Tag: messier list

Observing Session: 8, June

Despite all the wonderful weather of the last week, most nights have not been good for astronomy. The  cloud rolling in after the Sun goes down, being the usual culprit. Tonight was different. Perfect conditions. No wind, excellent transparency and very stable seeing.At this time of year, bagging those objects in Sagittarius is at the very top of of my list. The only problem is that it’s rising behind four trees. Apart from a…


So what's this Observational Malarky all about then?

Since the Observatory went back online earlier this year, I’ve had a few months to start working my way through the Messier Objects. While there are literally hundreds of observer lists to choose from, the Messier list is probably the best known and it seems to me to be a good starting point from which to launch an observing programme While I’ve been into astronomy since early 2000 and steered my interest toward astronomical…