paulastro

I had some spectacular views this morning in the 120ED, especially Hyginus/Rima Ariadaeus, Aristotles to Aristillus, the Apennines, the terminator E of Albategnius, and the terminator near Stofler and Maurolycus. The moon was high in the sky when I took the attached single frame - SW 120ED, Ercole Mount, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/250 sec at 400 asa. I made several crops to show some of these areas. The seeing was good when I took the pic and visually the views were wonderful, using x150 and x220 in the binoviewer.

Many thanks Michael, your comments are very kind.

A lovely lunation this morning. Pictures taken with SW 120ED on AZ4 and Olympus E-M5Mk11. Two crops, one as per the title and the other showing Asperitatis, Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catherina and Rupes Altai. Views with the binoviewer and 16.8 Orthos (x220) much better than my snaps!! *** NOTE FOR STAFF - can someone please remove the post before this one, without the pics. I forgot to add the pics and couldn't edit it to add them as I has some script overlaying the EDIT button. Many thanks.

A lovely lunation this morning. Pictures taken with SW 120ED on AZ4 and Olympus E-M5Mk11. Two crops, one as per the title and the other showing Asperitatis, Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catherina and Rupes Altai. Views with the binoviewer and 16.8 Orthos (x220) much better than my snaps!!

Out from 11.55 to 01.15. Nice detail, and Janssen particularly well placed straggling the terminator. Using SW 120ED on Ercole Mount, single frame taken at 23.33 with Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/400 sec at 400 asa. Crops taken to show: 1 Janssen to Fracastorius 2 Janssen S to Pitiscus, Hommel and Vlacq 3 Mare Nectaris

Out from 00.22 to 01.15 earlier this morning. Single frame taken and then cropped to show (in order): 1 Sunset over M.Crisium and Cleomedes, 2 Reichenback and S to Janssen, 3 de la Rue, Endymion, Hercules and Atlas. Frame taken at 00.49 am, SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/800 sec at 400 asa.

Many thanks Mark. I'll compare the link to Virtual Moon Atlas which I currently use along with SkySafari Pro. (along with Lunar atlases) The illumination and age of the lunation data from VMA and SSPro are always slightly different, will be interesting to see howthe data from the link compares. Thanks again.

Excellent, even more impressed if the Longfellow came from memory!

Out from 22.10 to 11.00 pm, when hazy high altitude cloud took over, not quite full Moon - 99.7 illumination. If anyone took the trouble to look at the terminator around this time, there were some interesting features on show, particularly in the north (even N of the pole) where the libration was favourable. Worth the effort as some of the features are not often on show, even though they are rather elongated and foreshortened due to the libration. I can't remember observing Cleostratus, Boote, Regnault, Desargues, Pascal, Brianchon and Sylvester very often !! There were also some nice terminator features on W and NE limbs, though I haven't finished identifying some of these featrues yet. Pic is a single frame with the SW 120ED, AZ4 mount, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/640 sec at 200 asa. The close ups are all crops of the same photo. The seeing was poor but managed some views in the binoviewer when the detail was quite good up to x150 on the odd occasion.

Many thanks charl, good to hear from you, regards, Paul

All photos are crops of the full disk single frame taken with my SW 120ED, AZ4 mount, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/640 sec, 400 asa. Seeing poor so it was difficult to get a reasonable single frame shot. Good views with binoviewer and 24mm Orthos.

I'm delighted you had such a good view Mark. It was beautiful wasn't it, a shame it's not a permanent 'double'

Out from 7.50 pm to 9.00 pm. Continuous fine image scintillation, but nice views if you could ignore it. Below is a single frame taken at 8.11 pm, SW 120ED, AZ4, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/640 sec at 800 asa. The closer shots are just crops from the full frame. Deslandres and the Apennines looked particularly good using the binoviewer and orthos, though the seeing prevented anything more than x150.

Can't see the prominences Charl ?! 😄

Nice to see the rain, mist and snow has relented up there in Queensbury Jules.

I'm really pleased so many of you had a good view of the event, and also importantly felt the effort was worthwhile. I was hoping it looked as good as I thought it would or what credibility I have may have gone down the pan 😄. I’m also delighted to say I saw the event too! It was very touch and go for me though. Some obstinate cloud hovered over Pegasus for ages when it was clear almost every where else until 11.10 pm when it started to thin a bit in the correct area, and checking some stars in the finder through the cloud I checked one, looked in the Morpheus 17.5mm in the diagonal and there it was, lovely. Indeed looking just like a really nice red-green double star along with the red Phi Aquarii. Then it cleared completely for a while and I had good views up to around x220 (SW 120ED) with Orthos in my binoviewer until 12.15 am when cloud just about completely filled in. A nice tiny disk at the higher power, Neptune a pale green colour to my eyes. Very fortunate to see the event. It does look as if it's more likely to be clear for many of us after midnight Sunday morning so there is another chance. Checking on SkySafari, it looks as if there will be, very approximately, about three times more distance between Neptune and Phi than there was this morning. Still worthwhile though, just not so close a double! If you use a lower magnification you can get them to look just as close .

Good to know so many of us are going to observe this, weather still looks good thanks Nigeyboy - I'll check out for any ISS passes up north .

