paulastro

I had a brief session early yesterday evening before attending to the Venus/Pleiades conjunction. J Hershel, Sinus Iridium, Gassendi and the area from Schiller to Newton on the S limb were also showing nicely. Aristarchus was on the terminator. Single frame taken with SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11 at 8.04 pm, 1/500 sec at 400 asa. The crops are taken from the same frame. My second crop shows one of me favourite craters, J Hershel. If you want to see a superb high resolution image of it taken the same evening, I suggest you take a look at CraigT82's post.

Thanks for posting Craig. It's a cracking picture and also one of my favourite craters, J.Herschel is one of my astronomy heroes.

I was lucky to have clear skies from 7.30 until my final look at the conjunction at 10.45 when I had my last view with my 10x50 binoculars before going indoors. For most of the time I used my SW 120ED in the observatory, using a 2 inch correct image diagonal and a 32 mm PanaView eyepiece. This framed the event very well and showed the phase of Venus nicely. This combination gave me x28 and a 2.5 degree field. I find seeing the Pleiades in the correct orientation is much nicer than when using an image reverse diagonal, which I try and avoid if possible. I watched it as the sky changed from blue, with only the main stars visible until it was properly dark. A beautiful sight despite the bright Moon. About 8.45 pm I attached my Olympus E-M5 MK11 and was shocked to see that I couldn't get all of M45 in the field! I had forgotten to take into account that my macro 4/3 format camera doubles the focal length of the system so it was effectively working at 1800 mm focal length. I rushed indoors and fetched my SW 80ED and mounted it on an AZ4 outside the observatory. With a native focal length of 600 mm (effectively 1200 mm with the camera on board) I knew it would be fine. The single frame below was taken (un-driven of course) on the AZ4, with an exposure of 1.3 seconds at 1600 asa. I continued watching from the observatory with the 120ED until 10.10 pm when Venus and the Pleiades sank below the observatory wall.

You shouldn't encourage him Jeremy, he will only get worse! 😏

Glad you saw it this evening. 🙂

Your'e welcome Jock, fingers crossed it stays that way for you.

Venus is still within the area covered by the Pleiades tonight and it will still look excellent. Perhaps better (than yesterday) in that it is more offset from the centre of the group so less dazzling across the central area of the Pleiades themselves. Also the weather may be better for many of us! So, particularly if you dipped out yesterday, don't miss out tonight.

Venus is still within the area covered by the Pleiades tonight and it will still look excellent. Perhaps better in that it is more offset from the centre of the group so less dazzling across the central area of the Pleiades themselves.

I was out early last evening to observe the Moon before it was dark enough to observe the Venus/Pleiades conjunction. It was a fairly good S libration, and among the confusion of detail at the S limb turned out to be Sir Isaac Newton with James Short alongside him. In the close-up, Short is slightly SW of Moretus with Newton immediately to the West of Short. I must admit, it seems unfair that such a great astronomical icon like Newton should be relegated to a 58 mile diameter crater in a rather obscurely located position at latitude 76 degrees South. Pity poor Malapert who's crater is even more obscure even further S at 84.9 degrees and hardly recognisable in the photo. The single frame below was taken with the SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11 at 7.35 pm, 1/400 sec at 400 asa. The crop is from the same frame.

Hooray, managed some views last night, cloud dodging also. First view at 8.12 pm, very nice with bluish sky and Venus not yet overwhelming and the crescent was so nice amongst the stars - only main stars visible at this time, a beautiful picture. Lovely in the SW 120ED with Hyperion 24mm. Views on and off until 9.42 in the observatory until it became 100% cloud so I started to pack up. I did have some views in darkness with no cloud several times which were absolutely stunning, When packing up at 10.15 some small gaps in the cloud low down and I managed some more views with my 10x50 Nikon binoculars - an excellent end to a nice evening. Very pleased so many others have had some good views.

Which one Mike?

Weather forecast up here not as good as it was yesterday afternoon, but I'm still hopeful that I'll get a view. I will have the 120ED in the observatory and my 80ED ready on an AZ5 outside if I don't get a break in the cloud before it's too low to be seen from the observatory. Always optimistic and looking forward to it. Good luck everyone 👍.

