oh what a night

Well it finally happened....did anyone else have the clear sky I had last night? The Ring Nebula showed fantastic detail... well practically everything was crisp and clear. I had a chance to try out my Revelation 2" Barlow with my E-Lux 32mm eyepiece, not brill by any means but worth it on M31. M13 was a treat too but better without the barlow (15mm EP). Could not find M33 for some strange reason? Jupiter was too low for the Dob, but I gave it some time with my 15 X 70 binos

I know for many out there this is old hat. But for a beginner like me it was mind blowing.

I have learned that planning your nights targets is a good idea...something I did not do last night, so like an over excited child I swung the dob around the sky. I must be more disiplined in future:)

scope: 10" Celestron Dob with various medium quality EP's

Declan

You Lucky Sod!!:laugh:

I swear I am being conspired againts by some unseen force. Had a look out the back door at about 12am and it was cloudy with a few breaks.

Headed to bed as I had to be up at the crack of dawn today. Checked the sat images and not a cloud over the entire country except a tiny little tongue of cloud from the irish sea over the south Dublin, north Wicklow coast. Looked like it was going to move off east so I had a mental battle with myself as to whether I would get dressed again and head out and suffer the consequences of lack of sleep in the morning. The bed won out! :laugh:

Glad that others outside the Bray area had a cloudless night though!!

Looks like the west coast was the place to be, unusually.

Declan,
good stuff on getting some observing done, its hard to turn down a clear sky and go to the pub instead. I almost did, but given that it is literally months since my last observing, I had to give it a go.

I know how you feel, Dave.
I spent three months waiting for an opportunity to observe...and the very few nights since late May that were clear-ish I was working.
I really think that we're in a climate that is becoming impossible for astronomy.

It is certainly starting to look that way Eamonn.

Two of the clearer nights in months on Saturday night and Sunday night. Saturday night was my wedding anniversary and Sunday night was the afters of a golf tournament, I came second by the way, what can you do? Sometimes the Gods like to play jokes.