I had a mini star party on my sidewalk last night and invited some friends over.  Saturn was a big hit, so were Jupiter and the Moon.  There were some interesting atmospheric things going on, Mars looked like it had a shock wave in front of it, and Jupiter was very distored about the edge.  (I couldn't stay up long enough to see it overhead, so I just made due with what I could get)

I saw 3 galaxies M81, M82, and M51 (so cool)

A few open clusters (M11 was the most popular).

But the highlight of the evening - the globular clusters.  Omega Centauri is hard to see through so much atmosphere, but it sure is cool.  The most popular globular was M13.

OH and I saw some nebula that I didn't expect to see M20 and M8.

Dark skies and happy observing!

Tina

Nice report Tina -  always fun to share our favorite sights with family and friends.

George

Thanks for sharing Tina. I had planned an outing with my new neighbors too, but something came up both Friday, and Saturday nights. I wasn't able to drag out any of the telescopes, but I was able to spend a little time with them Saturday night, helping them orient themselves with the night sky. I pointed out all the constellations that were visible at the time, and of course they were already familiar with the Big Dipper. I also pointed out Mars, Saturn, the locations of where we would see M81, M82, M101, M51, M63, and M104; had we been able to get out the telescope. They asked me about a few of the bright stars, which I named for them, and just before calling it an evening, my neighbor asked about the bright star that was rising toward the south. Of course, with a big grin, I told them that the bright star (just visible behind the top edge of the tree line) was Jupiter.

Sounds like a great time was had by all.

Thanks for sharing,

L