ITT: Two really fine nights on Emberger Alm

Friday, September 11, to Sunday, September 13, 2015

On Friday evening there were still some remnant clouds, and the moisture was noticeable on various surfaces. But that soon changed, and
the sky got increasingly better; the second half of the night was excellent, not only the transparency, but also with quite a good seeing. While I
I discerned the face-on galaxy M33 - with the naked eye - initially only with averted vision, I could clearly recognize it directly as a small patch later.
And Haley pointed out that the zodiacal band could be seen, and yes: Around 2:00 A.M. I could also discern a continuous band ranging from Taurus
to Aquarius. And with 300x and 400x we had still really sharp images in the 16-inch telescopes, and in Haley's Dobson Uranus was wandering as a
sharply defined greenish ball through the eyepiece with 400x.

The night became so good that I did not manage to keep up the role as a "tourist" any longer ;-) And I started actively putting in objects in
the telescope as well, especially in Guenters 16" - also for guests strollimg along sporadically. I had taken along my Ethos eyepieces, and
Guenter was very impressed by the 100 degree field view, and intends to acquire at least the 21mm as well. Initially we were active in the
southern Milky Way regions in Sagittarius and Ophiuchus: With the nebulae M8, M20, M17 and M16, and globulars like M22 or dark
nebulae like B86 (plus cluster NGC 6520), the Snake nebula B72 plus neighboring "ink stain" B68.

The classical highlights were all good in the 16": M31 with the dust bands, and M33 with spiral and various knots were excellent, especially
with the 13 mm Ethos (with 140x). While the galaxies NGC 891 - the great "dustband sandwich behind the stars", and NGC 7479 (with spiral
structure) were most appreciated with 200x. And likewise also NGC 7331,with the nearby Stephan's Quintett (all five parts good to be seen),
while the planetary NGC 7008 ("Fetus Nebula") showed really spectacular details with 300x. And Haley showed the planetaries NGC 7009,
NGC 7293 ("The Helix") and NGC 246 ("The Skull") - all with interesting details. And with a high-up Cygnus in good skies the Veil-, North
America- and Crescent nebula were of course observed as well. And in between I also put in the galaxy clusters of the NGC 1275-, NGC 906-
or NGC 507 groups. The supernova "ASASSN-15mc" in UGC 2295 - about 16 mag bright - was near the limit, Haley and I discerned some
pointlike source at times in the right position - with averted vision only of course.

And in between we had the usual chats about everything under the sun, of course reviving stories about the "old times" as well - as parts of a
typical "ITT flair" ;-). The conditions remained excellent till the end of the night, and I went sleeping at around 5:00 CEST; others stayed
active the whole dawn along.

The second night Saturday to Sunday

The second night began even better than the night before, and the conditions were excellent already in the first half. Later it became more moist,
and the sky as a whole - especially in the Southeast - got a somewhat brighter background, and with some clouds coming in as well. So it did not
provide the amount of euphoria I felt the former night, when I observed the whole night despite being a bit ill. Now I went sleeping about 1:00 A.M.

Saturday evening the conditions were great as well

f.l. Michael, Carola, Haley and Guenter (below)

Saturday during the day

Here two images from Martin:

Here four images from Michael:

And summing up ...

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