The “Summer Triangle” is a once-seen-never-forgotten asterism and is very easy to pick out at the moment.  I attempted a wide-angle image on Sunday night, which featured in the Observing Evening presentation after some quick processing.

Wide-angle astrophotos need a very different approach to processing, especially with light pollution that catches the moisture in the air and casts a colour gradient across the image.  Here is the more carefully processed version.

As well as the three stars making up the Summer Triangle, (clockwise Deneb in Cygnus, Vega in Lyra and Altair in Aquila), against the background of the Milky Way, you can pick out the smaller constellations of Delphinus and Sagitta, together with the “Coathanger” asterism – which looks spectacular through the telescope.

Well that was a bit of a mixed bag – low attendance probably caused by the disastrous change in the forecast when we gathered earlier in the week, but a real opportunity for a constellation safari and a Messier-hopping adventure with a very small group.

By the time I packed up at midnight, I’d got Globular Clusters M13, M71 and M56, M27 “The Dumbell Nebula”, M57 “The Ring Nebula”, M97 “The Owl Nebula”, Open Clusters M29 and M39, Galaxies M31 & M33, M81 & M82, The Coathanger asterism, NGC7789 “Caroline’s Rose”, NGC869 & NGC884 “The Perseus Double Cluster” and M45 “The Pleiades”.  Not bad for a modest 4.5-inch refractor.

M16 was a bit too low to be clear, Open Clusters M26 and M11 were hard to define.  I couldn’t be sure of Uranus or Nepune.  Maybe next month!

Simon