorry to derail your observation report. Not intended!

Edited October 13, 2022 by josefk

[Epick Crom]

Nah mate, you haven't derailed it at all! I do love a good read, I will find this book and read it 😄👍