[Paddy (Patrick)]

Thursday night presented the first observing in quite some time. Although the sky was clear and seeing good, the transparency was quite awful, so it was only a night for clusters.

Thanks for reading.

Telescope 400mm f4.9 tri-dob reflector
Eyepieces 28mm UWAN, 17,13,9 mm Naglers, Paracorr
Navigation: Uranometria

Seeing good, transparency poor.

2030

NGC 5946 GC Norma

175x 3.5’ soft round GC with marked 2’ central concentration. Halfway between the W edge of the core and the edge of the halo is a foreground star. I agree with suggestions that this gives the impression of a dark lane to the W of the core. No cluster stars are resolved.

NGC 6656/Messier 22 GC Sagittarius

135x Always a stunning sight. 15’ blaze of stars and haze with myriad bright members discerned. The chevron-shaped dark lane points NW. No words are adequate. No marked core, several tracts of stars and haze are distracted from the main halo and trail off into the very busy starfield with background stippled by countless faint stars.

NGC 6717 GC Sagittarius

175x 2’ soft glow in the glare of bright foreground star (Nu 2 Sag). Looks quite concentrated and 2 points of light are quite distinct, one of which may be a stellar core.

NGC 6712 GC Scutum

175x 5’ halo of faintly resolved stars with no core. A dark V-shape can be seen on the W edge and there are some small dark lanes on the E side. A wedge of haze trails off to the NE. 5’ to the S is a small squarish 2’ patch of haze not designated on my charts.

NGC 6694/Messier 26 OC in Scutum

175x Beautiful 12’ OC, roughly triangular with apex to the E. Fifty+ moderately bright stars within the triangle form numerous graceful curves, combining to suggest the outline of some elegant winged insect. The cluster stands out well from the surrounding field and is easily seen in the finderscope. The lucida looks more yellow than most of the stars of the cluster, which seem whitish.

NGC 6705/Messier 11 OC in Scutum

135x Stunning 15’ cluster with hundreds of stars of fairly similar magnitude (apart from the lucida which is considerably brighter) and numerous dark lanes. A 6’ square of stars in the centre is delineated by dark lanes and itself contains a number of asterisms and dark lanes. These patterns suggest the square ideograph stamps used by Chinese artists to sign their work. Near the lucida are several faint red stars. Numerous interesting and pleasing asterisms are scattered throughout.


NGC 6934 GC in Delphinus


175x 4’ dia. concentrated and grainy glow 4’ to the E of a foreground star. Very round and with a distinct core.


NGC 7006 GC in Delphinus


175x Faint, but still obvious round, smooth halo. Quite concentrated and with a distinct core. According to the Night Sky Observer’s Guide, this is a very distant halo GC, about 135,000 ly distant.