An absolutely torrid month weather wise, a certain repeat of last years record breaking rainfall levels. I did snatch the opportunity one weekend towards the end of the month to get some viewing and photography in...

I decided to go back to an old friend, namely the Hercules Cluster. With the new imaging setup I could now have a go at this easy target with longer exposures. I am delighted with the result I got out of 10x 3 minute exposures.

I also had a go at a widefield photo of the Cygnus region of the sky without light pollution filter to see what problems it may bring. The 55mm lens tends to fog up quite quickly which can easily be dealt with (dew heater strips) next time round. Light pollution only seemed to affect one edge of the frame which was proabably caused by street light reflecting off a tree just out of frame. Apart from that, light pollution didn't seem to be a huge problem when aiming the camera lens up high

Once I finished my imaging, the sky was simply gorgeous. I could just see the milky way which is no mean feat from my back garden! As the scope was already pointing at it, the Hercules Cluster was my first target. Stunning as normal. I moved across to M57, it seemed remarkably bright at 200x. A wonderfully defined ring which just had something more to offer than the 'smoke ring' that is noramlly seen. Next, the double double.. 'wow I love my scope' could hear myself thinking lol. Both pair split well and 200x seems to be the sweet spot for me. I slewed across to Alberio for a quick look at 48x and 200x respectively (I look at this thing ALL the time but never fails to please me). The next target was the highlight of the session... The Veil complex. I first checked out the witches broom with OIII filter. Incredible detail like swirling ribbon with a fiery star right through the middle of it. The nearby Western Veil was not something I had looked at for any length of time before. As I was at 48x magnification, I had to slew quite a way (couldn't use the GOTO as I had forgotten the NGC number for it lol). What a sight... its such large remnent now and lovely detail. OIII filters simply excel at bringing this object out. As I had the OIII screwed in I took a look at M27 as well.. brighter than I can remember seeing before so transaparency must have been good tonight. It was 1am by now and the final part of my observing was done through a 2" 32mm eyepeice simply sweeping through Cygnus. Something every astronomer should do with their largest eyepeice. Countless starfields at every touch of the hand controller.