Hi All;
Got that clear night finally.I was out from 10:00 to 2:30. I already posted the report on Comet Linear. The sky was clear till about 1:30 with a 97% moon rising about 10:30. The moon stayed in the trees most of the night. Here's what I saw before that. For those who don't know I'm using a 12" LX200. I started with many of the usual Messiers. M13 was outstanding directly overhead. Stars resolving right to the center. The longer you look the more stars appear. M92 is beautiful. Very dense in the center with a few stars flying around the edge. Very bright item. Next in Her is NGC6229 a small globular. I love this object. It's small but it looks like someone dropped a spot of baby powder. The center is very bright with a powdery resolution extending far from the center. The Ring Nebula M57 was great as always. In the 14MM Ultra Wide eyepiece at 214x with the Ultra Block filter, the background was very dark, the Ring very bright. You start to see Dark filament like details in the ring. It looks almost like several rings on top of each other. The Dumbell Nebula M27 was also outstanding with the filter. Two big lobes pinching in the center. The other edges are still round not sharp triangular points like the pictures. This item really dramatizes how good the filter is. I took it off and looked again, big difference! It becomes more of a big blurr, details as just mentioned are very hard to see. During the course of the night I saw M11 and M17 through a small clearing in the trees. M11 is spectacular. Maybe hundreds of stars resolving in a open cluster that was once thought to be a globular. M17 the Omega Nebula was disappointing, but then again 97% moon answers that. NGC5614 is an 11.7 mag, galaxy in Boo. Real nice, looks kind of like M104 with the flat top. NGC5557 also a gal. in Boo, mag. 11.1 is small, dia. 2.4 with a real bright center, excellent! Mars was a disappointment, hugh globe but just boiling on the edge, can't get a good focus at all. So don't be blaming your equipment if you can't get a good image either. I have to spen some time with NGC4725 a 9.2 mag. gal. in Coma. It's a big hazy area with a bright center. Something is going on in the center, details I can't make out. I'll have to look for a picture to try to define what I'm looking at. NGC5866 a 10th mag. gal in Draco is getting to ba a favorite of mine, Very bright oblong shape sitting between 2 stars. NGC5985 an 11the mag gal in Draco also has some details going on in the center. Nice bright item. NGC6058 is a PN in HER 13th mag. dia 24". It surprisingly easy to see for a 13th mag. These were some of the items I've seen recently and will keep revisiting. Here are the new items I saw for the first time.

NGC5962 - gal. Ser Cap, mag. 11.4, dia 2.8 a faint smudge that brightens as you look. a spot in the center kind of elongated.

NGC5653 - gal. Boo mag. 12.2, dia 1.8 a round smudge seen with averted vision only, keep in mind 97% moon.

NGC5879 - gal. Draco mag. 11.5, dia 4.4, I just love these edge on's. This one is small but beautiful as a very visible dim streak.

NGC5987 - gal. Draco mag. 13.0, dia. 4.7, just visible as a blurr with averted vision.

The item of the night was of course Comet Linear but that's another topic. The other item of the night was;

NGC5907 - gal. Draco mag. 10.4, dia 12.3. Oh man! Huge object. Very hard to see at first. It's much dimmer than the mag 10.4 would suggest. Took a few minutes to see but when it jumped up at me, I was totally impressed. I was using the Panoptic 22MM at 138x and this streak of dim light started in the middle of the field and just left the field to the left. I quickly changed to the 40MM super wide at 76x and there it is. The center is brighter and you might think that's all there is, But no, with averted vision thin lines extend far from the brighter center. I went back to this a few times during the night. I even saw it in the 14MM eyepiece. I kept moving the field around with that one, you could see the streak going by, very hard to see without the field moving at that magnification but lots of fun. Can't wait to see this under a dark sky with no moon!

There were few items I couldn't see NGC5899 (maybe), NGC6166, NGC5996, NGC5984, NGC5908, NGC6015. I'll be looking for these again, I don't give easily.

Well that was the show for this weekend. Clear Skies;
That's it;
BOB SAL