Nik271

Sometimes the seeing and the weather conspire against best made plans. Still you got Porrima, that is a nice catch! And the coming Monday and Tuesday look like clear skies and summer temperatures. Izar (Epsilon Bootis) will be much easier then. For the Moon in the field I use this small book: 'Moongazing, a beginner's guide' by Tom Kerss. It is pocket size and has 16 photographic pates with detailed labelled craters and other features, very convenient to check what I'm watching.

Oh no, they are from videos taken with my DSLR. Each individual frame is lower resolution that a still photo but when stacked the result is far superior. So I manually keep the moon in view for about 2 -3 min while recording the highest quality video my camera allows (4k in case of my canon 250) and then autostakkert stacks the best 20%. The seeing still rules though, I've started to recognise when it's worth taking the DSLR as opposed to just enjoying the view in the eyepiece.

Thanks, Mike! I found that the large 7 inch aperture really shines in good seeing and by good luck I had that over four nights this week. I keep the big Mak in an unheated shed so it's always close to ambient temperature and quick to set up and go on a manual EQ5 , just takes 10 minutes. Actually I'm mostly a visual guy and reach for the camera only in special occasions. I'm very glad how good these turned out - much better than I thought at the time. This week I've taken more images than over the whole winter

Thank you for sharing this! Actually your images look quite decent to me. The progress in the past 20 years has been in better sensors, tracking and most importantly stacking software. If it was single exposures only then I doubt Orion will look any better than your image. It's never too late to get into the hobby again and as you point out the gear can be much more portable now 😀

Nice report! I was looking at the same areas yesterday and Marius hills were indeed showing very well. I had a quick look just now while it was still clear. Bailly is fully illuminated now, and it is quite big indeed. On the north limb the peak of Pythagoras was catching the sun. I could not use magnification beyond 100x, it was too windy, but still worth it. I feel lucky, managed to have a look at the growing Moon every evening so far this week

A classic scope. At F15 who needs triplet objectives These scopes were built for high magnifications. Should be good for some planetary work too!

And I can spot 4 craterlets on Plato, very nice!

Yesterday the seeing was not as good as the early part of the week, visually there was some turbulence. So I'm pleasantly surprised how well these came out ( with Skymax 180 and a DSLR at prime focus). Just shows what lucky imaging can do I opted for 1.5 drizzle and kept the sharpening to a minimum, quite like the 'soft' look of these. Clear skies!

I observed it yesterday (25 March) and it seemed of equal brightness as the nearby SAO 20625 which is mag 7.9. It was a bit hazy and with moonlight its hard to judge precisely. Seems stable for the past several days.

Yes! This is what I was watching too until some cloud started to build up. The Marius hills are also showing nicely, as is Schickard in the south. I tried go up to 300x but found that 180x was giving a better view, there seems to be a bit of turbulence tonight.

I was looking at Gassendi too yesterday around 9pm. It was very good, indeed, best view of this crater so far with the Skyamx 180! I also saw three of Plato's cratelets at 270x . The seeing did not support anything higher here. I forgot to look at Hesiodus A, but tonight will give it a try if it stays clear. Going back at some images I took on Tuesday of Mare Nubium, I realize that I managed to capture Hesiodus A without realising it. Here is a crop: Should look even better under full illumination now if it stays clear. Thanks to @John for suggesting this interesting crater!

I tried again last night but no sign of the rille this time. Plato and Copernicus were fantastic! This time I could see a couple of the Plato craterlets, they seem to be sensitive to the angle of the sun.

Thank you! I didn't use a barlow, so the focal distance was 2700mm. I'm focusing manually and I found that when I use a barlow then its much harder to get the precise focus because the mirror shift becomes very noticeable. The scope is at F15 and my DSLR pixels are 3.7 microns, so I thought it may be a bit undersampled for lucky imaging. So I tried the x1.5 drizzle in Autostakkert and it worked well on the first image. Still learning this stuff

Lovely report, Stu! The seeing was great last night, wasn't it. Misty but very still. I also spent a long time watching the Moon. I'm quite fond of the Hadley area, it looks so much like a dry river. And my seeing is rarely good enough to see it well. Not so last night, in fact I believe I even got occasional glimpses of the central rille in Vallis Alpes with my 7 inch Mak! Hope to try to confirm that tonight again if it stays so good.

I marked the Nova on your image, it is quite faint - about 7 or 8-th magnitude but its definitely there. Nice work!

