Location: The cabin (Black Island and Wanipigow) dark site
Temp was 25*C.
Humidity – 60%
Seeing: very good
Transparency: very good
Start: 11:15 pm
Finish: 3:00 am
Scope: C80 (910 mm focal length, f11.4) with 2”
EPs: ES82 18, ES82 28, TV Nagler 13 mm, ES82 11mm, Nikon 25mm
We enjoyed a day of fishing, cleaning up the cabin, and laying siege to a rather difficult 1000 piece puzzle (abstracted art by one of the Canadian group of Seven). I noted a few horsetails in the sky at sunset, but as twilight progressed, the clouds disappeared.
I carried the C80 down to the lakeside and set it up on the deck to cool for a while near 10 pm. A female mallard and her brood dabbled for minnows near the rocky point where our deck rests. The wind was dying at sunset after a somewhat windy day.. not many distractions but I did need to apply some mosquito repellant. Earlier that day I had seen a black bear mama with two cubs on the entrance road about 2 km to the east of the cottage, so I was careful to make lots of noise. Fortunately, a chance meeting of any bear was likely squelched by our neighbours lab - who provided a “musical interlude” while it tended to some minor social atrocity.
One of my goals for the evening was to study Scorpius and his stellar wares. Also – I wanted to practice my
M4 – just to the west of Antares. In my widefield Eps, the glob is very bright, however I was not able to resolve individual stars early in the night, with improved with the progression of twilight. The viewing was good with the ES82 18mm. True astronomical dark is hard to achieve before 1 am at this time of the year, if at all.
Jupiter – in the vicinity of Scorpius, allowed me to have a good look with the C80. The Gallilean moons were out in full force.
M5 – another globular cluster, this one in Serpens. Impressive for its size and it compares well with such great globs as M13 and M92, etc. Due to better contrast, it was easier to find vs. M4. Nicely concentrated core and some skeins of stars visible around midnight. ES82 28 mm and 18mm.
M3 – another beauty of a globular cluster and easily seen with the 28mm
M80 – glob cluster in Scorpius. Compact ball of stars much less conspicuous than some of the monsters that are described above.
M31 – I say “why not”? This always impressive galaxy seems to nicely hang in the East, just between some of the bigger trees on the shore side of the beach from where I was observing.
Saturn – my first look at Saturn this summer, and it did not disappoint. Clearly defined in the frac, with high power many of the common features made themselves apparent.
M13, M92, M56 and M39 – described by myself many times in previous reports on AF. The big globs provide a certain satisfaction in viewing and locating manually.
Thanks for reading to the bottom. And hello to all my astro-friends... its been a while, nice to be back here.
Ian
What a great night! Thanks Ian for this fine well written report!
