Hello astronomy fans. Since I don't have to work until 3 p.m. today (I picked up a couple of extra bartending shifts) I went out last night for five hours.
I got crater Cauchy and lava domes Cauchy Omega and Cauchy Tau (Sea of Tranquillity) and crater Censorinus for my Lunar II observations. Then I polar aligned the G8, and checked the "Double double" Epsilon Lyra to test seeing. I could split it easily at 80X, so I'd rate last night as very good. I did binocular observing of Alcor and Mizar (I could split Mizar A&B in my binocs!), open cluster IC 4665 in Ophiuchus, Antares and M4, Globulars M19 and M63 in Scorpius, M8, M20, M22, M24 and M17 in Sagittarius, M5 in Serpens, and Jupiter. Then I watched the Moon set at 10:44 to 10:47. It was beautiful.
Then I nabbed four Herschel 400 objects, all galaxies. NGC 4485 and NGC 4490 in Canes Venatici are easy to see (4490 is anyway) and both in the same FOV. They are easy to find and I recommend these two highly. NGC 4449 and NGC 4258 are also in Canes Venatici and fairly easy to find. A lot of you know NGC 4258 as M106.
Then it was binocular time again, this time checking out a lot of objects in the Fall sky. Mirfak and Alpha Persei Association, the Perseus Double Cluster, Algol and nearby M34, M31 in Andromeda with M32 and M33 in Triangulum.
I turned my telescope on Jupiter and was just in time to see one of the Galilean moons come out from behind the planet. I could actually see the moon's light thru the edge of Jupiter's atmosphere. That was pretty cool.
I turned my binocs on what should be the starfield of asteroid 16 Psyche. This is a little bit west of Jupiter above Theta Capricornus. I'll have to check this again in a couple nights to see if one of those "stars" has moved. If I can find it, 16 Psyche will be a good object to follow this late summer and autumn.
I finished by looking for meteors (one faint one) and turned my binocs on the Veil Supernova remnant. I could see the left cresent of it, but not the "Witches Broom" near 52 Cygni.
Then it got real dewy about 1:30 a.m. and I called it a night. AGNFA!