G'Day fellow observers of the night sky! I had a clear night last night for the first time in a month. Took full advantage of the situation with a three hour observing session using my 10 inch dob. These are the objects I viewed in no particular order;
M4: Looked great last night, nice bar of stars running across its centre.
M7: Superb open cluster. A mass of bright blue stars arranged in a box like shape.
M62: Wow, this is an impressive globular in Ophiuchus. Bright and fairly well resolved in my scope.
Izar: Nice tight double star in Bootes. Companion showed up nicely at 250x.
IC 4665: I enjoy looking at this open cluster in Ophiuchus. Bright and scattered.
C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS: Saw this comet for the first time last night, located below IC 4665. Only detected it's coma which is huge! I read at Space.com that it's coma is currently 10 times the earth's diameter
NGC 6397: Showpiece globular cluster in Ara. This one had me audibly saying wow at the eyepiece. Glowing core surrounded by a ring of stars! Beautiful.
IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula. I had been unable to see this tricky nebula last year during my first year of serious observing, last night I got a glimpse of it. It's large and showed it's self by the subtle brightening of the background. After observing it for 30 min I could make out a faint reddish colour to it. This was the surprise of the night!
With that I ended my session and headed off inside, feeling refreshed and satisfied that I had got some observing done after a month. Wishing you all clear skies!!
Joe