This will be excellent in binoculars tonight and even better in a telescope with around a two degree field which will show the phase of Venus as well. Last night Venus was in the same field as the Pleiades with my 120ED and 24mm Hyperion giving x36 and about a two degree field. It looked fabulous and will be even better tonight. Make sure you look when it's nice and dark to catch it at its most spectacular.

Single frame taken at 7.25 pm, SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/200 sec at 400 asa. Crops taken from the same frame.

I managed a quick fifty minutes or so session last evening before the cloud closed in again. A lot of cloud dodging and indifferent seeing but I persisted as I wanted to capture the 'Eyes of Clavius' effect caused by the rims of two craters catching the sunlight when the interior of the crater is otherwise filled with shadow. I must admit, I had never given this effect any name myself, though I have seen it many times. According to the April issue of Sky at Night magazine (in their April Highlights) the Eyes of Clavius is the clair-obscur name given to this phenomena. The single frame below was taken at 7.17 pm with the SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/200 sec at 400 asa. The close-ups are all crops taken from the same frame.

Yes, I was tucked up back indoors by then 🌝

Thanks Mike. There also look to be things on my pic which don't show up in yours. Visually it was much better for me too of course. Also, remember, yours is a photo taken at high magnification, mine is just an enlargement of a prime focus image of only x36. Quite a difference.

Great scope Jeremy, I had one many years ago in a time of plenty. I have a SW 120ED now. I might just ask Mike if he's got any Tak touch-up paint and I can give mine a paint job and pretend it's a Tak. 😄

Mike, I've attached a photo taken last night of the rille you imaged. It's a crop of a single frame taken with my SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, taken at 6.58 pm, 1/160 sec at 400 asa. As you say an exceptional night, best I've had for two or three years!

I noticed that I used the wrong image for the close up of Aristotles and Eudoxus. For some reason my computer wont let me edit my original post, so I've included the better image here.

I had a fine session on the Moon starting not long after sunset which was rather cloud covered at first, but it cleared completely resulting in some fine seeing. The terminator was full of detail, most notable being the sun rising at Maurolycus and also at Aristoteles and Eudoxus. The area to the S and E of Eudoxus showed tremendous detail in the low illumination, forming a most beautiful picture. I took some photos early on, and then concentrated on visual observing with the 120ED and binoviewer with Orthos giving x150 and x225. The seeing was always fairly good but it improved greatly and from about 8.30 to 9.00 pm it peaked such that it was rock steady like an etching - the sort of seeing I very seldom get at my site. The last time I had such seeing was probably two or three years ago. I was tempted to take some more pics in the pristine seeing, but it was better use of the time to drink in the view and just marvel at what the Moon has to offer in such seeing. To have such a period of seeing so steady like a picture for such a protracted period is a real thrill, and I was determined to make the most of it. The single frame below was taken at 7.20 pm with the 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/125 sec at 400 asa. The crops are from the same frame. As I said the seeing improved as time passed, and I'm afraid the pictures are poor compared with the views I was to get visually later on.

I had the wobbles too Mike. 🌛

I had a very nice session last evening using the 120ED. The sun rising over Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catherina was spectacular. Posidonius and the wrinkle ridges in E Serenitatis were also very nice. The views in the binoviewer with 24mm Orthos were very nice, and as usual better than my photo below. It's a single frame with the SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 mk11 taken at 7.20pm, 1/125 sec at 400 asa. Crops from the same frame.

Many thanks Chris, hope everything is good with yourself and Sylve.

I had some nice views of the Moon with the 120ED using the binoviewer yesterday evening. Janssen was particularly well placed. It was also lovely to see Venus, the Moon and Pleiades in a nice triangular configuration. Venus will pass through the edges of the Pleiades in early April which will be a fine sight in a dark sky. The single frame below was taken with the 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11 taken at 7.47pm, 1/100 sec at 400 asa. The same frame is in col and mono, as are the crops of Janssen.