Mark at Beaufort

Frank I have not officially had a reading but I think it is Bortle 4. Although I live on the outskirts of the City my East to West horizon looks towards good rural dark skies with no light pollution.

Hello Karen and welcome to SGL. Reading back through your initial thread I notice that you live in the New Forest at a dark site which will be great as your knowledge and experience improves. As a member of the SGL Management Team we look closely at comments so we look after members in a friendly manner. I certainly would recommend that you study the various constellations either with your naked eye or with your binoculars to get to know your way around the night sky. Certainly the planisphere is a good starting point and then possibly purchase a star atlas. I often use the free software https://stellarium.org/ to determine my observing programme for the night. This way you will get to know Virgo and then in the future maybe purchase a telescope to check out the brighter galaxies if that is the way you want to go. Good luck on your journey.

Update - I can see the Sun through thin cloud and using the PST I can detect Plage in the position of AR2760. In addition there is another area of Plage higher than the Sunspot (Newt view). The cloud is knocking out any sight of Proms. If it improves I will bring the Double Stack to get better surface detail.

Still cloudy in Hereford but the sky is getting brighter so hopefully I might get a view in Ha. Nice sketch Ade.

I have used mostly Ethos EPs for viewing DSOs over the years. However, for several reasons I sold my collection of Ethos EPs and bought ES82 to replace them. I realised that this was a mistake so I bought a 20mm Myriad, 13mm Ethos and 9mm Myriad to replace them. I don't think Myriad are still available but Lunt seems close in design. As John stated it seems that you require the highest light transmission so perhaps you should try the 10mm Baader Classic Ortho which many have stated its quality viewing DSOs. Because my 12" Dob is totally manual I don't fancy a 50 degree FOV EP trying to locate faint DSOs but you might be okay with this. I can't express an opinion on the Pentax, Morpheus or the Delite because I have never owned one but I am sure other members have and will respond to you. If I was starting out now with a budget that could not buy the Ethos range then I would certainly try the Lunt and the Morpheus range.

Mostly cloudy here in Hereford. Hope I get a break otherwise no Sun forecast until Thursday.

Very well done seeing NGC5053. I have spent years trying to view this GC. The other night with a good transparent sky using my 12" Dob and the 6mm Ethos I eventually saw a glimmer of something.

Hello Owen and welcome to SGL. I have the Heritage 130P as well which I use as my quick grab and go telescope. The BST Starguider EPs have had good reviews by members on this forum and they are reasonably well priced. You will see lots of interesting objects with this scope including the Planets. The other night I had a good view of the Comet C/2019 Y1 (Atlas) using a zoom eyepieces.

I was going to have a night off but could not resist another session. There are two objects in Canes Venatici that I have not seen before so I started with this constellation. Yesterday there was a fantastic image posted on M94 so this was the first object I observed. I then star hopped over to NGC 4244 a fantastic edge on galaxy. Then NGC 4151 (first time), which although brightish, was small. My next target was NGC 4395 - this caused me a problem. It's really faint. In the end I check out its exact location using Stellarium but still could not see anything. Being frustrated missing this galaxy I returned to some old friends NGC 4631 and NGC 4656. These galaxies took me back to a wonderful observing night at a SGL star party. To end the night I return to VIrgo starting at Vindemiatrix. I took in these galaxies NGC 4608, 4596,4567, 4568, 4564, M58, 4638, M59 and M60. Star hopping in this area is really helped by using an 80mm finderscope and a detailed star atlas like Interstellarum. But before I finished I made a final attempt on the SN. Again started at Zaniah and viewing M61 on the way I arrived at NGC 4273, 4281 and 4270. I used several EPs and I thought I could see something around NGC 4277 but not 100% certain. Anyway another reasonable night.

Goran that is a brilliant image. Its interesting that I viewed this galaxy last night so its good to see a detailed image - thanks

Thanks Jeremy a very enjoyable webinar last night. I believe you pitched it at a perfect level for those of us without too much prior knowledge on variable stars.

That is an excellent astro image. very well done. I have decided to include this galaxy in my list for tonight - I am observing solely on Canes Venatici.

Thanks for the link John. I have a copy of Walter Scott Houston's book called Deep -Sky Wonders produced by Sky and Telescope. I have tried for years to view this GC but now that I have seen it, and know its exact location, I will return and view it again.

Hello Miguel I usually look at this website https://cometchasing.skyhound.com/ I also cross reference Stellarium having updated the website. Although it was not totally accurate last night the Comet was in the same FOV as was indicated. I only used a 5" Newt so you should be okay as long as you don't have too light pollution in your area.

