Kon

Pretty good seeing tonight and a gorgeous Waxing Crescent moon. I managed some imaging on Mare Crisium and Petavius with its rille. 8" Dob, manual tracking, asi120mc-s. As always happy to receive feedback/criticism.

Fantastic images with loads of details and great animation.

I had a really good session with Mercury tonight. It still appeared as a disco ball but not as bad. The weather prediction is looking bad for the next week and Mercury will be hard to observe as it will get close to the setting sun. 8" Dob, asi120mc-s. The red and green channels were the best tonight, whereas the green or blue the other nights. I stacked the red channel only and the phase is looking really good.

That's fantastic amount of details! At zoom in, it looks super impressive.

On my 200P I can see individual stars resolving and look pinpoint. Using adverted vision I can get more stars especially at the edge of M13. Transparency will affect how things appear but also collimation as others suggested. Your 4 and 5mm will be too much even under good seeing.

Thanks Joe. Yes I am not satisfied with what I saw, I want to revisit it before it disappears in the summer skies. I thought it would be higher for you in Australia but from your site you are battling with LP if I remember well; can you see the nearby Sombrero, that can be a good indicator.It is nice to have some of these eluded targets since it makes hunting more fun. Interestingly, the Antennae do not get mentioned often in reports here.

Nice first capture.

Very nice sketches as always. Very similar to how I saw them with my Dob before.

A capture from tonight (25/04/22).

I had another go at Mercury tonight. It seemed a lot more stable than the other night and the phase is much clearer. 8" Dob, manual tracking, 2x barlow, asi120mc-s. I used the blue channel since it was the most stable one.

Nice images but the last one has so much details!

It has been a while since I had been out with my Dob on a moonless night. Unexpectedly, the skies cleared around 1030 last night and I did not want to waste the opportunity to observe a few targets that had eluded me. Since it was a working day the next day I decided t hand pick 4-6 targets. My S horizon had quite bad haze but I was determined to see two targets there. I started with the M104, Sombrero, galaxy in Corvus. At low mag it was a smudge of elongated light with a hint of bulging in the middle. Going up with the magnification, it became much clearer with a dark lave in the middle. Beaming with confidence that the transparency is not too bad, I went after my nemesis from earlier this spring; the NGC 4038/NGC 403 (Antennae) galaxies. I spent a good 40 minutes looking for them. I think moving lower in Corvus the seeing was getting worst as the haze made life hard to see anything. I was in the right area but at mag 11 it was hard. Finally, using averted vision I managed to see a smudge of light. I was happy to find them but deflated by the lack of any details; they were just a smudge of light. Lets hope for better transparency. In a previous report, I said that I saw M101 as a smudge of light. Last night, it was right above me with better transparency compared to my S horizon. I could make some of the arms at low magnification which was awesome but without much details. Again I need better skies to properly observe it 🤣. I then moved to the Cocoon galaxy which I completely forgot to observe when I visited the area a few weeks back. I think that was the highlight #1 of the night. Both NGC4490 and NGC4485 were observable. NGC4490 was showing some structure at higher magnification whereas the NGC4485 was just a smudge of light. It kind of reminded me of the NGC 4631 (whale) galaxy. As I was finishing off I decided to look at M13. Always beautiful to see all the stars and with averted vision more stars were expanding beyond the core. Highlight #2 of the night, the M57! Summer is coming and along the summer delights. I spent a good 10 minutes observing it at the mag134 star on the periphery was visible with averted vision. Overall, I am glad to have got the Dob out and see some of the targets that had eluded me this spring. In typical British weather, it is all clouded this morning.

I managed it the past few days but it is boiling and very colourful like a disco light due to the persistent W haze. The phase was showing in moments of good seeing.

Conditions were much nicer than yesterday. The sunspots are developing compared to the past few days, even from yesterday. 8" Dob, baader solar filter.

It sounds amazing being in these dark skies. The location looks amazing as well.

The surface resolution of your animation is excellent! It would have been amazing if more was happening.

Nicely framed with all the spots in view.

Thanks. Looking forward to their development. We have been spoiled with them .

Awful conditions this afternoon. I was clouded pretty much all day and there was a clear spell around 6, so quite low in the sky. The sun spots have considerably changed since earlier this week. The weather looks much more promising tomorrow.

I managed to see Mercury for the first time tonight and I had a go at imaging it despite the seeing being awful and very windy. I used my 8" Dob with asi120mc-s. It was like a disco ball so i decided to split the channels and the green one gave me the best results (still very noisy/diffuse to show the proper phase). The phase is apparent and not too dissimilar to what I saw; a Stellarium screenshot for comparison. I hope to have another go.

I just finished observing Mercury for the first time through my telescope! Awful seeing but so satisfying to bag it. Between the disco ball colours and wind, i managed to make some of its phase, looked like 3/4 full, give or take with the seeing. I have now managed to see all planets in our solar system! Super excited. I managed some imaging so i will see if can pull anything out of them.

Great animation that has brought it to life.

Great capture. I like the inverted colour one since it gives a 3d feeling to it.

Same here. Resolution is great as well. You have really brought it to life!

That's spectacular!