Kon

Nice report and I am glad you had some good skies last night. ISS never disappoints. The Leo triplet is one of my favourite spring targets.

Fascinating to know one of the several people who have managed to put ISS up there. Don't start with the conspiracy theorists. I had the same in another site, my photos are CGI or fake or how is it possible to see an object 400 km overhead but not on a straight line.... ... but the visual aspect of the hobby is amazing and I love observing the night sky. The only thing that looks like 'fake' according to my wife is Saturn with its beautiful rings.

Nice shot. It was great with two decent passes tonight. Next few days is looking promising as well.

Very nice report and I agree some times less is better. I was given a similar advise before. These are some nice clusters to take time and observe and your sketches are great. The succession of satellites that you describe could have been starlink ones? You could also check in Stellarium and turn back time to the area you were observing and it might show you what it was.

I was out with my son again taking photos of ISS (nothing worth to share tonight as I was trying different settings). He wanted to see Orion nebula (his favourite) and the Persei double cluster for the first time since he read about it in the Turn Left at Orion last night. He was absolutely mesmerised with all the stars and would not let go of the EP. He also got a glimpse of the Pleiades. I thought I would try some galaxies but transparency is awful and cannot see much hat all. Even M42 was just about showing some nebulosity.

@Stuand @Jiggy 67the What did you see tonight is a good quick reference on what others are seeing but most of us who post there do not go into much details (some observers are taking their time to write longer reports there but they are unfortunately pushed back fairly quickly; i have missed several excellent reports like that). To these observers I would encourage to start a new thread with their report. I love reading everybody's observation either at my lunch break or at night.

I have personally, and I am sure others as well, got great feedback in some of my full reports and comments such as 'Did you also see these features on this target?' or 'Try use this filter next time' etc from more experienced observers, so it kind of makes me better next time to try glimpse those extra details. Similarly, advise on filters or exit pupil to improve seeing of the faint fuzzies.

SW seems to have a bit of light haze in the horizon at the moment. Overhead not too bad.

I would disagree with you regarding the visual observations/reports. There might not be as many full reports but the thread 'What did you see tonight?' is getting constant updates especially on clear nights. If I have a good long night of observing, then I prefer to write the longer reports but on quick sessions the above thread is excellent to share ideas. I am new in the hobby but I never felt i wanted to to AP. I love seeing those photons with my own eyes. Yes I do take images and share them here or FB but i would not waste a good nights seeing for photos. I believe it is down to personal preference; but seeing certain questions on this forum from newcomers they are expecting AP colours in their visual telescopes so it is also lack of researching as well that may drive some to AP.

I do not have any pics to offer but you could try Stellarium or Skysafari that allows you to virtually change the time and see how the night sky changes.

Very nice report and good targets. We have been spoiled with the nice weather recently and I noticed nights are warmer to be out.

Absolutely, he loved it. He even asked for Turn Left at Orion as his bed time book tonight.

Yes it was a team effort. It is scary how computer competent little ones are these days. He wanted to see M42 (not ideal but the time works well for school days) but the seeing was awful; we are supposed to have clear skies tomorrow and Wed.

Tonight it was the turn of my 7 year old son to help me with the ISS. My helper was counting down the last few minutes before ISS was about to come into view and keeping an eye on the monitor. His final job was to start the movie recording. The seeing was horrible with thin clouds. It was a nice evening with my son. He wants to do it tomorrow and Wed again after I explained him that it will be higher up. The highlight, he wanted to read 'Turn Left at Orion' as his bed night book. Dob back in since the seeing is worst than earlier. (I posted more pics in the Widefield imaging section:

I was planning to shoot ISS tonight, although it was only at ~60 degrees, to get my settings right for the ~88 degrees on Wed. My 7 year old son decided that he wants to join me so it became a team effort. 8" Dob with ASI120mc-s and a 2x barlow, exposure 1ms and gain 53 (in asicap). My helper was counting down the last few minutes before ISS was about to come into view and keeping an eye on the monitor. His final job was to start the movie recording. We managed a 4min video. The seeing was horrible with thin clouds in the end but I managed to get a few single frames that are my best of ISS so far. Processed in PIPP and level adjustment in Gimp. No stacking, it made it look worst but it is the first time to see so much details. So a nice evening with my son. He wants to do it tomorrow and Wed again after I explained him that it will be higher up.

Excellent first attempt and nice colour balance.

The full resolution picture is amazing, worth the effort!

I was out with my nearly 5 year old daughter trying to photograph it through the telescope. Awful images since it was too low in the sky and too much atmospheric disturbance, but made for a great 'night out' with her guiding me where it was. I loved it! Wed is a W to E at 86 degrees Passover so that's your best bet for nice pics.

I found this site very handy to orientate myself. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4955

Not much to image in terms of craters with the full moon tonight. Some mineral colours were adjusted in Gimp and also inverted to show the craters.

Dob out cooling as well. ISS pass over, although low it was nice to get a glimpse. The rising full moon is looking spectacular and very yellow.

Thank you very much for the detailed description of the filters. Very useful information.

On my 8" Dob with Hb and averted vision

It looks great and some nice clouds are coming through; i see you are using a new filter, do you think that made the difference over previous attempts?

Nice details when I zoomed in.