David Levi

I didn't experience the effect last night but I had the problem, if you can call it that, last month. Like you, it happened looking at the heavily cratered area around Clavius. It was so bad at one stage during that particular night that I had problems seeing the craters as concave. They just kept jumping back to convex at almost every viewing after looking away. A curious and confusing at first optical illusion. The mind plays tricks eh.

I've packed up now and didn't see your report about the rille on the floor of the Alpine Valley until now. A challenge for the future. I agree that the Moon was looking fantastic tonight. Spectacularly crisp and clear. The highlight for me was Hesiodus A crater. The two concentric craters showing up well with a half shadow across the craters but with the inner crater rim just about visible all the way around. Other notable views were of the ejecta around Copernicus, the Davy Crater Chain and Lambert R. I had to drag myself away or I would be good for nothing tomorrow.

I was bino viewing with the 100mm refractor so I couldn't give an accurate magnification that I was using. Somewhere between 250 and 300x I would imagine.

That's a very neat job. It looks great.  Funnily enough, I made a little aluminium plate for my Skywatcher  6x30 finderscope yesterday.  First time that I have ever drilled and tapped a hole. In the plate, not the telescope of course🙂. Much more comfortable with the 90 degree finder when I used it last night on the Moon. The adjustment screws on the Skywatcher are so much easier to use than the Takahashi ones.

Yep, stunning shots. Good enough for a sky guide book. Beautiful detail.

Great report. I enjoyed M51 last night as well. Looking through someone else's telescope!

I had a lovely session last night out in the Brecon Beacons. The transparency wasn't brilliant but I've come to expect that recently. There always seems to be some sort of high level haze or passing thin clouds. The Milky Way was visible but not particularly distinct low in the sky.  I was using my 8" reflector.

As it was still rather light at 11pm, I decided to start with some bright targets and although it was in the west I had some nice views of the open clusters in Auriga M36, M37 and M38. 

I had a quick look at the Ring Nebula, M57, in Lyra. Very bright and as always benefitting from flicking the eye between direct and averted vision.

In the constellation of Hercules, M13 was looking fantastic at 200x magnification and this led to a bright globular cluster feast. All at 200x, I then observed M92 also in Hercules, M3 in Canes Venatici and M5 in Serpens Caput.

I've been tempted by ever more challenging targets as I've become a more experienced observer and I think that I may have neglected some of these bright globular clusters. I was completely wowed by them especially M5 (again). Better than M13? Possibly. It has a more pleasing distribution of well defined stars.

Not that I didn't then go for some difficult targets. The globular cluster M68 in Hydra was a faint grey smudge, but fairly large. Even fainter was the galaxy M83, again in Hydra. I was wiggling the controls and using averted vision to see this galaxy. It was at it's meridian when I spotted it having failed to do so earlier in the session.

An observing buddy had their 12" dob out and I observed the spiral arms in the Ursa Major galaxies, M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy and M101. I did try to look at them with my telescope, for comparison purposes, but they were too vertical for my equatorial mount. This was one of the highlights of the session having never seen any of this detail in them before.

I couldn't resist taking in the Leo Triplet, all in the same field of view. This seems to attract me in every observing session in the Spring.

I had a good look at the northern galaxies in the Virgo cluster. Starting at Vindemiatrix, I galaxy hopped to Markarian's Chain. Observing M60, M59, M58, M89, M90, M91, M88, back down to M87 (still couldn't see the black hole), before moving across to the bottom of Markarian's chain, M86 and M84 with the Eyes just to the east of M86 and the other faint galaxies trailing northwards from there. I took in broad views of of these galaxies at 42x magnification.

A much better session than earlier in the week when dew started to form after about an hour. Last night there was no condensation in three and half hours.

Lovely report. I was cruising that area as well. I took ages to reacquaint myself with galaxy hopping from Vindemiatrix and only saw and identified a few of the galaxies. Like you I tried for the black hole in M87 but only saw a reasonably bright fuzzy galaxy. I now realize that if you couldn't see it with your 12" reflector then I stood no chance with my 8". Perhaps better skies or a 14" scope? ?

Whether that black circle is central or not depends on the telescope. Here is a link to the document that is very popular as a guide to Newtonian reflector collimation:-

http://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/collimation-guide-newtonian-reflector/

Provided those cross hairs in the picture are centred on the primary mirror centre dot then your collimation looks ok to me, for a fast Newtonian reflector e.g. f5. A star test when you get the chance will show you how good it is.

Yes, I saw the lightening in the background just behind the top of the rocket before launch. The sea was really choppy for the landing as well.

Well, that was a great way to start a Saturday. I still find the landing of the first stage rocket incredible. 

That sounds good Neil. I'll be interested to see what the more experienced observers recommend as I have been thinking about getting a tripod and mount for a grab and go set up. I'm sure you've read a bit about it already but with such a large amount written it can be difficult to sum up or bring to a decision point the best items. My sticking point so far has been deciding on a tripod that's light but also good at damping vibrations.

Here's my back garden:-

Zenith sky brightness information

SQM    19.09 mag./arc sec2
Brightness    2.49 mcd/m2
Artif. bright.    2310 μcd/m2
Ratio    13.5
Bortle    class 6
Elevation    14 meters

And here's where I went last night and will be going again tonight in the Brecon Beacons:-

Zenith sky brightness information

SQM    21.76 mag./arc sec2
Brightness    0.213 mcd/m2
Artif. bright.    41.7 μcd/m2
Ratio    0.244
Bortle    class 3
Elevation    378 meters

It's worth the 1 hour and 20 minute drive.

Apologies to Google.

11 minutes ago, John said:

Nid yw Perygl yn edrych ar yr haul gyda telesgop hwn

I hope it wouldn't say that. It's basically telling you that it isn't dangerous to look at the sun with that telescope. The dangers of Google translate I suspect.

Superb report John. I have nothing but admiration for you in the time and effort you've put in to giving us all this valuable information. Thanks.

Fantastic report. So well written. Clear and very interesting. £129 for a SQM from FLO at the moment I see. Hmmm.....

I have great admiration for those observers who are disciplined enough to record their observations in whatever form they have decided upon. @mikeDnight's sketch books look amazing.

However, to put an alternative view to those already expressed, I don't record anything. I may write an SGL observing report immediately afterwards if I've really had a good session that I would like to share. I enjoy my time at the eyepiece discovering new objects and revisiting favourites. That seems to be enough for me. No doubt there are many explanations why people feel the need to record their sessions and all of them are valid of course.

Congratulations on viewing a long time elusive target! An excellent report and good read with lots of detail for us newcomers to astronomy illustrating how to combine techniques to view a difficult object.

I had a crack at the Lambda Cygni double star tonight and failed to split it. I have to admit that I had a bit of a defeatist attitude approaching the target after reading that the separation was only 0.9". The best I can say is that the star didn't look exactly round at 200x magnification. Quite a nice looking blueish star to my eyes. Conditions were pretty good as well  - good transparency.

I read The Character Of Physical Law a long time ago but it is still on my bookshelf waiting to be re-read. Definitely one of the great popular science books.