Best night so far

[Scotty27]

I took my telescope round to my dad's house last night as he has a 360 view from his deck where as I only have a SE facing view unless I set up right down at the bottom of my garden.

The sky looked absolutely stunning with so many stars visible with the naked eye, hundereds more through the finder scope and then thousands and thousands more through the 25mm EP.

We searched in vain for M52 then noticed a small cluster of stars that appeared to be giving off clouds of gas, we spun round for a peek and the view was beautiful - we had the cluster of stars that I don't think has a name including Atlas, Alcyone, Electra etc.

My sister was called outside for a look and then we spun round to Saturn to finish off a very enjoyable nights viewing.

Very happy

[mdstuart]

You saw Pleides or the seven sisters or M45 a fine open cluster..

M52 is a bit hard to find. Its small and unless you are on high power it just looks like a small grouping of stars..

Try M35/36/37/38 as they are fine to look at and relatively easy to spot.

Mark

[Viv]

Nice

Can we all come to your Dad's house please

[Scotty27]

I will have to have a star party round there when they go on holiday...!!

[Scotty27]

You saw Pleides or the seven sisters or M45 a fine open cluster..

M52 is a bit hard to find. Its small and unless you are on high power it just looks like a small grouping of stars..

Try M35/36/37/38 as they are fine to look at and relatively easy to spot.

Mark

I just checked Stellerium and it was Pleiades that we saw...

[m_j_lyons]

I must recommend picking up a copy of Turn Left at Orion - it's a great tool to find objects more efficiently...it will focus you on those DSOs that are great to keep the motivation high.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

You not just got the Pleiades, you got the reflection nebula surrounding it. That really means you had good skies! A good place for a star party indeed.

Cheers

Michael