Last night (22 March) the seeing was superb despite the light mist. I spent an hour gazing at the Moon with my Skymax 180 using about 300x magnification and still enjoying steady views. I thought I even got a glimpse of parts of the elusive rille running through Vallis Alpes! I was so impressed that I took the trouble to attach my DSLR and shoot two 2minute videos (about 3000 frames each) at prime focus. After the usual processing this is what I got. I think the Skymax did well for a 7 inch scope Tycho and Clavius near the terminator: Vallis Alpes was on the edge of the frame and did not come out as sharp but still I think there is a hint of the central rille: And finally Montes Apenines with Rima Hadley. It looked just as good visually Lets hope for some more good seeing like this 🤞 Clear skies! Nik

With the next full Moon approaching fast and hopefully some clear nights ahead I made this list of lunar valleys for observation. They should be visible in most scopes in the right illumination or lunar libration. While I've seen lots of them so far there are a few that still elude me, notably the Inghirami, Baade and Bouvard. So here we go in no particular order 1. Alpine Valley (Vallis Alpes) perhaps the most famous one - easily found on the edge of Mare Imbrium between Plato and Aristoteles. 2. Schroter's Valley (Vallis Schroteri) another spectacular valley, next to Aristarchus. Both Schroter's and Alpine valleys are filled with lava and have a smooth looking floor. 3. Valllis Capella. This one is a bit obscure, it has the distinction of being the shortest lunar valley at only 47 km. It is a groove that runs through the crater Capella north of Mare Nectaris: The next three are all found close to each other in the south east (Moonbased direction) or south west for Earth observers. 4. Vallis Rheita the second longest on the Moon. Together with Snellius they are radial to Mare Nectaris and seem to be impact valleys from the birth of Nectaris. 5. Vallis Palitzsch This one is easily seen behind the crater Petavius 6. Vallis Snellius. This one is the longest valley on the Moon at 600 km but tricky to spot. I only manged to identify it last week when the Moon was at 15% (3-4 days old) And then we have three which are radial to Mare Orientale on the western (or eastern from Earth) limb: 7. Vallis Inghirami 8. Vallis Bouvard 9. Vallis Baade They should be all north of the Inghirami crater, but I haven't seen them yet. They may need a favourable libration. Give them a try next full Moon! These are the observable Moon valleys that I know of. Let me know if I missed something and enjoy the Moon this week! Nik PS: These are not my photos, just annotated screenshots from the wonderfully detailed interactive LROC map of the Moon here https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/

I like the subtle colours especially the mares. Theophilus looks rusty brown, is must be the iron oxide (FeO) there. You can do a bit of geology with this image

Very nice! Sadly it was high clouds/mist here, the moon was showing through it with a halo, very atmospheric but not great for clear views. Hopefully should be better tonight 🙏

Nice report, you did see some great objecs there. I always enjoy the double cluster, plus its easy to find so makes me feel good when I couldn't get a target. Looking at your sketch and comparing with a .7 degree view of M94 I've circled the stars which seem to correspond to yours. Looks like you got it! The center of M94 is definitely star-like. By the way it helps if you record in the sketch which way is west (i.e. the direction in which the stars drift) to help with the orientation. When objects are near the zenith this is the only reliable way to orient the view.

Yes, Gamma Leo (Algieba) is great to look at isn't it! Airy discs are present in all optical designs, a consequence of the waveform nature of light. In fact this is the reason that each scope has a limiting resolution, it's the width of the airy disc. There is a lot of nice maths and physics involved describing the diffraction pattern in each optical design. If you want to learn more try this classic book by H. Suiter https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/star-testing-astronomical-telescopes-a-manual-for-optical-evaluation-and-adjustment-second-edition-book.html By the way the airy discs look a bit different in reflectors, then you also get 4 diffraction spikes as in classic star photographs. I rather like these in photos.

I got it too, in a lucky break of the clouds. I was using 20x80 bins. I'm lucky - I could also see M52. The nova appears within 2 arcminutes of HIP115566 (SAO20610) which at mag 9 is considerably dimmer than the nova. It looked just a touch fainter than the nearby SAO20577 which is mag 7.3, so I estimate the nova's magnitude to be halfway between mag 7 and mag 8,

Thank you, Nigel! This seems to be within easy reach of binoculars. Let's hope the sky clears up so we get to see it 🙏

I managed to split both of them last night with the Skymax180, against all odds, since it was 80% cloudy It all started as a Moon session initially since the Moon was punching through the high cloud, but after some time I remembered @John' s post and turned the scope east towards the Alulas. Amazingly I could see them through the cloud in the finder so I centered on each one of them in turn and waited for a gap in the clouds. I still had the 15mm EP in the scope, which gives me 180x and it was perfect for both. Alula Borealis was trickier - the secondary was very dim and was constantly winking in and out as thin cloud was passing. I put its the position somewhere southeast of the primary. The Alula Australis while a much closer double was actually easier, as both component are fairly bright. That was nice, worth another visit in a clear night!

I had a few gaps in the clouds at about 8pm and had a quick look. Posidonius was looking very good with the double rim casting an extra shadow. Theophilus stealed the show, looked so clear in moments I felt I was in orbit 😀