The stars are beautiful! First light with the new mount went to Albireo---what a sight! Wow! It reminded me of why I started exploring the night sky in the first place. Tonight's list included Epsilon Lyrae (a stunner at 120x); Struve 2474 and 2470, also in Lyra (stunning at 60x); M7 (an amazing sight at 17x and always one of my favorite clusters); and M4 (dim and boring, even though close for a globular cluster at 7,200 light years).
Two objects stood out above all others tonight, though. One was M80. It is often overlooked because of the much larger M4 to the south, but M80's core is brighter than M4's, and that makes it a more dramatic scene. Even more dramatic than that is NGC 6441. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't looked yet! It sits just next to G Scorpii, a third magnitude star just south of M7. The contrast of the bright star and the ghostly globular is stunning. Wow!
Astronomy and astrophotography by Val Ricks for the love of the sky and its Creator. For a better view, toggle F11 and turn off the lights.
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