Observing Report -- August 2, 2014

It's been a while since I've gone out; I was going to go observing last Saturday -- same great weather -- but I was just too damn tired. Tonight, though, I had a coffee. I think that's a weapon I'm gonna keep in my back pocket from now on...

Tonight, like most nights, I had a plan. This time, though, I mostly stuck to it. I think it worked well, too. There were easy bits and hard bits scattered throughout, which helped keep everything from getting depressing ("Why, WHY can't I find this 19 magnitude galaxy?"). Also, though, I stuck to one region of the sky, and that helped too -- not just for keeping everything close, but because I think alignment worked better. Not perfectly, mind you, but better.

Anyway -- out at Queen's Park (after filling up the air in the astronomy wagon tires) with Neptune, the Meade 8".

• Got the briefest of looks at Saturn right before it disappeared behind a tree; nothing of the moon or Mars tonight.

• I took a look at Albireo while waiting for the twilight to go away, and man, that never gets old. The colours are so much more vivid when the sky's bright like that, too; I came back to it later in the night and they weren't nearly so distinct.

• Aligned and dialed in M57; took a bit of searching, but found it.

• After that, M13 -- beautiful as always. Found where NGC 6207 should be but again, no luck.

• Tried splitting the Double-Double both earlier in the night, and again when my scope was/might have been cooled down; no luck with the Vixen 12mm or the 10mm Meade Plossl. Not sure what to make of that; like a lot of other things, I lack experience to know if this is bad seeing, not enough cool-down time, need for flocking (that's rank speculation), or just to be expected.

• Looked for NGC 6210 and found it -- hurrah! It looked nothing at all like this Hubble photo, but was still pretty. It's on the RASC "Best of the NGC" list; blue and starlike, just like it says on the tin.

• Found NGC 6826, the Blinking Planetary, and 16 Cygni which has an exoplanet.

• Found 61 Cygni. Did not sketch (fail)

• Star test on Vega; didn't blow up so must be fine, right?

• M11 is absolutely gorgeous as always.

• Looked for NGC 6781, NGC 6755/6756. No sign of either one.

• Looked at M31 and the Double Cluster briefly before coming home.

[3]: 61 Cygni