Two new objects viewed this month!

First of all I decided to find out where this 'coathanger' formation is. Not far from Albireo it wasn't long before I found it in the 32mm eyepiece. It really does look just like a coathanger in the sky!

The next object was stumbled across when looking for the coathanger for a second time... As I scanned the sky with the 32mm eyepiece again I noticed a strikingly obvious fussy patch. I instantly recognised the shape, it was M27 (The Dumbell Nebula). I was very surprised at how bright this nebula is. I had not bothered to attempt finding it before as I thought it would be hard to find. Goes to show what surprises you can get by just scanning the sky with a low power, wide field eyepiece.

PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE 07th Sep

My first lunar eclipse viewed through the telescope. Conditions were very good, couldn't see the eclipse until 8:05 due to haze and trees. As this was only a partial eclipse is was never going to be as impressive as a total. I'll have to wait until 03rd March 2007 for one of them.

Here is the raw colour image which is far too orange compared to what it actually looked like.