Les Ewan

HI Chris, I spent half an hour also with my 16" Newt also without success.I left it till Sirius was at its highest (16 deg)but seeing was terriable. I have thought that I have glimpsed Sirius B in the past with 8" and 12" Newtonians but haven't been at all sure and in all honesty have had to admit defeat. Managed Porrima and Izar just after 4am but the seeing was still pretty bad but it was nice seeing Izar's bluish companion through the bubbling glare.

Venus is at it's biggest and most spectacular during its crescent stage as its approaching or receding from inferior conjunction when the crescent is easily seen with with 10X50 binoculars. The draw back then is its closer to the Sun with the inherent risk scanning the sky with the Sun close by. I took this image of Venus on the afternoon of 27 May 2012 with a 8" Newtonian 8 days before the transit.

The Saturn moons Janus and Epimethius have weird orbits they circle the planet every 13 hours in separate orbits so closely matched that every four years or so the meet up swing round each other and swap orbits.😲

HI Baz, Yes,seeing is to blame. Unfortunately a lot of the time the choice of targets are not up to us as far as seeing is concerned as Stu points out. However I've noticed on crystal clear still winter nights when seeing for high power work is poor things more often than not improve markedly around 3am (assuming it doesn't cloud over that is). Objects you struggle with on one night may stand out easily the next night,and you wonder what all the fuss was about,even on the same night sometimes. I don't observe much on windy nights but I have had some fine views of close double stars in such conditions, I assume because of the lack of the dreaded thermals from the ground, but the massive downside is of course telescope shake.

During clear spell while walking the dog I got the impression Betelgeuse was just a shade brighter last night perhaps magnitude 1.1-1.2. This is not a scientific observation just a impression. There was a gale at the time so the sky was swept clean and very transparent (between the clouds) with no Moon. PS For any newbies out there astronomic observations can be made without a dog!😁

I'm not great at variable star estimates and don't do many but studying Betelgeuse this evening using Pollux,Castor and Bellatrix I estimate Betelgeuse to be magnitude 1.2-1.3 just now. To me its fainter than Pollux but brighter than Castor and Bellatrix.

I remember a close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn around Christmas 1980 in Leo but the closest approach was in mid January 1981.It was no way near a close as this next one however.

Orion is next to Eridanus a modern asterism can be made of a shopping trolley dumped in a river!

A lot of people would like to see Betelgeuse go supernova now just for the spectacle of a star as bright as the full Moon.Personally I wouldn't it would be like wishing the death of an old friend. After a few weeks when it disappeared from view most of us would really miss it, Orion just would not be the same,although future generations of astronomers may well have a bright new planetary nebula to enjoy.

Don't worry it will come back . The magnitude of Betelgeuse has historically been hard to estimate because of its redness but I've seen estimates of its fluctuations vary from 0.2-1.4 magnitude which is as bright as Capella to as dim as Regulus. To make matters worse during the fainter part of its cycle its spectrum is even redder and the human eye is less sensitive to red light. Its said that Betelgeuse is overdue to go supernova and some Youtube comments suggest that this latest dimming could be a prelude to it exploding ,but given the historic magnitude estimates over the last couple of hundred years I wouldn't write the star off just yet.

I've been trying to spot Sirius B for decades using everything from six to sixteen inch Newtonians. The problem is here in Central Scotland Sirius only attains 17degs at best,or maybe I'm just a rubbish observer!

I've never managed the horse head visually though I have managed to image it faintly using a DSLR. I may have to invest in a Olll filter. I have easily seen the associated Flame nebula visually without a filter with a 200mm Newt .Its great to hear tales of starhopping,thanks.

I read a review in the S@N magazine recently that impressed me so much that it got me thinking 'Wow I wish I had that when I was starting out'. Its the Skywatcher Pronto AZ 130. I don't have any personal experience of this scope but I would guess it would be the perfect scope for the young beginner . It looks like it would be simple to operate and set up.I just checked the FLO website and it's selling for just under £200. But what ever you telescope you choose don't forget to advise other family members to get him the compulsory 10X50 binoculars along with books and star charts.

