Nyctimene

I came across another impressive galaxy in Leo Minor, just 3.5° N of 3395 - NGC 3432 or Arp 206 (at least I think it is it - lost the target, when swapping eyepieces). Mag 11.1, a bright and large 5:1 edge-on galaxy, superimposed stars, mottled. Will revisit it next time, seems a rewarding target (NSOG rates it with four of five stars). Stephan

Was out in the garden with the 18" Obsession yesterday evening under sub - average conditions (NELM 4.9; SQM-L 20.9), but with a lately cleared SE horizon - a high spruce tree in the neighbourhood had been felled two weeks ago. During the astronomical dusk, I was warming up with the two Leo triplets, at 85x mag (ES 24/82°). Still somewhat dim views, but I was able to make out the 11.9 mag gx 3389. Over, starting from Xi U Ma (Alula Australis) to the galaxy 3430, a rather diffuse 11.7 mag patch, close to a conspicuous chain of three stars. The fainter (13.1) 3424 close to the SW was clearly elongated E-W 2.5:1, and almost more conspicuous than it's brighter neighbour. 3413 was the next 13.1 member in the chain. Best views I had with the 12.5 mmf Docter, giving 164x mag. Located at the edge of the 0.5° field was the nice interacting galaxy pair Arp 270. 3395 (12.0) was elongated and visible at an angle of about 120° in contact with the fainter (12.6) 3396. I could not spot the brighter core region of 3395. Some views in a starfield I've never visited before, and nice spring targets beyond the Leo groups. Finished after 11/2 hours at 23.00 CEST; pleased with the now unrestricted (from E to S) horizon. Thanks for reading Stephan

Moon: the concentric crater Marth in Palus Epidemiarum. Spotted the outer ring, 6.5 kms diameter, many times easily, but never the inner ring (located deeper). Hesiodus A close by is way more easy. Guess, I'll have to wait for the combination of good seeing and favourable illumination. Deep Sky: Coddington's Nebula (IC 2574), a member of the M 81/82 group. Not listed in the NSOG (Night Sky Observer's Guide). Due to it's low surface brightness of 14.6, this 10.4 mag dwarf galaxy in UMa needs very dark skies and high transparency to be visible as an extended (13x5 arc min!) dim glow. Many times, when observing M 81/82 and other members of the group, I've tried to spot this elusive target, and only twice, IIRC, was successful, many years ago. Maybe, I'll try the observation with very large exit pupils (8 mm and beyond). Could be a first experience to reach the even more elusive IFN's (Intergalactic Flux Nebulas), I've never tried; but I think, I'll have to wait for the minimum of the sunspot cycle (too much skyglow atm). Stephan

Spotted Mercury from 20h20min until 20h55min CEST, starting with the 16x70 APM binoculars and, with darkness increasing, switching to smaller ones (8x30, 2.1x42, 8x21 Docter monocular). From 20h35min, the planet could easily be made out without optical aids (about 8° elevation). A good start, and looks promising for the next two weeks. Stephan

You can, with some restrictions, if your window panes are of decent quality. I've done this several times in winter with a small tabletop Dobsonian (Skywatcher Infinity 76, 76/300, "Blue Penguin"), and posted the results on here. As long as you keep the magnification low (30x with the Penguin), the views are rather good, esp. for open clusters, brighter galaxies, even the moon. The sky area is rather limited; darkening the room is a must; and you should keep the scope's view as perpendicular as possible to the window. Of course, it's a substitute, but still better than to watch TV. Here's my report about an observation of Luna five years ago: Posted March 2, 2018 (edited) When I woke up unplanned at 2 a.m., the full moon looked through some fast travelling clouds, indicating that the strong gusty wind, paired with low temperatures of about -7° C, still not had calmed down. Under these conditions, I was too lazy to put out any gear; so I grabbed the "Blue Penguin", a Skywatcher Infinity 76, (small, but decent 76/300 dobsonian Newton, designed for children), and put it on the sideboard under the south facing kitchen window. The kitchen is well warmed by an underfloor heating, so I simply stayed with pyjamas and slippers. Additional warming up was provided by stroking our cat Tabby, a trusty nightly companion. Through the double-glazed window (very good build quality), I got nice, crisp and almost undistorted views at mag 30x. I started with the Grimaldi basin at the moon's western limb; at it's SE rim, a bright area was very obvious. The walled plain Riccioli could be made out easily to the NW. Lohrmann A, a small (12 km) crater appeared as a bright tiny patch without any details (IIRC, Lohrmann A was/is, for the reason of it's brightness, part of an observing schedule (list of 30 craters), the "Berlin System", used for the evaluation of total lunar eclipses). Grimaldi C, 10 km diam. was less bright. To the SW, the triangle of craters Crüger, Rocca and Sirsalis/A followed. W of Kepler, the albedo phenomenon Reiner Gamma stood out clearly. The three large lunar ray systems of Tycho, Kopernikus and Kepler were very distinct, as always with full moon. I meandered across the lunar disc for some more minutes and spotted the 20 km crater Pytheas N of Kopernikus, Plato, the Apennines and Alpes regions. After 40 minutes, the moon slowly hid behind the roof top, and I returned to bed, being pleased by a satisfying winter session, and still warm feet! Thanks for reading There was a discussion in the CloudyNights forum about this; have a look: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/857938-observing-from-inside/ Give it a go, and let us know! Stephan

