Hello astronomy fans! I got out to the Flatin Farm hayfield again tonight and had a sky just like the StarBQ's. Jupiter showed Jerome and my "Great White Spot" clear as a bell. When I first looked at it at 9:45 I could see one moon to the east, then 15 minutes later another one showed. It must have just come out of eclipse.
I observed and drew the Serpentine Ridge for the Lunar II program before the Moon set. (Dorsae Lister and Smirnov)
After that I nailed NGC 6356, a glob in Ophiuchus, one of the brighter Herschel 400 objects (it's near M9). Then I caught NGC 6369 a planetary nebula in the same constellation. It is faint, and sits in front of a dark nebula. At 200X it looks like a fainter M57. Then I found NGC 6401, a faint globular in Ophiuchus that sits in a faint but pretty field of stars. I followed that up by getting NGC 6426, the challenge object of the night. 6426 is a globular in Ophiuchus that is another "ghost" object. Very challenging. The last Herschel object I caught was NGC 6520 a pretty open cluster in Sagittarius. It is a gorgeous little thing. That pushes my Herschel 400 total to 161 and my observing hours for this year to 187 and a half.
I knew I had to get out there tonight to stay ahead of Nicole! ;D