September Meeting

On arrival at Pedros at 7:00 PM the sky was quite cloudy, The moon was almost hidden, and although Mercury was predicted to be visible too there was little chance of seeing it. Along with the mosquetos it didnt promise a good evening.

However a few human visitors did arrive and increase the local population.

Jupiter came visible now a striking object as the sky to the South cleared rapidly.
As Nicks newsletter promised, Sagittarius and Scorpio were clearly visible.


A mini Messier hunt then started, looking at


M6 The Butterfly Cluster and M7 Ptolemys Cluster
These are two open clusters located just North of Shula, one of the two stars in Scorpios Tail)

M8 ( The famous Lagoon Nebula)
Discovered by Luck, the open cluster NGC 6530 helped us to indentify M8s nebulosity. Its terms of the teapot anaology it is meant to be where the steam would appear ut of the teapot.

M22 and M28 two Globular Clusters near Kaus Borealis
These are a striking pair of clusters, M28 is particulary a small fuzzy object! Its "teapot" location is not in the sky manuals and books in the way I described it on the night but I chose to describe its location as "top of the pot" ! It will help me in future anyway.

M28 is a mere 15,000 light years away. M22 is much nearer only 10,000 light years but it can be seen as individual stars



The nebula were more difficult to find than normal as the telecopes Telrad Finders' battery had gone flat.

Finally Alberio in Cynus is of course a lovely double star to finish off with.

At the end of the evening eyes looked towards rising Andromeda, but there was too much haze in the North East

Next month will prove the start of a new era. The Castles restuarant is now the new "Reids at Pedros" , Im not sure of the impact a local "bar" will have on the meetings, we shall see!!

August Viewings

Unfortunately bad weather caused the months meeting to be canceled, although on this occasion Nick and George turned up to a 100 percent cloudy sky, it had been perfectly clear only half an hour before.

Otherwise the weather has been somewhat mixed, both Hurricanes Dean and Felix were a major influence! Being a relative new comer to the Island, it certainly seems to me that there is a period of exceptional clear weather before the approach of a tropical storm, not that there is a moment to relax and enjoy it. Both a lunar eclipse and the Perseid s passed me by due to cloudy weather, unless anyone else had better luck