17/18th July 2009 - Report

The day was mostly cloudy with breezy winds and as the evening drew nearer the clouds begun to break leaving a night that was partly cloudy with average skis but as the night progressed the skies really improved and less cloud was around.

Seeing = 2
Trans = 2

Equipment - EQ6 Pro and 4" Refractor.

Start time - 22:45

I started my night of by looking out for a -1 iridium flare at 22:45 and flaring in cygnus, according to Heavens Above but the skies were too bright to see anything visually and the camera didn't capture anything in a time exposure.

I soon afterwards saw an ISS pass at 22:53. I forgot my remote commander so I had to take my captures by pressing the button manually which resulted in the start of all my shots having a wobbly ISS.

I then moved onto observing with my scope and my night was as follows:

Albireo - Lovely as always, with its rich colours, a nice way to start the night.

Theta Sagittae - A nice pair with the primary a diamond white and the secondary a blueish white.

Delta Sagittae - A wide pair, and similar in colour to Theta.

STF 2634 - This stars secondary was very hard to see under the poor seeing conditions but during moments of improved seeing it could be seen.

M29 - Oddly it as fairly easy to see under medium power in a not so dark sky. All the main stars could be seen but there was no other details and not even a hint of the milky way surrounding it.

Jupiter - I observed this for a long time - 25 minutes I think. The seeing was dreadful and the heat of my town was probably to blame for most of it but during good moments the bands and zones on the planet showed up nicely but seeing was never good enough to permit me to see the GRS.

Almach - Stunning! Felt like an age since I saw this last and the eye smacking rich colours were a joy to see again.

M11 - An exceptionally good view for the conditions. The sky had improved a bit more and was at its darkest. The cluster really stood out and was resolving nicely.

M10 - Not a bad view considering... A fair amount of stars to be seen in the FOV.

M12 - I could barely see a thing, even with AV, very dissapointing.

M57 - An average view, well defined but next to no detail or fainter structure.

I finished my night of with another look at Jupiter and the seeing had improved a bit. Good detail could be seen in the clouds but the GRS had moved out of view by this time so was out of luck.

Finished - 01:35