Sucked In By The Sky - Again

Yesterday we had one of our local range fires so I was not expecting to do any observing when I arrived home last night about 10 p.m. With the smell of burned sage and pinion pine in the air I wrote the evening off. So I thought I would set up the 10"Coulter with the plumbing piece focuser in hopes of a early morning before house husband chores Lunar observe with Lunar News Flashes to Mr. Drive By. I went back out at 11:15 and behold we have a clearing! I do a quick Messier Round -Up around the sky with M22,8,20,21,28,11, 29,39,15,27,56. I head over to Cepheus and check out the Garnet Star and IC1396 with it's wonderful triple header struve 2816. Let's knock out some clusters in Cygnus: NGC 6819,6940,6866. OK by this time say 45 minutes I am hooked and I want to keep going. Everything is looking pretty good in spite of the smoke. What is wrong with me - I need to go to bed but I am getting a serious fix. The celestial goose is honking away at me so I must beckon to the call.

So: "TOP TO BOTTOM AND SIDE TO SIDE CONSTELLATION SURVEY TIME" and our host is the constellation of Cygnus. Just what did we see - here's some of it:

• Because of the size of the goose we will cover it in small areas with bright to moderate guide stars. And because of the conditions I'm after star clusters and doubles.
• Needless to say when you explore this bird you are on one of the major arms of the Milky Way - every telescope field is filled with something worthwhile.
  
• I started with ETA CYG and the wonderful cluster NGC 6871. What a joy to behold. It has 2 destinct parts one like a stellar thread weaving it's way across the sky and the other part like a dim clump of stars as a after thought. I spent a good 30 minutes surveying it's treasures of doubles ,triples, and stars of all colors. I could not locate a pic that would do it justice. This cluster is a gem!
  
• Near by was the "Albireo Killer" Struve 394 wonderful orange and blue members.
• Using 34 CYG we head on to a "Cluster Cloister". These are in the picture above with 34 CYG as the glue star that holds it all together! Oh my the hidden treasures of the sky. 34CYG is a pretty yellow variable in which these clusters seem to be revolving around. These clusters are Dolidze 39,40,41, and my main target IC4996 which is 7 o'clock position from 34Cyg in the pic. This cloister kept me occupied for an hour. Check it out folks! All these grouping have something special as they weave their magic into your eyes. More of the goose to come!