This is a mosaic of the full Veil nebula, about 1.5 x 4.5x FoV, done in almost 2 hours, completely finished at the eyepiece including the star-field.

Nice, almost equally bright standard pair. Both is white with the main component having a light touch of yellow. Separation: 3.2", PA: 345°. A: 8.5m, B: 8.6m. SQM reading: 21.24 m/arcsec², 20°C.

Equally bright, extremely close double star. Both component is white with a separation of only 0.9" and PA of 350°. SQM 21.24 m/arcsec², 20°C.

Splits very nicely, although at 71 it displays no signs of being a binary, but at 250x it splits with a thin slit, however the component B is sometimes still covered by the diffraction spike of component A (to the SE). At 375x this very close binary splits nicely. It shows large difference in brightness. Both is white with A a bit yellowish while B very lightly bluish. I estimate A being 6.5m bright and B 10m. Note that catalogues list B as 7.7m, but I belive visually it's MUCH fainter than that! The estimated separation is 2" with a PA of 295°. SQM reading: 21.19 m/arcsec², 24°C, windy.

Slightly different close pair. I estimate component A (to the NW) to be 7m bright with B being about 8.5 magnitudes. Both components are white, A with a touch of blue. The estimated separation is 1.2", position angle (PA) being 125°. SQM reading: 21.2 m/arcsec², 22°C.

This crater catched my attention because of its weird potato shape. Being near the terminator, half the crater is in a shadow, but it shows plenty of little details especially at 375x : small domes and mountains scattered inside. Below the crater you can see two rimae originated from the nearby crater Goclenius. A spectacular view!

Fairly bright comet, with a tail to the SSE and a tiny sharp extension to the S. The sketch displays the comet's position at the beginning of the observation while the crosshairs define the position about 45 minutes later when I finished the sketch. SQM: 21.42, 13°C, bit humid.

Today was the Summer solstice, so it's not surprising that even at 11pm the Western horizon is still shining in bluish colour, however at East the hazy patch of the Summer Milkyway is already easily noticeable. The spiral structure of the M51 is readily visible at 71x, surprisingly easy and so is the supernova SN2011dh, which I estimate to be at 12.3m and is located in the middle of a large outer spiral arm towards ESE from the galactic core. At such a high brightness this supernova is possibly one of the brightest for this year, at a very easy position for Northern hemisphere observers also with much smaller scopes.

A surprisingly excellent seeing calls for a high-magnification study. As Saturn is just below my horizon, I decide to pick a rather complicated structure: the irregular Cigar galaxy of the UMa constellation. Thanks to the 300x power, the FoV is coal black, the galaxy is so bright that it actually ruins my dark adaptation, faint stars sparkling at the edge of averted vision visibility. Too bad, that the galaxy itself is located on a rather light polluted part of my sky, but it still shows plenty of structures. During the observation, I had my second magneto-acoustic meteor experience in my life: this is the phenomenon when you actually hear a swishing or crackling sound at the same time the meteor flares in the atmosphere. The common part in both cases were that I was standing VERY close to a wire mesh fence, and a <0 mag meteor in the zenith, with a definite ionized tail.

Two bright but small galaxies are visible in the exepiece. Although the catalogues say that the face-on NGC 3738 is is almost 1 magnitude brighter than the nearly edge-on NGC 3756, visually the later one is clearly a lot brighter. The NGC 3738 is barely brightening near its core, and shows no star-like nucleus. The oval shaped NGC 3756 is almost perfectly even in brightness, displays no brighter parts. I notice that it's a bit asymmetric, the Western side of the ellipse is a bit flatter. SQM reading: 21.19,/arcsec², 0°C (guess we're having a negative temperature record, where's the global warming?).

My original plan was to observe the supernova SN 2011by, the newest celebrity in the stellar world. However, as it is located in an area full of spectacular galaxies, I decided to sketch the galactic neighborhood too. The supernova itself is very bright, even brighter than what I expected, and compared to the nearby stars, I estimate a brightness of abour 13.2m! It is by far brighter than the surface of the parent galaxy, NGC 3972. The two large face-on galaxies (3998 and 3982) are the brightest in the FoV, the tiny 3990 is only slightly fainter than these, The 3972 is however very faint, and I cannot detect the nearby 3977 at all. Perhaps I should try again on a night with better seeing. SQM: 21.12m/arcsec², 2°C.

Nice round galaxy, that is a bit faint, but shows some brighter details (which are in fact parts of its spiral arms) around its tiny star-like core. A bit though object, but located in a relatively easy position with some brighter stars nearby. SQM reading: 21.15m/arcsec², 5°C, extremely humid: by the time I finish this sketch, I can only barely see the Big Dipper anymore.

A tiny edge-on galaxy with a fake offcentre star-like core. It's fake, because it is actually a foreground star located in our own galaxy, that looks exactly in that direction. I was very surprised when I first noticed that this galaxy has its core out of its geometrical centre, but later studies revealed the answer for this phenomenon. This little gem is located in a very sparse stellar environment which makes it an extremely difficult target. SQM reading: 21.23m/arcsec², 5°C, very humid.

Large, spectacular galaxy. Perfectly round, shows no sign of a star-like core, although its central region is a bit brighter. It's very faint, but I can observe some brighter details around the core. By checking out photographs today, it's now obvious that these spots are parts of a spiral structure. SQM reading: 21.20m/arcsec², 5°C, very humid.

Tiny, almond shaped galaxy with a star-like core that has a brightness of about 13m, around this core a brighter oval central bulge is also visible. The galaxy is elongated in the N-S direction, at a ratio of about 1:5. SQM reading: 20.96m/arcsec², 6°C, humid air - as it was raining all day yesterday.