SAC observing session, tonight, 6th Sept

Hi All,
Anyone interested in observing in Boher near Limerick (not too near, little light pollution), see the below link.
shannonsideastronomyclub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1692#1692

All are welcome.

Best of luck with it Dave. Hope it stays clear.
I'm down with the shingles at the mo so will have to give it a miss.
Let us know tomorrow how you get on.

Hi Michael,
It turned out to be a great night thankfully, all the treking and carting the gear up to the hill was not for nothing.
Boher isn't a very dark site, the burren is far superior but alot more hassle for people to get to unfortunately.
Simon and Colm Kenny, John O'Mahony, Pat, Conan and I went to the hill in Boher for a good nights observing.
We visited the usual suspects such as M13, 92, 15, 3, 57, 27. We watched the moon set, too low for the scope but nice visually, it set soon after we arrived so it didn't impact on the night.
This was my first decent visit on M31, dust lanes were clearly visible, my best view of it ever, M33 was not as good as on previous occasions, it looks like a very dark site is needed to see it and its details clearly.

ngc891 was fab, as clear as any photograph, its central dust lane and galactic core easily visible. the double cluster was very nice in the 31mm eyepiece, the orange star between the clusters was a nice touch.

The double double in lyra was nicely resolved, Albireo was stunning, I panned the scope+31mm T5 along the milkyway from Albireo up past Deneb, and found some nicely coloured stars, dense starfields and some nice clusters,.

Then for the craic I tried the north American nebula and amazingly there was some good hints of it, a distinct brightening of the background sky from black to a dim red tinge but difficult to make out an outline all immersed in a crowded starfield, Conan suggested using the O3 filter, so on it went, well I have the say that stunned would be an understatement of how I felt as the lower end of the nebula (Mexico) very clearly popped into view (no colour now when using the filters) , panning north the remainder of the nebula was all there to be seen, a little faint but there all the same. This nebula is massive, the 31mm eyepiece gives me over a full degree field of view and this nebula was several fields of view across. I felt that the O3 filter showed the lower peninsula section clearly while the h-beta filter showed the main body of the nebula with a sharper outline. That was the high point of the night for me !!
We also tracked down both ends of the veil nebula, fabulously twisting as usual.
I also looked up the swan nebula (M17) in Sagittarius, the O3 filter really helped with it, other objects in the constellation were too low to get clearly unfortunately, Jupiter was nothing but a bright disk with 2 fuzzy bands, the seeing in that part of the sky was poor enough.
We finished up at 3.30, tired and a little worse for wear, but been the first decent weekend night in months, we had to go for it.

I have to say that on nearly every occasion I use this 20" monster under a good sky, it always throws up a new object that I had always considered to be practically impossible to see through a telescope, detail in M51, M101's spiral arms, central star in M57, M33 h-alpha regions and now the north American nebula. Next on my list for the winter is the horsehead nebula, I hope the scope can deliver.

Great report Dave, glad to see someone reporting some clear skies and I can only drool over the thought of the North America Nebula with the equipment used.