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Mandm Direct Spreads France Holiday Observing, 11-12th August 2015 Canal du Rhône à Sète onboard CroisiEurope’s Anne-Marie Revelation 15x70 binoculars, Manfrotto tripod with ball head. iPad Air2 running SkySafari 4 Pro Gallician (Oldest Roman vineyards found here) - iPhone panoramic of observing site The boat has moored in a dark location... we are at a To top it off, it could be clear later.... small marina in the middle of nowhere for the evening 9.30pm. Night falling so have put out the 10x70 somewhere in the Camargue region, an enormous binoculars on my small Manfrotto travel tripod, set up nature reserve where the sea and fenland are inhabited on the sun deck of our river going barge. But, there is a by an extraordinary array of water fowl and birds. It is haze forming and some high cloud. I suspect this sea famous for it’s wild white horses, salt production, wine haze is what Andy was getting in Gran Canaria? growing, medieval walled towns, flamingoes... and bull breeding and fighting (it feels very... Spanish!) First stars visible amongst all the bats are Vega and those of the Summer Triangle . The Milky Way starts Thankfully at last we are in a spot with only low down to show around the form of Cygnus. Alberio shines lighting, unlike the previous stops - one was like being orange and blue. A hazy patch visible naked eye in the middle of a floodlit hockey pitch! resolves into The Coathanger asterism. It has been a lovely hot day, perfect for visiting new places, for eating, drinking and doing a spot of bathing and spending time in the jacuzzi, ooh the good life! Sweeping through this region as the skies darken shows denser patches of stars including the bright triangle of stars that make up open cluster M39 to the left of Deneb, the small clump of stars that would be the Rocking Horse cluster (if we had more magnification), to the left of Sadr and then lower right, the small but distinctive shape of M29 that resembles... a cooling tower! increasing though and I have had more contrasty views from mum's caravan in South Wales and where I stop over with work just outside Leominster. Tonight though looks like being the best chance of Continue down into and out right of Aquila .. it’s now 22.15pm, M11 stands large and bright - so much higher in the sky than at home, so much more contrasty/sparkly than I'm used to from Lichfield! Stars easily resolve.. not sure about 'wild ducks' though! Within the same field of view at about 5 o'clock sits open cluster M26 . It is smaller and fainter than M11. Looking to about 10 o'clock is globular cluster NGC 6712 . Both easily fit with the field of view and just outside the outer area of distortion that these cheap binoculars have. observing, there is little local light pollution but the sky is lit with a distant orange glow that is spreading ever upwards as sea mist and thin, high cloud encroaches. Scanning right of the 'spout'... I struggle to detect the Tom Thumb Cluster, so don't log that and instead look for the much bigger M6 - on my radar as Andy mentioned The Butterfly Cluster in his Gran Canaria observings. Sky Safari lists at Mag 4.2 and it is indeed obvious. It is large, bright and scattered with a good smattering of brighter stars. Looks just like planetarium image once zoomed in a bit on the iPad screen! Not sure I can see the shape though...? NGC 6712 Dropping down 1.5 FOVs can also be to the left of M6 is twinned with Ptolemy's Cluster - M11 instead of the M7 . This is bigger smaller M26 to give a different than The Butterfly view! with a bunch of bigger and brighter The Milky Way stretches down to the horizon into set of centrally placed Sagittarius - the whole of The Teapot asterism is well main stars. clear of the trees on a low horizon. The murk is Second attempt for NGC 6451 , aka The Tom Thumb The Lagoon Neb - M8 . Three distinct bright areas Cluster... still could not see, but it is nestled in what plus faint bright area to right... Centre left is the open looks like a small Hercules asterism of stars - I mean by NGC cluster and joined to the right by a close knit that, that there is a bright (lopsided) keystone just clump of a few bright stars. Averted vision extends the nebula into the surrounding star field. Even with it centrally positioned in the FOV, it is hard to not loose concentration and start wondering to view the other nebula within the same view - The Trifid Neb . beneath it's marked location. This keystone even