Kon

Last night I had my best observing of Orion with colours coming through (I posted an Observing report on that). I managed 100 frames with my DSLR in the end; iso 1600, 1/2 s exposure. Stacked in siril and some stitch in Gimp. I think there is more details that could be pulled; it will be great if any of you wants to have a go or make it more tidy. orion.tiff

@Nik271To be honest I was expecting the greenish/grey and it completely stumbled me. I wish I had time to do more observing of other targets since the seeing last night was amazing. @Epick CromThanks Joe. I have seen other reports reporting some of the reds, so seeing it with my own eyes was indeed a great moment. I doubted myself for a while that they were there.

I was out very briefly with my 8" Dob, around 1am, last night. Orion had risen to my SSE horizon. I only wanted to have a quick look at it before bed. I had observed it several times last winter so I knew my expectations buy my oh my.....Sky was dark and very transparent and I think the frost had helped with seeing conditions. I popped in my ES 68 degree 24mm EP and the nebula was nearly fitting my whole EP (last winter I only had the box standard 25mm EP that came with the Dob). I think that was the best Orion nebula I had seen thus far. Trapezium nicely resolved with nebula around it and arches going out (the wings). A lot of details and fine structure on the nebulosity and some dark lanes similar to the astrophotos. But what really stroke me was the fact I could see reds. Orion has always been greenish/grey in my Dob. But last night the green was standing out and it was more of a turquoise around the trapezium BUT the wings were showing reddish-rusty colour mixed with the grey, not bright red but a hue of it. I thought I was imagining things and I had to step back and take it all in and observe again. Similarly, around the greenish of the trapezium at the edge of the bright nebula I could also make some reddish (more like pinkish) blend with the green. I am still buzzing this morning and I think it will stay with me for a long long time. Actually, it may have ruined my Orion expectations for the rest of the season. I hope conditions like this will repeat themselves.

Absolutely stunning captures and the time lapse is great!

Fantastic report with a lot of nice targets there. Stephan's quintet has eluded me so far so it must be quite a sight. Your aurora pic is amazing. Could you see the greens and reds by eye as well? Seeing it for the first time is special, i still remember mine from when I was 10 years old. Kostas

Spectacular, it must have been a great sight!

Thanks Nik, I just had a look at it through my telescope. Nice sight.

I know the limitations of my Dob (and I am mostly a visual) but I wanted to have a go at M57 before it disappears for the winter. Prime focus using a Nikon D3200 on 8" Dob, iso 3200, exposure 1/1.6s, 60 frames stacked in Siril and some light stretching in Gimp. Not what we usually see in this section of SGL but pretty pleased with the result.

Very nice. I wonder if it does stacking in the same way as the Pixel astrophotographyone. I have been quite impressed with the Pixel astrophotography and it will be interesting to compare this app when it comes out on Android.

Amazing images with a lot of details. Some of the best lunar close ups in my eyes. The first two gives you the feeling you fly over the moon!

@Epick CromI am bortle 3 to 4 (my E has some light pollution). I am away from big cities with only 3 neighbours 😇. Several targets are naked eye objects and Milky Way is a bright arch and does so dark lanes. Kostas

@Voyager 3it made it v dark but due to seeing conditions it helped to just make it pop . Happy to have a chat. Feel free to message me. Kostas

That's really impressive that you get to see all the fuzzies from there. It shows some great visual skills. Do you use a GoTo or manual Dob? Star hoping must be quite challenging.

I personally find galaxies harder to locate/observe than the nebulas. I always thought you had fairly dark skies from your reports. What bortle are you?

