June 26th through to 2.00am 27th

[OXO]

8.00pm: The sky was clear and the temp had dropped thankfully after a very hot day, made my way to the beach and sat and waited for the conjuntion to come into view from the evenings twilight. There i could see the planets making there dance it was an inspireing view and couldnt help but think of the people from the past looking at it without the Knowledge we know today. Head home by now the sky was getting nearer to black,checked online read a private message(Andy), very quick reply and darted outside to setup my new scope(ST 102).

11.15: After setting up the scope, i pointed my little black tube toward's Vega and actually said out loud WOW there were so many stars even though it wasnt proper dark. Placed a fringe killer in the 20mm ep this helped to give the impression of darkness and also made the stars a lot sharper than before.

As the night got darker my targets were M57(Small in this scope but bright),M31(Best i have ever seen inc from a dark site),M92(Awsome),M13(again best i have ever seen it),M27(Great),NGC7000(wonderfull nearly fell over at the amount of stars in view with the 40mm ep),M51(Just made it out with slight oval tones to it, through a garden lit sky) and a whole host of other object's.

The seeing was the best i have seen in many a year if this had been in the winter god knows what the scope would of picked up! I will give the ST102 8 out 10 for now this is mainly due to a rubbish focusser something i will sort out today.

James Out.

[AndyMac]

Enjoyed reading that report. The timings are very useful, too - especially as they told me that I left it too late to go hunting for the conjunction last night (plus I do not have access to a good NW horizon). :oops: I shall try a good bit earlier tonight. If I can locate Venus in the binos, I can continue to track it til it gets dark enough for Saturn & Mercury to also come into view.

Again, I'm fascinated by your description of NGC 7000. Aside from the amount of stars there, were you able to see much of the nebula, itself?

Thanks for the report.

[OXO]

(Again, I'm fascinated by your description of NGC 7000. Aside from the amount of stars there, were you able to see much of the nebula, itself?)

Andy i could very faintly see the nebula and also the Pelican. For nebula's i spend quite a lot of time looking at them to gain the views i get. Last night was one of them nights you dream about as was the other night with the bino's.

The idea for this section was given by Rob of which i added straight away as it's such a great idea!

Thanks for that Rob!

Cheers Andy

JAMES

[AndyMac]

I meant to try for NGC7000 through my binos from my light polluted site but forgot! DOH! :oops:

Tonight looks like being a clear one, too. I must try to give it a shot through my Tascos. BTW James what make are your 10X50's?

[OXO]

hI andy,

Good luck tonight!

My bino's funny enough are cheap one's centon 10x50 50gbp from jessopes i could get a lot better for 26gbp meade have them dotted around the net in bargain sections of retailers sites.. I think russ has a pair of them?........

JAMES

ps:Like the new avatar i will stop myself from saying his catch phrase.**ck darn it

[AndyMac]

LOL I thought I'd better cut the speech part out from it James in case I got banned!

Glad your binos arn't Zeiss or something expensive. Gives me more confidence when trying with my Tascos.

Off to the shops now. Will be back later

[GazOC]

James, did you take in Albereo? It was always one of my favorites in my f5 refractors.

[OXO]

Do you mean Albireo the Red Giant? if yes i did get a nice view of the star i checked the Fringe Killer out with it and worked a treat..

James

[GazOC]

The double star in Cygnus, ones red the others blue. Georgeous!

[AndyMac]

Albeiro (Beta Cygni) is the lovely ~mag 3 double star at the head of Cygnus. Its two components comprise of contrasting orange and blueish stars.

On Ant's map here, it's the star at lower right in Cygnus (i.e. at '4 o'clock').

[OXO]

Yes certainly in the top ten doubles! when i get drives for the scope i will be imaging that..

James