Telescope Reviews: finally, an excellent night on the East Coast!

I had a great night last night. I met two observing buddies, one with a brand new Takahashi 5inch Apo, and an excellent set of eyes, and another with a 10 inch orion dob, I also use a 10 inch orion dob. Seeing was poor at first but it
improved, bugs were mild, and not a drop of dew, even on the orion tube. I
observed the moon while it was still day time, and as it began to get dark We
both observed Xi Sco, a pretty quadruple. Then, The Box Nebula in Oph, Noticeably
box like , it was somewhat difficult because of how low it was, it's right next
to a star.

Then I did the little ghost nebula. its small, shaped similarly to the ring nebula.

Nearby, is globular NGC 6401, it appeared small and I believe all i could see
was the core because sky tools shows it as larger. in the same field is B82,

I could see the "tweedle dee" and "tweedle dum" clusters, as o'meara named them,
naked eye. and in the Scutum Star Cloud, I discovered the Globular cluster NGC
6712, it was interesting how the core was somewhat triangular. This cluster is
rewarding because in my 1 degree field eyepiece there is an IC planetary also
visible with the aid of an OIII, IC 1295.

I attempted, and possibly glimpsed the Bug Nebula, then I did the GREEN not BLUE
racquetball.
Then, T Lyrae, a blood red carbon star, Carbon stars are eerie because of the
way they compare to other stars in the field. I did 4 open clusters in Cygnus
and Aquila. Then I Decided to hunt Planetaries again.

NGC 6804, was visible only with an OIII, it had a shape similar to the Ring
nebula.
and NGC 6852, also visible with an OIII and tough to pick out, requires
150-200x.

I did the Veil unfiltered, the North American, and M27, as well as revisiting
M11, since its been so long that I'd forgotten how to find it. It's awesome the
way the Wild Duck Sprays the whole FOV with stars at 57x.

one of the highlights and final objects of the night was the caldwell galaxy on
the border of cygnus and cepheus. NGC 6946, its face on, and next to a
triangular asterism, also there is an NGC open cluster that will fit in the same
field. I thought for sure that this would not be visible in the 5 inch. But he was
able to pick it out, and I could see it was well, fairly easy, because I knew
where to look.

At about 1 we packed up and went home. By the time I made it home the sky was
looking cloudy.

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Orion Skyquest XT10i w/telrad
21mm Hyperion
8mm hyperion
7mm Ortho
13mm Nagler
35 Panoptic.

Messier objects observed this year:109
caldwell objects observed this year:58
Herschel 400 objects this year: 25
Comets observed: 3
Asteroids and Planets:7
Supernovae:1