Yes, just the beginning, with the "searchlight"s spot on the western crater wall. Stephan

The drawing is taken from the net - my own drawing skills are very rudimentary. It's showing the details more clearly than most of the photos I've found. To answer your question: you pointed me to a mistake I've made accidentally! Of course, the ray's visibility will depend on the moon's night visibility. So, the second column, giving the UT time, is important. April 29th, the ray will appear at 9h36min UT; and I assume, that it can't be made out in the daylight, due to low contrast. But I omitted the next occasion May 28th, 22h00min UT - a good opportunity (albeit starting at midnight); I cannot recall, why I made this mistake. I shall correct this in my first post. Thank you for the hint! Stephan

Was lucky enough to spot the Hesiodus ray just now in a short cloud gap between two rain showers. The Heritage 130 P Flextube, equipped with the 2.25x Baader Turret barlow and the Seben 8-24 mm zoom, showed again it's qualities as a perfect grab-and-go scope. At 22h 30min CEST, I found the light ray already fully evolved, as a tiny searchlight, projecting an obvious light spot at the W crater rim. Hesiodus' floor was still completely dark, as was the interior of Hesiodus A, so no concentricity visible here. Seeing was moderate, allowing magnifications of around 150-170x. The third time for me to spot this event. Next time, I'll try to observe the opposite phenomenon, the Pitatus ray, but for that I will have to rise in the morning hours (waning moon). Have a look: http://www.lunar-occultations.com/rlo/rays/pitatus.htm Stephan

Once again, this lunar light-shadow phenomenon will be observable Thursday evening. A cleft in the wall of the neighbouring crater Pitatus projects a triangular light ray (like a searchlight) across the floor of crater Hesiodus for several hours. Beginning: March 30th, 20.20 (UT). Next occasion will be May 28th, 22h00min UT, according to this: http://www.lunar-occultations.com/rlo/rays/hesiodusp.htm A magnification of 100x and more is recommended; and you may have a look, if you can spy the concentricity of the small crater Hesiodus A close by. Good luck with the hunt! Stephan

Bought one eight weeks ago, and immediately fell in love with it. Excellent build quality, rather lightweight (2250 gr), and matches very good with a Manfrotto video fluid head on a vintage tripod with center crank column. Very sharp views for more than 90% of the radius of the field of view, No chromatic aberration; gives a very "vibrant" view. No problems to use it with glasses. A real joy under dark skies; M 1 easy; spotted gx NGC 2903 in Leo under 4.5 mag NELM skies without problems; could go on and on.. Very indicative is, that I'm drawn to use it often in daylight just to spot trees, birds, buildings, whatever else, simply to enjoy the perfect quality views with it. Binoculars for a lifetime! Stephan

Please avoid cleaning the mirrors; they could be scratched very easily (and, as your picture shows, seem to be in rather good condition), and do not even touch them (tell this to your granddaughter!). Other optical surfaces, as the finderscope's (left tube in your picture above; the right one is the Barlow lens), can be carefully cleaned with a photographer's airblower. Keep the telescope horizontal, when you work on it, so any falling parts cannot harm the primary mirror. Stephan

I'm a bit confused. The picture you posted shows a quite different scope, compared to your quoted Tasco 60 mm refracting telescope. I've looked it up; and it's a reflector scope, that uses mirrors to create a view of the sky (a larger mirror, the primary, at the lower/back end of the tube, and a smaller one, the secondary mirror, at the upper end). In this case, it would be a 4 1/2" Newtonian telescope (114/900 mm); even better and very good as a starter scope. Refractor telescopes use a big lens, like a camera lens, to give a picture of the sky, and are usually smaller than reflectors When you take photos tomorrow, include please, at any rate, a picture of the type plate. Stephan

