Report - 2025-08-27

Peter's Viewing Log for 27th August 2025

Second session of the new season and I was not sure if it was going ahead due to the cloud cover I had at home. According to the weather forecast, the skies should clear? So I made a decision and went to Nebo farm after getting permission from Phil.

By 21:42, I had my Meade LX90 telescope set up and ready, I would again be using my Pentax 14 mm XW eye piece. There was total cloud cover to the south and east but pretty good in the other directions.

The temperature was 15 °C and some wind for company, guide stars were Arcturus and Altair. There was very little chance of seeing anything in the Sagittarius area.

So I my first object for the evening was Messier (M) 13 in Hercules, this is the best globular cluster (GC) in the northern hemisphere, this was a large grey blob to look at with a bright core, could even make out the odd star on the edge of this cluster, comes in with a magnitude (Mag) of 5.9.

Not far away and often over looked due to the brilliantness of M 13 is M 92, another GC which is a smaller grey blob with a bright core, the Mag of this cluster is 6.5, while viewing this object a bright meteor went thru the field of view.

Another GC in Hercules is NGC 6229, this was a faint blob (FB) to look at but did have a bright core. Mag of 9.3, so much duller than the other two GC’s. By now, the cloud had started to move away to the east, still could not make out Sagittarius but could see the constellation Scutum above.

So I went to M 26, a dim compact open cluster (OC), had a couple of bright stars but easy to miss if not using GOTO gear?

Slightly above is M 11, the Wild Duck cluster, this is a large and bright OC with lots of stars.

On to Ophiuchus and M 107, this GC is a faint fuzzy blob (FFB) to look at, had to use adverted vision to see this object.

M 10, is a large grey blob of a GC with a bright core. Not far away is M 12, smaller and dimmer than M 10 with no bright core.

Further to the east is M 14, another large grey blob of a GC, could not make out any stars in this cluster.

First Planetary nebula (PN) to be discovered and first for me this evening was M 27, the Dumbbell nebula, this is another large grey blob which looked like an apple core? In to the constellation of Sagitta, a constellation I rarely look at, as there is not much to look at?

M 71 is a FFB of a GC, easy to miss and is very small. Across the border and into Aquarius, a bit better is M 72, another FFB of a GC but small.

Not sure why M 73 was added to Messier’s list as it an asterism of just four stars, yes a strange OC? The skies were now getting better and I could finally look at Sagittarius, on to M 22, the Great Sagittarius cluster, another large GC with some bright stars within the cluster, did not help only being 12 ° above the horizon.

NGC 6818, is a PN with the name of the ‘Little Gem’ nebula, to me it was an out of focus star to look at. By now the skies had cleared to the south, so time to look at Saturn, coming in with a Mag of 0.7, it was big and bright to look at, could make the large moon Titan out to east of the ringed wonder. Thought I could make out another moon to the west of Saturn, looking at the app Stellarium later on, I think I found the moon Rhea which is the second brightest of Saturn.

Not far away is Neptune, just a pale dot to look at. Final object for the evening was M 45, the Pleiades OC, looks great in the finderscope, yes winter is well on its way!