John

Lovely !

Wish we had that here

I notice that, back in August last year, NASA decided that NGC 2392 would no longer be referred to as the Eskimo or Clown-Face Nebula because these names were possibly considered derisive or offensive.

This planetary nebula does have a third name, "The Lion Nebula" so I guess that is a possibility but there is another nebula that also goes by that name I think. Any other suggestions or should we just use the New General Catalogue designation of 2392 which I believe is what NASA are now doing ?

Of course it is also a Caldwell object - number 39 so maybe C39 would work ?

3 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Latest data I’ve seen have it at mag 7.9

Looks like Sunday might be my first chance.

Same here 🤞

43 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

All excellent, that helps a lot. Thank you both very much! Looking clear early on this evening so hopefully will get a chance to try and spot this  

Hope you get it Neil

Not looking clear at all here otherwise I'd be planning to do just the same.

Thanks for the "Heads up" Jeremy

Hopefully it will stay bright enough to observer for a few days.

Nice report and great photos Paul

I observed the Moon myself at that time with my 100mm refractor. I particularly liked the illumination of the Messier Crater pair close to the terminator. The comet-like rays from Messier A were not very apparent under this illumination but the deep shadow in both craters emphasized their unusual shape and form.

The Pentax XW's have a range of field curvatures from positive, through neutral to negative. I guess some focal lengths will suit some scope types better than others ?:

Pity that similar data is not available for other eyepieces so that we can make our selections taking that into account. We seem to have to learn the characteristics of most eyepieces by trying them out and sharing the information on forums like this.

1 minute ago, Stu said:

That’s basically the hop I use and it works very well. I actually follow a line from 29 to 23 Ursa Majoris and this takes you straight to the Triangle but otherwise I follow the same route. A good star hop should drop you right on the target without hunting around too much and this one works very well. I find the two galaxies in a couple of seconds in binos this way.

While I posted that one on that occasion, I did nick it from you Stu

M31 is not that impressive even with my 12 inch scope. Under a really good sky here I can just about make out traces of two dust lanes but normally it is a brightish oval patch of light condensed towards the centre and with an extended halo which goes beyond the edges of the field of view.

M32 is like a fuzzy star on one side of M31 and further off on the other side is the fainter oval of M110.

Personally I prefer the views of the M81 / M82 pair in Ursa Major.

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

Thank you @John! These look an interesting pair of doubles and well placed right now in the evening sky. I will check them out next time. Looks like Alula Borealis may need my big 180 SW Mak, not sure my 127 Mak will be up to splitting 10 mag stars,  considering it's aperture is only 119mm.

The brighter component of Alula Borealis is mag 3.6, it's the secondary star that is a challenge. Normally your mak should show mag 10 stars without too much of a problem I would think but the proximity to the brighter star may hamper that. 

10 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Yep - managed to get Alula Australis. In the Skymax90, with 15mm (x80) with very good seeing tonight.

Alula Borealis - no luck. I was planning to stay longer on it with some higher powers, but the clouds rolled in.

Good result with Alula Australis

The mag 10 component of Alula Borealis was pretty faint with my 130mm. I missed it initially and it only became apparent after I studied the star for a while.

Mainly double star observing this evening with my 130mm refractor.

Over Leo's hind quarters are a pair of stars which are actually part of Ursa Major. The bears hind paw in fact.

Their proper names are Xi Ursae Majoris and Nu Ursae Majoris. Their other names (which I much prefer) are Alula Australis (Xi) and Alula Borealis (Nu). They sound quite exotic !

Here they are:

Both these Alulas are double stars but rather different ones through the scope eyepiece.

Alula Australis is a splendid magnitude 4 golden-yellow pair with a separation of 2.16 arc seconds (Stella Doppie database). Very attractive indeed.

Alula Borealis is also a pair but with a large brightness difference. The primary is magnitude 3.6 and the secondary star a rather dim magnitude 10.10. The separation is 7.5 arc seconds but seeing the 10th magnitude secondary star can be a ticklish business because of the brighness difference. Tonight the 130mm refractor showed them both quite nicely at high magnification.

Both well worth seeking out IMHO.

As Gene Vincent sang "Well, Be Bop Alula ....." or something like that !

17 minutes ago, Stu said:

I don’t really trust any forecasts as they are so often wrong. I normally use Sat24 and make my own judgements based on clouds and the direction of movement. It’s normally a better guess than the actual forecasts but can still be wrong. The IR cloud images are not always the clearest, so it’s easier to check during the day and make a call based on that.

Sounds a wise approach.

"Clear Outside" was giving me red for most of this evening but my scope is out under a clear sky now as it's been for the past 3 hours. Not complaining though

Just had a look at Mars with my 130mm refractor at 300x. Small now innit ?

