Kon

I agree, it is extremely stable tonight. Take a look at Regiomontanus and Walther. In my 8" Dob i am resolving the very small craters inside the main one.

Moon is looking stunning. Extremely stable at the moment. I was observing Purbach and I was impressed by the 'wall'? inside it; a long shadow running. I need to do some reading to find what it is called. Walther is showing amazing details even the small cratelets.

Thanks Neil.

Nice pics. You also have the other X (more stretched) above the V.

Last night I had a great moon observing session and in the end I snapped some images with my 8" Dob and asi120mc-s. The mountains around Mare Serenitatis looked really sharp and images came out very nice, I think. The craters with the VXL are a bit softer, I think seeing may not have been as good..

XVL looked great tonight, the clearest i have seen them.

After the light rain, the sky has cleared and the moon looks great. A lot of nice details along the terminator. XVL nicely visible. I was drawn to Hipparchus and the small rills inside. The mountains around the Mare Serenitatis are showing nice details and fairly sharp.

The full image is just amazing and the 28 panels have paid off.

Very nice. A lot of details are coming through.

Stunning images. Third one down has a very nice 3d effect.

I had a go at the trio of craters Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina. I used my 8" Dob with asi120mc-s. I stacked in Autostakkert. I tried to versions of sharpening; wavelets in Gimp and Topaz sharpening (letting it to decide). I feel the Topaz may have oversharpenned it? First image is Gimp and second Topaz.

Excellent captures and animation has come out very nicely.

Excellent purchase and fantastic first light with the new toy! I think the 10" will deliver some amazing DSO views. Looking forward to more of your reports with it.

Very nice details and excellent processing.

I managed my first crescent moon and earthshine last night (it was not quite dark yet). 8" Dob, Nikon D3200. I overexposed the moon for the earthshine capture and some 'normal' captures for the crescent.

Nice report and fantastic she is joining you (great targets too)! To her, it is probably daddy time and be around you. I noticed that with my 5 year old daughter and we have had great time. Fantastic to read that she remembers all the things she has seen and mention to her teacher. It shows it's worth the time together and who cares if night vision is gone over a hot chocolate, it will be back in 20 or so minutes but time with them at that age flies.

I think we need to take any opportunity we have with this unpredictable weather.

ZWO ASI120mc-s

I managed a quick sun imaging session with my Dob today. Seeing was ok with incoming clouds. I focused on the AR2978/2981 sun spots. Baader solar filter and 8" Dob.

Thanks Dave. It sounds you also had a good night. Yes that area of the sky has so many things going on that you need several nights to appreciate. It is looking clear tonight again but I am staying in 🥱.

Last night the skies were finally clear and with a new moon it meant time for some DSOs. I started with some open clusters in Cassiopeia; C13 and NGC436 showed nice spread of stars and colours. Then I moved to C10 and the surrounding NGC654 and NGC659. C10 looked great and many stars well resolved in the ES68 24mm EP; it almost filled the FOV. I finished from Cassiopeia with NGC189 and NGC225. While in the area I could not resist the Persei double cluster. As always breath taking with white and yellow/orange stars. I took a quick look at the Leo galaxies to test the seeing for fuzzies; i have seen them so many times this year that I do not need to star hope and I can just get in the area and pan around with my 24mm EP. Leo triplet look great with M65/66 and NGC3628 showing some nice details. M95/M96 and M105 with the accompanying NGC3384 looked great. NGC3367 and NGC3377 were just fuzzy patches of light. Since transparency was good, I moved to Ursa Major and started from top to bottom; M97 and M108 looked as always great in the same FOV. I upped the mag on the M97 to try make the 'eyes' but not much details. I did not want to bother with the filters last night sicne my hands were completely frozen so I left it there. M109 showed some disk shape. The Whirlpool Galaxy with the interacting NGC 5195 looked great and the arm was much more evident than previous seeing. New to me where the galaxies in Canes Venatici. I had not observed that area before. I star hoped fromWhirlpool Galaxy to M63; a nice disk shaped galaxy and fairly bright. I moved to M94 and a nice fuzzy disk was evident. Further up, NGC4618 showed a fuzzy light but no sign of the NGC4625. I think transparency was dropping. I am kicking myself for skipping the Coccon galaxy (it was not on my notes to visit, somehow i completely missed that one!). The highlight on the area and the night was the C26. A thinly elongated galaxy with a nice bright core that was extending quite a bit with thinner edges. On my ES82 14mm EP it was nearly spanning the FOV. I spent a good 20min observing it. The failures of the night were Sombrero and Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/NGC 4039), Ghost of Jupiter (NGC3242) due to have in the low S horizon. I had seen the Sombrero and Ghost of Jupiter last year but I was really intrigued by the Antennae and nearby NGC4027. It will have to be later in the season or when S is a bit clearer. I was already out for 2.5hrs and I finished the session with a look at Markarian's chain. Galaxies everywhere and I was too cold to note what I was seeing but fuzzy blobs while panning around. A fantastic night after a rather weird week of clouds and snow. I was hoping that in April I wouldn't be freezing holding the OTA but I loved the tranquility and quietness of observing last night.

Excellent report and some really nice targets. Like you, I love the visual aspect and the thrill when I observe them. Your excitement comes across the report.

Just popped the Dob out. New moon with excellent transparency. It will be a fun night.

You are absolutely right about the conditions and possibility of seeing it in an 8" Dob. I managed it back in January and wrote about it here. Since that observation I have struggled to see the Flame without a filter as an indication of seeing conditions and I have not bothered for the HH.

I was doing some reading about ISS earlier today and I realised that in my images I have captured the SpaceX Crew-Dragon module docked to ISS!!! I am even more excited with these captures. I have added an annotated image below.