On a night with a near fullmoon, when planetary nebulaes and galaxies are an impossible mission, brighter open clusters such as the M103 are still sparkling vividly in the eyepiece. The OC that's 6' in diameter can be located near the Delta Cas, especially spectacular on low magnification. In its neighborhood one may find such other interesting clusters like the Trumpler 1, the NGC 663 or the NGC 659, all of which worth a look even from light-polluted places.

This observation and sketch was made on an early dawn hour in the Kiskun Astro Camp near the village of Jászszentlászló, Hungary. As the Sun was already approaching the southern horizon, the NELM was getting worse at a high rate. Therefore I've decided to sketch something easy that's made of many bright stars. Out of a sudden I've picked the famous Double Cluster, which turned out to be a paint to sketch with their plenty of bright stars. So, I was racing with the Sun, as the Venus was already high above the horizon. Under country skies, this pair of open clusters can be seen to the naked eye as a small fuzzy spot near the easily recognizable W-shape of the constellation Cassiopeia. It's one of the most remarkable objects of the Northern Hemisphere, so I can't really imagine why it was not included in the famous catalogue of Messier. From my home country it is a circumpolar object, so it can be seen through the entire year. It's so easy, that it cen be resolved with the smallest telescopes or binoculars, therefore an great catch for everyone. SQM reading: 20.91 m/arcsec^2, 9°C.

This galaxy, also know as Mirach's ghost, not surprisingly is located near the bright star Mirach of the constellation Andromeda. Some have reported difficulties seeing this object, because although it's fairly bright, the glowing of the nearby Mirach easily outshines it. For me, it was visible easily from the start, but after I've increased the magnification to 250x, I was finally able to examine the structure of the galaxy without Mirach in the FoV. You may need eyepieces with good anti-glare coating to disturbing light rays. The galaxy itself is very small, round, with some suspectedly brighter details at its Northern corner, albeit this may be the result of an optical error only. SQM reading: 21.0 m/arcsec², 9°C.