8-9 July. 2026

     Went out and set up at about 23:05. Did the Skyalign using Deneb, Altair. and Antares. While setting up I could see distant clouds to the SE with lightning flashes in them. Temperature is about 66F.  I have been making short observing lists for each night, mostly based on the targets in "Turn Left At Orion" (TLAO). I am adding an occasional target from other sources that seem interesting. Another factor is that many of the targets are low enough in the southern sky that there is a limited window from my latitude (46 deg north). For example, the "Teapot" in Sagittarius barely gets over 20 degrees above the southern horizon. My primary targets for the night  were double stars and globular clusters because of the short night and how bright the sky is. It washes out most nebula and even a lot of galaxies. 

    My first targets tonight were Rasalgethi (Alpha Herculis) and Rasalhague (Alpha Ophiucus), two double stars. They are close to each other but just across the constellation boundary from each other. I used goto to try to quickly find Rasalgethi before it got too low, but wasn't sure if I saw it. I sketched what I saw in the 25mm eyepiece. Quickly went to M10 to verify goto and tracking. Even with the sky bright I could start to make out some of the individual stars. By 23:35 the sky is getting darker with more stars visible and the Milky Way just becoming visible. I then slewed to what I thought was Rasalhague. I located a very dim double near the center of the FOV that I thought might be it. I later used Stellarium to verify what I saw and discovered I was off on both. They were actually the much brighter star in the edge of each FOV.

 

     At 00:00 I went back to Rasalhague. Again I saw a very dim double with an extremely bright star to it's right in the eyepiece. That bright star is probably Rasalhague. Even though it is a double star, most amateur telescopes can't split it.

    I then tried for NGC 6217 but the sky was bright enough that NGC 6217couldn't see it. It was also the result  of a typo on the controller, I meant to enter NGC 6207! So instead I moved to M12, a globular cluster also called the"gumball" cluster, and sketched it. (see above).

    I then observed M10 using the 25mm Plossl with a 2x Barlow. Adding the Barlow did improve some visible detail, making some of the individual stars in the cluster visible. In all the  cluster took up about a quarter of the FOV. I have observed M10  before, but wanted to see how it looked in a very bright sky.

    I took a short break just to look at the sky in general and was rewarded with a meteor passing north to south just to the east. Short tail, but very bright. The Milky Way is visible, passing through or near zenith. It fades out as you get closer to the horizon. Some dark lanes are  just visible overhead. I estimate the NELM a about 5. All 7 stars in the little dipper are just visible. 

    Next target was NGC 6229, a much smaller globular cluster. It is almost at zenith. This is the smallest globular I have observed so far. In the 25mm eyepiece there is a small rounded area, and I can barely make out a brighter core. Used the 17mm eyepiece which gave a slightly larger image. The halo area is slightly larger and the core is brighter. The cluster forms almost an equilateral triangle with  two brighter stars below it. 

    At 00:48 I tried again for NGC 6207. . Initial goto put it just outside the FOV for the 5mm eyepiece. This is a very small and dim galaxy that is easy to miss. It is a narrow oval shape, running at about a 20 degree angle from upper left in the FOV to lower right. Using averted vision in the 17mm eyepiece I can get occasional glimpses of a brighter core. Sky brightness is also already starting to increase before Moonrise. About 45 degrees to the lower right is a brighter star. 

     Decided to try for a quick look at M31 before shutting down. In both the 25mm and 17 mm eyepieces, no dust lanes were visible and neither of the companion galaxies were noticeable. Sky is very bright now, very close to Moonrise.