Kon

I quite liked the yellow hue the moon had this evening. I took a single shot on prime focus on my 8" Dob. I tried to adjust the colours to bring out the yellow.

I was out observing the moon tonight and decided to take a quick movie at prime focus with/withput DSC_0766.MOV a 2x barlow. I find these two movies quite calming with the moon getting out of the way slowly. There is a lot of atmospheric disturbance. DSC_0771.MOV

Great sketch with nice details; exactly how it looked in my 8" Dob a few weeks ago.

I am nearly a 100% visual observer with a bit of side fan on capturing photos with my 8" Dob. I tried an eyepiece projection on Jupiter rather than prime focus using my Nikon D3200 and x180 EP magnification. I stacked the 50% best of 2000 frames in Sigil and a bit of stretching in Gimp. I am quite pleased with the details that are coming through.

Fantastic!

I agree that Saturn and Jupiter looked great last night with a lot of details despite the murky conditions at 230am. It was the first time I managed to see the Cassini division and some distinct banding . Several coloured bands were observed on Jupiter. I agree. My wife whenever sees Jupiter and especially Saturn tells me that they do not feel/look real. The back-to-back sessions are getting their toll a bit in combination of ful working day.....weekend seems to be clear so .....more viewing.😍🔭

I was also after a few more in Aquila that I found in Stellarium but unfortunately my seeing has deteriorated and a lot of mist. I am finishing off with Jupiter and Saturn.

I saw it with my 8" Dob tonight and my seeing is pretty good tonight. Fairly easy to get there. I could see it with averted vision without a filter but with my OIII (the only filter i have) it was obvious with direct vision and more prominent. I agree that it does look a bit like a smaller version of the owl nebula but to be honest I could not make much details, rather a diffuse disk, nice to have seen it. It did not take magnification well, best was at x80 and x48.

Great report! That's a fantastic session with great targets.

I have successfully imaged it using a DSLR on prime focus and a Dob. The key thing was to follow it using the finder scope and keep it at the crosshairs. See my post earlier this year. It passes fast; I aimed for a transit of 4-6 minutes since it gives you enough time to frame it.

Excellent report and session you had!

Thanks. I will give it a try tonight.

Very nice! Next time I am out I will give the NGC 6781 a try; did it take much magnification or is it better to stay low?

Excellent report and a lot of nice targets. Well done.

My Milky Way was taken on a standard tripod using my Nikon D3200, f 3.5 (using the standard 18-50mm lense), iso 800 and 20s exposure. No post editing or anything. I hope you get some clear skies this week. LP in Edinburgh must be a problem for you, especially if you are near the city centre. I used to live in St Andrews and the skies are quite bad even getting out of Edinburgh (N direction).

I hope you managed some seeing last night. The weather is so unpredictable these days. CO was showing orange for me last night but the skies were crystal clear.

At the end of my visual session last night, I had a go on taking a few shots of the M57 nebula through my 8" Dob using a Nikon D3200 at prime focus. I am quite pleased on how it came out although star trailing is apparent; with my focal length I should have limited to 0.5s but this is 1.3s at iso 3200); I stacked 10 frames. Not the high standards I see here but shows that you can capture a few of the bright DSOs with a Dob to show friends and family.

Finally, I managed some decent observing after nearly 1 month of clouds and rain. Starting with the crescent moon while the Dob was cooling down, gave me hope of a good night. The skies looked full of stars with very good seeing. I knew it will be a great viewing night when I could see the whole Milky Way arch from my back garden (I took a few shots and I will try stack them tomorrow); I am attaching a single frame below wit ha couple of satellites photobombing it; that cloud on the right did not spoil the fun and moved out of the way quickly. I started the night revisiting some old favourites and a couple of new targets. M57 looked really bright and the ring was clearly defined (no central star). I then moved to Cygnus to look for a few new targets; Cocoon nebula, it looked rather diffuse with not much structure to it. M39 and the nearby NGC7082 looked really nice in the same FOV at low mag. I then put my OIII filter and looked for the Crescent that had evaded before. I could make a nice clear arch almost making a flattened circle. I then revisited Veil. I had seen it before when it was low at the sky; OMG OMG!!! Absolutely stunning! I could make its really nice intricate structure looking like ribbons; I followed it from East to West. The structure looked exactly the high resolution APs. The night got even better moving south of the Milky Way. Revisited the Swan, Eagle, Lagoon and Trifid. My favourite is still the Swan. As I was planning to pack away, Jupiter and Saturn made an appearance. I recently purchased a second hand ES 82 degrees 6.7mm EP. The views were stunning. Very sharp and the objects take longer to get out of view (I have decided to upgrade my BST eyepieces slowly after using my first 'premium' EP). It bar lowed quite well for Saturn and the casino devision was clearly observable. Jupiter showed nice banding. Overall, I am super happy and I think it has been one of the best sessions in terms of seeing conditions for a long long time (I think my last decent skies was back in late winter when my OTA was frozen). I hope the rest of you managed some clear skies. The rest of the week is looking promising as well.

I do not want to jinx it, but the skies are looking clear tonight! Maybe a long session after a long time? Dob will be on its way out to cool down soon.

For a gas giant, your Jupiter has too many craters on its surface.... 🤣 I think your title needs updating.

Thanks. It is quite nice to follow the sun spots. I found these two sites very helpful as well: https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity.html No the filter is not over the objective lense but at the open end of the OTA. There a lot of threads at SGL on homemade ones. I use this filter: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/solar-filters/baader-astrosolar-safety-film-nd-50.html I made two versions; one that fits my dustcup of the Dob and one for the full aperture. You can also buy premade ones. I always make sure to check for any scratches or holes. I usually put my DSLR on prime focus first since if i have missed any scratches, it will damage the camera than my eyes.

I finally managed a 40min observing after nearly 1 month. Completely clouded over. Nothing spectacular but the Cygnus area looked amazing; I though there was a cloud but it was the Milky Way and in the EP it was just filled with stars at low magnification;. I managed to see M39 as well, a new object for me. I hope the rest of you managed some observing. Later in the week it looks promising.

Same here...the sky is tantalising me as well. Looks fairly clear but with light haze. I will give it another 30min or so before I bring my Dob out...I should probably remove the cobwebs while waiting 🤣

It summons my nightly observing sessions the past month or so! Clouds alternating with rain. I have not seen stars in ages. My telescope is gathering dust at the corner.

Indeed! Seeing your 30min rotation animation is pretty cool, considering a ~10hr 'day'. It puts it in perspective on how fast it rotates.