A fantastic day of sunshine, clear skies and very little wind. I had invited people to Bragan for observing the day before as the forecast looked so promising. It was one of those lucky calls as it turned out to be the best night we've had of the year - so far we hope.
Seeing and transparency were both good, no noticeable wind and next to no dew problem.
At 22:57 we were graced by the most awesome and breath taking fireball I've ever witnessed and has gone down as one of the greatest moment of my life.
There was a lovely group of us out observing, seven in total I believe.
Location = Bragan
Equipment = Skywatcher 14" GOTO
Start Time = 21:43
M11 = Beautifully filling the FOV of the 17mm and looking rich, deep and sharp, even though my scope was still cooling down. A lovely sense of depth with in the cluster.
NGC 6946 = I wasn't expecting much from this but turned out to be a great view. Well seen with spiral arms appearing with AV, along with attractive globular like details around the core. Been a while since I've observed this galaxy so well.
M17 = One of the delight of tonight's observing. Striking nebulosity with varying levels of magnitude through out the swan shaped body. The UHC-S filter enhanced the contrast even further, revealing crisper details.
M16 = Sadly no sign or hints of the nebula but the star cluster itself was beautifully clear and nice to study for a while.
M22 = A badly washed out view but no surprise considering how low to the horizon this was, with that in consideration the view was still good. Structure was strong, stars definable with AV. This globular cluster would be a sight to behold if observed about 10 degrees higher in the sky.
M26 = A long time since I observed this intriguing little open cluster. Seeing the umbrella shaped asterism brought back my memories of this object. An over looked object in my opinion.
NGC 6504 = Nice to see this PN again but not at it's best sadly. The shape was well defined but couldn't make out any detail, that lovely bight star just of the disc of the nebula makes it a unique sight though.
Fireball = 22:58 was the beginning of a lot of excitement. I was studying my star maps to pick out my next object when I heard one of the guys mention the ISS - I knew this couldn't be right as it wasn't about and they were talking about the wrong side of the sky - so I looked up and the hairs of my neck stood on end when I saw this stunning orange ball blazing somewhere around a magnitude of -6 to -7.
It appeared in the east side of the sky, just away from the Pleiades. It appeared to be stationary for a moment but then slowly started to rise upward and get slightly brighter and bigger. Just as it was travelling up past Triangulum it started to break up. At that moment I started to think it was some kind of firework and the pattern looked very much like a Sprite you'd see in images from a lightening storms but this just kept going up and spreading out. By the time it cruised past Andromeda and Perseus the realisation of it being a fireball hit me and I got very excited, probably too excited for some - as I got a little carried away I think.
It had broken up into 15-20 pieces as it went past Cassiopeia and continued its way west, towards Hercules. I think it was about 23:01 when it started to reach the horizon and loose magnitude. About 5 pieces of debris could still be seen and even when below the horizon I could still notice some glow for a few seconds.
About 40 to 70 seconds later several of us, including myself, heard popping noises - a bit like hearing shot gun shots from a long distance away - which I believe was the sonic boom of the debris decelerating through the atmosphere.
I strongly believe this to be some kind of space debris, probably a satellite because the pattern of the debris and that it managed to stay in close formation but mainly because the event lasted for such a long time.
It was a magical and awesome experience to witness such a spectical.
I've seen space debris burn up before and I've seen fireballs but this was the cream of the crop and I can honestly say one of the best moments of my life. My only disappointment is that everyone didn't see this.
Took me a while to get back observing as I was in such a euphoric state and I still find myself laughing from the greatness of the memory.
NGC 6781 = Looking nice and large in a 10mm but sadly not discernible detail.
M71 = A sensational view, a magnificent swath of stars, one not to miss.
M27 = One of my best views in a long time. Structure so strong that the PN actually looked like it was floating in the sky, it really did stand out against the background of space so well. Details weren't the best I've seen but it's full shape was there in full glory. I shared this view with everyone there as it was too good to miss.
NGC 6888 = I've been trying to observe this nebula again for some time with out success but tonight was the night to change that. It was vuagly there unfiltered but it took the UGC-S to pull out the beautiful arching 'C' shaped structure. Some knotted and bumpy details were visible with AV.
Veil Nebula = If the fireball from earlier hadn't stolen the show then this would have been the object of the night. The last time I saw the Veil looking so good must be as far back as 2009. I had to use the UHC-S to pull out the extra details because even though it was delightful unfiltered it was tear jerkingly magnificent when filtered. I shared this view with Stevie and I think we spent a good 15 minutes exploring all of the nebula, starting in the Witches Broom region and going anti-clockwise around it all. Bold filminess like structure was visible in the Witches Broom followed by delicate wisps, curls and knots with in and on the edges of the nebula through out the whole regions.
NGC 7293 = I timed this one perfectly as when I went back to re-observe 5 minutes later it could no longer be seen. What I did see wasn't too bad. It paled in comparison to the view I had last year but the large ring was easily seen in the 17mm and filled the FOV nicely.
Uranus = A momentous and remarkable view. I've only observed Uranus as a green blob but upon Stevie's suggestion I slew the scope to it and I couldn't believe my eyes. There was bold looking greenish planetary disc, well seen but then my jaw flopped open when I noticed two moons!!
With Stevie's 4.7mm Explorer Scientific (an eyepiece I am in love with) Oberon was easily seen, Titania was observable too but needed a lot of AV as it got hidden behind the glare of the planet in the eyepiece. I could be wrong about the actual moons we saw but going by my minds image and magnitude ratings of the moons, those two fit the positions and the magnitude limits of my scope
Neptune = With great success on Urnans I thought we should try our luck on Neptune. This left me feeling numb... All the times I looked and Neptune I've only seen a blue star but there it was, a small bluish disc and then another 'knock your socks off' moment... Triton, sitting there superbly beside the planet. This night was just wow after wow.
NGC 7331 = Not much detail but a lovely large disc to be seen with three other galaxy member noticeable.
Stephens Quintet = It's no secret that this has become my top object to observe. I relish in the chance to get it in the eyepiece so I wasn't going to miss out tonight. Transparency had decreased a little so I knew I wasn't going to be bowled over by the view but I saw and counted five galaxies, very faint with no detail but their cores were peaking though with some ghostly structure sneaking through with AV. Just wonderful to see this again.
M33 = Another one of my personal favorites and this was one of my best observations of it. Great details to take in and the mighty impressive NGC 604 stuck out like a sore thumb, really bight. What really blew me away was two spiral arms being visible, one curling off from a 12 O'Clock position and the other at 6 O'Clock and stopping just off from NGC 604. I never observed this before so I took full advantage of the moment and spent some time with this.
NGC 891 = My last galaxy of the night. It was rather faint, certainly not the best I've seen it but AV revealed good structure, along with a prominent central bulge and the central dust lane was there too.
Jupiter = With it being well up in the sky now I thought it would also be a fitting end to the night - just as well too as my secondary mirror was beginning to dew over. Excellent views of the bands and zones and one of the moons was just kissing the disc of the planet. Not sure which moon but a beautiful sight an a fine way to call it a night.
Finish = 02:47
