MercianDabbler

I was packing up from a session photographing M104 and spotted something really odd while I was carrying stuff back indoors. A hazy orb with a bright centre. Looked a bit like the Moon seen through cloud, maybe a bit smaller but not much... and in completely the wrong time and place. Was almost due North for me probably to the left of Cass so maybe 20 degrees altitude. Time about 00:08. I fetched the bins back out but could not make out any detail. After a minute or so it seemed less bright and in maybe another minute it had faded away completely. I don't know how long it was visible because I probably just caught the end of it. I did find it quite worrying - the only thing I could think of was a comet but then it faded away so I got on with my packing up.

How long will it be before someone says 'ST80' ? Not long... I use my ST80 most, Manfrotto 055 tripod and ball head, tilted over at 90 degrees and with a home made dovetail clamp the scope to. 5 minute setup, no problem at all. No finder needed. Chair optional but preferable. Shows less than my other scope but shows me something far more often... and a no brainer to shove in the car when we go on hols without stressing too much over whether it will be used a lot or not at all.

A couple of nights with clear dark skies in North Norfolk today and yesterday. The forecast was poor so I only brought the ST80 but it has done surprisingly well. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the nearby village has no street lights. Bonus! Last night I started off with the Leo triplet. No bother at all with two of them. The third was more of a hint. While Orion was still around I headed over to M42 and also stopped by the Pleiades before heading indoors to watch the F1. Back outside later I decided to take a punt at M104. It was very low and I had to move the tripod a couple of times to see past a nearby barn but then... there was that fuzzy slash in the sky close to two groups of three stars. Finally I wanted to try for M101 for the umpteenth time. I tried plenty but no dice. Tonight the forecast was very iffy but I went after M101 again. Rather than using the tablet to check Stellarium I used the 10x50s to find my way around and keep my dark adaptation - the spot is easy enough to find. I also popped over to M51 to get my eye in. No problem at all finding that and I upped the magnification to see how that went. I am pretty sure that I could see enough shape to suggest the second galaxy with 9mm or shorter. I switched between M51 and 101 repeatedly but still no dice. By now some clouds were moving in but I kept at it when it was clear. Eventually with the 26mm Meade S4000 and some deep breaths a fuzzy blob popped into view in the right place. It was also visible with the 15mm SLV but not so much with the 32mm Plossl but this could be the clouds. After that the I was well happy and the clouds were getting thicker so I headed indoors.

Popped out for an hour or so with the ST80. Sky clear but seemed less than perfect to me in terms of background glow. Somehow I managed to point straight at M42 when getting my initial focus so that was nice. Poking around with Stellarium beforehand I noted that Orion was very high and decided to have a look below it to see if there was anything interesting. The globular cluster M79 seemed worth a punt but at mag 8.56 and 11 degrees altitude it was going to be quite a stretch. I had to set the tripod taller than usual to see over the nearby fence and vegetation but I managed to find the spot and nearby stars somewhere near to a TV aerial. I tried several eyepieces, AV and so on but no joy. After another visit to M42 I thought I'd revisit Meissa because I had not been there this winter. Finding it was no problem and as usual it is a nice group of stars with a large and small line of three in view but I could not split Meissa - artefacts just seemed to be winning as I increased the magnification. Next on my not very original plan was the Beehive cluster. I did a fairly length star hop from Procyon and lost my way slightly towards the end but a bit of random sweeping around brought the cluster into view. A nice view was had with the 26mm Meade S4000. I considered upping the magnification but decided that it was framed about as well as possible so didn't bother. The final target was M81/2. I usually struggle with these from my garden because of the glow from the city centre to the North but they were pretty high tonight so I rearranged the tripod to point that way and aim at high up things and did a star hop with the Meade EP from Dubhe. On arriving at the right location it took me a little while to spot M81 and then I could just about make out M82 with some AV. I switched to the 9mm DeLite and these framed the two galaxies nicely and I could see M82 without and jiggling the scope or AV. Still not a stunning view but probably the best I've had from the back garden. I packed up around 9:45 and headed indoors for the news and a beer.

