Telescope Reviews: Nebulae don't show up through clouds!

Last night was the first time we've had a break in the clouds in the evening in a week, so by 10 I was happily seated at my dob and prepared to scan the skies.

I decided to start at M11 (wild duck cluster), and after enjoying that view for a bit, thought I'd wander down and see if I could make out the Eagle nebula under my red-LP skies after spotting it at a dark site last weekend. I star-hopped down in my finderscope, and...nothing. My new filters weren't any help either. Well, I know it's hard to see from here, so I hopped down to look at another favorite, the Omega nebula.

Drifted there in the finder, and I could barely make it out. Wow, LP is worse than I thought! I figured I'd succumbed to the "once you've been to a dark site nothing else comes close" syndrome.

Feeling a little disappointed, I thought I'd go for the Lagoon. That one, at least, is always a great treat to study. I drifted down in the finder, and...missed it. That's odd--it's usually pretty easy to jump there from Omega. I backtracked, tried again, still nothing.

Then I looked up.

A thin cloud layer had parked over the south, and I could barely even make out the teapot asterism, let alone any DSOs in the midst of that!

But, it turned out okay. Clear skies to the north, and I got to spend an evening viewing my favorite way--Pocket Sky Atlas in hand, just hopping from one object to the next: double stars (love those Struves!), PNs, carbon stars, nebula. Worked my way through Draco and Cepheus like that, and have a lot more targets to try next time I'm at a dark site! Later I did a planet round-up, and then just started hopping to favorite DSOs.

I had so much fun, I stayed out 'til 4--today's my day off.

So, clouds put a early damper on my plans, but Sagittarius will be back on the list for next time!

P.S. Dain--I'm posting here as a result of your thread in the reflector forum--thanks for the motivation and encouragement!

--------------------
Tim

Zhumell Z10 dob
Meade 60mm refractor
Zhumell 1.25" eyepiece and filter kit
Zhumell sky-glow, UHC, and OIII filters