Late Season Sagittarius

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

G'Day all! I had a fantastic observing session last night using my 10 inch dobsonian. The transparency and seeing were very good. With the wanning gibbous moon not due to rise until 10pm, I had a 1.5 hr window of "dark" skies with observations starting at 8:30pm local time. The only bane is the omnipresent light pollution from my bortle 7 backyard.

I started the night by targeting Sagittarius, which is slowly going out of season. Using the star Albaldah (Pi Sagittarii) as my anchor, I slowly swept out from it, exploring the region of sky in that area. Reaching the star Xi2 Sagittarii, I found two rather large open clusters, NGC 6716 and Collinder 394. These two clusters are within 40' of each other. NGC 6716 has a rather interesting shape. Collinder 394 is more spread out without any discernable shape. Starhopping to nearby star Nu2 Sagittarii brought a delight right close to it, the globular cluster NGC 6717. Beautiful sight with the yellow Nu2 Sagittarii and the globular cluster nestled close together in the same field of view! I got a nice close up view of NGC 6717 using 480x magnification. At this power I could start to resolve some of the fainter outer stars. This globular appeared slightly elongated and fairly small. A wonderful sight!

M 22 was nearby so I paid it a visit next. Stimulation overload! Big, bright and well resolved in my 10 inch. Splendid. I moved up to the open cluster M 25 next. Lovely cluster with an interesting patern of stars in the centre of the cluster. Next up was the starcloud M 24. A little bit washed out compared to when I saw it last owing to my bortle 7 skies and being lower than last time but still a special sight. Not far from M 24 is Polis (Mu Sagittarii) a nice unequal double star with components of magnitudes 3.8 and 10.4. This star is a brilliant white colour.

Completing this satisfying session I moved into neighbouring Scutum and tracked down UY Scuti, one of the largest stars known. It appeared as a faint red star, not impressive visually but impressive mentally knowing how massive this star is. I also had my best ever views of Saturn and Jupiter, I watched Ganymede and it's shadow slowly leave the face of Jupiter. A big wow!

It was a fantastic night, just goes to show there is much to see even in bortle 7 skies. Wishing you all clear skies and bright eyes!!

Joe

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

Great report, Joe. Thanks for sharing. There is so much to see in Sagittarius.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Thank you Steve. Yes, Sagittarius is just packed with fantastic sights!

[Dave882 (David)]

Excellent report! You’ve done an amazing job with all of those observations from b7 sky!

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Thanks David! I've taken to observing with an eye patch as well as a sheet over my head to reduce stray light. Quite the sight for the neighbours I'd imagine

[Rod-AR127 (Rod)]

Nice report and an inspiration to me for tonight's clear skies here in Perth. I might attempt to copy your session but only to Mag 7 or 8 due to my little 72mm aperture.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Originally Posted by Rod-AR127

Nice report and an inspiration to me for tonight's clear skies here in Perth. I might attempt to copy your session but only to Mag 7 or 8 due to my little 72mm aperture.

Hi Rod, you will see heaps of interesting stuff through your 72mm in Sagittarius as well as the rest of the sky. If you haven't already I would suggest also looking for M8, M22, M17 and M24, these will look great through your scope.

We are lucky indeed here in Perth to have such clear skies fairly consistently! Wishing you an enjoyable observing session tonight, let us know how it went

[Rod-AR127 (Rod)]

Actually I will get the 127mm achro out as well for Sagittarius, looked at stellarium and wow, lots to pick out.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Originally Posted by Rod-AR127

Actually I will get the 127mm achro out as well for Sagittarius, looked at stellarium and wow, lots to pick out.

Have fun mate, you are in for a treat!