May 24th 2024 at 7:30 AM: While Debbie and Sophie were still sleeping…I walked outside to see this amazing early morning rainbow in the west. This was my first time to see a rainbow at this time of the day, as they mostly occur in the afternoon and in the east. However, maybe more frequent than I’d think, as I’m just not looking at that time of the day. And we all know that a rainbow is always opposite the sun: When a rainbow is seen during the afternoon…the sun is in the west.

On the night of May 10th 2024, beginning at about 11:00 PM and lasting a couple or more hours. The northern lights enveloped the entire northeastern part of sky with a brilliant red color from my suburban backyard . The Aurora Borealis is rarely seen this far south at a latitude of +35 degrees 15 mins. north latitude.

However, this is not the first time I’d seen the Northern Lights from my backyard.

In February 1978, I walked outside at about 10:00 PM to see the most incredible sight. The “entire northern sky” was ablaze with reds and greens. And as described so often in astronomy and science publications, the colors were moving….similar to that of a large curtain waving in a breeze.

I thought everyone would be talking about this “absolutely incredible” aurora the next day, however, I didn’t hear of anyone else seeing it….locally or regionally.

Three nights in April 2000:

I saw the aurora again from my backyard at the same +35º 15′ N latitude. Again, very far south to see the aurora.

The following photos were made on the night of May 10th 2024, beginning at 11:30 and shortly after midnight. I was using an iPhone 14 with 3-second exposures, and being handheld.

Photos of aurora using an iPhone 14 (hand-held) on the night of October 10th 2024 as following:

The following photo of the aurora display with the Andromeda Galaxy (the tiny blur near the center of the photo) which is right of the constellation of Cassiopeia. Light pollution is severe in this area of the sky, which reduced the contrast of the aurora significantly.

After a couple unsuccessful observing sessions during the summer of 2024, I was anxious to try again in the early morning hours of 2025, with cold temperatures and more transparent skies.

March 26th 2024:

4:15 AM: I began with a magnification of 104x and field motion…then moving the galaxy out of the field, and then letting it drift back. Increasing the magnification to 291x, but the view was no better, and the galaxy appearing as only an intermittent blur and less than 50% of the time.

I attempted two very early morning observing sessions in March and April of 2024 from my suburban backyard, but again without success. A dark site is really needed to observe any low-surface-brightness galaxy, especially one as dim and faint as NGC 6118.

However, traveling to a dark-site has been over for many years. The disassembly of a heavy equatorial mount and handling a large solid-tube Newtonian, loading, driving, unloading, reassembly, and then having to do it all again, became just too much. I will just continue to do my best from the backyard.

I just couldn’t forget about this galaxy, and wanted to give it another try.

Saturday morning: May 11th 2024 @ 1:00 AM with a 5.0 NELM overhead, but about 4.0 in the area of the galaxy.

The following cellphone photo is from that night and beside my telescope. Note the constellation Scorpius toward the right lower corner. Now see the brighter pair of stars, almost in the center of the photo, above or north of Scorpius.

The most northern star, is known as “Yed Prior” at mag. 2.7. The second star toward the south or closest to Scorpius is “Yed Posterior” at mag. 3.2. Now move your telescope slightly to the NE of “Yed Prior” and use your star atlas to dead center, where NGC 6118 should be.

If you are a visual observer and observing from a suburban backyard, I wish you luck.

Telescope: 10-inch f/4.5 EQ Newtonian observing notes:

Description: A tiny and subtle brighter middle, which resembles that of a planetary nebula. And like so many planetary nebulae, when using direct vision, vanishes or winks out. The galaxy has a very faint and diffuse irregular halo, which is oriented NE-SW. After my many observing sessions of NGC 6118, it’s easy to understand why its named “The Blinking Galaxy.”