The weather was mostly broken up cloud allowing sunny spells during the day. The was minimal to non exsistent. As the eveing hours came closer the cloud broken further to give large areas of clear sky and as night closed in cloud started to evaporate away. The wind did pick up to a strong breeze for a short time but then died away to a completely still night.
Seeing conditions started off good and became excellent as the night progressed. Transparency never really got above average but after midnight any remaining haze - mostly caused by aircraft - did clear away to give an exceptional sky and tranparency conditions were very good towards the zenith.
It was a really good night with some fantastic observations and also some poor ones but all in all I had a great and another very rewarding night.
Location = Bragan
Seeing = 3/4
Trans = 3
Equipment = EQ6 Pro and 10" Orion Newtonion
Start Time = 22:28
My observations for the night are as follows:
NGC 6781 = My best view yet of this tricky PN. Showing good detail with AV and strong looking structure. The view was just a pleasing without the UHC-S filter.
NGC 6760 = A rather faint cluster but appearing well and covering a nice amount of the FOV in the eyepiece. Averted vision only showed signs of the stars resolving.
M71 = A lovely open cluster with resolving nicely indeed. Very pleasing to the eye.
NGC 6888 = A rather poor view of this nebula. Even with filtered and at low magnification it was barely visible. It was a dissapointing object tonight but I can't complain, I've had some fine veiw over the past few months.
IC 1318 = Still no luck on this nebula. The view that appeared to me was only a hazy like cloud around the Gamma Cygni - almost the same kind of haze you'd see when looking at a bright star through a misted up eyepiece. This is one to try again on a night of better transparency.
NGC 6826 = A lovely view of this and further enhanced by using the UHC-S. Quite bright looking with nice structure and detail.
M15 = Sadly I only got an average view of this amazing globular. Haze, mainly caused by aircraft, moved in over the east sky covering much of Pegasus which, as a natural result, took down the seeing conditions a fair bit.
NGC 7331 = A nice white, long, disk appearing well but very little detail showing. I was going to try and look for Stephen's Quintet after his but I decided to wait until the hazy mess moved away.
M92 = A stunning looking beauty tonight. Stars resolving really well and filling almost all of the FOV at 175x
M13 = A very pleasing sight too with strong detail but not my better views.
NGC 7008 = A fantastic PN that turned out to be a nice surprise to me. A lovely shape with a decent amount of detail.
NGC 40 = Not my vest view but still looking well though not much detail.
M52 = A stunning open cluster. Filling all of my FOV at 175x. A shear delight of varying star brightness throughout the cluster.
M27 = A fantastic sight tonight with amazing structure and more nebulosity extending further out from the dumbbell shape - which in itself was very bright in the eyepiece.
M57 = Another fine view with easy to see detail but no sign of the central star.
NGC 891 = At last!! After years of trying to observe this galaxy I finally have been able to. With transparency conditions improving as the night got colder I decided on giving this a try and there it was. A beautiful edge on disk filling the FOV with a delicate buldge in its center.
Stephen's Quintet = After my success of NGC 891 it was a clear sign to me that transparency had improved so I slewed the scope to this group of very challenging galaxies - for any scope.
For the first time ever I could see two members of the galaxy group, they were very faint but I could pick them out. Using AV for a while I could also get the hint of a third galaxy and had repeat looks at the eyepiece in case my imagination was getting the better of me but I really don't think it was.
I really hope I get even better conditions again soon so I can take another look at this fine group.
M82 - An excellent view with beautiful detail. Dark lanes and patches running through the centre of the galaxy.
Finish Time = 00:20
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