Tuesday, 23 April 2019

Three More Clusters

31 August 2018, 22:00 – 23:00 BST

Just time to get in an hour of observing before the moonlight interferes.

Mars
240x (Nagler 5mm). Dust slowly clearing, hint of dark markings, polar cap very bright – like a sliver of fluorescent light.

NGC 6940, open cluster in Vulpecula
Best views at 50x (24mm Panoptic): an impressive sprinkling of stars with what looked like a central ribbon of brighter stars defining the long axis. Overall its shape vaguely resembled a tadpole or a deflating balloon on a string.

NGC 7063, open cluster in Cygnus
Loose, sparse gathering of bright stars – better suited to a wide-field refractor.

M15, globular cluster in Pegasus
The faintest stars were washed out by light from the rising moon, but it still looked impressive, particularly with averted vision.

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