A Clear Night At Last !!

[Tamtarn]

Had a fantastic night observing last night. It's been a while because of cloud cover or moonlight :mad2:

Starting with favourites Eta Carina..Jewel Box..Tarantula..Tucanae..Omega Centauri and Orion.

Then moved on to galaxies. Starting with my favourite Sombrero M104 which never disappoints, even saw detail in the centre band. Just beautiful :)

Then browsing around Corvus the ringtail NGC4038 then 4027and 4783. Crater 3887 and 3962. Hydra 4105-3621 and 3923. Then on to my second favorite galaxy CentaurusA 5128 very detailed then 4945-4976 and Lupus 5643. Virgo 4517-4536-4636-M61-4665-4699-4697-4753.

A total of 21 Galaxies.

Just to finish off a quick look at Saturn and Jupiter.

All in all a very satisfying night. The highlights definitely Sombrero..CentaurusA..and Omega Centauri

As well .. two really bright meteors the ball was bright yellow the tail breaking up with a spectacular display they were moving north to south

Crawled into bed about 3am :zzz:

Looking forward to more clear skies :thumbsup:

Barb

[Gargoyle_Steve]

What a great nights viewing, that's excellent Barb, and I am SO envious!

The skies here have done one of 2 things lately - on my nights off the skies have remaned cloudy all night long, then cleared during the daytime.
Or on nights when I have to be at work by 11pm the skies start clearng a little just as I'm leaving home around 10:40.

I've resorted (again - lol) to having Stary Night running on the pc in my bedroom just to pretend that I'm seeing clear skies somewhere.

Great viewing, great report - wish I was there.

Cheers!

[Starkler]

I also had a great night last night in lovely dark skies.
I was staying in Euroa for work and went for a drive 20km or so out of town and was treated to the best sky conditions I have seen :eyepop:

The dark doodad in Musca was obvious in the little 30mm finderscope of my Vixen newt. I had only seen it once previously and failed to find it on other occasions looking. Now it was dead obvious!
The flame nebula in Orion was great with the dark central part standing out like the dark lane in 5128

I also did a bit of a galaxy tour including 5128, 4945, 5102, M83 and M104.
Had a look at a few planetaries, ghost of Jup (3242), 3918 and 2438, the planetary buried in the M46 cluster. It was fantastic viewing for my little 5" traveller ;)

[Tamtarn]

Steve I was almost to that point when we had clear skies :lol:

[Tamtarn]

The dark doodad in Musca still eludes me Geoff :lol: and by the way the planetary in M46 is just great I love it !! :)

[glenc]

Glad you had a great night Barb.

[jjjnettie]

Sounds like you had a great time.
I'm envious of the meteors too.
Thank you for posting your log.