Late Session with the Mak in Cooks Falls

I went out late to take advantage of clear conditions. 

I started around midnight and stayed until 2am. 

During the last session, I used my phone (Stellarium for the maps and Keep to take notes) and I was bothered by the brightness of the phone when switching apps or unlocking and also by having to put the phone down on the long chair every time I was moving the telescope. 

Tonight I decided to try with the laptop instead, using a red color filter (from System Preferences). But actually it was worse, the keyboard backlighting alone was killing my darkness adaptation. So I quickly switched back to using the phone. 

Again I got to see a lot of nice targets. I had to move the telescope around and sometimes aim low or between trees, so once again I was glad to have a very portable setup.

When I went back in, I was surprised to see the amount of dew on the telescope and the finder scope lenses.

Observations:

  • M103 Open Cluster - Cassiopeia
  • C10 Open Cluster - Cassiopeia
  • M52 Open Cluster - Cassiopeia
  • NGC 281 Pacman Nebula - Cassiopeia - could not see nebulosity
  • C13 Open Cluster - Cassiopeia
  • C14 Double cluster - Perseus 
  • M31 Andromeda Galaxy, M32, M110 (very faint) - Galaxies - Andromeda
  • C20 North America Nebula - Cygnus - could "see" a little bit of the darker area
  • M39 Open Cluster - Cygnus
  • Failed to locate/see C19 Cocoon Nebula - Cygnus
  • Saturn and Titan - Capricornus - between trees - would have been better without FR but the FR is installed between the OTA and the diagonal on the Mak and Saturn was quickly going to disappear behind the next tree - always a nice sight nonetheless
  • M2 Globular Cluster - Aquarius 
  • M8 Lagoon Nebula - Sagittarius - most of Sagittarius was hidden but I knew it was in that area, saw something with my naked eyes, pointed the telescope and it was M8
  • M20 Triffid Nebula - Sagittarius
  • M21 Open Cluster - Sagittarius
  • M24 Small Sagittarius Star Cloud
  • M23 Open Cluster - Sagittarius
  • M25 Open Cluster - Sagittarius
  • M22 Great Sagittarius Cluster
  • M28 Globular Cluster - Sagittarius