procky1845

Mars observed under good seeing last night with my Sky-watcher 200p. The view was fantastic last night, probably the best I've seen Mars to date. South is Up, Preceding Left. Lee

Hi, Asked in the smartphone forum (see below) but was suggested I ask here. Thanks, Lee

Hi, Just wondering, is there a general guide anywhere on the forum for smartphone photography? Or failing that a recommended online resource. I'm thinking just the basics with regards to settings etc for those of us who have literally no AP knowledge whatsoever 😀 Thanks, Lee

@markse68 we must have been out sketching at the same time. Your view is basically the same as mine. Always nice to get a double confirmation of what you've seen. 😀

Great sketch 👍

@BiggarDigger thanks for the report. I also have an 8" dob and have been considering for a couple of years if I should be upgrading to something bigger. The thing that puts me off is that I remember somebody once said to me at my local astro society when I was just getting started that they had upgraded to a bigger dob and regretted it because under light pollution the background sky was so much brighter and made the overall view a bit washed out. As somebody who primarily observes from my light polluted back garden this is obviously a concern. What is your opinion on this? Presumably the DSO's also in turn get brighter due to the extra aperture but I've never been brave enough to take the plunge as I love my 8" and don't want to ultimately regret it! Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Lee

I just bought the Hyperflex Zoom last month and have used it with great success with my 8" dob and 5" mak. Really good for the money, would recommend. Also Barlow's well. Lee

You are correct @mikeDnight. Don't have my notes to hand but think CM was about 71° from memory. I did glimpse the little fingers extending from Solis Lacus but only once and wasn't long enough for me to sketch them annoyingly. Seeing was varying wildly all the time which made it quite hard work. Might just have been more apparent because I was using the dob that night and tend to use my smaller mak mostly for planetary. Lee

Skyliner 200p this time with barlowed Hyperflex Zoom at about x240. No filters.

Sketch of Mars from last night in changeable seeing conditions. South Up, Preceding Left

Thanks Mike. I usually record time in BST in my logbook, no other reason other than that's what I've always done. I took the CM from SkySafari which I think was actually 174.x but rounded to 175 because it was close. I do have the BAA handbook actually but for some reason have never used it for Mars CM!

I also have a Skymax 127. I have most of the BST Starguider range which I bought over time to use with my dob. I have had good success with these with the SM127 as well. However, I have recently purchased the Hyperflex Zoom and am finding that I only really now tend to take the 25mm BST and the Hyperflex Zoom, and that covers pretty much everything I need for planetary. The zoom is awesome for dialing in the right magnification for the conditions. Previously I found that I was having to revert to a lower mag than really should have been possible just because the next step up in magnification was a bit too high with the fixed FL EPs. Lee

Just realised I've marked up the longitudes wrong. Should probable be ~ 85° at the preceding edge and ~265° at the following edge.

Sketch of Mars last night, seeing was pretty reasonable, much better than it has been of late for me. Lee

I'm really pleased you said that, I've been looking at that thinking I must've not seen it correctly. It was the part of the sketch that was casting doubt in my mind as I couldn't see anything obvious from the maps I looked at.

The texture around Mare Erythraeum is not really texture as such, its where the paper started dissolving as I was blending due to the ridiculous humidity 😂

Sketch of Mars from last night. I've tried to label it up with the features I "think" I've sketched. Lee

Yes I agree, it does look a bit more like an Open Cluster. Maybe looks like an open cluster with a bit of nebulosity thrown in for good measure as there is that faint background glow. It looks very un-globular to me either way, I quite like it for that fact. Looking back at my observing notes I have definitely observed it in the past, but it really stood out to me more than I remember it doing previously as quite odd looking when I observed it and made the sketch. I was reading up about M71 in Stephen O'Meara's "Deep Sky Companions: The Messier Objects" (as an aside, one of my favourite series of books!) and apparently for some time it was debated as to whether it was in fact a globular or an open cluster so we are not the first (by a long shot) to have this conversation. Lee

Thank you. Yes, I often find M97 to be suprisingly difficult also. Much more so than I would expect it to be. Lee

Hi, A few sketches I've made recently at the eyepiece. All observed using a 200p dob. Lee 9/9/20 - NGC 6905, Blue Flash Nebula (x150) 13/9/20 - M27, Dumbbell Nebula (x48) 14/9/20 - M71 (x150)

Thanks all for your help with this!

Ok, found the below on the web which is a picture from 1987 which has been updated to include the 2020 position which seems to tie in. I make the 3 bright stars top right (I've highlighted blue) to be the "nose" of the triangular pattern in my sketch (if you turn it nearly upside down as I have done below so N is more or less oriented the same way, its actually a rotated a little too far). So this indicates that the position I have Barnard's Star at coincides quite closely with where it is in this picture. It also shows that there is in fact another triangular asterism which isn't shown on my version of Sky Safari (possibly too faint?) I've highlighted the star at the corner of this in orange for comparison.

Although I'm not sure where they would be as I can't find them on sky safari either

I'm wondering if thats actually a different triangular group of stars as the scale seems somewhat different, this was one of the things that confused me also when I started looking.

Stu, I think you are correct (which is great because it also means so am I! ). Thanks very much for your help with this. I do seem to remember the star in question having a slightly red hue as well which does tie in as I believe Barnard's Star is a red dwarf. Thanks again! Lee