Stardaze

Superb John 😀 I might add to my Virgo list using some of those. ClearOutside has changed again here; 2 days ago, tonight looked to be as good as it gets, but now very patchy. Thursday may be my best opportunity to take the dob for a drive. We’re having a family day out today and I might take the scenic drive back to recce the spot I have been thinking of. How dark is your spot? I’m in a bortle 5 here but 20 mins drive south gets me into a 4.

Plenty there John and you’ve given me a tip there with M82, I hadn’t considered such high power. Tried M51 at 157x Sunday night, but it didn’t add anything on that evening. I must try that more!

Clouded over again just now, forcing me in. Had an enjoyable hour with the binos.

Super John, glad to have inspired someone to make the most of it. I’m feeling a bit too tired tonight, have my new binos at the ready instead. Hoping tomorrow is still on, though forecast has degraded a little since yesterday. Be sure to let us know how you get on!

Ah ha, you didn’t dither like I did... there were 2 copies left until this morning. Enjoy!

Delivery number 2... Been on order for 4 weeks so glad to take delivery of a pair of Helios 15x70’s with a bino bandit and Porro mounting bracket. Just need Hermes to get their act together and deliver the joystick head. Buckled earlier too at a copy of Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas as someone highlighted the current low price. Typically, I’ve stuttered and it’s on back order. Did the same with these binoculars 😂

Definitely emulsion. Hall/Stairs/Landing, lovely job..not. A week off full of ‘jobs’ 😂

Parcel number one today.. a couple of dew bands, as finder got wet last week and nearly spoilt my evenings viewing pleasure. Spare one and for EP.

I still need to get better organised, I like the idea of SkySafari logging reports. Busy painting today so I’ll have to download it later.

There was a break in cloud just after dusk for a few hours and so I grabbed the opportunity until midnight, being off from work too this week. Meteoblue had the seeing down as poor and so I confirmed that whilst realigning my finder scope. I think it did improve a little throughout the session but it wasn't great. Thanks to @Pixiesfor the SkySafari star hopping tip, worked a treat at the eyepiece last night, I seemed to get my eye into the finder scope much better tonight. Started working upwards from Vindmiatrix. M60 - Nice a distinct. M59 - Similar to M60, both stand out well as a good starting point. M58 - Notably lower in brightness than M59, no detail. Virgo A - Seemed brighter last week from memory? Markarian's Chain - I sketched this out from memory when I got back in to compare as it's my first near full chain viewed (must download SkySafari Plus later as there's only 2 galaxies noted on the basic version). M84 and M86 were easy to find, like previously. NGC 4435 & NGC 4438 stood out together quite well and I found the bottom end after a minute or so (NGC 4473 & NGC 4477) but I really had to sit there for a few minutes to wean out NGC 4461, but no sign of a companion tonight. M99 (Coma Pinwheel) - Certainly spread out without a bright core to it. M98 - Another one ticked off. M100 - Wasn't a great view but I was most pleased with the hunt and my ability tonight to find these in succession. M3 - Didn't resolve as well as last week, stars still lacking contrast even at x157. Melotte 111 - Observed this in the bino's early evening. Looked pretty good in the 10x50's. M51 - I was dying to drop in on my old favourite, now very close to zenith. I spent two stints searching hard for some structure, I could see the nebulosity around the core more clearly one side than the other but no separation. M101 - Location of the Pinwheel always seems simple up to the last couple of degrees, following the line from Mizar. It's the first time this year I have stopped by here. Because of how dim she appears tonight I over ran it to begin with, but once found, she was extremely dim. On paper, much brighter than M51 at mag 7.86 (brighter than most observed tonight) but assume the area must be less condensed and so there wasn't much to see and report. M81 & M82 - First time here too this year for me. One of my 'go-to's' from last year and I'd remembered @Stuposting a simple location hop recently, which worked a treat. Both stood out well and I felt that transparency had improved a little, or maybe that I had relaxed off and had my eye slightly more adapted? Some cloud was starting to roll in from the West and with temperature now at -1C I decided to pack up and reflect on what I felt was a more organised evening. Tuesday looks the best of the forecasts this week so fingers crossed.

