After months of twilight, at last on the 14th August it was dark enough to give a reasonable length of observing AND a forecast of clear skies.   As I set up the telelscope at around 23:00 BST the cloud was beginning to break revealing the familar summer constellations.  Chocky the cat came around meowing her approval of the new season before going off on patrol.  She checked in every 10 minutes or so to let me know everything was OK.   There was a 13 day old moon, which would normally wash out deep sky observing.  However I am now armed with my new weapon against moonlight - an OIII filter!     I decided to try this out on the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) in Cygnus.  I was able to detect the edge and shape quite easily despite the light sky.  I wanted to see the effect of this filter on a photo so I rigged up the DSI with a 50mm lens.   I was ready for taking loads of photos for the next few hours when the clouds appeared again!   I got one image of the sky around Sadr (Cygnus) before I was clouded out just before midnight.  Chocky saw no reason to come in just because it was now cloudy, and decide to stay outside, (almost certainly there was a mouse in the shrubbery), but I went to bed.

Still, I am pleased with the new filter and the season has only just started.

Here is my solitary image.   (I think I detect traces of the 'Gamma Cygni Nebula' at the bottom right)

It's good to have you back in action, Aratus.  I look forward to seeing many more observing reports over the comming months.  I think you did capture a bit of the nebulosity in your photo.  In fact there seems to be hints of it on much of the right side of the picture.

Now that the Ides of August is here I too am thinking about earlier evenings and the splendour of Autumn to come.  Still a bit off but the anticipation is growing.

Good to see you outside again. 

L

Checking the with a star map reveals those faint wisps to be part of the Gamma Cygni Nebula.  Also that tiny circular nebulosity on the far right hand corner seems to be the 'Crescent Nebula'. (NGC 6888.)   I intend to give that some further observation in the future. 

Anyone familiar with the 'Crescent Nebula' ?

I've observed NGC 6888 many times.  The eyepiece view of this object reminds me a great deal of a human earlobe.  In fact, a lesser known nickname for this object is Van Gough's Ear.

NGC 6888 is what is known as a Wolf-Rayet bubble.  WR 136 (HD 192163), an extremely hot Wolf-Rayet star that may go supernova within a million years or so, is expelling gas at a ferocious rate, resulting in a shell-like shape.  The Crescent Nebula is about 20 arc minutes in size and is approximately 4700 light years from Earth.

http://www.astrosurf.com/jwisn/ngc6888.htm

Bill Ferris has reported seeing NGC 6888 with a 50mm finder scope.

http://faintfuzzies.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-can-you-see-with-finderscope.html

Dave Mitsky

Thank you for that information Dave.

It certainly merits further observation.  I'll have to see if I can get a closer image of it.

I'll be on the look out for further examples of these 'Wolf-Rayet' stars. 

Two other examples of WR stars lie in the well know Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) and Thor's Helmet (NGC2359).

Thanks Zachsdad!    There's always something new to learn in this hobby.

My weather has kept me indoors for a while and I'm itching to get out there!!