It was a great night at SCO last evening! Six souls ventured into the wilderness to take in the dark skies - Jerry & me, Michael Gatto, Peter Hurley, Blair MacDonald, and Bob Russell. Michael and I were the two observer/sketchers whereas the others were imagers. Lots to see last evening. Blair was capturing two Barnard dark nebulae. Bob caught more photons for his images of the Trifid and Heart nebulae. Jerry was working on the Bubble Nebula (NGC7635), centred the Chandelier Cluster (NGC 6723) with HD 176386 with HR 7170, the Trifid Nebula (NGC6514/M20), the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), and the Pinwheel Galaxy (NGC 5457/M101). I am not sure what Michael and Peter were observing.
Truly hoping clear weather returns several times during September/October to capture more views of our amazing Universe. Hope to see more members out there! There’s an “oh, wow!” moment for everyone in the sky, but there’s also the fun of gathering under the stars, planets, galaxies, nebulae,.... There were some challenges with alignment but once that was solved, had a great night of viewing.
Constellations: Coma Berenices, Corona Borealis, Corvus, Scorpius
Asterism: Teapot
Messier: M21/NGC 6531, M45
Stars: Albireo (ß1 & ß2), Kaus Borealis, Gamma Scorpii, 24 Sgr, 25 Sgr
HD Stars: 170978, 171056, 171097, 171176, 171810, 171894, 171960, 172052, 204094, 204509, 204571, 204712, 218688, 218817
HR Stars: 8231
SAO Stars: 107121, 107133, 146546
TYC: 1127-0128-1
Planets: Jupiter + 4 Galilean Moons, Saturn + Titan
Messier Catalogue: M15/NGC 7078/Great Pegasus Cluster, M22/NGC 6656/Great Sagittarius Cluster
Identified, not Observed: Big Dipper, Boötes (the shape could be found but did not identify specific stars), Cassiopeia, Square of Pegasus
Location: SCO
Date: 2024-09-4/5
Time: 18:00 PM - 1:30 AM ADT
Equipment: Visual, EvoStar 80 ED telescope
Eyepiece: Svbony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Transparency: Very Good (4)
Seeing: Good
| 9:28 PM | 21.14 | 16° C |
| 9:59 PM | 21.04 | 13° C |
| 1:25 AM | 21.03 | 10° C |
My mission was to capture as many Messier objects as I could and to sketch each one. I had my Evostar 80ED with a SvBony 10mm-30mm zoom eyepiece. There were some challenges with alignment but once that was solved, had a great night of viewing. Two more Messier objects observed, sketched, ticked off the list, making it 42 of the 110 now completed.
Time: 9:28 PM
S&T Chart Reference: 67, 69
Equipment: Telescope
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60
M22 is a cluster that's been located by binoculars too many times to count! As always, used Kaus Borealis as the start point for the search. The cluster didn't appear completely circular because of the brighter stars in the S-SW giving it a more oval/almond shape. For details, refer to Messier Catalogue - M022 / NGC 6656 / Great Sagittarius Cluster - September 4, 2024.
S&T Chart Reference: 67, 69
Equipment: Telescope
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60
S&T Chart Reference: 75
Equipment: Telescope
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60
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Albireo
Time: 12:43 AM
S&T Chart Reference: 62 Equipment: SkyWatcher 16" Dobsonian Telescope Eyepieces: Nagler 22 mm Magnification: x82 What did we all look at? Jerry fired up the 16” Dob around midnight (didn’t get a good alignment) and used a Nagler 22mm eyepiece for an incredible view of Albireo - so big and bright with their colours, sizes, and relative positions with the star field very clear. The larger of the two ß1 (ß Cygni A) was amber coloured and much larger than the blue-green ß2 (ß Cygni B). ß1 was at 2 o'clock to ß2. It's not known whether they are an optical or a binary double.
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Time: 12:50 AM
S&T Chart Reference: 15
Equipment: Telescope
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60
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Jupiter (in Taurus)
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Saturn (in Aquarius)
Time: 1:20 AM Equipment: Telescope Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece Magnification: x20 - x60 I offered a view of Saturn in my scope to everyone. So amazing to see it so bright with no separation of the rings from the planet nor the Cassini Division. The rings were equally as bright as the planet and appeared as only a thin line as we were viewing them side-on. Wow. There was a semi-circle of what I thought were stars, but one of them was Titan, one of Saturn's moons.
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