kev100

Found the conjunction again tonight, though it was quite tricky as the sky was a little hazier. Greater separation than last night, and Neptune was a bit fuzzier. Still well worth a look through 😀

Thanks @paulastro for the heads up. Just had a look. Phi Aquari was a spectacular yellow/orange colour, and Neptune a pale blue. Very reminiscent of Albireo at its best. Lovely 😀

Cheers, that's good to know. In the end, the sky was spectacular over Piddletrenthide. Cracking session

After much deliberation, I've decided to pass on Creech tonight. Thinking it might be busy up there, what with it being a bank holiday weekend, and if I set up in the garden at home I can enjoy a 🍺 😀

No worries 😀 Cool. See you there at about 9

Cool. See you there at about 9

Hi Ade, no worries. Hope it goes well 😀

Speaking of which, I know it's a little short notice, but Sunday's looking good, weatherwise, and I'm planning to head up to the carpark above Creech for the evening. Anyone else up for that? Kev

Wow! @prusling that's an amazing photo. And @AdeKing too, the sunset was fantastic. I too had a great time last night. Although we had no luck with the Veil neb, I got Jupiter (amazing sight in the brief moments of stillness), Saturn (still too low to see the Cassini division, but spectacular nonetheless), M57, M13, and then, by about 1.30pm, the southern sky cleared completely, to reveal Ms 4, 6, 7 & 8, 22, 69, 70 and NGC 6652 (those are just some of the clusters and objects I saw that I could easily identify!). M8, the Lagoon nebula was fantastic! Bright structures, with dark lanes running through, nearly filling the fov of my 20mm ep at x60. The last 20 minutes of the evening I spent scanning through Sagittarius and Scorpius with my 10x50s will stay with me. When a large, bright patch appeared to the right of Sagittarius, I at first thought it was the return of the clouds, but in the binos it appeared full of stars, with dark dust lanes running through. I'd never seen this starfield so clearly defined and bright! Will definitely be heading back there again soon. Cheers Ade, Peter! Kev

Hiya. I've been checking the forecast on a variety of sites this week, and it's been all over the place! Currently not bad at all, so I'm going for it. Hope others can make it. Kev

Yep, same place as before. 😀

Hiya. Forecast seems to be changing, depending on which service you check it on. Currently the Met office forecast looks good ...

Hi all, Just thinking about heading up to Creech carpark on Friday night (5th of July), and was wondering if any others are up for coming along? Kev

Hiya, First of all, a light bucket dob isn't the best tool for viewing planets. It'll be better on fainter objects like galaxies, faint nebulae, etc, where gathering light is the important factor. For already bright planets magnification is more important than aperture. However, seeing conditions affect the view, and there's an upper limit to the amount of magnification you can reasonably use and still get crisp views. This limit isn't imposed by the equipment, necessarily, but more so by the atmosphere (and associated humidity). Your 3.6mm plossl is already giving you what many regard as the upper magnification limit useable in the UK (900/3.6 = x250). EPs with better glass would give better views, though (in terms of more contrast, sharper images, wider fields), but it's unlikely you could use more magnification as well. I wouldn't recommend spending large sums yet on EPs. You can do better than stock items and plossls by spending only 40-50 quid on BST starguiders and the like (these will offer a much better view generally than the EPs that came with the scope. However, the upper limit to magnified but still sharp views remains ... When I'm viewing planets like Jupiter and Saturn, I'll try x240 (which is the most I can use with my scope / EPs), but the best views are usually obtained around x150-x200. Kev

Hi Doug, It's a cracking EP. Looking forward to reading your experiences Kev

Here's mine. Not too bad ?

Well, here's mine. Not a green stripe in sight, but I'm happy with it

Absolutely cracking read! Thank you!