The Milky Way was even visible.  I added two observations to the Binocular Messier list–8 to go!

Again, I fought the annoyance of car headlights (kind of like Chinese water torture…you never know when the next headlight will intrude on your observing) and observed in Sagittarius in my front yard.  Sagittarius is one of the best constellations for Messier objects.  Unfortunately, it is hard to observe from my house because it never [...]

I went out again–instead of specifically looking for Perseids, I got a few Binocular Messiers.  Specifically, I observed M16, M17, M18, M24, and M25.  This brings my total up to 35 out of a needed 50.  Sagittarius, as can be seen, is a great place to find Messier objects.  However, it’s challenging too as Sagittarius [...]

I went out hoping to see the Perseids meteor shower, but after half an hour of watching Cassiopeia and Perseus in light-polluted and moonlit skies and seeing nothing, I decided to try for another Binocular Messier object.  I first looked for M33, but failed to find it in the haze (it was partly cloudy).  But [...]

Here are two new telescopic sketches, of the Perseus Double Cluster, and the North America Nebula. They were both done at the star party.

I could see the Milky Way in Cygnus (near the zenith) at 1:30am last night–that is rare for south Bowie.
I posed some new observations:
Before Midnight
After Midnight

See http://astrosketches.info/blog/?page_id=42, or click “Observations” on the sidebar. The menu divides obervations into categories, and now only new-style observations are shown. After each observation category is the number of observations in that category.

Tonight, it was predicted to be a good observing night. In reality, it was a bit hazy in Bowie, but I still sketched M15 (that’s #27 out of 50 for my Binocular Messier Certificate I am trying for). It is a globular cluster about 33,600 light years away, 175 light years in diameter, [...]