Waiting for a clear sky

 At 9 pm on Sunday night the sky was still clouded over.  However, an excellent forecasting tool for stargazers, Astrospheric, predicted that there would be an hour or so of clear sky beginning around 11 pm.  I waited.  The prediction was correct.

The following images were obtained with an Olympus E-M1iii camera, Olympus 45mm f/1.8 and Laowa 7.5mm f/2 lenses, and an Olympus E-M5iii camera with a Rokinon 135mm f/2 lens.  A Hoya Softon filter was used with the 45mm lens, and a Hoya Sparkle-6 filter with the 7.5mm lens.  The 135mm lens was unfiltered.

 

The northern Milky Way rises through clouds and green airglow above the distant La Garita mountains.  Laowa 7.5mm.

In the image above, the W-shaped asterism of Cassiopeia is centered.  To its right is the fuzzy oblong shape of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).  To its left, halfway to the edge, is the North Star, Polaris.  Above it, along the left edge of the Milky Way is the constellation Cepheus and the distinctive red "Garnet Star".

Cassiopeia.  Olympus 45mm.

 

Mu Cephei, the "Garnet Star".  Rokinon 135mm.

The Andromeda Galaxy, M31.  Rokinon 135mm.

The measured sky brightness was sqml=21.5, but the humidity was high and I suspect some patches of thin cloud were acting as a natural diffusion filter for the 135mm images, hence the blue glow around the bright star (Nu Andromedae) in the above image.

Saturn rising above Snowshoe Mountain.  Olympus 45mm.

 

Neptune is currently about 1.5 deg from Saturn. Rokinon 135mm.

Two of Saturn's moons were captured: Titan (T) and Iapetus (I)

Delphinus (upper left), and Altair (right).  Olympus 45mm.

One of the points of light in the image above is the asteroid (2) Pallas.  Pallas was the second asteroid discovered, in 1802, and was at one time considered to be a new planet.  That was before the true nature of asteroids was understood.

 

Delphinus and Pallas (circled).

Sagittarius.  Olympus 45mm.