15-16 July 2026

 

     The sky is still fairly bright tonight. There is also a slight haze noticeable around lights and in the skyglow from town. I went out to set up about 23:00 MDT, and caught a line of noctilucent cloud to the northwest. The Milky Way is visible. I hesitated to post this image un-cropped because it gives an idea of how bad my handwriting is. 

 

     Used SkyAlign again, with Caph, Altair, and Antares for alignment stars. First target at 23:34 is M4. This is one of the closest globular clusters to Earth, about 7,200 light years away. Started with the 25mm Plossl eyepiece, then went to 17mm. M4 is only about   20° above the southern horizon. Since that is where town is, the surrounding sky is very bright. I can make out a few individual stars in the periphery. There is a bright chain of stars through the center. This is one of the features I had read about and was hoping to see.

    Next target at 23:40 was the open cluster M6. Used the 25mm eyepiece.  I only observed it for a few minutes and didn't sketch it since it was already down in the skyglow from town. The stars in the cluster are very bright. There is a line of 3-4 stars extending to the right from the center. The star at the right end appears red.

     23:45 moved to M7, another open cluster. It is only about 980 light years away. It just barely fits in the FOV of the 25mm eyepiece in the East-West direction. Observed and sketched until 23:57, when it got low enough that the observatory wall started to occlude the view. There were also some clouds starting to move in over there.

     Despite how bright the sky was I wanted to try for the Trifid Nebula, M20. I was able to easily make out the double star at it's core, but the nebulosity was just a very faint haze. I verified it by looking in TLAO at the 'scope side. I slewed left and right to be sure that I was actually seeing the nebulosity and not just background sky glow. I finished the sketch at 00:12. The view was getting dim with some high clouds moving in to th esouth. That also increased the glow and haze above town. There were no naked eye stars visible below the teapot.

 

     Looking at the Little Dipper quickly to get an idea of NELM, Polaris and the two brightest stars of the cup, Kochab and Pherkad were all that I could see easily.  δ Ursa Minoris, the next star to Polaris, was barely visible, and the other stars in the handle could only be seen with averted vision. 

    00:20, moved to M21. In the 25mm eyepiece this is a much smaller open cluster. Stars not as bright, although I can get hints of other stars in the background.

     I didn't make any more sketches because I was trying to get in some of the targets that were going to be out of sight soon.

    00:35 I moved to the globular cluster M22. I started with the 25mm and changed to the 10mm eyepiece. It almost fills the FOV in the 10mm. The seeing was steady enough that a surprising amount of detail was visible. Lots of visible granularity to the image. A lot of stars start popping in and out of focus. Some of that at least is my eye popping in and out of focus. The center is a densely packed granular area. Moved back to the 25mm for a wider view. One of the stars to the NE appears slightly red, the others are white.

    00:40 tried M28 since it is close to M22. It is a much smaller globular cluster. In the 25mm eyepiece all I can make out is a small fuzzy ball. With the 10mm eyepiece it fills more of the FOV. Using averted vision I can make out a few stars. It is very dim and very low, getting into the glow from town.

    00:47, M3. another globular cluster. This is in the west just above the trees, so away from the sky glow of town. It appears very similar to M22 in the 25mm eyepiece. Changed to the 17mm. Could start to see some granulation with hints of individual stars. Using averted vision I can see some faint stars in the periphery. There is a bright core that fades as you move out, not a sharp delineation. There is a bright star above and slightly left.  Stopped observing as it went into the trees.

    Just before midnight I stepped away from the scope looking east and I saw a meteor. It was due east , about 25° altitude, moving south to north towards Caph. Saw a second one to the NE, again moving south to north, just under Cassiopeia. 

     I really need to get an observing chair built and a better arrangement for sketching. Standing to look into the eyepiece when the telescope is pointed low and trying to hold the sketchbook left may back sore. I tried turning the diagonal horizontal, but it really messed up my orientation.