One hour is all I got.... 27/07/09

[Beulah]

27.07.09

11pm - 12am

8" Dobsonian

Seeing: good/excellent

Last night fortunately was clear and I had Tuesday off work, so it seemed a perfect opportunity to observe. There was a period of wind an hour before sunset I was concerned about, but then by 11pm, the wind had dropped, taking the clouds with it. I was all set up for the night, and had many objects to refind, and some to discover.

Despite the other night being relatively clear, it was ruined by a cacophany of noise coming from parties both side of the village, with cars and it's headlights passing on a regular basis, carrying the drunk home (you could smell the fags and booze as they passed), and I felt extremely agitated. It's a rare occasion, luckily.

Tonight was quieter...thankfully.

I "warmed" myself up with M57 The Ring Nebula, and was glad I did, as it was glowing bright tonight - the more I see it, the more I detect the slightest hint of light blue/green in the outer perimeter of the ring.

I was going to find another familiar target when I thought "stuff it", and decided to find Scutum. The constellation was barely visible in the star fields of the Milky Way, but the brain has an excellent way of making out the shape if one stares enough.

Upon finding it, I trained the scope to the upper left corner to find M11 The Wild Duck Cluster - I nearly fell over when I found it!!!

It is the first time I have seen this object, and O boy - a cluster the shape of a duck?! I had to rub my eyes to make sure. I stared at it for at least 20 minutes, making sure it wasn't really a Glob in disguise. The 26mm Plossl didn't render it anything else.

Now here comes the mystery - I wanted to find the rich area in between the lower right corner of Scutum and the upper parts of Saggitarius, and instead of consulting the maps, training the scope, etc, I decided to do a slow sweep of that area. Another surprise was waiting for me, and I don't know for the life of me what it was. I'd be really grateful if someone could tell me what this object was:

I saw a very tight knit cluster of stars, with hundreds of bright pinpoints very close together almost equidistant - and the collective shape looked like a five or six pointed star with the lower part of this cluster misshapen. What I marvelled at is that there was no fuzzy central bright core like Globular clusters - and with a 10mm EP, then 2X barlowed, it looked like there might have been slight nebulosity in between these stars. I've gone through Google and Stellarium and cannot identify it.

Thinking about this a bit more, it almost looked like it was stamped into the sky...

Round to the back garden, the NGC 869 Double Cluster was goregeous and looked the finest in a widefield 26mm EP.

Finally the night ended with a peek at M31 Andromeda - a very bright elliptical with a very bright central core - no dust lanes were present, I should be able to see at least one - but I was in the back garden with the living room light spilling into the night - and across the way, lights were still on. I saw M32 and M110 also.

I plan to get blackout blinds for the downstairs windows!

I wanted to spend a bit of time on Andromeda - so I settled down - but after five minutes, it suddenly dimmed by 80%!! I was extremely puzzled and looked across - 200 yards away a commerical building's halogen light suddenly sprang to life and that was enough to ruin the view!

Things started going downhill from there - when the light went off, I trained the scope on M31 again - but found it wasn't there. I had spent so long hanging on the end of the focuser, I didn't notice the high cloud rolling in from the south. Sigh.

All in all a great hour!

Thanks for reading this.

[Doc]

Lovely report Sam.

I have also detected colour in the outer ring of M57. Like you say it's a light blue tinge.

I told you the M11 is a fantastic sight, so many stars it's awesome to stare at.

Between Scutum and Sagittarius lies loads of open star clusters and a few Globulars as well. I would say you saw either M24 or Ngc6716.

Anyway a great read.

[ashenlight]

As Mick says a lovely report Sam really entertaining to read, I was smiling all the way through! I will have to find this elusive M11, from my normal observing point on the patio it is (I think) behind a lopsided fir tree - if I embark towards the garage I may be able to squeeze it into view.

Keep em comin Sam hope you get clear skies soon

[Beulah]

Amanda,

Thanks. I do recommend seeing M11, even if it means going out. There's something wonderfully disconcerting about seeing a star cluster shaped like an "everyday" object hanging there in the sky...

Doc,

Well it was all thanks to you for recommending I see M11 - yes, I did see some absolutely wonderful open clusters too, and would have included them in the report if I had purposefully searched them - but after a bit of research, I reckon you're right - it could have been M24. Nearly went inside to get a 4B pencil and some paper to sketch it, but didn't want to be exposed to the lights...

[themos]

I saw M11 and M16 for the first time this last week, too. Awesome objects.

[JamesK]

Thanks for a nice read. Sounds great, you saw many objects I really want to see, like the Wild Duck Cluster and Andromeda - just need the clear, dark skies, hope we get some more round here soon, it's been overcast all week. Your observing skills must be great, it takes me at lease half an hour on average to find, view, and take decent notes on most objects. I also have a similar problem with random, pointless, 7 million megawatt neighboorhood lights. Add to that cats fighting every 5 minitues and creeping up on me, you have to understand why my next astro purchase is going to be a rather powerful air rifle...

[Talitha]

Thanks for an excellent report, Sam.. one hour's not much, but you made the most of it.

[Beulah]

Thanks, Talitha. There's a lot to be said in "being in the zone" in the first place.

James,

Thanks Hope you find what you are looking for, and that you'll get some quiet. It's amazing how important peace and quiet is to an observing session - we talk about dimming the lights, getting adjusted to starlight, but it's amazing how your hearing becomes adapted too, to the point where things scurring and squeaking in the bushes can be a little distracting....