Les Ewan

Hi Gus,

I always see a leaping cat when Syrtis Major , Sinus Sabaeus  and Mare Serpentis are near the centre of the disc.

1 hour ago, Knighty2112 said:

BTW: here’s the view of Mars from Skysafari which matches pretty closely what you saw in your scope with your Mars filter.

I always see a leaping cat when Syrtis Major, Sinus Sabaeus and Mare Serpentis  are near the centre of the disc!

Great report.😎 I didn't see the Red Spot myself last night as I didn't start observing until 03:00BST,so it must have rotated out of view but I did get a fairly steady observation of Jupiter with my Skywatcher 400p . In fact I manged to telescopically bag Venus ,Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune within 20 minutes as it was getting light. Venus looked particularly beautiful through 7X50 binoculars in the brightening sky. I also cheated a bit with Uranus and Neptune as I used goto to locate them on this occasion.

A admittedly weak Noctilucent display but a nice Moon/Venus  joint rising  low in the  NE at 03:18.

Taken with a undriven Nikon D3200 DSLR with the standard lens. 200ISO 8 sec exposure. 

Got these this afternoon using a Skywatcher 90mm f10 refractor and solar filter. The camera was a nikon L29 compact held at a 40mm Celestron plossl eyepiece using a digiscope bracket.

I picked up these little gems about a week ago. These 2X35 vintage opera glasses made entirely of brass cost me £10.99 from a charity shop. I bought them mainly through nostalgia because I used a similar instrument when learning the constellations back around 1971. These are  actually great fun to use, low power and super wide field. Last night for instance I got a unusual  breath taking view of the Moon and Castor and Pollux all in the same FOV. The FOV are a colossal 10 degrees.

Unique view of the Hyades, Pleiades easily fitting in the same FOV is a sight to behold. Being only  X2 instrument  some of the brighter deep sky objects are too small for these, (though the Beehive Cluster is excellent) but for extended   star fields such as around Mirfak they really come into their own. I cant wait to see the Scutum star cloud with these little wonders. A worthy addition to my binocular livery.

Although only X2 power they easily split the main pair of Epsilon Lyrae. Even last weeks large Sunspot was easily visible when held steady using both solar filter and by projection.

Simple optics of the Huygens and Galilean type give a sense of history, and the optics are easily taken apart for cleaning. Aberration is not such a problem as you would think and is most noticeable around the Moon and on the horizon when used terrestrially.

One symptom I had forgotten about using these- your fingers smell of brass afterwards!

I imaged them against my Clarke 7X50's for comparison. 

Thanks Stu. It may be of interest the simple equipment used.

Looks like Edvard Munch's Scream!😁

Being really spoilt this last few nights with transparent ,calm and relatively mild conditions.

As usual for this time of year I've been mainly among the Super Cluster galaxies. 😎

Took some time out to image The Blackeye Galaxy.

Telescope used was a Skywatcher 400P Newtonian on a driven Dobsonian mount. A Nikon D3200 DSLR was used at prime focus. The exposure was 25secs at 3200ISO

This was taken using a 90mm Skywatcher refractor on a undriven EQ2 mount. A digiscope bracket was used coupling a Nikon Coolpix L29 compact to a 40mm Celestron  plossl.  

I've been fascinated all day by that round penumbrae and spot feature above the main spot as it looks really like the grinning emoji 😀!

Thanks.

Tried to forget this troubled World for a while this morning and no better place to do it than among the galaxies of the super cluster. Took some time out to image two of every ones favourite The Whirlpool and Sombrero.

A lovely night with only a slight frost and no wind, not much dewing either. At around 03:30 however a easterly breeze sprung up and a bank of cloud spread in from the direction of the North Sea!😒 

I used a 400P driven Dob and a Nikon 3200 DSLR at prime focus.

Whirlpool.....20 sec exposure at 1600ISO

Sombrero.....20 sec exposure at 3200ISO

Used the RAW setting and a little tweaking with Fastone

Was anyone else lucky enough to see the bright green meteor at 01:12 this morning. At least of -4 magnitude from my location it was in the SW, west of Procyon, travelling  west through Monoceros. Beautiful green colour I didn't notice any trail afterwards

1 hour ago, timwetherell said:

Yes, every company and every nation will now no doubt want their own starlink and once the night sky is ruined anyway we'll probably end up space advertising billboards!

