[Lismore Bloke (Paul)]

12" Dobsonian. No moon, seeing 4 out of 5, transparency 3.5 out of 5.
A lot of the smoke haze from burnoffs has cleared, fortunately. I know burnoffs are necessary, but they are not good for observing.

NGC7009 PN Saturn nebula. 26mm (58X) showed a small, bright glow. More magnification, 6mm (250) showed the oval shape better, the colour a ghostly greenish-blue. I didn't see the projections (eyesight and probably eyepiece limitations!!). A decent filter may help. Very attractive object.

NGC 7089 GC Again, 26mm showed a nice bright globular with a grainy outer edge. More power (9mm x167) showed the edges resolved into stars and a field star (CDC showed TYC5208-00284-1, so that's probably it). Excellent sight.

NGC 6981 GC Another globular, but fainter. Just a round glow at low power was showing graininess at the edges with the 6mm.

NGC 7213 GX Grus. The closeness of Alnair didn't prevent me spotting this bright galaxy. Saw an oval glow with a concentrated centre.

NGC 7599-7590-7582-7552 The 26mm showed this very nice quartet in the same field, at different angles to each other. NGC 7531 was nearby and sweeping around revealed plenty of galaxies to identify. I will be spending a lot more time exploring the galaxies in this constellation.

Cheers, Paul.