Hello, and welcome to SGL from a German stargazer! Forget the 300x magnification - a telescope with 60 mm objective lens diameter (aperture) will be useful for magnifications of 100-120x. But this will be enough to get some nice views of the moon, of planets, double stars, open star clusters - a whole new world to discover is waiting for your granddaughter and you! Have a read in the Beginner section, and keep asking and posting. SGL is a very helpful community. Here a short YouTube instruction regarding 60 mm refracting scopes on equatorial mounts: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-lm&q=Tasco+60+mm+telescope+youtube#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:63d603db,vid:F0R55KbInnY Enjoy the journey! Stephan

I' m owner of both, Uranometria and IsDSA; and I also prefer the Interstellarum. As Rob already pointed out, the IsDSA evaluates the visibility of targets, whereas the Uranometria just gives the object's position - no matter of what brightness (this you'll have to look up in the 3rd volume, the Deep Sky Field guide). For planning, it's way faster to use the IsDSA suggestions for the appropriate scope size. Even the very useful planetarium software programs, e.g. SkySafari (very recommendable!) or Stellarium, are of limited value, because they don't give figures of the very important surface brightness of targets (one of the reasons, why I'm still using the Uranometria field guide, which lists them!). The IsDSA uses the software "Eye and Telescope" to determine the visibility, and these algorithms are verified by many observations. Interstellarum and SkySafari Plus/Pro are my most used tools nowadays, when it comes to planning and star hopping. Stephan

The Takahashi FC-100 DZ seems to be immediately available from this European retailer; have a look: https://www.intercon-spacetec.de/teleskope/teleskope-bauart/apochromat/5838-takahashi-fc-100dz-komplettpaket-.html Over the last twenty-five years, I made several purchases from intercon-spactec (e.g. the "Füssener Astrostuhl"), and found them very reliable; they have been Takahashi retailers for more than two decades. Stephan

Learning never ends. When I was preparing for another lunar session yesterday, planning to revisit the splendid floor-fractured crater Gassendi at the N end of M. Humorum, I consulted the comprehensive three-volume "Luna Cognita" handbook by R.A. Garfinkle (a Christmas gift). For the first time, I learned, that there exists an official IAU nomenclature for the numerous rilles on the crater floor (see picture below). I decided to spot as many rilles this evening, as would be possible with the 12" f/5 under rather good seeing conditions. The EQ platform tracked the scope quite nicely, so I had enough time to concentrate on the details, using a 6 mmf Ortho, giving 250x mag. I could easily make out rilles I, II, and III (parallel to I and encompassing with I the small, but conspicuous crater Gassendi N; not named in the picture). VII was also visible quite well, whereas VI was more difficult, and only visible in moments of really good seeing. IV and V were out of reach, even with increased mag of 300x (10 mmf Ortho + 2x Barlow), as were the rilles VIII and IX (outside the crater, W of the conspicuous Rima Mersenius I). I spent almost an hour with observing the rilles; and, somewhat exhausted, went over to craters Kepler and Encke. Again, a picture in "Luna Cognita" led me to a pretty three crater chain E-W, all in contact, that forms Encke M (see second picture below; also shown in the "21st Century Atlas of the Moon", 22, pg. 57; C 3). Well visible with 250x; and probably secondary craterlets, similar to those in the proximity of Copernicus. Returning to the S, I gave my old nemesis, the concentric crater Marth, another try with 300x mag, and I think, that I could glimpse the inner crater ring for fractions of a second two or three times, but not with certitude. By contrast, Hesiodus A (in the same field of view!) showed it's concentricity plain as day. So I'll have to wait for even better seeing. Still, a really successful and pleasing observation, ending after 11/2 hours at 21.00 CET. Learning never ends; and Luna never disappoints! Thanks for reading Stephan

Observed the waxing gibbous moon this evening with the 12" f/5 Hofheim Instruments traveldob. The seeing was clearly better than during the last few days, and allowed a magnification of 167x (9 mmf UWA). Before, I had a short look at the Venus-Jupiter conjunction for the third time; both in the same TFoV with a 26 mmf eyepiece. Crossing over to the moon, I found, to my surprise, the terminator exactly over Sinus Iridum, and it's illuminated rim giving the illusion phenomenon of the "Moon Maiden". The lava ripples on the floor were sharp and conspicuous. A nice detail was the ink black triangular shadow of Promontorium Laplace, always solitary in the wide sun-lit surroundings. Moving S along the terminator, I stopped at Mare Nubium to assess the seeing quality with the observation of the concentric crater Hesiodus A. When I can make out it's smaller inner ring, the seeing is promising; so it was this evening. Bullialdus showed it's terraced crater walls; S of it the magnifying-glass form of Kies was easy; and even the lunar dome Kies Pi (Lunar 100 No. 60) was visible. It's tiny summit pit was not in reach. The Rimae Hippalus showed as sharp curved lines. Promontorium Kelvin close W presented as a massive rock formation, casting a big block of shadow. The rille on the floor of Agatharchides P was visible in moments of better seeing. Finally, I had a look at "The Helmet" (target described in the "21st Century Atlas of the Moon"; 23; pg 58). A light patch of volcanic material forms the helmet, with a mountain as the chin buckle. Once more pleased with the optical qualities of the 12", I finished the observation after one hour at 20.30 CET. Thanks for reading Stephan

Ok now; found the solution - the solar system small bodies ephemerides had not been actualized for two days; now the comet is in the database.

