John

It's a cloudy evening here currently. Forecast to clear from around 1:00 am but I don't think I'll wait around for that.

Enjoy the clear skies, if you have them

2 hours ago, UniDonk said:

What am I looking for? A fuzzy blob? A long whisp? I'm not sure how much I'll be able to see

When I last observed these comets they were both in the "small hazy patch of light slightly more condensed towards the centre" category of target. A low magnification would pick them up as something different to a star but higher magnification helps increase their contrast. No elongated form that I could see visually with these although I'm sure the imagers would do better.

For me, the fascination with 67 Churyumov-Gerasimenko was that we had sent a probe there (Rosetta in 2014) and that the Philae lander lies on the surface of the comet, stuck in a crevice. That makes the small faint patch of light just that much more interesting to observe in my opinion

32 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Ooer! Snap - I was typing out my comments on the same thing as you typed yours!

Well done for finding that image to illustrate the effect. I tried to snap one with my mobile phone but failed to capture those shadows .......

I've just been out again, with my 100mm refractor this time, just because the moon looked so tempting

Messier and Messier A were very close to the terminator and the pair looked rather different in that oblique illumination, inky black within each crater and they cast a weird shadow extending towards the darkened portion of the surface that resembled a pair of pointed horns or ears. I've not seen them looking like that before !. Lots more lovely detail around the terminator of course.

Then finally a quick look at my old friend, the golden double star Algieba in Leo - the first double star that I ever observed with a telescope 

They were quite faint when I saw them last and that was with an 200mm aperture scope. Tonight's moon was bright and on the same side of the sky as the comets so I think they would have been very challenging to see at all with a 130mm.

When the moon is out of the way, you will have a better chance to spot them.

If the OP comes back with a budget of a couple of hundred £ we might have to have a rethink !

7 minutes ago, mdstuart said:

John

Tegmine splits just with the 4.7mm eyepiece. Nice triple star. Dark sky visible in between the stats.

Seeing is much better tonight now the jet stream has moved.

Mark

Just going to try that one with the 12 inch Mark. Should get it, I hope !

Good seeing again tonight. Got my 12 inch dob out - first target is 7 Tauri the close pair of which is a .77 arc second split. Got them at 338x. Nice

Transparency is not that good as others have said. Should have some fun all the same

Good seeing tonight. I split 7 Tauri with my 12 inch dobsonian quite clearly using 338x (Ethos SX 4.7mm). Very pleasing looking system with the 10th magnitude star a little further from the very close pair.

I don't manage sub-arc second splits that often and this is one of the nicest I've done

1 hour ago, Starslayer said:

Are the Explore Scientific ones on par with Lumicon and Astronomik? 

Not really.

4 minutes ago, HB0315 said:

Thanks, do you know what is the best way to find local groups? 

If you scroll down the web page below, on the left hand side (to the left of some astro images) you will see UK astro societies listed. Click on the astro society name to go to their website:

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/

Here are a couple of mine:

Tube length quickly gets more significant than tube weight with regard to mount stability due to the moment arm force that a longer tube imparts to the mount head and tripod hob.

Just had a nice hour looking at the moon before the clouds came over. Petavius was looking wonderful with it's central peak complex and the great cleft extending from that, across the floor of the crater, to it's tiered rim. The Messier pair of craters were looking very fine as well.

Nice end to the evening

3 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Just spent 30 odd minutes on Orionis 32 and I cannot split it. What I thought might be a dark split line, is I believe the gap in the diffraction ring. I need the atmospheric stability of the other night and it will show readily I am sure, as the Dawes limit for Andromeda is 0.9", so doable,  but not tonight.  I can only see the 4 main stars of The Trapezium also.

The seeing just is not as good tonight as it has been lately Steve.

Later in the week it looks as though we will be clear of the jetstream again so, clouds allowing, the scopes will be able to go that extra yard

That looks excellent Mark

13 minutes ago, Saganite said:

It is a pity John, but I do not recall seeing as superb as the other night, for many years, so I guess I will have a long wait for the next..

I am going to have a good go however, at the ones I failed to get last week, Orionis 52 & 32.

I got 32 Orionis with my Vixen ED102SS earlier this evening but it was right on the margin of possibility tonight - the split came and went as the seeing fluctuated.

5 minutes ago, Saganite said:

I have had nice views of Neptune and Uranus this evening and I will hope to get  a few doubles and star clusters with my 5" f15 for as long as I stay out tonight.  The seeing is good but not the same as the incredibly stable seeing of 17th/18th !

I agree re: the seeing Steve. We seem to have some effects of the jetstream tonight I think.

I've just remembered another one from 2017 - good year for asteroids !:

24 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

That's a bit special, Stu.
I'm guessing that the percentage of amateurs to have seen movement of a (natural) orbiting body in real time must be small.

There was 3122 Florence back in 2017, though that was further away and slower moving (visually) than 1994 PC1:

A very, very similar refractor was marketed under the Asahi Pentax brand name back in the 1960's. This is the focuser from one of those Asahi Pentax scopes and as you can see, it looks practically indentical to the one on your Limer branded scope:

These scopes were also produced under a number of other brand names at around that time.

1 hour ago, JDF said:

Hi Folks,

I'm looking for a replacement for my AZ5 and have looked at a number of alternatives including this from RVO, has anyone had any experience with this one linked below, thoughts also welcome.

www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/rvo-heavy-duty-az-mount-head-with-vixen-clamp.html

One of our members tried one out and found it disappointing. I think it was @johninderby ?

I've read other negative reports on that design as well.

The good old Skytee II is a much better bet I think.

59 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Nice! The Moon libration was very favourable and  allowed us to look directly into the south pole basin. The Leibnitz mountains as observed by Schroter were probably in the foreground of your image: starting with M8 and a few others to the left of them. The problem is that over the years people have been trying to indentify exactly what Schroter saw when he named them. I found this drawing by Whitaker from 1954 which has the M peaks but also further left lists Leibnitz alpha beta, gamma, delta and epsilon with a question mark.

 

If we believe his chart I think I can identify Leibnitz alpha beta, gamma and delta on your  photo:

 

I wonder why IAU discontinued the names, these are after all the highest mountains on the Moon.

Thanks Nik, very interesting

This is one of Charles Wood's "LPOD" pages which covers this area and mentions Whitaker's work:

https://www2.lpod.org/wiki/January_6,_2007

It's a little like the early expeditions to the Himalaya's, trying to work out which peak is which !

Excellent report and a great achievement Stu

It is really motivating when it all comes together

Early promising clear sky here quickly clouded up so I could not try for the asteroid, or anything else

12 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Oh dear, just saw this having just wished you a good session, John..sorry about that🥴

Dave

No problem at all Dave - it may clear later but if not I think the prospects later this week might be hopeful