On this occasion I was in the goldilocks latitude zone where all objects were visible. This la niña winter has been very wet and cloudy. The Saturday of the July new moon was clear but I was hosting a star party for a group of friends that night and while we looked at some of these objects that night, I had three people who didn't bring scopes for a variety of reasons - injuries, recovering from heart surgery. So we were all sharing my two scopes and one other that was brought up.
I had to travel to Canberra just after July new moon to teach a couple of nights of Photoshop classes and also to have my first COVID vax. Covid vaccines available much sooner in Canberra than regional NSW. Fortunately I am still a dual citizen of both states. There were some clear nights that week which went begging. 2nd vax scheduled 2 days after August new moon when I am sure we will have more clear nights that will go to waste.
I have a bit of a fetish for clusters of galaxies. In smaller apertures, the Grus Quartet of galaxies are quite faint. In the 18's, they really pop and the 1 degree field of the 31mm Nagler fits them in nicely. Other favourites of mine are the Leo Triplet and Markarian's chain.
Kind regards
Joe
kt4hx wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 5:05 pm Excellent, excellent report Joe! Nothing wrong with your sketches in the least. Since I do not sketch at all, I find them very nice.
Glad you were able to observe all the objects, and never worry about being a day or a month late. As long as the objects are in the sky, they are fair game. I only wish I could see NGC 6188 and 6193 with my 17.5", as my humble efforts with the 80mm a few years back pale in comparison. I often found myself wishing I had more aperture during those trips!
And thank you for highlighting the Grus quartet. While I have seen it with smaller aperture, I need to try and scrape it from just above my horizon at the dark site!