The forecast was predicting a clear night even though the day has been completly overcast with heavy cloud. Looking at the weather data online showed that clear skies were moving in for early eveing so I decided to trust the data and load my equipment into the car for a night up at Bragan. Sure enough, by 19:00 the coud started to break and a lovely skies quickly took over.
Two club members joined me for the night but I arrived at the site first and the drive up the mountain I was graced by a fine sunset with a setting moon. It was a beautiful setting to what was going to turn out to be an fine sight.
Seeing = 3
Transparency = 3
Location = Bragan
Equipment = EQ6 Pro & Orion 10"
Start Time = 23:21
The observations for the night are as follows:
M54 = Being so low down I expected this to look average at best and it was rather poor. Starting for a while did start to reveal some stars but otherwise this cluster just looked washed out and blurry.
M22 = A beautiful sight, with so many stars giving a great sense of depth. A rare treat.
M25 = A rather sparse OC that doesn't show very well in a scope but good colour difference could be seen well.
M16 = Pretty much the same thing as M25 and, sadly, no sign of the nebula.
M8 = The best nebulosity I have seen with this nebula but the image was very blurry due to its low position.
M20 = A decent view with a clear view of faint nebula and the dark lanes were easily onbserved.
M21 = A very small OC with only a handful of stars to observe but still pretty to look at.
M23 = A fine sight. Wonderfully dispersed and the imagination can run wild tying to creat asterisms.
M17 = Not as good as last year but still very good. The image of the swan was still very pronounced and strong.
NGC 6781 = Very stong nebula structre. There was actually to much detial seen to be able to see the wonderful faint ring that makes this nebula famous and such a pleasure to observe.
M27 = Looking very good.
NGC 6888 = Very faint. Using AV for a long time shows a ghostly arch. Certainly not my best view.
M75 = A very small and compact looking gobular cluster, appearing nothing more than a fuzzy ball
NGC 7293 = With help from the UHC-S filter I was able to see the Helix for the first time. It was still very faint, and completely invisible with out the filter, but what little detail there was the shape of the nebula was evident and made this a thrilling first time observation.
M15 = As usual, a stunning view with mass of stars.
M2 = Every bit as good as M15. Simply marvlous.
Stephan's Quintet = A fair view, considering the average transparency, with four out of five in the group visable and well seen when viewing conditions permits.
Jupiter = Easily one of the best observations I have ever had. Exquisit details in the zones and bands and the red spot very prominant. This was a view that certainly had the wow factor.
NGC 891 = A fair view of this elusive galaxy. Shape and structure was decent but not hint of the lovely dark features through the centeral region.
NGC 772 = A new object for me and surprisingly good, much better than I was expecting. A bright core with an irregular looking shape.
Finish = 03.15
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