Later this evening and culminating at 1.19am tomorrow morning (+30 degrees), Neptune m 7.8 will only be approximately 42" (arcseconds) from Phi Aquari mag 4.2, a class M star. Neptune is at opposition in three days time (Sept 10th) so it's a great opportunity to observe Neptune anyway. In 'Philips Stargazing Month by Month Guide it says: '...you'll be hard pressed to separate the two (Neptune and Phi Aquiri) in binoculars (less than the apparent size of Jupiter between them), and a telescope will reveal a stunning red and green 'double star' '. Neptune and Phi Aquari are fairly easy to find, follow the two right- hand stars of the Square of Pegasus (Scheat and Markab) downwards 1.25x the distance between these stars and that's approximately where you'll find them. It will make a wonderful photo as well as being a fabulous visual spectacle. By the looks of it, the sky will be at least be partly clear for many of us so there's no excuse! Good luck.

Caught the Moon low down at 8.14pm. Didn't have time to get the 120ED out in over 90% cloud but managed half a dozen quick frames with the SW 72ED, it was only clear for a minute before 100% cloud set in. The best frame is below, prime focus, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/400 sec at 800 asa.

Thanks for your comments John. Don’t forget that resolution improves with more aperture. Something often overlooked. My old Equinox 120 was good on lunar / planetary but the Skymax 180 I have now gives more detal on lunar. I hadn't forgotten or overlooked the aperture factor John. Whilst what you say is correct if the seeing supports the better resolution, but often it doesn't (at least where I live!). Also I would have to carry the Mak outside to use and taking into account I often observe at short or no notice it wouldn't have time to reach thermal equilibrium very often. I know this as I have owned more than one! Though in theory it's better, the way I observe, the conditions I have, the focal length factor of the Mak and what I want to observe the 120ED is far better for me than the big Mak ever was. Looking at my observing diaries it's clear I observed more often and to better effect than I ever did when I used the big Mak. A no brainer for my needs. Each to his own.

I'm mainly a visual observer of the Moon and planets and for me, a good refractor is better than a good Maksutov for planetary and lunar observations (and for all wider field observations of any objects) for the following reasons: 1 As good as Maksutov optics can be, a high quality refractor will always out perform a high quality Maksutov aperture for aperture for image quality if they are made to the same standard. 2 Maksutovs have longer focal ratios than most refractors, hence it is just about impossible to obtain low power/wide fields of planetary conjunctions (unless they are very close), views of the Moon going through a star cluster like the Beehive or Pleiades, for many variable star fields and of course quite a number of deep sky subjects if that's what takes your fancy. 3 Maksutovs generally hold their collimation well, but they can go out of collimation and sometimes are delivered new needing collimation. With a good refractor you can always be assured if it isn't giving good images it is likely to be the seeing responsible. 4 As Peter pointed out, thermal equilibrium with all but the smallest Maksutov can be a big problem, and certainly will be if you have to keep a 6 inch or larger Mak indoors and carry it out to observe - it's not often where I live it will stay clear long enough for many Maksutovs of such sizes to reach equilibrium.

Like most people I go to Kelling for the dark skies, and get my deep sky 'fix' to last me until the following years star party. As an avid Lunar observing I do lament the fact though that I can't observe the Moon as of course the sky party is scheduled exactly to avoid the Moon. I've seen the odd sliver of the Moon but only a thin crescent if anything at all. However, this year there are at least three good mornings (possibly four) when the Moon is well placed - I can't remember anytime in the years I've been going that the Moon is so visible. I only noticed it a few days ago when I checked. The early mornings are very favourable for lunar observing on the mornings of September 24th, 25th and 26th, even the 27th is fine if you're really a lunar enthusiast! The illumination on these three morning is as follows, compared with the illumination for the equivalent days after last quarter for August. So September 24th and August 25th are both two days after last quarter, and are for 03.00 am for each morning. I've also added moonrise times for the September dates. September 24th - 29% moonrise 00.27 August 25th - 35% September 25th - 19% moonrise 01.42 August 26th - 25% September 26th - 10% moonrise 03.06 August 27th - 16% September 27th - 4.3% moonrise 04.35 To give you an idea of what the % of illumination look like. The three images I took below were taken on August 25, 26th and 27th with the illumination as above. I was clouded out on 28th. On September 24th (for Oakworth, (slightly different for Kelling of course) astronomical dawn is at 04.55 am and civil dawn is 06.21. I have to confess I am rather pleased the Moon will be on show, I hope all the folks who attend the star party only for deep sky won't begrudge me my lunar views this year weather permitting. As I said at the start, in my memory this is rather rare at this event. I was going to title this thread 'YIPEEEEE, MOON VISABLE AT KELLING STAR PARTY' - I didn't as I can't afford to take minders along to protect me for the duration of the event. I reserve the right not to be held to account if I have made any errors in the data in this post!! EDIT - It struck me that I have always stayed at Kelling for four nights, from the Thursday to Sunday covering the main weekend. This year we are staying for the full week. I suppose when Kelling was over two weeks the Moon must have been fairly well visible at some time. Still, it must be at least less likely to have a decent size now that the event runs just one week.

I knew you'd change your mind in what you're taking to Kelling Peter. Just remember, you have to get in the driver's seat once you've loaded everything into the car! 😊

Many thanks Michael. The weather looks as if it's changing and very humid. At least I should have a full nights sleep tonight. Thanks again.

Thanks James. I have an advantage over you in this respect, on the days I work I don't start until 4-5pm - though not so good for first quarter on occasions.