June Report

[Guest]

Not the greatest month but I caught the solar eclipse and managed a few other shots (mostly Sun and Moon):

 

http://sungazer127mak.blogspot.com/2021/06/june-2021.html

[Nightspore]

This June I’ve had ten sessions, twice the amount compared to last June (61 sessions in total this year). The seeing and transparency haven’t been brilliant though and all of this month’s sessions have been with small, easily set-up grab and go scopes. On the 1st, 6th and 7th I got my ST80 out. I ended up mainly splitting doubles although a low Coma Berenices was still fairly impressive early in the month.

 

 

Scorpio as a whole and Antares are low for me but I did get to view M4 and M19 a couple of times. The tip of the Scorpion’s Claw contains two of my favourite doubles. Beta Scorpii (Graffias/Acrab) is quite beautiful and easily separated with small apertures. I see the primary as a bright white and the secondary a pale lilac colour. Nearby is Nu Scorpii which is apparently a quintuple system about 430 light years away.

 

 

I only got my 60 EDF out once in June, on the 4th, but I had a great night culminating with witnessing an Io transit.

 

 

In June I finally found a way to transport my 72 ED DS Pro out in one journey with the AZ5. As the Summer Triangle has been steadily rising I’ve been spending a lot of time there. I’d forgotten how many great doubles are in and around the Triangle, particularly Struve 2470/74; the ‘other’ Double Double. The 72 ED has been out five times in June. I only use it with 1.25” accessories. On the 13th I’m pretty sure I saw the ‘Nova Her 2021’ in Hercules with it. I also got a view of the Western Veil Nebula culminating with seeing Jupiter and the GRS. On the 22nd I managed IC 4665 aka the ‘Summer Beehive’. I hadn’t seen it this year.

 

 

The final session on the 30th was with my 102mm SkyMax.

 

 

This was an early morning Saturn, Jupiter and Moon session for about an hour. As the seeing wasn't very good, let alone the dodgy transparency, I decided to take the biggest aperture I could carry easily in one journey. I only used orthoscopic (BCO, KK, Circle-T) eyepieces for maximum transmission and contrast. Well, that, and they're light.