Kon

Nicely captured with great details especially on the close up.

That image looks super rich in details. I would love to see it with the stars as well.

That is cold! We have a mild 10 degrees with clouds in UK for the past, I do not know how many weeks! I am happy to swap your clear skies and weather even for 1hrs observing.

Looking forward to the processed images. A lot of details even on the computer screen.

Thanks. Let's hope we can see something with these beautiful weather we are having 😂. I had another look at the sun today for 1hr!!! (and now it is raining), and the spots did look different from yesterday. The ones at 12 o'clock seem to have got weaker whereas the 2916 seems to start elongating. Seeing was very stable again today. I quite enjoy observing the progress of them. Let's see if the weather plays ball tomorrow.

Very nice capture!

Thanks for the correct terminology! Let's hope to more clear days/nights.

I had a look at Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter showed some banding and Io and Callisto were offset of each other, quite nice than the usual linear formation of all the moons. Saturn was quite low on my SSW horizon and not much details. It looks clouds might hold for a few more hours of observing. Maybe Santa listened to my request of clear skies.

I tinkered a bit more with the image and I have this close up of the sun spots.

Thanks. Last week I just managed to see the several sun spots that had developed but already rotating away. It seems that the clear spells are rather rare these days. I do not think I have done a proper session in ages.

I hope you all had a great Christmas. I managed a quick sun session on Boxing day before more clouds rolled in. I used my 8" Dob and Baader solar film to observe the new sun spots compared to what we had last week. Seeing was very good considering the thin clouds and I managed to use my ES 6.7mm 82 degree EP without losing much details. The three sun spots showed nice dark centre and more faint halos (sorry if i am not using the right terms). I also managed a quick shot with my camera on prime focus. Let's hope to better seeing conditions in 2022.

I managed a cheeky little session before clouds rolled it; M42 look good but the transparency was not great and the nebulosity was ok, mostly the wings. Pleiades were next with some nice nebulosity and finally the Persei double cluster in the same FOV in my ES 24mm 68 degree EP. I am not complaining, or maybe a little bit, but I dislike these sort 15-10min sessions since it is nearly impossible to try find new things without racing against the incoming clouds.

Great first light for your telescope. I hope the weather holds for you to see more targets with your 10". If you do not already have a Rigel or Telrad will help with star hoping, I have the former with my 8" Dob .

Thanks for the nice report Joe, I could mentally 'see' the night sky through it. Merry Christmas and clear skies!!

Yes I am using the Celestron NexYZ.

I managed to take a few shots of the several sun spots after a break in the clouds. It is prime focus on 8" Dob, baader filter, iso 400, 1/100s. Some editing in Gimp. The current sun spots are labelled.

I have been wanting to see the several sun spots that had developed the past few days but with our cloudy weather I though it would not be possible. I managed a 20min seeing this afternoon when there was a break in the haze. Omg it was amazing to see the several sun spots. The most prominent were the 2916 and 2907. I managed a couple of shots on prime focus on my 8" Dob and Baader sun filter (I also realise my DSLR sensor needs a bit of cleaning since there are more spots than currently accounted for). I labeled my sun spots based on this website: https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/ As I am writing this post the sky is completely dark from the clouds.

Wide field landscape time lapse using my astrophotography setting in pixel 4a. PXL_20211222_010320987.NIGHT.mp4

I popped out with the dog and I noticed that there was a very large halo around the moon, much larger than what I have seen before. A combination of light haze and nearly freezing conditions have helped. It looks really symmetric. I grabbed a quick shot with my mobile.

That was the only area with some details and not washed out by the glare.

After atrocious weather the past few weeks I managed a 30 min session. Got a few shots with my 8" Dob and pixel 4a.

Managed 30min with the moon, better than nothing considering the cloud we had the past few weeks. Despite the light haze the moon did not look too bad.

I have been reading these thread with a lot of interest. In my limited experience as an observer, my best DSO seeing has been when the MW arch is clearly visible with structure from my observing location. I have also noted when transparency is not great, from the same location, the MW is much fainter and DSO seeing does suffer as we all know. Similarly, my SSW of the arch is not very well visible (distant LP) and DSO seeing is pretty challenging with the need of filters in a few cases. I am also guilty of using the bortle scale in my posts but going closer to village lights etc the MW is hardly visible. I agree with the previous posts that maybe a MW visibility scale is a better guideline for beginners?

I have got my ES 82 EPs from Aliexpress, i think there is still some stock. You will not pay customs if your order is less than £135 (after VAT has been added in your order); mine took 10 days to arrive.

Sounds like an excellent idea! Your colour code scheme is based on what telescope?