Thank you, Pixies. Did the same research, and SkySafari 6 Pro shows me just the other three objects, C/2023 A 3 still missing. Have to recheck on my older smartphone, with SkySafari 4 Plus. Stephan

Most of my scopes are living in peaceful harmony in an extra unheated room within an old barn, so always close to the nighttime temperatures outside, and with grab-and-go convenience (even the 18" Obsession takes just three minutes for rollout). During the last twelve years never any problems with moisture or critters (except spiders). The two smallest ones, the 80/400 frac and the 76/300 are stored in the house, as well as the binoculars and eyepieces. The mighty Heritage 130 P is also stored in the barn, just in another room. The money for the extra room was well spent. Stephan

Was not able to find the comet listed in my SkySafari Pro 6.0 -? Stephan

Nice view of the Venus-Jupiter conjunction this evening with the mighty 130 P Flextube. At 25x mag, both planets were well placed within the 2.5° TFoV. Jupiter's four moons, 3 to the W, were visible, as well as the equatorial bands with higher mags (72x, 108x). Venus was visible as a very bright disc, but I could not make out the 85% phase, due to the rather bad seeing close to the horizon. Had a short look at the moon, the terminator over M. Imbrium and M. Nubium. Rupes Recta (the "Straight Wall") gave a nice, contrasty view; and I was able to make out the small crater Thebit D (5 km diameter) at the Wall's N end. The Rima Birt remained invisible. Alphonsus showed the three dark lava spots on it's floor. The seeing worsened, so I finished after half an hour of observing at 19h 45min CET. Details about the planet conjunction during the next days I've posted in the "Head's up!" section. Thanks for reading Stephan

I'd like to share the contents Ronald Stoyan (head of the Oculum Verlag (Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas)) gave in his weekly newsletter yesterday: During the next few days, Venus and Jupiter will meet in the evening sky; the closest approach (about 40 arc min, just a bit more than a full moon's diameter) will be March 1st (Venus 40 arc min NW of Jupiter) and March 2nd (Venus 42 arc min NE). Quite an easy target in binoculars of any size; and even in many telescopes both planets will fit in the same field of view with a low power eyepiece. Jupiter's size is 34 arc sec, Venus, though brighter, just 12 arc sec, with the disc illuminated to 85%. At the moment (Feb.28th, 16h15min CET), the distance is 1°38'. The conjunction is short-dated due to Venus' rapid movement; at the end of the week, the distance will have increased to 5°; so take your chance to get some nice pictures! Thanks for reading Stephan

#9 of the linked CN article reminds me of this useful trick to spot the faint Crescent nebula NGC 6888, a summertime/autumn target: You start the star hop at Sadr (Gamma Cygni) and move about 2° to the SW, exactly in the direction of Albireo (Beta Cygni). A star trapezium (6.3-8.0 stars) of roughly 30 arc min will come into view. It's western corner is formed by a pair of stars; the slightly fainter one is the variable Carbon star RS Cygni, that is really conspicuous and unmistakable with it's orange-red colour (B-V: 2.98, according to SkySafari). Spotting it will confirm, that you are on the right track. The Crescent with it's three embedded stars is just 20 arc min more to the SW (switch to a UHC or O III filter). Two special targets in the same field of view! Stephan

Observed R Lep again two evenings ago, this time with the 12" f/5 Hofheim traveldob. Again, rather poor visibility ( NELM 4.8). The star was brighter and comfortably visible, but still for me somewhat "underwhelming", i.e. lacking the desired "reddishness". Contrasting to Nik271 above, I'm waiting for the star's minimum, to get that deep red (maybe next winter/spring, if I'm interpreting the AAVSO data correct). But the perception of red under conditions of darkness seems to be a rather complex phenomenon; there's the "Purkinje" effect, but also additional physiological factors. Found some interesting information about this (along with many links) here, esp. # 31: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/827251-what-are-reddest-stars-the-ones-with-the-highest-b-v-index/ Could be a nice project, to spot the brighter C stars at their minimum, using the 12" or 18". Stephan