Clear Skies!...So whats on sky?

Great, see you there!  Another member will also join us at some point.

Thanks for joining me, Mike and we had another member popping along too.

Where did the mosquitos come from!!  I got bites on both my hands, my neck and even  on my leg despite wearing trousers.   They attacked us in the first hour, like some Michael Caine B-movie horror film.

Mike says its the hot weather.  Just as well we have our Flamsteed stargazing sessions in the winter season and not summer!

Anyway, in between flailing our arms at invisible mosquitos and buzzing bees, we got to enjoy plenty of targets, starting with the always glorious Saturn, its rings titled more than previous years (its maximum open tilt was around June this year).   Can also observe the various brown/yellow stripe tints on the main body itself as well as the Cassini division on the rings quite easily.

On Mike and my telescopes, we observed Hercules globular (M13), Dumbbell Neb (M47), Ring Nebula (M57),  Landing areas of Apollo 11 near Armstrong Crater, Number 7 Cluster (looks like a 7! but mirrored in my SCT).   With Mike's knowledge of double stars, we also observed Albireo, Double Double plus two more really nice binary doubles with contrasting stars of sizes and colours.   (Mike, what were those two other doubles called again?)

Now to treat those bloody mosquito bites...

Where did the mosquitos come from!!  I got bites on both my hands, my neck and even  on my leg despite wearing trousers.   They attacked us in the first hour, like some Michael Caine B-movie horror film.

That was unbelievable... I've never seen so many. I managed to avoid any hand or face bites (mostly cause I ended up wearing my big woolly hat and gloves, despite the warm temperatures), but stupidly forgot to tuck my trousers into my socks, so was bitten all over the backs of my legs. Ah well. Hydrocortisone cream is the best treatment, Tej! Give that a go.

we got to enjoy plenty of targets

Yes, it was good fun. I particularly enjoyed treating some of the passers-by to a first ever view of Saturn. That's always a great thing to show people... particularly those who have never looked through a telescope before.

Mike, what were those two other doubles called again?

Rasalgethi (Alpha Herculis) was the pretty orange-red / greenish double star.

Izar (Epsilon Bootis) was the very closely separated (3") double of golden yellow / greenish stars.

Glad you enjoyed viewing them.