A great night out ...

A second night in a row and not a cloud in sight. What's going on ? This doesn't make any sense. Well, I'm certainly not going to argue. In town today, I picked me up a copy of Night Watch, it's on sale in Bookends at 30% of cover price which I thought was a good deal. I used Night Watch (NW) and Turn Left at Orion (TL@O) together to find a number of objects tonight.

I had a quick check on Heavens Above as I wanted to take a peek at the ISS as it flew over. Popped out with the camera about 1810 to get it setup and the moon was a real treat to see, low in the sky to the south. Just a thin sliver visible at first glance, but, look again, and there's the entire disk, lit in the faint glow of Earthshine. Very nice.

Turned back to the north, tried to line up the camera where I though the ISS would show, and then, whilst I was waiting, I saw a high level moving dot that looked like a star. Aha thought I, here we go. I forget that the ISS would appear in the North and head out to the East. This one appeared in the North and headed South. So I watched it until it faded, thinking that was it, I'd seen the ISS and could chalk it up. But no. A couple of minutes later, a much brighter moving star appeared. This time heading in the correct direction. I watched for a moment, tried to line up the camera (and of course missed, ho hum) and took a picture of some stars but no bright line. I went back inside, as I had some things to do and posted in a couple of places to try and find out what the first object was. There's a couple of possibilities been raised, the Cosmos 2098 Rocket, or Iridium 26.

Time passed...

I got back outside with the scope at about 2055 and using the Hyperion, started out on the usual suspects (with the new one from last night). The Sisters, the Orion Nebula and the Beehive. Very nice. Carlos had provided me with a useful guide to Auriga after last nights report, where I couldn't find Mr Happy (the smiley face). Using this, I found the Leaping Minnow and near that NGC1893. In 1893 I think, and I might be making this up, but I thought I saw hints of wisps using averted vision which is IC410, it's so hard to tell. The, I found the smiley face. Finding the Minnow made it clear, that I had actually seen both the Minnow and the Smiley face last night. I'd of course forgotten about the effects of the mirrors and lenses in the scope, oops. It was only after comparing with the guide and rotating it to the how I was seeing it did I realise. Gotta pay more attention (sounds like a school report - Could Do Better!!). I spotted the little blob of NGC1907 in Mr Happy, is that a tear near his eye ? Is he crying with laughter ?

Then the three clusters in Auriga, M38, M36 and M37. As I was near Mars, I thought I'd check in, and Mars was in his usual state in my scope, a very small yellow blob. I think the fringe killer I have has improved his view (thanks for the recommendation) as it's a much tighter looking blob.

I then decided I'd have a hunt for M1. I figured that this was gonna be a toughy, but combining NW and TL@O put me in the right vicinity. I stared. I stared some more, I stared in an averted way. Was I imagining it, there was an odd tiny gray splodge in the middle of the FOV. I jiggled the scope a little. Odd thought I, it's not on my scope or my eye, it stayed put in the star field. That must be it. I was really pleased. Not that I could see much of it mind, just that I'd managed to locate it. Carrying on through Taurus, I passed through NGC1746, NGC1647 and NGC2244.

By this point Sirius was beginning to show his head above the horizon. For me the Horizon to the east is firmed by the roof line of all the houses along my road. I hopped from Sirius to M50. By moving back a way and raising the tripod up, I was able to to get low enough to the roof line, that I could find M41, very nice little cluster, just peeking out from behind one of my Neighbours TV aerial. Back to Sirius and tried to get M46 and M47. No luck on M46, but M47 I could see. I carried on up and picked out M48 as well.

I then popped up to Cor Caroli to take another peek and see if I could spot the colours. I'd been asked after yesterdays report. I'd have to say, that they looked very similar to me, both Blue/White. From Here I moved across to Coma Berenices to take a look at the Coma Cluster (Mel 111). Very nice, probably should have taken the Binos out with me as I had to move the scope around to see the cluster, but I'll save that for another time.

I spotted that Leo had made his presence known over the top of the house, and there shining in the night was Saturn. How could I resist. There she was haloed by those rings. And there were a couple of accompanying bodies, I could just make out. According to Sky and Telescopes Saturn Moon Calculator, probably Enceladus and Titan.

I then thought I'd have a hunt for some galaxies in and around Leo and Ursa Major. This was a total flop. I couldn't pick them out at all. I guess that at around magnitude 8 and 9, the light pollution from Gatwick, to the North, is just a little much. Never mind, I'll manage it at some point. Maybe later in the year when the sky has rotated and put Ursa Major more overhead.

At this point, whilst I was studying NW to figure out what to find next, someone turned on the kitchen light in the house, right by where I was studying the book. Luckily my head as down, and it didn't totally muck up my dark adaption. I pulled my hat down over one eye to protect my night vision and hung on for a few minutes until whatever was required from the kitchen had been purloined. Then the lights went out again. Phew!!

I figured I'd have a look around Perseus and Cassiopeia. First off I went to the Double Cluster (NGC869 and NGC884). After hunting around Cassiopeia for a while, I finally found M5, I missed the others somehow. I think some of them had slipped secretly into the trees without letting on, just so they could hide. Oh well, another night, I'll get them yet. Then I went back to Perseus to find M34.

To round off the evenings viewing, I went back to the Sisters and the Beehive for one last long glance at each. A most enjoyable evenings viewing, and I think I must have got lucky, as I picked up quite a list of new objects, most of which I didn't have a clue where they were when I started out this evening.

I can only hope that tomorrow's forecast holds true, another clear night, as I have already, in writing this, found more objects to try and find.