Hi All,
I had my 150mm f/8 Newtonian Reflector set-up for 23:00UT+1. So,
from 23:02UT+1 I observed the Eastern portion of the night sky. With poor transparency - I estimated it at 2 because I could only see Polaris in the 'Little Dipper' - it looked like it was going to be a bleak night.
However, at 23:14UT+1 a very bright meteor shot across the sky. It travelled from the lower northern side of Lyra to approximately Sadr in Cygnus. It had a rather long tail, and some bluish / greenish colour to it. The head was very bright, and it seemed to show some burning as it entered our atmosphere.
I'm not entirely sure how long it lasted; maybe one second? I saw with the naked eye, and It made me think about how many times we miss such events when we're looking through the eyepiece. I'd love to know whether anyone else saw it last night.
In addition to the above, I observe M13 again. The conditions did improve around 23:40UT+1, so I could resolve some stars, but it required averted vision. The 9mm Expanse eyepiece with a 66° AFOV at 133X performed best on the globular. I also had a look at Albireo at 37.5X. It looked particularly nice with several lower magnitude stars in the same FOV. As usual, Vega was very bright, and Arcturus looked gorgeous, but as it was my first object of the evening I could only make-out five stars of Picot1. I have really enjoyed spending time in and around Bootes this Spring, but as the Summer Triangle moves into view, I feel Bootes is getting more difficult to observe from my backgarden. At 23:53UT+1 I called it a night.
Clear skies, and thank you for reading,
Darren.
