This months Love M7

[mushiking]

Hi

so what does everybody enjoy to look at this time of Year.

Mine at the moment are

Jupiter/Venus/m7/m8

Hope everybody is enjoying these Freezing (cloudy)Winter Nights.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

I like anything thats not close to the moon, jupiter or streetlights. Other than that, anything is a target.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I love all the pretty lights up there.
But if I had to choose only one, it would be Jupiter. It's the one thing up there at the moment that I go back to many times during the observing session.

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

There's a short list of things that I always try to look at every observing session :
(as long as they are visible in the sky of course!)

Saturn (losing her quickly now night by night)
Jupiter (I enjoy watching the dance of the moons over time)

the Jewel Box Cluster (NGC-4755)
Omega Centauri (NGC-5139)
the Carina Nebula
the Gem Cluster (NGC-3293)
Wishing Well Cluster (NGC-3766) Edited - NGC # now correct ... a new fave of mine

(Jewel Box, Wishing Well & Gem clusters [East to West] are all in the same region of the sky, and at roughly similar sizes, etc, they form a very pleasant trio to view and compare.)

Obviously the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) & Tarantula Nebula (NGC-2070)
and of course the SMC as well & adjacent 47Tuc glob cluster (NGC-104)
the Sombrero Galaxy (M104)

While you are looking at M8 have a look also at nearby M20 - the Triffid Nebula.


So much for a short list - putting them all down in sequence like that makes me feel that I need to be out there right now!

[GazzMeister]

I've only been involved in this whole astronomy scene for a few months, and I haven't had alot of time to spend scanning the skies. BUT the other night I was looking at jupiter and I wondered if i could use it as a platform to find anything interesting. I came inside and looked at my star charts and there was a little yellow dot near scorpius. I went out and had a look around and BAM! there it was, M7, my first (that I know of anyway ) extra solar body!!! It'll be my favourite for a long time (partly because it's all I can find without any charts). It was so satisfying finding something like that. Almost as cool as that magical first glimpse of Saturn...