IB20

With the clouds rolled in for the foreseeable I’ve decided to wrap my Sheliak observing and plot the data. Certainly have learned lots during this, particularly the things that can affect apparent magnitude. Poor transparency, referencing against other variables and expected bias all play a huge part when trying to stay objective and record an accurate reading. It’s been fun though, yet frustrating at the start when the cloud seemed to coincide with the dimmest magnitude. Need a new target now…

Have just had the 8” dob out and after leaving to acclimate for 30-45 mins, the seeing is so poor that couldn’t push the mag up to more than 120x. Higher mags caused softness, bubbling and adc which meant teasing out any detail impossible. At 120x it’s just so bright that again, all planetary disc detail is lost. Titan, Dione and Rhea easily visible however. The small Tak seemingly copes much better with the poor seeing and heat loss from my patio and house.

The Pentax 5XW is a fantastic EP, probably my best but on planets I think I’m going to need more mag. The TOE 4mm is providing that low end higher mag of 143x, anything more than that I’m finding the seeing needs to be better which our UK skies aren’t reliable for. It’s just so comfy to use too and makes observing easy. It’ll be interesting to see what wins when I get chance to observe Jupiter.

The 4mm TOE is quickly elevating itself to the top of my eyepiece list. Just oozes quality.

🤣 yeah PM. That 4am rude awakening turned my brain to mush.

Saw that Saturn had just peeped over the hedges around 11:30pm so quickly got the Tak 76DC out. Seeing was quite fuzzy which may be due to it being quite low still. Occasional ADC was seen too, particularly in the Pentax 3.5XW, again a low altitude artefact. The 4mm TOE was the best performer of the night. Saturn’s ring system tilting more towards the equator than last year but still marvellous to look at. The Cassini division bleeding in and out of view and thick brown Northern hemisphere banding on show. A duller, grey Northern polar region sat atop of the disc. Titan stood out brightly in every eyepiece I tried but a 2nd moon, Rhea was only visible with 5-3.5mm EPs. Other tiny points of light were occasionally visible with averted vision, certainly Dione and potentially Tethys. I tried to push the mag to 228x with the TOE 2.5mm but the seeing wasn’t there. Two things to note about the eyepiece is the 0.33mm exit pupil didn’t seem to bother me and Saturn looks huge in the small Tak. On nights of excellent seeing this eyepiece is going to be insanely good. I was woken up at 4am by my screaming toddler and after sorting him took a quick peek of the skies. Jupiter was so bright and so high, I was sorely tempted to observe again. The need for sleep won over though and the king of planets will wait for next time. Delighted that the planets are back with us, it’s going to be a fascinating season.

Have the 2.5mm too but waiting to give it a proper go, Mars & Saturn should be goers with it.

Cartwheel Galaxy

The Tak TOE 4mm plays lovely with the 76DC, just saying.

Don or Louis, no idea if either of you can answer this but I read a few things about UHC filters being good to split Antares. Upon trying (Astronomik UHC) I got a magenta point of light star with a large blue-green “shadow”, it almost certainly wasn’t its companion due to the size, so any idea what it was?

Very nice. Definitely a good thing to have a wide variety of hobbies.

Were both these with the nagler or the zoom? I’ve never known what mag to try in the dob and what kind of exit pupil. Is the Moonlite nice and easy to swap between 2 & 1.25”?

Glad you’ve had opportunity to have a night Astro session to rejuvenate the mojo, really enjoy reading your observing sessions especially your range of instruments and choice of targets. I guess we’re all in the same boat when it comes to solar, I haven’t seen the sun since the 40°C degree day!

I’m kinda not bothered that it’s been full cloudy over a lot of the summer so far, like you say lack of darkness and atmospheric warmth aren’t conducive to good observing sessions. It’s made me not want to stay up really late to see the planets too which has helped me not be a state the day after. Really, really looking forward to the evening planetary extravaganza round the corner however!

I have one but rarely use it but I’m in bortle 6-7. I think if you could pick up a cheaper 2nd hand one, in bortle 3 it could probably be quite a useful addition.

Had a rubbish day today but always good to get home and see a postie drop off from FLO. Got a real bargain on this so couldn’t resist, may get a 2nd for binoviewing potential if it’s any good.

Anyone fancy having a go at GLASS-z13?

Just over 40°C in Leicestershire. 🔥

Some nice images of Messier 74 yesterday from JWST. Credits: @gbrammer and Judy Schmidt.

This is from JL Dauvergne on Twitter, outstanding capture with a Tak Mewlon 300.

I have a 1.25” Lunt Herschel wedge which I use in a 3” refractor, it has never even got slightly warm to the touch.

A nice image of Jupiter’s ring here. 😃

Ah thanks, that’s very kind. I do sometimes but they’re only single phone snaps, feels a bit intimidating going up against proper imagers! Being primarily an observer I natural gravitate towards this part of the forum too.

If seeing is good you can see plenty of detail in large sunspots. The darker region of the sunspot is the umbra and the greyer area surrounding the umbra is the penumbra. It’s possible to see striations and filaments in the penumbra in good seeing. The activity is “still” however but does change from hour to hour. If you monitor sunspots over days you’ll notice quite a lot of change from the sun’s activity and its rotation. I use a specialist solar wedge and a green continuum filter which I find brings out the detail a lot more than without one, especially the lighter contrasting areas called the faculae. Heres an unprocessed image straight from the eyepiece on my phone and a mono shot I’ve run through Adobe. I must say that the sharpness you see is better than the unprocessed version which at times can be astonishing clear. I love white light solar viewing, what’s not to like about astronomy in the sun and warmth!