has fainter arms and legs like it's famous namesake extending from each corner. Time 10.40pm Sitting in an low density nebulous area, both Lagoon and Trifid Back to the 'spout'. Up and slightly to the right, nebulas in FOV to the right is Cr 367 . following the 'steam' rising from the boiling teapot (!), Very sparse and completely overwhelmed by it's neighbours. I found it rather difficult to detect over the background stars of the Milky Way. Now positioned directly above the lid of The Teapot asterism! M28 is a faint and compact globular that is underwhelming in the paltry binos, but, to spice up the view both the bright star Kaus Borealis (that forms the top of the lid) and the brighter and slightly bigger (fuzzy blob) globular M22 can be all viewed together! a tad lower than a compact triangle of stars to it's right - I could pick out 5/6 stars in this undesignated 'triangle'. NGC 6618 is the open cluster residing within the famous (Swam or Omega Nebula). The nebula has a brighter lower region with a fainter upper area separated with a thick dark horizontal band of dust. Fainter area to sides and The Trifid Nebula sits above The Lagoon Neb. It is further above with the use of averted vision - smaller and not so bright, but does have a brighter somewhat triangular shaped. core area with thin spidery dark lanes visible with extended viewing. Open cluster M21 appears Eagle Nebula - M16 Not 'attached' to it's nebulous neighbour via 3 stars - looks as bright as the Swan like an extension to nebula but without the 'glow'! sitting below in the same field. This Ooh wow- Sagittarius Star Cloud - M24 , amazing, appears to have a fills 2/3s of field in diagonal slash from 10 to 4 on a more vertical shape clock face - think 'take Double Cluster', dim the main rather than the stars and then evenly spread out over a single FOV horizontal shape of with a background of dim glittering stars sewn The Swan Nebula. Embedded open cluster NGC 6611 held within the bright gaseous region, next to the dark top edge. M 23 Large, scatted and faint open cluster about half way between The Swan and Trifid nebs (and right). Lone bright star to upper right at 2 o'clock position. inbetween... M18 open cluster sitting above Sagittarius Star Cloud and below fuzz of the Swan/Omega Neb . M18 is just Rasalhague is the bright star at the Nebula region off left from star top of Ophiuchus. Down his left Deneb, and the nice large and shoulder are 4 stars in a flattened wide open cluster NGC 6940 V. Here sits IC4665 a lovely, to the right inside the lower fairly bright open cluster. wing of Cygnus The Swan. I go for the Veil Neb - the Eastern portion NGC 6995 . Once finally located the shape is 'obvious'! Large and twisting in a shallow arch. Strange, it's like one of those magic eye Continuing down left side of Ophiuchus (about 1/3 from the shoulder V formation) is M14 . A small and faint globular cluster with no stars resolving. A dog leg of 5 stars (looking like an upside down pipe or golf club), point to it. Two meteors observed at same time. pictures that I always fail at.... you scan and re-scan the The Perseid Meteor shower is upon us! Emanating area.... Miss, re-locate upon star Gienah in the ‘wing’ beneath the W shape of Cassiopeia. Long, slow bright or 52 Cygni to the right, miss again, then it finally trails that appear to hang in the sky after the initial jumps out at you! Even in low powered binoculars the bright burst.... then dissolve. Have seen a few meteors ‘Bridal’ Veil is quite large and I suppose it is partly this flash through the binocular field up to this point. Take that makes it difficult to latch on to..? a few minutes to sit relaxing on a now slightly damp sunlounger (rather than the chair I had been previously using), to just look straight up. Around 1 every minute or so flash by.... Perhaps 10 properly observed over the course of evening.... Although the Teapot is still observable, low lying mist is increasingly obscuring view. The Milky Way is still observable but thin high cloud or is it mist, or a sea moisture layer is impacting contrast. Many stars viewable, but not like you'd expect from such a dark(ish) location - shame. Straight up is better (but a damn pain in the neck with straight through binoculars!) End up enjoy the many clumps of designated and non-designated areas of I take another opportunity to look at the double star Cygnus including the dense Alberio again and The Coathanger.
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