I seem to remember decades ago Coca Cola came up with this idea, so big corporations no doubt would do this if they could get away with it. 

It was great seeing last night and everything is set fine this evening as well😎. Cleaned the mirrors this afternoon so all set for tonight and no work to worry about tomorrow.

Just in case you don't know what the declination drive gear on a Dob mount looks like.😎

Even with a 16" Newt this Globular is difficult to resolve. At 600,000 light years this is the faintest and farthest Globular.

Skies last night were superb for DSO's. I think I could just about see mottling visually. I've seen it with a 12" in the past but it was a faint smudge.

Taken with a driven 400P Dobsonian and a Nikon 3200 DSLR. 15 sec exposure at 3200ISO

The sky was clear enough this morning (14th)for a couple of one hour sessions.🙂

Started after the Moon was out of the way. The sky was hazy at 3am but some brighter Geminids were visible, but by 03:45 things improved markedly and thereafter conditions were quite good with only scattered small high clouds. My first observing period (OP) was between 04:15-05:15 the second OP was between 06:01-07:01. The meteors were between about magnitude +3 to -3.

I know the reports are very sketchy ,I'm not a acquired meteor watcher, just giving a general overview of the events.

OP 04:15GMT-05:15GMT

Geminids................................18

Sporadic....................................0

At around 05:00 a negative magnitude meteor with a very short trail flashed into view near and to the west of Castor and Pollux.

OP 06:01GMT-07:01GMT

Geminids..................................21

Sporadic......................................1

Some bright meteors in this run but the highlight was a around 06:50 when a negative magnitude with a very short train (less than 1 degree) flashed into view near the Leo/Cancer boundary just west of the Sickle.

What eyepieces do you use? I was observing Uranus this evening and failed to see a satellite!🤬 I have a 16" Newt and have also tried to see Triton a few times and failed also. I usually use a 12.5mm Orthoscopic giving a power of 144X. 

I cant understand it as I have seen field stars around The Ring Nebula that are below magnitude 15 a few times, granted Uranus and Neptune are lower in the sky. 

Your success using high power has inspired me to try a barlow with the 12.5mm or maybe with my 9mm Orthoscopic giving powers  of 200X and 300X.

The sky was very transparent earlier this evening and using my Skywatcher 400P the highlights of evening were M33 and Mira. The spiral structure of the Pinwheel was though faint distinctly discernible using a 21mm Celestron Ultima Duo Plossl. 

This was my best ever view of this often disappointing object, and discovered that the best way to glimpse the spiral is not to use the usual averted vision but to look straight at it. After that I turned to Mira which I have never observed before while fainter than naked eye visibility. It was remarkably beautiful shining like a red hot cinder.

The sky soon turned milky and I got packed up as a flurry of snow ensued.

For some reason I've never tried to image The Veil before but conditions were great for DSO's in the late evening of the 29th. 

Prime focus on a driven Skywatcher 400P Dobsonian. The camera used was a Nikon 3200 DSLR at 3200ISO, 30 sec exposure.

Looking forward to seeing your DSLR images, that's how I like too image as well, maybe its not as good as a dedicated astro equipment but cheap and cheerful and great fun. However don't let it dominate over your visual observation. 

These little nearby red dwarfs are one of my favourite summer targets, there's  hardly a time in the summer and autumn that I don't spend at least a few minutes admiring them.😎

Taken early this afternoon using a Skywatcher 90mm refractor at prime focus stopped down to 60mm. Camera was a Nikon 3200 DSLR 1/500sec ex at 100ISO and Baader filter.

Just a few white light shots with simple equipment.

They were taken this morning using a Skywatcher 90mm f910mm refractor at prime focus(no diagonal). The scope is mounted on a undriven EQ2 mount.The camera was a Nikon 3200DSLR.Baader filter was used over the dust cap(so reduced to 60mm). 100ISO 1/500sec exp. I tweaked a bit using Faststone.