My August Observing Highlights!

Hi all

Heres a summary of my own observing highlights for the previous month which resulted in a large number of good clear nights......

ATMOSPHERICs

1) 2 Sundogs

2) 3 Noctilucent Cloud Displays - 2 of which where large

3) A selection of beautiful double rainbows

4) 2 Solar Upper Tangent Arcs

5) An amazing 22* Solar halo

6) 4 Lunar Pillars - north and south pointing

7) 2 Lunar Haloes/Coronas

1 Solar Pillar

GENERAL

1) Found 8 new galaxies i have never seen before during my comet sweeps. A galaxy near mag 13 is the faintest 'suspect' i have every swept up and a personal highlight for me was finding a galaxy that was not in SKY ATLAS 2000.

2) I done 4 late nite Perseid Watches - one with the EAAS

3) Observed planet Venus in daylight with the naked eye without using optical aid first

4) Observed the nice Jupiter/Venus Conjunction

5) Seen one naked eye sunspot

6) Seen 2 Aurora Borealis displays within 9 days.

COMETS

1) Observed 161P/2005V1 (HARTLEY-IRAS) which is the most difficult comet i have ever seen!

2) Observed new comet C/2005 P3 (SWAN)

3) Spent 21 hours 35mins comet hunting during which i swept up 97 telescopic satellites (a new monthly record) and 15 telescopic meteors which brings my total searching time to 801 hours 46mins and bagged 2730 TS and 227 TM since May 1st 2000.

My good feelings where correct for August and already Sept has got of to another great start....see you all next month. Clear skies!

Well done Martin. Your monthly reports are a credit to your observing and logging skills!

Thankyou kindly Dave!

You're a hard worker Martin, thanks for the report.

Thankyou Dave.

I just love observing