Last weekend is a holiday for most residents in Canada, Canada Day = July 1. It was also new moon and so I headed out to my favourite dark site in the southeast corner of the province - a largish park named Sandilands (ancient glacial sand esker). While much of the sky was clouded out on both evenings of July 1 and 2 last week, the only targets that were clear were located down in Scorpius and Sag in the southern skies. So, I made lemonade from the cloudy lemons.
Bears: A large one came to say hello as we were setting up - regarded us for a while and decided we were not worth his time, and so shuffled off into the bush. This fellow frequents the area, and we have seen him more than once.
Batteries: I always come with an extra, and was able to lend one to my buddy Kevin (one of several Kevins in attendance).
M4:
34 x 120" lights
30 darks
30 flats
80 bias
M4 is a beauty, easily seen even with a small scope. 75 light years across, packed with 11th mag stars, and only a hop/skip away from us @ 7200 lya. A summertime treat for us.
The auroral displays were very active on the second night. You can see my image of some of them here: https://astrob.in/yyndpa/C/
This was processed using the workflow that I derived from the advice of KathyNS... thanks!