I am getting spoiled, second night of observing. The morning rain and wind had really cleared the atmosphere for tonight. It was the best Milky Way I could see this year. Arch visible from E to W and with defined dust lanes. I knew it would be a night for more nebulas and I target the fainter ones. I used my OIII filter through the night together with an ES 82 68 degrees 24mm EP. I went around Cepheus. First target was the Elephant Trunk nebula. I was not expecting much but my oh my! Fantastic nebulosity feeling the EP; I had to pan around to get all in. Lovely nebulosity with a darker core. At the edge, there was defined elongated nebula at W (dob viewing) that was coming around at the top like a limb; fainter nebulosity was following past it to the E. That reminded me of the Rosette Nebula. I wish I had a larger FOV to take it all in. I then moved to the Wizard nebula; the cluster of stars was easily visible through the OIII and the nebula was coming across nicely. In my eyes it appeared as a triangular shaped one with defined edges. I was also quite impressed with the visibility of the Milky Way that I panned around and I came across some nebulosity within a rich star area. A look after I finished turned out to be around the Lion nebula (not sure what the actual surrounding nebula is called). I then tried the Iris nebula but I just could not find it; I think I was getting tired moving the Dob almost at a vertical position. I will revisit later in the winter. Next, I moved to Cassiopeia; I revisited the Pacman nebula and this time I could see a lot of details and more complex structure than my previous observation. I then moved to γ Cas Nebula; very faint nebula that appeared like an elongated filament that I could follow around. I had to move the Navi star out of the FOV since it was ruining my night vision for the nebula to pop. My final target was the Skull nebula. Well it is Halloween after all so it felt appropriate to take a look at it. Damn that was hard to find; my S horizon was getting a bit merky. I got i the location ok but I would not show up; I moved my OIII to the 14mm EP and there it was; very very faint but it did look a bit skullish.💀 Overall, an amazing night of faint nebulas at the eve of Halloween. Be careful with monsters 👾out there, luckily non for me tonight. By the way, for the ones that followed yesterdays wine post, tonight's tipple was The Yamazaki Single malt. Happy Halloween!

Nice report Joe and excellent targets there despite some frustration.

@Epick Cromgood to hear you were also out. It was frustrating finding NGC 7331 (C30) for me as well but once I got there it was easy direct vision patch of light. I think with your 10" you should be able to see Stephan's Quintet. You are gathering much more light than me 😃

I did not expect to get out tonight after the horrible downpour we had this morning and that CO was all red for tonight. I got back from work and the skies looked nice and clear with Venus on the horizon. I setup the Dob, grabbed a slice of pizza and a glass of wine and waited for it to cool down. Venus showed nice phase similar to half moon. Seeing was rather stable. I then pointed to Jupiter; I think it has been one of my best seeing so far this year; nice bands clearly visible. Io and Ganymede were on top of each other, pretty cool. Saturn showed some nice details as well. My first Iso for the night was NGC 6781 in Aquila. It was fairly easy to find but rather diffuse disk; it was more prominent with averted vision. I popped in my OIII filter and it looked much sharper and stood out. I think i prefer the non-filter view since i could make more of the weak nebulosity. I then tried to find NGC 6741. I got in the area ok but i found really hard to locate it. I think I saw a patch of very weak fuzziness but I would not say I got it. I was after Stephan's Quintet in Pegasus. I was not sure if I could see it with my 8" Dob. I found C30 and it had a nice bright core but no more features. I panned around to see if I can locate Stephan's Quintet but to no luck. Is it possible to be seen with an 8" Dob under bortle 3/4 skies? While in Pegasus I had a look at M15; a nice globular with some distinct stars with averted vision. I tried to look for C44 but my conditions have got worst hwith thin cloud and I could hardly do any star hoping. An excellent night after a long absence of clear skies. Heavy downpour is predicted for tomorrow so I am glad I managed this session. Back in for more 🍷🍷!

Great report. Your setup with the caravan is great! I am full of envy of your clear night observing session!

A single shot of the terminator using my mobile over the EP.

I also have a 8" Dob and my first EP upgrades were BSTs. As others said, they are great . My favourite were the 15mm for DSOs and 8mm for higher magnification. The 25mm is showing the stars as seagulls at the edges so not that great. I have recently moved away from them for wider FOV ones.

Very nice report as always Joe. I am very jealous you managed to get Triton, it seems your 10" is giving you some great views.

I had a play with my 8" Dob and eyepiece projection to capture Jupiter. Seeing was okish. I managed a 2min video using my DSLR and manual tracking; stacked in Siril (580frames or 10% of ~5800 frames). A bit of manipulation in Siril and Gimp. My setup is not for planetary but I enjoyed capturing it and having a memory of the seeing. My processing skills are not the best.

Excellent purchase. I have had the 200P for the past 9 months and I love the views it has given me. I agree with the advise given by the others; my first upgrades were a RACI, Rigel and a 15mm BST. 25mm is more than usable and 10mm will be ok for a while. If you want an additional EP, you might want something in between or higher mag for planets. Worth getting Turn Left at Orion, it is a fantastic book/guide. Use it as much as you can and see what you like observing and how you get along with changing EPs or opt for a zoom one. Enjoy!

That's excellent for a single frame from a mobile movie. It will be interesting to see if you stack the movie if it brings out more features. By the way, what mobile holder are you using?