First clear night.

[warbster]

Apart from 30mins here and there, last night was the first clear night since buying my 1st telescope.

I was set up by 2030 with turn left at orion to show me the way. I started with Jupiter which I had seen clearly on a couple of brief viewings at the end of August start of September but today the view was quite blurry so decided to leave Jupiter for a bit later when it was higher in the sky.

Used the book to pick an easy target and selected the double star Albireo I found this easily and was amazed to see the colours when using a 10mm EP. The orange and blue of each star being very clear.

Next I sat down and waited for the ISS to pass at 2058, , I was to slow to get it with my scope just missed it twice and decided to just watch it, was supprised to see the same thing happen again just after !!! I think this must have been the space shuttle, can anyone confirm this.

Next to view was M27 this took some finding as the milky way was very clear and although I could find the guiding stars easily in my bins, when looking through the scope this added about a zillon extra stars which was a brilliant sight. Eventually got my red dot finder in the general area and swept around with my 25mm EP after a few mins I was rewarded with my first grey fuzzy, WOW it really does look like a dumbell. Tried all my EPS on this with LP filter but the best view was with my 10mm.

Next the great square moved round into my field of view a chance to look for M31, again I had no problem locating the area with my bins, but struggled with the scope eventually found what I was after by this time the moon had started to rise, I am guessing this would have an impact on what I would see, this was a brighter grey fuzzy than M27 and looked really good whilst viewing M31 also had 3 sats pass through my FOV which was cool. I think I also saw M32 this looked like a fuzzy star just above M31 in scopes view, is this what M32 looks like ?

Another double star next, Almach which I could not split with my 25mm EP but was able to with 10mm but could not make out its different colours.

After this at about 2340 viewing conditions worsened so I called it a night. I learnt alot tonight, to make a plan of what I want to look for beforehand, to spend more time looking at each target and not to forget I have got a barlow which did not come out of its box !

[InterGalacticTez]

well done warbster it sounds like you had a good night, a lot better than mine but i left it a bit too late thinking it was going to stay clear all night lol that will teach me.

I popped outside at 20:55 to see the iss and was pretty impressed, i wernt expecting it to be as fast or as bright.

[lunator]

Very nice report.

I spent a couple of hours out last night.

It was quite a good night but the seeing (steadiness) was a bit variable.

Cheers

Ian

[Vega]

Nice report, I had an observing night last night too, lovely skies. The second pass at 10pm (brighter one) was the ISS and I believe the first (9:58 ish) was the shuttle.

Matt

[iamjulian]

I agree, the faint one to begin was the shuttle. When I left work they were talking about bringing them down so I was surprised to see it. Although for me they were at about 9pm, are you on European time Matt

Great report warbster, enjoyable to read. Too many stars caused by a clear milky way is a nice problem to have! Sounds like your first night with your scope was a resounding success.

[Doc]

I only had cloud last night but who cares when I've got great reports like this to read.

[TheThing]

I too saw something passing overhead, just before 9pm. Asuumed it was the ISS, but it's nice to learn it was the Shuttle.

Excellent report. Seems like M27 is the target of choice at the mo!

[Talitha]

Very nice report, you did well. Yes, M32 is larger than a star and diffuse around the edges.. 'fuzzy star' is a perfect description.

[albedo0.39]

Hi Warbster - great to see this report. I'm slightly jealous and feeling a little lazy but I didn't get the 'scope out when I had gin-clear skies. But I think my in-laws had something to do with that... !

Good finds with M27 and M32 and here's hoping you bag some more

[warbster]

Thanks for all the positive comments, off to the garden now but it looks a bit cloudy :-(