Friday and a fully clear sky after the hottest day of the year so far. Opened up at 10:00pm, still quite light but gradually darkening. Attending were Rhys and the Bookers. The sky was also hazy and didn't look well, but improved as time passed. We started with Jupiter and on to others round the sky. The Bookers left at 11:00pm leaving Rhys and me on our own.
The haziness precluded nebulae so we concentrated on clusters, but tried and failed with M57 the Ring and M27 the Dumbell. Not enough contrast. Then went on to M51, seen, then M101, failed, then M13, M108, M97, M63, NGC4631 the Whale, M3, M81, M82, M53, M64 and others in the Coma Cluster, then on to Jupiter again and Saturn, followed by M11, M20, M16 and M17. M71 and M56, and a think so attempt at the Veil, and NGC6888. The sky was gradually improving as time went on. Not all in that order though, and there were others that I don't remember.
All in all a very good night indeed, the best for some time. As one says, wish you were there.
There was a problem, two in fact. The first was that the dome's lower shutter panel has a twist in it so the right hand closes to the flush position but the left is left a bit high, so the upper part closed down to the edge of the lower's left part, allowing rain potentially to enter. It just needs the shutter twisting the other way.
The other is more of a problem. The council has changed the street lights to the new LED type. They emit largely white light. We can't filter it out and they have left us with 3 outside that shine very strongly into the domes. All the others seem to be well directed. We'll have to talk to them about them. So unless we can get them to improve these lights we'll have 2 new Moons all night in summer and 3 in winter.
Brian