Great night of DSO's plus Comet McNaught !

[John]

Just come in from a simply great observing session with my 10" newtonian

Loads of old favorites with tonights skies allowing me to pick out Pickerings wisp between the east and west portions of the Veil nebula amongst many great views.

Comet C/2009 R1 McNaught looked grand near Perseus with a distinct tail-like elongation which took on even more "form" with averted vision.

The milky way was showing running through Cygnus overhead with dark rifts visable to the naked eye.

After taking in the Ring, Dumbell and Veil nebulae and Hercules's two lovely globular clusters, it's over to Ursa Major to find the Owl neb - hints of "eyes" showing with the OIII filter in the 13mm Ethos. In the same FoV as the Owl is galaxy M108 so I'm prompted to have a peek at M51 and the ever-inspiring M81 and M82.

Another stop at Comet McNaught then we take in the "sword handle" double cluster in Perseus and catch galaxies M31 and M32 as they rise from the Bristol light glow.

Then I tried something new - through a gap in the houses to the south I found I could get amongst the stars on the outskirts of Sagittarius and find 2 objects that I've not observed for a long time - M8 the Lagoon Nebula and M20, the Triffid nebula. The Lagoon split into 2 by a prominent dark rift and it's adjacent delicate star cluster and the Triffid showing indications of its "lobes". Both responding well to the OIII filter and, again, the Ethos 13mm being the eyepiece of choice for these wonderful objects.

All in all definately a "glad to be alive" night :D

[GazOC]

Nice one John. I had a decent night myself, seeing was a lot better than last night and I was able to spot most of the low altitude objects in Saggitarius that I know I'll only get a couple of chances a year to observe.

As you say, one of those nights when you really enjoy the hobby!!! Roll on tomorrow night!!!

[John]

Nice one John. I had a decent night myself, seeing was a lot better than last night and I was able to spot most of the low altitude objects in Saggitarius that I know I'll only get a couple of chances a year to observe.

As you say, one of those nights when you really enjoy the hobby!!! Roll on tomorrow night!!!

Thanks Gaz - I'm glad you had a good one as well

I don't know how you are finding yours but personally I'm finding my 13mm Ethos is "just right" for so much of this sort of observing - it's almost a "one eyepiece" solution for this type of session - certainly mine is earning it's keep

[James]

I've just had a fantastic couple of hours outside with my 4" refractor... looks like, with the exception of the Comet, I had a pretty similar night to you John. Conditions in Somerset have been pretty good tonight!

James

[GazOC]

I'm loving the 13mm John. As you say, for a lot of the Milky Way objects (esp. in a short focal length scope) you can use it as the "finder" eyepiece AND as the main eyepiece to observe the objects with.

Def. a keeper!!