Hi all,
I finally had my first dark sky session in many a month. Saddly, it was also on the same day that Sydney had its hottest day (42 deg), on the tail end of its longest heat wave. The dark site's sky was alive with haze and rolling high clouds that made for a frustrating night's viewing.
Played "now you see me, now you don't" all night long.
Still, those moments of clarity were lovelly. No sketches this time, but the memories were stunning.
The biggest kick was seeing the Rosette Nebula. Using my 17.5", its associated cluster just about fills the FOV of my 30mm, 2" 64
° eyepiece. As I only have a 1.25" OIII filter, I trained my filtered RKE 28mm on the Rosette. WOW! Finally I could see the oh-so-faint nebulosity! It is very mottled, with a distinct circular shape that totally surrounds the cluster.
Its edges are very jagged, showing hints of dark pillars.
I'm hoping to get better views of the remaining targets soon.