rojay

A short, but welcome, session for me this evening. Tried a few eyepieces on the Orion nebula; I ended up liking the view through the 15mm BST Starguider the most. Also clusters M41 and NGC2362 (for the first time, I think). Then cloud stopped play before I had chance to see anything else. Still, better than nothing 🙂

A short session for me last night, just the moon and Jupiter in my newish VX14. Nice details on both, with the Baader 10mm giving the best views of Jupiter's bands. On the Moon I enjoyed using a Svbony zoom, and turning it up to silly magnification. Like others above, I noticed how prominent Rupes Recta was. By the time I finished, my gloves were sticking to the ice on the tube!

Welcome!

Makes sense, thanks Artik.

Thanks. It's great for DSOs, but I was wondering particularly about stars: I see you can search for names like Polaris, but is there a way to do e.g. Beta Lyr or an HD number etc?

Hi, quick question: does the search function work for stars by catalogue number? I see it works for proper names, are their other options? Thanks.

I've been trying Astrohopper this evening, and found it works very well for me. With a single fix on Altair, I could "push to" M11, Albireo, M27, and M57. All of the objects were in a low- power field of view first time. Thanks for sharing this app!

Last night was my first look at Saturn this year too, same impression - much flatter than last time. Otherwise, a bunch of classics: Ring nebula, double double, Hercules cluster. I also had a nose around in Ophiuchus, because it was a well placed patch of sky. Some nice clusters, and a bright planetary: NGC6572, small but definitely non-stellar and a first for me.

Great stuff, I hope that's not marker pen on the carpet for the asteroid belt!

Hi all, I had quite a decent session yesterday, the highlights for me were the Double Cluster, Wild Duck cluster (M11), quite far down in the murk, and the carbon star V Aql. For the first time, I tried the trick of looking at a bright light to undo dark adaptation: it dud seem to help pick out the red colour.

Nice sketch, thanks for sharing. You inspired me to look at the Coathanger tonight! First time I've observed it in years...

Hello and welcome!

First session for a while for me, and I made an attempt to see some Virgo galaxies through the light pollution with the 8in Dob. I managed M49 - some nearby star patterns helped me point to the right place. Otherwise no definite detections, only hints. I still wanted to see galaxies, and since Virgo wasn't cooperating, I went higher up and in a direction with less LP to M81/82 which were much easier, and clearly different shapes. I'd had enough of challenges, so I slewed over to Hercules for an enjoyable look at M13, using a 10mm ortho to darken the background. Then two of the ultimate easy-to-find objects for a relaxing end to the session, Mizar and Polaris.

I did some wide field with the ST102. M44 was the highlight, a really good fit for the scope. Also a bit of cruising round Auriga, some nice star fields there.

Last night I thought I would try some deep sky, to see what's possible - whatever I could do under the full moon should be easy under just "normal" light pollution. Unfortunately, by the time I went out, there was high cloud and I could hardly see any stars with the naked eye. I managed to compare the colours of Zeta and Eta Aurigae in the same low power field, but it was too murky to do much else. Solar system, then. Venus was bright but low, and to avoid the atmospheric dispersion that had bothered me the other night, I thought I'd have a go on monochrome. The most monochrome thing I have is an OIII filter, so in it went! The result was a nice sharp and steady image, but green of course. Some hint of brightness on one part of the limb, but not convincing. While I was at it, I swung over to the moon, with the same setup, thinking it might help with both glare and seeing (is there any blurring from seeing refracting different wavelengths to a slightly different extent? I don't know). This was rather fun, the green moon looked like I was using some retro CRT device: I switched to more conventional filtering to study the moon a bit more carefully. It was interesting to see Aristarchus and surroundings now looking "high and dry" away from the terminator unlike the other day, rather as if the tide had gone out in the meantime. Comparing Grimaldi, Hevelius and Cavalerius showed a progression in depth and definition of the walls, and presumably age. I also observed the limb opposite the terminator, pretty sure I was some deviation from a perfectly circular outline. Next was Mars, very small, and I couldn't make out any detail. The sky was looking a bit less murky by then, so I tried the original deep-sky plan: starting from Mars, I used Sky Safari coordinates with my azimuth circle and inclinometer to pan across to nearby M35. I landed straight on it, and had a good view with the 16mm Nirvana. Next I attempted M37 which was more challenging. Technology helped again: as well as supplying the coordinates, Sky safari let me compare the flipped display with what I was seeing through the eyepiece. Knowing I was targeting the right place, I could patiently look until I saw the faint stars of the cluster. Increasing the magnification (10mm ortho) darkened the sky, helping with contrast. But the personal highlight of the evening was when I look out a folding chair rather than the stool I usually use, and on opening it up, found the hat that I'd lost months ago! Thank you for getting this far with my ramblings!

I had an enjoyable session, mostly on the moon (unsurprisingly). Aristarchus and Herodotus, with mountains casting triangular shadows. For a bit of variety, I swung over to Venus, which was very low down, and showing plenty of colour from atmospheric dispersion, and to Mars, but couldn't make out any detail. Also split Castor just for fun.

My first time out for ages. Like other correspondents, I was looking at the moon: Theophilus, Cyrillus & Catharina, and also Rabbi Levi and Zagut, if I'm reading the map right. I was getting very pleasing views with a 16mm Nirvana, barlowed to give about 170x. Very immersive, and not pushing the seeing too hard, so everything looked sharp and detailed. Also spent some time scanning around Kemble's cascade and the open cluster cluster at its end, following the tip from the eponymous @NGC 1502. Very worthwhile!

Yes, I think he's on the level.

The FedEx man brought me a box full of boxes... and inside one of them is.. An ST102! I thought I'd give wide-field a go. The other boxes contain an AZ5 and tripod, plus bits and bobs. I took it outside for a brief first light, but it's too cold out there for fidgeting with new equipment!

I was out in the cold too yesterday. Early on, to look at the GRS transit on Jupiter, although my best view was about half an hour after transit, when the scope had cooled down properly. It definitely repaid time at the eyepiece - I really wasn't sure I could see it initially, but it got quite easy with some patient attention. After a break, I had a go at R Lep, but no luck. I'm sure I was looking in the right place, but maybe my eyes aren't red-sensitive enough.... But M42 (with and without filters) and Sigma Ori were a joy to see. And today the frozen lawn still shows my tracks 🙂

I had a short session yesterday evening, with clouds coming and going. Looked at Mars and the nearby Pleiades: very different angular sizes! Jupiter was just going behind a neighbour's chimney, so I lugged the Dob to the other end of the garden, which was worthwhile as the view was very clear with definite hints of structure in the bands.

What did I see? Four planets (Jupiter, Neptune, Mars, Uranus) , a PN (Blue Snowball), a carbon star (TX Psc, found by accident) and the Pleiades! Very chuffed, and back inside in the warm before 11 🙂

I've just seen a really nifty conjunction of Io and Europa! They are still pretty close as I type.

Hi, yes I saw it too, very cool. Thanks for the report, great description.

I've just come in from an hour or so looking at Jupiter. Io's shadow was clearly visible, and I saw the start of the transit of Io itself, until it moved away from the limb. I got some glimpses of structure in the cloud bands too. Also a quick peek at Saturn, because why not?