Finally a clear night!

After what seems to be months of waiting, finally, a fantastic night here in Derry! I was showing my brother satellites, and we watched loads of them flying through the sky, faint ones were appearing brighter than ever. Numerous meteors as well. Got out the 200mm Newtonian as Jupiter was rising, and watched Jupiter for around half an hour. Excellent seeing even being that low in the sky. Counted many bands on the planet, we were trying to see who could count the most. Saw 4 or 5 distinct ones as well as the polar region being clearly different than the rest of the disc. Distracted people from their beds to show them the planet and its moons! Didn't have any sky map or software so scanned around with the binoculars looking for fuzzy stars (ie, clusters or nebulas), got the great hercules cluster looking brilliant, and of course Andromeda galaxy. The best part of the night was having our first ever clear look at the milky way. Just this huge band stretching across from roughly south to north east. Looking at it now in Stellarium, there is so much to see in it, so will be doing that tomorrow night. Hopefully these good skies will stay!

Yeah, M13 is always a treat. Some of the other easiest targets (for me) to find are:

M92. Place an imaginary star at the top of the Hercules keystone to make it a pentagon, and look around that spot with binos and you should find M92 (another glob, although smaller than M13) fairly easily.

Find Vega (which will be one of the brightest stars overhead this time of year), and then find the two bright stars right below it. Scan between them in a line and you should find M57 (the Ring). (You may need a bit of magnification for this one as the ring is pretty small -- it's obvious in my 18x70s, but I haven't tried it in my 8.5x44s.)

Lastly is M51, which is a quick two-star hop off the end of the big dipper's handle. This one's a bit harder to describe, so look it up first on a star chart. The pattern is easy to remember, though, so once you have it you should be able to go back to it.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Clear night here in the midlands last night....well as clear a chance as likely to get:(
Although Jupiter was low in the sky and the moon had just dipped below the horizon, I had a few moments of steady seeing to make out some cloud bands and little else. Transparancy would probably improved if i had stayed out beyond 12.30am.
I find a good test of seeing conditions at this time of the year for my 10" dob is M13? and resolution of individual stars!
Anyway must not grumble, an hours observing from your back garden this summer is better than nothing

(Jupiter observed with 10" Dobson with 8mm Hyperion)

Declan

After much consideration, I've decided to venture outside for a few hours. Months have passed since that's last happened. Despite with full moon, I'm going to turn my attention to Jupiter and prehaps if I dont fall asleep at the scope, observe the partial lunar eclipse. Other items on the menu are m31 , m57 ( although the moon will spoil it) : angry:
anyone else doing some spotting tonight?

Eye.
I'm observing Jupiter and the Moon.

Of the last 14 nights I have spent here in Brisbane at least 11 of them have been clear skies. But alas, no scope with me
Back to rainy Ireland tomorrow.