Sugarloaf August 2

Weather is not looking like it will be cooperating, I will not be venturing out.

Let's meet up anyway.
Sure we are all friends.

Aubrey.

Many thanks Michael!

Darren. 

It was great to meet you all, there were five of us there in the end.

Despite the forecast we did get clear spells and I viewed Jupiter, Saturn, Alberio and M13 before I had to head off.

Michael.

Very many thanks Michael and Aubrey for welcoming me to the group last night. I had a great night and learned lots - the trick with the green laser worked rather well and meant I could find a multitude of DSO objects after my 'red dot' finder went AWOL. For example, we found the double cluster in Perseus / NGC 869 and NGC 884 (my favourite DSO at this point in time), and the ET / Owl Cluster / NGC 457 in Cassiopeia towards the end of the night - close to midnight. Also, very many thanks to you Aubrey for (1) allowing me to observe the night sky through your scope, which is an incredible piece of kit, and (2) the tip on using a diary to keep track on what I observe - love that idea!  Once again, a big 'Thank you', and until the next meet-up; clear skies to all. 

Darren. 

I had a great time too with my William Optics 158 mm apochromatic refractor.
Jupiter was nice with its 4 moons at 112X.
From left to right, we saw Ganymede, Io, Jupiter, Europa and Callisto.
The North Equatorial Belt was darker and stronger than the South Equatorial Belt. The South Temperate was just about visible -that was dark enough.

Saturn, as ever, looked wonderful at 112X also. Titan was easy. Rhea was very dim between Saturn and Titan.
The Cassini Division was very good, almost completely visible right around the planet.

We were all talking about doubles. So I had a go at Rasalgethi. And at 112X the primary was yellow orange. The secondary was blue.

Darren mentioned the double -double star cluster in Perseus. So I pointed the scope at NGC 869 + NGC 884. Both open clusters fitted in the same FOV at 112X. Truly magnificent! Lots and lots of stars.

Finally Darren brought me down memory lane when he showed me NGC 457 the Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia. It has been many years since I observed it. It looked glorious in his Orion 6" Dobsonian. A great way to finish the night after midnight.
So thank you all for showing up -including Jonathan and his mate.
I've forgotten his name -sorry.

Let's do it all again in a few weeks time!
The skies will be darker then.

Clear skies from Aubrey.