FenlandPaul

Nice selection, Iain. Whilst in Monoceros I love to take a look at Hubble’s Variable Nebula, NGC 2261. Exciting to see if there’s any discernible change from the last observation, although as my drawing is so poor it’s fairly hard to tell!! I always wonder how this didn’t make it into the Messier catalogue given just how bright and comet-like it is.

My wife kindly bought me volume 7 of this (and there’s an identically sized, as-yet-unwrapped pressie that I suspect is volume 6): I’ve been enjoying collecting this series, but I’m a little worried about the pace of release at the moment!! Lots of my favourite constellations seems to be in the back three-quarters of the alphabet...

Super report, Stu - and that Stu+MW is very much the icing on the cake - fantastic!!

I was with the British Astronomical Association at their official meet at Truro School. Had just finished first year of very disappointing astronomy degree. Like the rest of Cornwall we were clouded out for totality but still had a great time, with Perseids in the days running up to it and some good observing. Would still love to see an uncloudy eclipse one day!!

Just round the corner from there right now. Beautiful part of the world.

Amazing! Two of my favourite things brought together in one thread!

Been observing with an ironing stool from a 12” dob for years, Martin - adjustable height is excellent. Very comfortable and relaxing, particularly important when at averted vision limit or waiting for that moment of still seeing to tease out detail. This is mine: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ironing-Chairs-Leifheit-Accessories/s?rh=n%3A3576374031%2Cp_89%3ALeifheit

Great to hear, Piero. Sounds like the fans made a big difference; I’ve never used mine, but I wonder whether it might be worth plugging them in. How did you find the Antares? I’m up north this weekend so unfortunately missed the clear (and finally dark!) skies!

Managed to get the shadow (and a beautifully coloured GRS) through some of the worst seeing conditions I’ve encountered for a while (and then cloud cover). I couldn’t make out Io on the disc though - I just wasn’t going to get such subtle contrast in those conditions. It was like watching the sky through a boiling kettle!!

Off to the very south west of Cornwall with my Altair Astro Starwave 70, which is a joy to use under dark skies. A couple of degrees further south should lift Scorpius and Sagittarius a bit further out of the murk, especially with 270 degree sea horizons. That said, I’ll miss the extra few degrees that the west coast of France can give.

It’s a bit perplexing. At that time and date, most of Orion will have been below the horizon at your location, so I wonder if you’d been imaging Orion earlier on and this was a frame taken as you packed up, or somewhere else in the sky? Betelgeuse would have been only 10 degrees above the horizon by that time.

What date was the pic taken? Doesn’t immediately ring any bells.

Think you might need to reattach the pic!

Nice report, Nick. I was out for a couple of hours it’s last night on Jupiter, Saturn, a few quick doubles in Cygnus and M13. Just a very casual session to unwind. I found the seeing quite shoddy though, and aside from some dark detail on the NEB, both planets were a bit underwhelming in the dob. M13 made up for it though, as did Albireo, and I even enjoyed the atmospheric appearance of the moon rising through the broken clouds. Nothing new, nothing in the least bit challenging, but some much needed relief for weary eyes!!

Speculative, but might have been a weather balloon, possibly faintly lit by light pollution etc? Just thinking about the bell shape. Your magnification wouldn’t have been particularly huge with that scope and eyepiece, so might account for it? Otherwise I’m all outta ideas!!