Very mild, but rather hazy night in West Cork with scattered cloud and a fresh breeze. Penultimate night of Summer holiday, and only the second reasonably clear night of the fortnight (full moon on the first)! The Milky Way clearly visible at first but faded as the last quarter moon rose (to 15° at the end of the session). Close to the peak of Perseid activity, but only spotted two meteors. Spent the session in Cepheus, which was high in the sky. The targets were a mixture of unspectacular clusters and doubles, with a faint planetary thrown in. The highlights were Herschel's Garnet Star, and the blood red S Cep, which is up there with R Leporis in the battle for the title of "reddest star in the sky". Gave up at around 2.15 because of the combination of bright moon and thick clouds. Reasonable session, but having to wait for gaps in the clouds detracted from it.
Cheers, Mike
The scope was a 200 mm f/5 Newtonian and the full list of targets is below:
ID Type Magnification Comments
Alfirk Dbl 100 X Brilliant white primary with well separated secondary (at 100X) that shows a hint of blue.
STT 440 Dbl 100 X Nice orange primary, but secondary very faint and colour not discernable.
STF2819 Dbl 100 X Relatively faint wide double.
ξ Cep Dbl 100 X Nice double, well separated at 100X, with a yellowish primary and a golden secondary.
δ Cep Dbl 100 X The original Cepheid variable, varies from +3.6 to +4.3 with a period of 5.36 days. Pretty, yellow/bluish double widely separated at 100X.
NGC7380 Open 100 X Triangular cluster of >12 stars, with a wide double beyond its Western corner. No hint of nebulosity.
NGC7235 Open 100 X Three bright stars form elongated triangular outline, a few others were on the edge of visibility.
NGC6939 Open 100 X Rich cluster of faint stars, only just visible, at the heart of a kite shaped asterism.
NGC188 Open 50 X Caldwell 1. Very faint cluster, barely visible in a rich field.
NGC7160 Open 100 X Small cluster with about ten stars, including one quite bright yellowish one. Does not stand out well from rich field.
NGC7510 Open 100 X Striking compact curved arrowhead shaped cluster of half a dozen bright stars arcing in the general direction of a nearby field star.
NGC40 P Neb 100 X Caldwell 2. Fuzzy "star" just below the base of an isosceles triangle of faint stars. At 100X, no colour apparent, couldn't make out the shape even with averted vision. No better at 200X.
S Cep Red Star 50 X Striking deep red star about 10th magnitude, in a rich field.
μ Cep Red Star 100 X Herschel's Garnet Star. Lovely deep orange bright star in a rich field.
Skywatcher 120 mm ED on a CG5 mount.
Orion UK 300mm Dobsonian
