A dream came true....

Most of you will probably not see my point at all. Still I want to share last night's experience with you. Awaiting a week with bad weather I was very happy to see that the sky cleared up in the evening, and I brought my scope to a dark site to make use of (hopefully) a couple of hours with good observing conditions. I started out before it was completely dark hoping to have a glimpse of M11 and some other objects in the "difficult" region of the summer sky. I was surprised to notice that several stars in Sagittarius were visible. In fact Sigma Sgr shone quite bright low above the horizon. Such an air transparency in the low sky is quite unusual here, and I decided to check the low sky with binoculars. I immediately noticed two nebulous patches which I figured out possibly could be M16 and M17. Being very exited I pointed the Portaball in the direction of the patches, and a large, bright nebula floated into the field of view. WHAT AN OBJECT! I have been told that M17 is a great nebula, and seen many photos, but the view through the eyepiece exceeded my expectations by far. Applying an O-III filter made out even more of the nebula, and I was overwhelmed by the amount of detail.
I decided to check M16 as well. Without the filter it appeared as a rather loose cluster, but some nebulous haze was obvious. The nebula responded very well to the O-III filter, and in my opinion this nebula is a far better object that e.g. NGC281 which is one of the better ones in the northern sky.
At the time the sky was completely dark, the two neublae had moved out of my range. The night probed to be no better than average for double star observing, but I was very happy when I went home two hours later.

Inge Skauvik
Haavik, Norway

Inge:

If I recall, Inge, at summer's start you were saying goodbye to darkness and musing about taking the scope to the Canaries or somewhere. I think about you (and fellow amateurs at high latitudes) as the nights grow longer and am glad to see this post! Even here, at 40 degrees (I live a few miles north of Baseline Road, named after that parallel) we're planning southern excursions to see more.
Cheers,
Bill Travis

Congratulations Inge,

I think we can all relate to wanting to see something but due to our location we have small windows and everything has to be just right.

I chased The Omega globular cluster this spring. I never could get good Southern exposure, a clear night, and available time. So I missed out this year. At the same time an AM'r from Australia or New Zealand writes in very matter of factly, it's directly overhead right now.

Good for you that you got to see the good stuff on the edge of your viewing windows. It is always a great feeling!

Ed