Summer Milky Way observing Report

Observing report 29th-30th May Short Mountain. 11.45pm to 2.45 am

Myself and Mike Scully decided to head to Shortt mountain for midnight to see if we could tackle a few of the objects in the summer milkyway. I arrived before Mike and set up my 8” and 20X80's. The wind was very strong so I had to set up behind the car with the boot and doors open to kill the breeze a little. First observation was of a setting moon with lots of earth shine, I managed to have a quick look before it slid down behind the mountain. Next up was Saturn and the beehive in the 20X80's needless to say it was very pretty, even if the sky was still very light behind it.
Being lazy and unwilling to take a logbook to the eyepiece, I also recorded my observations onto mp3 as I made them, this made observing much better and i found that I studied each object for longer, trying to spot as much detail as possible.
A quick flick around the summer triangle was first on the list, M27, M71, and M56 before a quick look at M13 for contrast.
Next was M11 and M26. M11 was stunning in binoculars and I found M26 boring at low power in the dob but when viewed at X100 was much nicer and showed distinct shape. Had a brief look at M9 and M28 in mikes dob then continued onto M16, followed by M17 and M18. M24 and M25 followed before moving onto M8 M20 and M21
To finish off we had a look at three globulars low in the muck in Sagittarius, M69,M70 and M54 followed by M6 and M7 in scorpius.
This was my first night looking at this region and It was stunning. Each movement of the scope brought another excellent object into the FOV, It would be extremely hard to pick a highlight but if I was forced it would be the sagittarius star cloud M24, so many stars and chains and knots, M17 the omega nebula and M6 the butterfly cluster and M16
This is one region of the sky that will be visited again and again...

Nice report Trevor. No chance of NLC's though?

Trevor,

You forgot to mention that as well as the strrong wind it was only 3 degrees at 3am when we were leaving, and we are just three weeks from mid-summer!

Great night though. I saw many things for the first time last night.

Nice report Trevor. I enjoyed reading your account. Was there a hint of NLC's? You put those binos to very good use. Sounds like you guys had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

Ah, the nostalgia has hit me again This is 'THE' best area of the whole night sky, It's lovely to see the Summer Milkyway rising along with all those objects you mention, best time of year IMHO, great report, even spotting M6 & M7 since you are so far south is an achievement, I can see these from the coast back at home in Waterford, but not Further north in Cavan

Keith..

It is a nice area of the sky alright, I am looking forward to getting to know it in much more detail. As for NLC's, I kept and eye out for them but there were none to be seen, we did however see a number of satellites. Mike spotted one in particular in which its rotation was easily visible. It would flare up and then follow this with a smaller and fainter flare. this repeated as it moved accross the sky until it faded completely.

As for M6 and M7. M7 just came above the horizon and was in the same field of view as some distant hills in the 20X80's