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Late Summer Stargazeing

During yesterday evening, and into Sunday night. I together with friends from my local AS. Held an observing session, at our local dark sky observing site. Teggs Nose CP near Macclesfield.

Skies were very clear with very good seeing. The jet stream must have taken the evening off.

I was using my Altair Astro Wave series, 115 EDT on an IOptron Mini Tower 2.
Eyepieces used varied, between Baader Hyperion 13mm (x60) Celestron 35mm Ultima (x 23) and TV 24mm Panoptic (x33)

Filters. Optolong 2" UHC. Baader Neodymium. DSO data. Interstellarum.

M 27 UHC 2" with 13mm

Very large and very bright nebula. Elongated.
I never tire of looking at the Northern skies biggest and best, planetary nebula. And tonight was no exception.

This object was very easy in the deepening twilight sky. Once the skies were fully dark. M27 was a delightful object to study.

NGC 6826 UHC 2" 13mm

Really difficult to see, through the eyepiece and 2" UHC filter. I think I will invest in a 1.25 OIII filter.

Next up was the celestial eye candy, that is M31.

Now the skies were quite dark. Bortal scale Class 4. The Perseus spiral arm was clearly visible high over head.

M31 was a delight to see. Through my 24mm Panoptic and 1.25" LPR filter.
The galaxy was big and very bright. I could see M32.

I wasn't sure but. I thought I could see some very faint dust lanes, visible in M 31. I used averted vision to see them.

I think I had the best views of this be-moth Galaxie, this season. I wonder what it'll look like from "Kelling" next month.

I tried and tried, to see my next object NGC 6960.

I had the star 52 Cygni, in the field of view. But despite using all my eyepieces and UHC filters. The Witches Broom didn't show herself.

Now I know, I need an OIII for this target. Because I have seen it before through a Lumicon OIII, and my old 8" Newtonian, from the same site.

NGC 6992

This nebula was, a nice faint arc of nebulosity, through my 24 mm Panoptic and 2" filter. So why wasn't NGC 6960 visible?

I decided to take a break for coffee around midnight, and a light snack.

Whilst relaxing. I spent the time just looking at the dust lanes in our galaxy.

NGC 7009

This was a nice and very easy target to see visually. How ever, because of the lack of an OIII filter. I couldn't really see anything other than a small round, nebulous dot.

Now here is something completely different.

NGC 1501.

Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas. Has the title of "Camels Eye" nebula.

Using my 13mm and 2" UHC this object was bright, with a faint hint of blue coloration, despite it's listed magnitude of 13.

Whilst in the area. I had a look at NGC 1502 "Golden Harp Cluster, or water splash. This lies at the very end of Kemble's Cascade.

NGC 7789 "Carolines Rose"

This was a very dim target to finish with.

Using my 13mm. NGC 7789 was very faint, but using averted vision. I could see some individual stars.

By 0145hrs I was beginning to feel tired. And the clouds were beginning to show up. I left the site, with M 45 and Aldebaran rising in the East.

I was very satisfied with my observations.

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