davhei

That is an excellent report! Thanks for sharing! Hope to manage on last dark sky session later this week to cap off the season. Skies here will start to get too bright soon.

Good luck! Post a report if you manage to observe it.

Caught SN2021hiz this evening and estimated the visual magnitude at 13.2

Fantastic description, made me smile. Think you put it beautifully with the shared experience, that is an aspect I haven’t reflected on but it is certainly very much so.

Here is an aavso-chart of the same area. Note the long chain of stars-asterism at 7 o’clock. The nova forms a nice triangle with the 90 and 91 stars.

I visually estimated it at 8.1 this evening at 18:20 UT. Seems to be brightening. Will be fun to follow.

Thanks! Looks quite difficult.

A 20 min drive with a 10” dob to 21 SQM site. My driveway is SQM 19.8 and ok for brighter objects but for DSOs going to the dark site makes a big difference.

It seems this long monitored asteroid is passing close to earth (five times the earth lunar distance) around March 21st 2021 at which time it is reportedly expected to reach an apparent magnitude of 11.7. Easily within reach of moderate aperture scopes. Indications are that it is in the southern hemisphere with limited visibility from the north. It would be nice to get coordinates but I have been unable to find any. Anyone else? Some info here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/asteroid-2001-fo32-will-safely-pass-by-earth-march-21 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/(231937)_2001_FO32

I have similar memories from just a couple of years ago, observing M42 with street lights close by. Noted that the nebula had a distinctly greenish hue. Can’t say I have seen it since, then again I haven’t observed it under the same circumstances. I shall have to remember to take note next time.

Hi Aston, I have a Skywatcher 10” f/4.7 dob and I use four eyepieces that I feel cover my needs. 2” 27 mm x44 - Finder eyepiece for wide field views. 1.25” 14 mm x86- Low/medium magnification that is great on the moon and larger DSOs such as open clusters. 1.25” 10 mm x120 - Medium mag and a good general use performer on DSOs. 1.25” 6 mm x200 - High mag that is still usable under most sky conditions. To get more options I sometimes use a x2 Barlow with the 14 mm and 10 mm when conditions allow slightly lower or higher mag than the x200 provided by the 6 mm EP. Occasionally use it with the 6 mm EP but that is more for specialty purposes as it yields very high mag. I have tried to select the eyepieces to have adequate eye relief for comfortable viewing, an exit pupil in the low magnification range between 5,5 and 6,5 mm and and a few options around 1 mm at the high end including barlow use. Since it is a fast scope I opted for well corrected EPs from the start and have not regretted it. Being patient and buying used reduces the cash outlay and also gives the option of reselling without losing too much money if you for some reason decide the hobby isn’t for you. Good luck!

Here is an aavso-chart of the immediate vicinity. Suggest you use the right ascension and declination in your favourite app or star atlas to find the location in Perseus. Cheers.

Sketched the nova this evening. Appears to have brightened. I estimated the magnitude to 9.5 - 10.0.

Or even better: http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14224

Found it through this link RA 04 29 1884 Dec. +43 54 232 http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/unconf/followups/J04291884+4354232.html

Just got back in after observing the recently discovered nova in Perseus. A fairly long star hop from Alpha Persei, probably took me 10-15 minutes, and then when I was literally one field of view away clouds rolled in and blanked out the view entirely. Sigh. Waited for the better part of an hour hoping for at least some gaps in the cloud cover since I only needed a few minutes. Suddenly the skies cleared enough to start observing again. Nova was just where it was supposed to be, brighter than a recent image where it was slightly dimmer than the adjacent star. Now it was slightly brighter than the neighbour, I estimate mag 9.5 - 10.0. Managed a quick sketch before the gap in the clouds closed again. Lovely session all in all!

Welcome Sophia, sounds like you will be able to contribute a lot to the forum. Enjoy and I look forward to seeing you around!

I suppose you refer to the object at 11 o'clock about half way out from centre that is moving past two bright stars. I also note a dimmer object at 2 o'clock about half way from centre moving in approximately the same direction as the first. Be interested to hear what you find out!

Have you looked at NGC 2261? R Monocerotis is a T Tauri variable inside a reflection nebula. I’ve only observed it visually but found it quite beautiful.

Welcome Dave!

I have a spiral bound A5 pad with the same paper thickness 96g/sqm. Works well I think. Nice and thick, but still lots of pages. I use a 2H pencil for pinpoint stuff and writing and a 4B together with a drawing stump to get diffuse effects for nebulosity and the like. A good eraser and also an eraser pen has been very useful for getting details in.

@jonathan Well done, looks like you got a lot of detail in. I was looking for hazy clouds around the north pole but couldn’t say for sure. I feel like I am much more familiar with an area after attempting a sketch. It makes you pay attention to detail and how features fit together over the whole field of view. It is nice if the sketch turns out reasonably close to reality but the process itself is the biggest benefit I think.

Out observing Mars this evening, the last time was on the night between Sunday and Monday. In the last session I saw the Syrtis Major area in magnificent detail, seeing was stable and in the excitement I forgot I wanted to draw a sketch of it (a neighbour stopped by and we observed together). Before going out tonight I made a practice sketch from memory based on the session before and saved it in my sketchbook even though it was just a test of sorts. Never done any planetary sketching really. Tonight I saw an area I hadn’t seen before and this time I gave sketching it a go. After a while I saw a familiar vista rotate into view, the dark patch I had just drawn at the five o’clock position turned out to be Syrtis Major right where I started observing the session before. Really enjoyed the connection between sessions and the good seeing tonight. Some thin cloud but it didn’t really matter that much. Here are the two sketches, first the one from tonight’s session, the Elysium region I believe, and then the test sketch of Syrtis Major based on the view from four nights ago.

I observed Mars first in early July, then mid August, ten days ago and now just last night and I definitely believe the south polar ice cap has reduced a lot. I thought the difference between mid august and five weeks later was significant. Was shocked it seemed to disappear so fast! I cant rule out that the planetary rotation/orientation and psychological factors make me overstate the difference to a certain extent though...

Welcome Junare, Astronomy is a learning hobby for sure. Enjoy and see you around the forum.