Location: St. Croix Observatory (SCO)
Date: 2024-09-05
Time: 12:34 AM ADT
S&T Chart Reference: 75
Instrument: SkyWatcher Evostar 80ED with star diagonal
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60
Transparency: Very Good (4)
Seeing: Good (3)
SQM: 21.04
Temperature: 13º C
It was a great night at SCO! No clouds. No wind, not even a breeze. Six souls ventured into the wilderness to take in the dark skies. There were the two observer/sketchers (me being one of them) whereas the others were imagers. Lots to see but my focus this evening was the Messier objects.
M15 was not close or in the Square of Pegasus as anticipated. SkySafariPro redirected me eastward to Enif. By following the line from Bihar (θ Pegasi) to Enif (ε Pegasi), I was able to slew to the cluster with the 30mm. Once found and centred, I used the 10mm. M15 had a very bright centre and was quite compact. It became less dense further away from the core. There was a very bright star close to the cluster that I identified as HD204712.
There were three stars in the upper right quadrant in V-shape that initially I could not identify until I realized I was using the 30mm eyepiece. The upper two were faint (SAO107121 & HD204094 at mag 9.1) compared to the brighter star (SAO107133 at mag 8.9) below them.
