Hello astronomy fans! I got out there last night for five hours. It was a beautiful night, warm, not too buggy, a little breeze, and an absolutely clear sky all the way down to the southern horizon. If the Star B-Q can happen, I hope the sky will be like last nights.
Jupiter showed all four moons in a pretty eastern Sagittarius starfield, but no shadow transit action.
I used Epsilon Lyra to test the seeing and transparency and I could split them at 80X easy. You know its going to be a good night when that happens.
I found NGC 6826 "the Blinking Planetary" in Cygnus. I had been after this one for a long time and finally bagged it. It was a tough star hop, but well worth it. It has a pretty blue color like Uranus and actually does "blink" when you look at it using direct and averted vision. It's a pretty little thing.
I also picked up globulars NGC 6342 and 6355 in Ophiuchus. 6355 is a GHOST! Only the ability to star hop to exactly the right spot helped me find this one. It's the first Herschel object I've found where it is necessary to move the scope a little bit to pick up the photons in your eye. A very challenging object.
I observed and drew the Montes Jura feature for the Lunar II program. Those mountains overlooking the Bay of Rainbows are one of my favorite lunar features.
I also got nice looks at M57, M24, M6, M7, M8, M20, M31 and the Perseus Double Cluster. AGNFA! 🙂