First observing report

Saturday night was lovely and reasonably clear, but with a bright Moon. I'd finished imaging our Moon early in the evening and rather then pack up. I decided to go back to my roots. And observe some Summer DSO's. I used to do this before CCD and Digital imaging got hold of me.

I am using my Celestron C9.25 XLT at F10 for this purpose. It gives me just enough light grasp for visually observing a good number Deep Sky objects. It's also a very good excuse to use this scope again! As it's been sitting un-used in my shed for too long.

We also don't have Astronomical darkness now so I decided to look at some early Summer Planetary Nebulae. I used an Altair 18mm Ultra Wide and 1.25" Omegon OIII filter.

I've never used this filter before and I was very surprised how good it was. With the Altair Ultra Flat 18mm. I was observing at 130x magnification. The C9.25 is mounted to my Losmandy G11-Gemini 2.

Messier 57 was my first choice. I have seen M57 before. But It wasn't through this eyepiece, filter or telescope. Through my eyepiece. The ring nebula was quite big so I spent a couple of minutes taking in the view. There was some fainter detail visible using, averted vision.

Then with the help of the Webb DSS Handbook Volume 2. "Planetary and Gaseous Nebulae". I had a look and saw the following.

IC 4593
NGC 6210
NGC 6572

All these planetary nebulae were clearly visible through the 18mm EP. NGC 6210 was very easy, and bright. And NGC 6572 and IC 4593 were also observed and they were easy to see despite the sky's brightness.

I removed the filter and then had a look at Messier's 3 and 13. Both globular clusters looked spectacular, despite the bright twilight sky.

I can honestly say. That I enjoyed my observing despite the skies being not at there best. Roll on August, when the night's will once again begin to draw in, and it gets dark.

I finished observing at 00:30 hrs.