It sounded self explanatory, I thought there could be something more to it. I’ll give it a go 😀

You’ll have to enlighten me please all about dob wobbling 🙂

You did really well either way, it was thick over, here. You prompted a look at when darkness ends which is middle of next month so I'll have to make an effort too. Got plagued with dew on the finder scope last time out so ordered a band for that and have got a 12v battery rigged up to get mobile. There's some clearer nights forecast next week with a new moon and I'm off all week, sounds too good to be true!

Definitely need an OIII for the veil

Some Councils are investing into smart lighting that can be remotely controlled with curfew times, but there's a balance to be found between saving themselves some money versus general safety. Our local Council are replacing on a reactive basis, and so we have probably half replaced now, but they have over-lit in places for certain. You will only receive any consideration soon after a new install for certain so definitely best to wait.

Not a bad haul at all. Still sounded like you fared better than here as I couldn't see any real structure in M51. Although LED lanterns control light spill better in general, I do find the indirect glare still much harsher if a lantern is in your peripheral vision (tend to be bluer in colour temp so adds to the perception). I have one either side of my garden but the one can cause issues if I don't hide it behind the oak tree on the roadside, I feel your pain. Do you mean that you'll have the Council install a shield?

Had another 2 hours just before retreating having lost the feeling in my fingers (minus 2 just now) Spent most of my time around Leo, M65/M66 to begin. Transparency looked reasonable but not excellent. Found the Leo Triplets relatively easily too and so observed them for a good while. M96 seemed to really stand out against it's closest neighbour as well. I fancied having a go for Markarians Chain, so using the finder armed with SkySafari I found M60 & M59 quickly. From there there seemed to be a bigger expanse of nothing until I came across M87. I completely over shot the spot next but landed on the M99 (Coma Pinwheel) so not a bad bonus galaxy, though seemingly very dim to my eye. When I finally did drop back to find the two prominent galaxies in the chain it confirmed that I had found them the previous evening. It certainly is a fitting name but I wasn't over-awed for some unknown reason. I decided to drop onto M51 just to see how she looked tonight which left me wondering whether last night probably was the better evening . Nevermind, Arcturus had risen nicely between the houses and so I thought a globular would be a nice end to the evening so I paid M3 a call. I swapped the 13mm for the 8mm to help add some contrast and fill more of the eyepiece, the 8E really did make her shine through. A nice enjoyable session with a hard frost really starting to form as I packed the gear away, the week ahead doesn't look promising at all for another go.

Still, an hour in great conditions is far better than several in poor conditions 😁 Nice combo there, fancy something like that at some point myself.

Super Steve, send me the details and I’ll have it.

Are these like a thin paper? Could do with some single use wipes of some sort. I seem to be cleaning my binoculars far too often at the moment.

The one earlier went for £39 plus £5 postage. Outbid by £1 of course 😂 I'd prefer the Manfrotto but beggars can't be too choosy it seems.

It seems that slowly these are being replaced with different versions. I missed out earlier on a Manfrotto on Ebay but can't seem to find the cheaper versions available now in the UK. Has anyone bought something similar recently? There is a tripod and head on Amazon as a package, but I don't need the tri pod.

Thanks. I'll have to work out how to rig that up as I have the controller and can get a battery, it's the cabling I'm not sure of. And a charger.

Superb, I bet everything you mention looked about as good as it gets. What little battery pack have you rigged up on the Bresser? Same scope as I have, but do need a little battery pack for when I take mine away from the back garden.

I remember you hunting around Leo last year so knew you must be very familiar with her jewels. I had a look on Stellarium earlier and some of those are very faint, 13 mag and below. Tonight looks to be excellent too at the moment and so I think I'll be inspired and set mine out to concentrate on Leo. The beauty of Leo is that they mostly seem concentrated in certain spots and it's easier to be on the area and at least spend time trying to get your eye in without that nagging feeling of being uncertain of the exact spot. I found Virgo's galaxies difficult because of the lack of features around them. Thanks for the info John.