Yes another night of observing with the 12" Dob this time checking out DSOs in Coma B. Before I started I wanted to view the Comet - C/2019 Y1 (Atlas) because reports had indicted that it was getting brighter. The Dob was not in the best position to view North so rather than move it I used my Heritage 130P. Checking out its position on Stellarium I was able, using my TeleVue 8-24mm zoom, to view it. Its position was slightly different to that indicated but easy to find. With regard to Coma B I started with M53 although I have seen it many time before. I moved the scope to view NGC5053 but I tried viewing the area with various EPs but could not see it. My main task was to view galaxies in Coma B that I had not seen before. The view of Mel 111 Coma cluster in my 80mm Altair finderscope was magnificent so I started at the Gamma (Al Dafirah) and viewed the following - NGC 4278, 4274, 4314, 4251 and 4448. However, before I finished the night I wanted to have another go at the GC (NGC 5053). I would say that I have tried for years to see this GC but never succeeded. So I checked out the surrounding star patterns using Stellarium and my atlas Interstellarum and noticed a mag 9.7 star was in the same FOV as my 6mm Ethos. I studied the area for some time using averted viewing and eventually I could make out a very faint area of extremely diffused stars. This object is a challenge in my 12" but I ended the night feeling good that I had seen it.

Looking forward to this Jeremy

Thanks Neil. Yes the Heritage 130P produced the goods using my TeleVue 8-24mm zoom. However, the location was slightly different to that shown on Stellarium although not by much.

Neil I have the 12" Dob out at the moment but its difficult to view low down objects looking North. For this reason I have set up my Heritage 130P in the hope of picking up C/2019 Y1 (Atlas). Wish me luck.

Mark M5 was very impressive in the 12" last night so I cannot image the view in your 20". By the way I hope you are keeping safe and well - when this is over it would be nice to meet up again. I was going to the Webb Society AGM and was hoping to see you there - unfortunately all cancelled.

Yes John I have already prepared a list of galaxies in Coma B that I want to observe tonight. I still might end the night with M5.

With the 12" Dob still set up I wanted to view more of the objects not previously observed. Two of the objects are listed in Steve o' Meara's book 'The Secret Deep' - neither seen before. I used mainly the 13mm Ethos but also used my 20mm and 9mm Myriad EPs. Objects observed NGC 5846 (SD), NGC 4698 (SD), 4216, 4535, 5363, 4546, 4526, 4212 (Coma B), 5838, 5746. Whilst Corvus was nicely placed I did make a detour to view the Antennae galaxies. I did try the other day with the 6" Newt but failed to see them - OK in the 12". I ended the night viewing M5 which in the 9mm Myraid, but especially in the 6mm Ethos, was fantastic

I was viewing DSOs in Leo last night and this string of satellites just went on and on. My thoughts, as some travelled close to M51, was this will ruin astro photography.

I have the 12" Revelation which I bought at the Telescope House stand at Astrofest in February 2016. The cost was £499 with free delivery. Brilliant scope. I just noticed that the GSO Revelation has a mirror with 94% reflection which is not too bad. I am not sure what the 8" Skywatcher Dob mirror is -although its £200 cheaper.

Hello Ciaran yes it was the main primary star with the close separation. Perhaps it was easier because I had seen it with the 12" scope. However, the attached document from Sissy Haas's book on double stars gives more information on splitting doubles.

The sky looked promising so I went observing with the 12" Dob. It was my intention to observe only objects in Virgo. I started with M98 and M99 and then rather than going down to the Markarian's Chain I went up to M85 to work down. Close to M85 is NGC4394 then it was down to 4450, 4340, 4350, 4489, M100 and 4379. I then went over to M91 before starting the Chain - M88, 4474, 4459 4477, 4473, 4458, 4461, 4435, 4438, M86, M84 and finally NGC4388. One of Steve o'Meara's 'The Secret Deep' is galaxy NGC4762 which you can star hop from Vindemiatrix. This galaxy has NGC4754 in the same FOV. Because I was in the area I went down to NGC4698. I wanted to end the night hunting down the SN in NGC4277. Starting from Porrima then Zaniah you go to star no.16 then up to M61. A short distance upwards to star 17 and then slightly right to a group of galaxies which contains the SN. I could make out NGC 4273, 4281 and 4270 but I could not see the fainter galaxy 4277 nor any stars in the area - so I failed to view the SN. It was now getting late and after nearly 3 hours I decided to finish.