Some subtle darker markings on the southern part of the disk plus the phase but not a lot else. Have to rely on NASA's Perserverance rover and it's drone for Mars excitement for a while I think 

4 minutes ago, Andy0306 said:

Just buy some pick & pluck foam, much easier.

 

This is one seller on ebay, but loads of others if they don't have the size you need. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pick-and-Pluck-Foam-Storage-Tray-Select-Your-Depth-Great-for-G-W-Tabletop/183525502055?

 

 

That's what I use.

Don't need to cut it. Just break the cube joins around the shape you need then push the item in. After a short while the item has created a depression just the right size and the foam spikes in the lid of the case keep it in place. If you change the item you can pull the block of foam cubes back up and re-size the hole.

This is one of my cases from a few years back without the contents:

1 hour ago, John said:

I have a roofless and wall less observatory. It's called my patio

Nice lunar photo !

I was hoping for a quick lunar excursion later today but the cloud cover looks a bit too solid just now.

 

Actually it's clear now so I am getting a look. Interesting illumination of the Messier crater pair close to the terminator 

16 hours ago, paulastro said:

Thanks Mike, it was taken from my new roofless observatory! 😊.

My session ended when it went behind my chimmney.

I have a roofless and wall less observatory. It's called my patio

Nice lunar photo !

I was hoping for a quick lunar excursion later today but the cloud cover looks a bit too solid just now.

3 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

For those using Newtonian , a single vane or curved vanes eliminate the distracting spikes of cruciform secondary vanes.

My 200 f6 Orion Optics gives almost frac like views of binaries and clusters. Collimation must be spot on to get the most out of high magnification, as does getting "your eye in". Averted vision can help and sketching relaxes the eye , avoiding strain when you end up grimacing !

 

Does your 200mm Orion Optics have curved secondary vanes or a single vane Nick ?

M57 can be overlooked if you are using a low powered eyepiece in a small scope - it can just look like a bloated star. I often use 200x plus on it and that works a treat. I still have not convincingly seen the central star even with my 12 inch scope so I hope to do that someday. It's fun to pick out the faintest star you can see around the nebula:

With M13, as well as high powers to resolve as deep as possible, backing off the power on a transparent night brings the reward of being able to see the galaxy NGC 6207 in the same low power field of view:

I love these "2 for 1" deals !

PS: You might find this website useful:

https://www.nexstarsite.com/

There are lots of tips and guides on there on the range of Nexstar scopes and versions.

Sounds like you may have the original Celestron Nexstar 8 which looks like this:

I used to have the 5 inch version and the opitcal tubes were fixed to the mount arm - no dovetail bar, annoyingly. I think the handset was hard wired in as well.

They became the "i" version (more GOTO items in the memory and a steel tube tripod) and then the SE version and the colour scheme changed and they used a dovetail connection with the tripod.

There is a chap who services SCT telescopes but I forget his name now. He used to work with BF&F and Astro Engineering.

Nice report

I have the 130mm refractor out this evening. Poor transparency and seeing earlier but it got better and better as the hours passed. Really good out there now but I'm too tired to enjoy it

Following a rather prolonged galaxy session (wrong scope really) in Leo, I finished my session in Hercules with Messier 13 and the other lovely globular there, Messier 92.

Glad you enjoyed your night as well

I find them about the same re: ease of use, convenience etc. Both types really easy to set up and use.

I have 1 dob, a 12 inch and 4 refractors from 100mm to 130mm which I use on alt-az mounts.

I stand while observing.

Tonight I chose a 130mm refractor and it's been a lot of fun chasing galaxies and double stars plus a few globular clusters. It was a rather milky sky earlier (hence the refractor choice) but the transparency has improved a lot over the past hour.

If I want to go as "deep" as I can though, the 12 inch dob gets the nod every time of course. For double stars I prefer refractor views although the 12 inch can out resolve them of course.

I enjoy using both types of scope

B is about as far from A now as it ever gets. In 2250 or thereabouts it will be less than 1 arc second from A. I won't bother trying for it then

I've annotated John Nansen's diagram to show the A, B, C and D stars. This is a 5 inch refractor view at 229x as it says. B and C are in the same general direction from A.

1 hour ago, Sunshine said:

The link above is very helpful, thanks for posting, I was looking at “C” component wondering if this was the companion which it is not, I should have been searching for “B” which is much closer. My question is now, how does the position of “B” change relative to its primary as time passes? If I were to search tonight, where should I train my gaze relative to the primary? I understand that at the moment the separation is at a maximum? so I have heard.

If you are talking about Theta Aurigae, the position of B does change over time, but slowly. The red numbers are years, the grey spot is "now":