Kon

This forum is truly an eye opener. When I viewed the Triffid I could make the dark lanes, little did I know that they were dark nebula. thanks for the lists @scarp15, drawing my list; I am very excited for the next dark observation, assuming the clouds will ever move.

Hahaha, sorry for the confusion. In the moment of writing, yes 3/4. Milky Way arch is visible from S to almost N (I have a few hills behind my house). Without moonlight , I can see several clusters naked eye, they appear as fuzzy blobs, in a recent report I stated that I could make nebulosity in the Eagle/Trifid area in my finder scope. My E is a bit worst, thus the 4. I can make M33 when seeing is very good. In the winter M42 is visible naked eye, not sure if that’s measure of good seeing. if I remember well, you have truly dark skies, the views naked eye must be out of this world.

@Nik271 and @scarp15 wishful thinking about controlling lights and housing. I was reading some news of one of the local council (back in Athens) and they were proud to have installed low energy leds that can be left all night long. So my feeling is that inner cities are a lost hope for darkness but I would like to be proven wrong. I am in the country side (outside Swindon) with only two neighbours with luckily no flood lights or street lights. But us humans we are destroying everything with no slowing down.

I totally agree with you and you do not need to apologise. To be honest with you my interest in the hobby really ignited when we moved out of city lights and I could see the Milky Way and on clear nights the sky was illuminated by stars (summer or winter). Light pollution is really an issue and I am afraid things are only going to get worst as cities are constantly expanding and with cheap to run LEDs everywhere.

I have been away on holidays and to see family in Athens and to my horror I could hardly see any stars through the city lights. I am so used to my bortle 4/3 skies and the fact that the whole Milky Way arch is so bright and defined. It makes me wonder how others that leave in inner cities manage their observations, it must be very challenging. Since coming back the weather has been horrible and tonight I managed 1hr of clear skies. I used my 8" Dob with a ES 82 degree 6.7mm EP. I started with Saturn and the atmosphere seemed rather stable. Cassini division was clearly defined in an on/off basis (I suppose the seeing was changing with incoming clouds). I then moved to Jupiter and nice orange/brown bands were obvious but no sign of the GRS in the current position. The 4 moons were lined nicely and could fit in the FOV. Finally, I moved to the moon and had a quick look at it and I was rather impressed with my 82 EP that it could almost fit it in the FOV. Although it was a quick session and the bright moon did not help for DSOs, I am glad to be back in my dark skies and observing again. I am also sold on the 82 degree EP and looking to upgrade the rest of them with wide ones.

After I finished with my observing, I had a go with my DSLR and 8" Dob to do an eyepiece projection. I used Explore Scientific 82 degree 6.7mm EP barlowed 2x. I managed a 40sec movie, inputed in Siril and stacked the best 10% of 1700 frames. The end result is quite pleasing to my eyes considering the poor setup.

@scarp15thanks for an excellent report on observing the dark nebulas. I am waiting for some clear skies and I have added a few things on my to see list from this thread.

Seeing the fuzzy DSOs will require fairly dark skies (away from city lights). The moon is quite bright at the moment so many of them will be hard to see. Do not expect to see colour in most of the DSOs; some planetary may have some colour; most will look greyish in the EP. You will also need to have dark adaption for at least 30-40min to see them. I usually start at ~50x magnification and play around with other EPs to increase mag. I have an 8" Dob and the drawings in this website is pretty much what I see at the EP: http://www.deepskywatch.com/messier-dso-sketches.html

Stunning capture!

Following with a lot of interest. As a beginner with interest in nebulas, what does a dark one appear at the EP, like empty space in a rich star field or does it have any contrast? Do you need a large Dob, filters or just dark skies (I am at bortle 4 edging 3).

Another excellent report and seeing for you. Well done on seeing new targets. You seem to have had a few good nights of seeing recently.

Thanks for your report. I really enjoyed reading it and it felt as if I were observing.

What an amazing night! Reading the report brings your observations to life.

Fantastic report. I have been away on holidays abroad for the past week and I am looking forward to some 🔭 time. If only my 8” Dob was portable.

Congratulations! As a beginner I have got several good advice from you, and I think we all learn so many things from other posts that you comment on with your experience.

Nice capture again. It seems your first capture had more sharp frames. I wonder if it is also the fact that it was almost overhead whereas this one seems more sideways, less reflective material? With my DSLR, I found that using the continuous shutter mode to work the best.

Nice pics for single shot. I have the same telescope as your son 200P Dob and I am playing a bit with photos for fun. Since you cannot track it will be difficult to get the faint DSOs. For planets you can take a movie and stack them; software break the movies to frames that you can stack together. I use siril since i got a mac but there are many choices for PC. For DSOs you will be limited to 0.5s exposures before you see star trailing. I have managed orion and ring nebula by stacking frames. If you go to imaging session, others and I have posted some photos through Dob and we tend to give some of the capture details. Looking forward to more of his pics.

I took photos on the 2200 pass but the 2340 looked great with the module behind.

Thanks. Yes it was great tonight. I will do a visual on the ~2340 pass

I had a shot on ISS tonight using my 8" Dob and Nikon D3200 on prime focus. My previous attempt that I posted here gave me great sharp results but I thought if I get the exposure even lower, ISS should appear sharper. This time I opted for iso 3200 with exposure of 1/3200s (last time I used iso 1600 and exposure of 1/2500). I shot just over 200 frames with a good capture rate (I only had 3 blancs and 10 or so a bit fuzzy). I followed it on the finder scope. Somehow I ended up in a weird situation that ISS appeared and I was tracking with my left hand and the right hand over the left one shooting, but it worked. A few of the best frames are below.

Very nice details. Is the gif from frames in a sequence or did you just add your best ones? What capture settings did you use?

That's bizarre. I wonder if it is a cache issue? Thanks for the positive comment 😄

Hi Mark, not sure why that is; they seem to play fine when I click on the images. I added them as .mov and they should be embedded?

I love my visual observations and I think it shows in the reports I post in the relevant section in SGL. I occasionally take photos on my Dob which I do post and I do not plan to invest more money from what I already have in place; they usually take place at the end of a session. I still prefer what I see with my eyes at the EP and describe them in the report. I tend to take a few shots once in a blue moon (maybe more often these days with Saturn/Jupiter out) for memory and share with family. Others might prefer to have the bright colours/more defined details in AP than they grey smudges we see. In addition, today's culture is being digital and share them is social media etc.

I think it was too much haze from a rather hot day we had.