19th December 2025 @ Nebo Farm

This would be my first viewing session I had since I got back from my five week stay in Namibia (got home on the 3rd of December) showing guests at a lodge I stayed at, the delights of the night sky of the southern hemisphere.

I could not go out before as the skies had been very cloudy or the phase of the moon was on the bright side or just too busy to have the free time plus a short trip to Devon for the wife’s birthday did not help! I did send out a call for fellow members but no one could take up my offer this evening. After getting the ok from Phil at Nebo farm, I had my Meade LX90 set up and ready by 19:38, as usual I would be using a Pentax XW 14 mm eye piece. The temperature was 5 °C which by recent standards was very cold, I had been used to doing any viewing with temperatures above 20 °C, shorts and a tee shirt was the order of the day but not today, full winter clothing was required! There was some wind to keep me company which knocked the feeling down a degree or two but there was no clouds in the sky but was due some later in the evening? The guide stars were Vega and Capella.

While I was setting up, a DHL delivery van went past me to the farm and a few minutes later past me again, lucky for me my eyes had not got use to the dark yet, having any vehicles go past me is very rare, normally I have the place to myself. With the van gone I decided I would hunt the planets first before going onto deep sky objects. First planet was Saturn one of the two gas giant’s, I could make out the moon Titan out to the east of Saturn but no other moons (could see at least another two in Namibia), Saturn looked a bit dim which I put down to the light pollution we have in this country, it came in with a magnitude (Mag) of 0.9, close by is the ice giant of Neptune with a Mag of 7.8 (well beyond naked eye limits of around 6.0), this planet was dim to look at and no real colour to it. Off to Uranus the other ice giant planet, this was much brighter at a Mag of 5.6 but showed no colour. Jupiter was the final planet for the evening and by far the brightness object in the sky at the moment coming in with a Mag of – 2.7, this is the other gas giant in the solar system. I could see two moons out to the east of Jupiter, close to the planet was Europa and a long way out was Calisto, to the other side very close together was Io and Ganymede, the Red Spot was not on view at this time. Now onto deep sky objects, I thought I would start with some summer objects as they were well out to the west and would not be seen for a few months into 2026. First object was Messier (M) 27, the Dumbbell nebula. This was the first planetary nebula (PN) to be discovered, this was a large grey blob to view, which it also looks like an apple core. This was in Vulpecula, just above is the constellation of Cygnus and the open cluster (OC) of M 29, the Cooling Tower cluster, this cluster was dim to look at. Still in Cygnus is another OC and M 39, a very large but sparse cluster with some bright stars within the group. Back to PN’s and M 57, the Ring nebula in Lyra, just a dim circle in the eye piece. Not far away is M 56, a globular cluster (GC), this was a faint fuzzy blob (FFB) to look at, being only 18 degrees above the horizon would not help looking at this cluster? Onto Pegasus and M 15, normally a fine GC to look at, I could make out a bright core but no stars on the edge. This GC seem to be in the wrong place but then I remembers, the last time I saw it I was in the southern hemisphere, so a lot of objects would appear to be in the wrong place (upside down), takes a way to adjust to the correct hemisphere!