04/25/2006 More New Objects and Fun Observing

Third report for the night, read the other two below.
I just realized that many of the objects I've been observing are "first-timers" for me. I'm always amazed at how often the night sky is able to continue to surprise me with new and wonderous sights. What a beautiful universe we've been given.
O.K., so it's now about 1:30 a.m., there are some clouds and a bit of general haze but still quite good for observing. The temperature is about 42F, humidity 26%, and the sky quality meter tells me that the background magnitude of the sky is a nice dark 21.57.
I'm now going to work on the "Eye On The Sky" and the TSP Binocular Observing Programs, both of which I started last night. Here's the (continuing) list of what I'm observing:
-NGC 6633 open cluster
-IC 4665 open cluster
-Antares (alpha Sco)
-NGC 6231 (Caldwell 76) open cluster
The Milky Way is looking really excellent right now. A huge star cloud rising with Scorpius. I just noticed that the Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, Altair) has been up for a while. The sky is looking fairly good right now.
-NGC 5986 globular cluster
-M6 Butterfly Cluster NGC 6405
-M7 Ptolemy's Cluster NGC 6475
-M8 Lagoon Nebula NGC 6523
-NGC 6572 planetary nebula - nice aqua color!
-NGC 6124 (Caldwell 75) open cluster
3:30 a.m. - Clouds have crept in along the South and East, they just sort of snuck in along with the Milky Way but they are definitely making their presence known. 10 minutes ago I was commenting on how nice the sky had turned out - guess I spoke to soon.
-M57 Ring Nebula NGC 6720
-NGC 6242 open cluster
-NGC 6268 open cluster
The clouds have now cleared.
-NGC 6281 open cluster
-Cr316-H12 open cluster
-M24 open cluster NGC 6603
-M23 open cluster NGC 6494
-NGC 6723 globular cluster
-NGC 6726 nebula
-NGC 6802 open cluster
-NGC 7000 North American Nebula
-Jupiter
-Uranus
-Thin crescent moon as it rose ~ 6:0 a.m. (this was the last observation I needed to complete the AL's Lunar Club program that I should have finished a year ago. I figured as long as I stayed up all night I might as well get it done).
Brrrrr, it's so cold.only 38F now. But it's been a great observing night overall. I finished up the 25 required observations for the Binocular program. Lots of new objects and a good deal of fun. A few clouds now and then but at least we had no moon to contend with. Including setup and teardown, it was about an 11 hour session. Now I really need to get some sleep!