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
AsterismTeapot
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.
 
Messier 22 / NGC 6656 / Great Sagittarius Cluster
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.
 
Messier 21 / NGC 6531 / Webb's Cross
Time: 9:28 PM
S&T Chart Reference: 67, 69
Equipment: Telescope
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60 
I knew this was near the Lagoon (M8/NGC 6523) and the Trifid (M20/ NGC 6514) nebulae so had my telescope go to the Trifid then slewed from the Trifid to M21. According to SkySafari Pro, the star configuration I was searching for looked like a small shopping cart with a circle of dimmer stars attached. I found what looked like a shopping cart but the circle of stars above it eluded me. Not successful this evening for M21.
 
Messier 15 / NGC 7078 / Great Pegasus Cluster
Time: 12:34 AM
S&T Chart Reference: 75
Equipment: Telescope
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60 
M15 was not close or in the Square of Pegasus as anticipated. SkySafariPro redirected me eastward to Enif. 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. For details, refer to Messier Catalogue - M015 / NGC 7078 / Great Pegasus Cluster - September.

    
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.
M45 / Pleiades / the Seven Sisters
Time: 12:50 AM
S&T Chart Reference: 15
Equipment: Telescope
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60 
I located and looked at the Pleaides through the scope and shared it with Jerry. Always a joy to see this open cluster, always so shiny and easily identifiable. The nebulosity was not noticed but the star pattern was evident.

Jupiter (in Taurus)
Time: 12:56 AM
Equipment: Telescope
Eyepieces: SvBony 30mm-10mm Zoom eyepiece
Magnification: x20 - x60
Jupiter and its 4 Galilean moons were viewed together as well; Io and Europa were close together at 11 o'clock to the view of the planet whereas Callisto (the dimmer of the two) and Ganymede were very close together but a fair distance away at 5 o'clock.
  

 

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.
 
 

Similar Items