Short but clear session last night

[John]

The clouds parted for an hour around 1:00 am this morning which allowed me to have a quick observing session.

Wonderfully dark, transparent sky here with the double cluster, M31 and a long swathe of the milky way visible to the naked eye.

Saw a few Persieds and had a peek at the M31-M32-M110 trio with my 4" refractor and the 13mm and 8mm Ethos eyepieces - the 8mm will just allow all 3 to fit in the same field of view at 83x - the core of M31 was particularly bright.

Thought I have a stab at M33 in Triangulum. I've never know this to be a naked eye object but I was pleased to be able to detect it's faint smudge with 8x30 binoculars - the smallest instrument I've managed to see this galaxy with.

A quarter hour on Jupiter rounded off the session with the 8mm Ethos / Antares 1.6x barlow combination being particularly impressive

[Talitha]

Glad you got a break, especially with the sky being so transparent, that's a real treat. I've tried to eyeball M33 a few times but haven't been able to so far. The only Amateurs i know who have done it live in the desert southwest or saw it while at the Black Forest Star Party which, iirc, is in Pennsylvania.

[Moonshane]

funnily enough I managed to pick this out in Mallorca recently for the first time. impossible with naked eye but just detectable in 10x50s. I'll be looking with the dob when / if the clouds ever clear. REALLY looking forward to M31 in the dob (not seen it yet in that and never seen the companions) and the 13mm Ethos.....