Observing report from last night

I'm taking a short break in West Cork and attach a report of an observing session last night.

It was a clear calm moonless night, with good seeing under dark skies. Only the calls of the curlews from the nearby estuary disturbed the quiet. The Milky Way was magnificent from Sagittarius to Cassiopeia. Started with a brief look at Saturn before she dipped below the horizon. Then concentrated on Ophiuchus. Took in a few showpieces in Sagittarius, Hercules and Lyra before heavy dew forced abandonment around 2.15am. The highlights were the colourful doubles 36 Oph and 70 Oph, the globulars M10, M13, and M22, and the planetaries M57 and NGC6572. The last was particularly notable because it is distinctly green, which makes a pleasant change from the usual monochrome nebulae. It was the first opportunity to try out my new 5mm Baader Genuine Orthoscopic and I was very pleased with it. It's probably about as short a focal length as my scope (200 mm reflector) and the seeing will allow, and gave cleaner views than the 3.9 mm Siebert Optics. All in all, an excellent session and a welcome return to observing after the mid-Summer break. Details of all the targets are copied below.

Clear skies to everyone heading out this weekend.

Mike


ID Type Const. Eyepiece Notes
61 Oph Dbl Oph 10 mm Nice pair of bluish stars,almost equal and widely separated at 100 X.
67 Oph Dbl Oph 10 mm Bright bluish white primary with much fainter distant secondary
70 Oph Dbl Oph 5 mm Close double, bright yellow primary with orange secondary.
λ Oph Dbl Oph 5 mm Just about split at 200 X. StarSplitter no better.
36 Oph Dbl Oph 5 mm Pretty, close pair of equal pale orange stars. Low altitude makes them fainter.
ρ Oph Dbl Oph 5 mm Barely resolved because of low altitude. Forms tight triangle with two stars of similar brightness (each of which is a very close double according to WDS).
M9 Glob Oph 10 mm Fairly bright globular, but stars not resolved.
M10 Glob Oph 5 mm Fine large globular, with dozens of stars resolved.
M12 Glob Oph 10 mm Fine globular, not quite as well resolved as M10
M14 Glob Oph 10 mm Large globular, but few stars resolved.
M19 Glob Oph 10 mm Rather faint unresolved globular, but very low altitude.
M62 Glob Oph 10 mm Quite distinct, though unresolved, despite extremely low altitude (2 degrees!).
M107 Glob Oph 10 mm Very faint and unresolved
NGC6293 Glob Oph 10 mm Very faint, barely visible with direct vision.
NGC6342 Glob Oph 10 mm Barely detectable with averted vision
NGC6356 Glob Oph 10 mm Faint unresolved globular forms right angle triangle with field stars.
NGC6366 Glob Oph 10 mm Just detectable with averted vision when nearby bright star is out of the field of view. Three faint field stars act as markers.
NGC6633 Open Oph 20 mm Bright elongated cluster, not well separated from very rich background field.
Cr350 Open Oph 20 mm Indistinct cluster in a rich field near a bright golden star.
IC4665 Open Oph 20 mm Sparse bright cluster in a rich field.
NGC6572 P Neb Oph 5 mm Small planetary, forming a tight right angle triangle with field stars. distinctly greenish colour especially with 5mm ortho.
V Oph Var Oph 5 mm Red orange star, about magnitude 10.
M17 Open Sgr 20 mm Clear streak of nebulosity in magnificent field.
M18 Open Sgr 20 mm Small cluster, like a little bullet pointing towrds the Omega Nebula nearly 1 degree away, indistinct in rich field.
M20 Open Sgr 20 mm Barely visible, too low.
M21 Open Sgr 20 mm Small cluster indistinct in rich field.
M22 Glob Sgr 20 mm Fine large globular, rich despite it's low altitude.
M23 Open Sgr 20 mm Rich cluster with tens of stars all of a similar magnitude, standing out well in a rich field.
M13 Glob Her 10 mm Great!
M57 P Neb Lyr 10 mm Very clear, ring structure distinct.
ε Lyr Dbl Lyr 5 mm All four components clearly split using 5mm ortho.

wow, thats some list there Mike, nice one !!

I completely agree with Dave Lillis. That is some list by Mike. I don't think I would be able to make such a list in my diary -I would run out of space. That Baader eyepiece works wonders on tight doubles. I have observed a number of the objects you have listed over the years. I am looking forward to using over 300X on M13 sometime in August. But some of your globular clusters in Ophuichus I have not seen -as they are low in the sky.

Aubrey.

Thanks Dave & Aubrey. I've taken the "high tech" approach and use a GoTo scope controlled by "AstroPlanner" on a laptop. I enjoy preparing the lists of targets (it uses up some of the cloudy nights) and then the computers take care of finding them and of keeping my notes. This setup suits me, though when the technology fails I can be left floundering, as some of the regulars at Sugarloaf observing sessions will attest. I usually manage 20 to 30 targets in a session, and the sky down in Cork was fantastic so I stayed out as long as I could. I deliberately stayed close to the horizon for much of the session because I rarely get an opportunity to see those targets. There's no shortage of new targets to explore, and it will be a long time before I have observation records as long as you guys.

I would love to have a nice big dob for enhanced visual observing; must run out now and buy another Lotto ticket.

Mike