The padlock to my observatory shed was frozen last night too, freed it instantly by pouring a little boiling water over it.The next problem was the roof was stuck with ice and it gave gave way with a crack after pushing it up with my shoulders from the inside. After all this and some ungentlemanly language, a rare benefit of the cold weather, the ice on the wooden runners meant the roof slid back with very little effort.

It was -6.2C when I packed up at 5:30. Well worth it as I observed several spring galaxies in Leo.😎

I saw a line of STARLINK satellites in the eastern sky at around 5:20 this morning although only about 3 and 4th magnitude they looked impressive proceeding in a line towards the NE horizon .As one fades another appears to join the line. Although interesting I'm not happy about it as it in my opinion I think they degrade the night sky,especially as thousands more are planned.🙁

I admit I've never used a collimation laser but I've heard that these devices can themselves be out of collimation. I must say I've always been sceptical about these gadgets after all amateur observers have been successfully collimating their telescopes for decades before these laser devices came along. Being of the old school I always and always will adjust my optics by eye and with a pinhole cap.

Orion culminates at 3am just now and waited till then to image Rigel's companion which lies about 9" from the primary. The sky was crystal clear but with the usual turbulence. Equipment used was a driven Skywatcher 400P Flextube Dobsonian ,Nikon 3200 DSLR attached to a Celestron Ultima Due 21mm eyepiece and X2 Celestron barlow. 1.5 second exposure at 400ISO

I was looking at M36 this morning but didn't know a comet was in the vicinity. I'll try and seek it out to- night if blessed with another clear night.

I admit I don't use astro forums as much as I used too. I did visit the SPA forum regularly at one time and had a direct link to its forum on a shortcut on my laptop,but this now only brings me to the SPA home page,with no mention of a forum(that I could see) on its links. I just assumed that it had closed. PS As an aside I used to be a member of the SPA back in the 70's when it was the JAS (Junior Astronomical Society )and the three monthly magazine was called Hermes. I remember the reason for the name changes was to avoid confusion as the society is open to all ages not just juniors and Hermes was also the name of medical journal at the time.

This is my Skywatcher 400P in action earlier this evening. It was trained on the M2 Globular Cluster at the time of the image. PS Please don't laugh at my homemade 'drag' (😆)off roof observatory made out of old decking boards,....it is functionable.

My latest addition to my livery of equipment is this Nikon 3200. I bought it second hand from ebay with a very low shutter count. I didn't buy it specifically for astro work as I still have my old Canon 1100D for that purpose. But of course with the recent clear nights I couldn't resist putting it through its paces attached to my Driven 16" Skyliner Dob. It made a pretty good job of the Dumbell and Ring nebulae. However it has a couple of disadvantages compared with the Canon when using it for astro work,firstly the 10 second shutter delay has to be activated after every shot while the Canon keeps the setting until its switched off,secondly the Nikon has a very long processing time on multi second exposures. For example on a 15 second exposure the Nikon takes 17 seconds to process the image while on the same setting the Canon only takes 2 seconds.Granted the Nikon has twice the pixels but it still seems a bit excessive. Unfortunately my collection of M42 screw lenses don't come to focus with the Nikon,but I notice that Nikon lenses are fairly cheap on Ebay. The image of the Dumbell was taken last night attached to the above telescope coupled to a Celestron Ultima Duo 21mm eyepiece.15 second exposure at 6400ISO.

Poor old moon,the satellite we love to hate!

HI Mike, Just ordered it for £2.45. There's quite a few listed on Ebay.I noticed that the publisher is Octopus while Astronomy With Binoculars is Faber,I don't know what that means in regards to layout , I'll just wait and see. BTW I'll give you the sellers details in case you want to claim a 10% commission!!😆

Thanks for the tip,I will try to seek it out as I already have James Muirden's Astronomy With Binoculars which I bought many a year ago so it will be a great companion for that.