I was out out again a couple of times last night. First shortly after sunset with a good view to the horizon to see if I could catch Venus again. Basically I couldn't - I think I was probably a few minutes later than on Tuesday and the cloud near the horizon was thicker so no sign of Venus. I did manage to catch Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter in the 10x50s as the sky got darker though. After completing some family visits I was out again, suitably layered up a little before 9PM. Not enough time for the SP102 on this occasion so it was a job for the ST80 and a canvas folding chair. I'd been watching the Sky at Night guide earlier and intended a couple of new targets that I'd not tried before. First though I had a quick wander around M42 and Orion's belt. I could see four Trapezium stars using the 9mm DeLite. I also dwelt a little while on Theta and its close neighbours - not one that I'd ever spent any time on before. My actual target was M78 though. After a few passes over the area I could definitely see something faint and fuzzy in the right spot but that was about as much as I could say. Checking other folk's sketches online today it looks fairly nondescript so assuming that NGC2071 is fainter still I think I was seeing M78. Next was a revisit to the locality of M33. I'd been trying to get some more frames on the DSLR of M33 the previous night but it hadn't gone well. As usual I was uncertain whether I was on target and the previews on the camera and tablet screens showed a hint of a very indistinct blob. Checking later on the computer showed that I was in fact on target and the blob really was M33 so I think that the background sky was just washing out the contrast too much... so abandoning the attempt was probably the correct choice anyway. This evening I tried again to spot M33 using the ST80 under my home LP. The best I managed was a suspicion of something using the 15mm SLV - the 9mm DeLite just seemed to be showing too little FoV and the 26 and 32mm Plossls were just making the background glow look too bright. Eventually, and in common with most of my visits to this locality I just lost my place and decided to move on. By now Sirius had climbed a bit higher so I tried the second target from my YouTubing - the M41 open cluster in Canis Major. I had no difficulty finding this one after relocating the scope to avoid some trees. It took me a little while to get a clear and steady view due to the low altitude but I got a fair view eventually with teh 9mm DeLite and I found it quite a pretty sight. After some further fruitless mucking about (like trying to spot M81/2 with the 10x50s in the light pollution from the city centre) I packed up and went indoors to warm up.

Lovely start to this evening. Clear Outside is looking promising for tonight so I was poking around on Stellarium earlier and noticed that there was a nice set of objects up for grabs after sunset. I was fortunate to have a nice clear horizon this evening. The main objective was Mercury which is something I've seen on very few occasions. It took some time for me to pick out the Moon but once I'd spotted that I fetched the 10x50s out for a better look. Scanning the clouds near to the horizon I was quite surprised to get a really clear view of the crescent Venus lying on its back. I've never seen it like that before and was really surprised that the 10x50s showed it so clearly. The distant clouds may have even helped by cutting down the light a little. Next Jupiter popped into view. I can't say that the view through the 10x50s was much to write home about but never mind. Scanning upwards and slightly right from the Moon I eventually managed to spot Saturn... again not one of the best views. After several attempts I finally managed to pick up Mercury in between Venus and the Moon. I hung around for a good while just enjoying the deep dark blue sky merging into the orange lower down. Venus stayed visible for a suprisingly long time, peeping through quite a decent amount of distant low cloud. Hoping for clear skies after tea to make it worth dragging the SP102 out.

I generally take a look on Clear Outside when choosing between potential holiday lets during spring and autumn. Bortle-wise I've noticed that it almost invariably says '4' - the same for a place we stayed on farm near Constantine in Cornwall - pretty much in the middle of nowhere and really dark and another place near Catterick where we were within a mile or two of the town and the army barracks. I generally look at the limiting mag and sky brightness numbers now - they seem a better way to differentiate rural sites that are somewhat dark from can't see your hand in front of your face dark.

You prompted me to pop out for a quick look. Managed to spot all three planets. The Moon was gone but I spotted it earlier. Overhead... rain! Kettle on.

Interesting that you are getting on well with the CZJ 10x50s. I've had a pair since new but feel they are a bit 'off' now. Mine probably need some TLC. I've googled how to do it but it seems rather a faff compared to other types but it would be nice to have some confidence back in them - at the moment they have become shelf queens.

This evening was clear at sunset too and I spotted Venus while out and about. By the time I was home Jupiter was also visible so I decided to pop out in the garden with the ST80 again for a quick look. I had to hunt around to find a spot where I could see Venus above the nearby houses but managed to pick it up before it disappeared from view. A very obvious crescent was visible using the 15mm SLV and the 9mm DeLite. After inspecting Venus I noticed that Saturn had also become visible, the three planets making a nice line in the sky so I spent a little while on Saturn and then headed over to Jupiter. After seeing Jupiter and four moons I noticed a bright light tracking across the sky from the West. I had not checked beforehand but suspected the ISS and decided to try to pick it up in the scope. I switched back down to the 15mm SLV because I doubted that I'd be able to get a moving object into view with more magnification than that. It took a couple of attempts but I managed to get it into view. It was very bright through the scope but seemed to have a sort of 'squashed H' shape to it. I tracked it for perhaps the last 1/3 of its pass across the sky and then packed up and headed indoors for a cuppa. Checking Clear Outside showed that it was indeed the ISS... and also that the latter part of this evening is forecast to be clouded in.

A lovely clear night last night. I did not have a huge amount of time available so it was a quick trip out with the ST80 starting at about 9:30PM. No real thought beforehand about targets either so it was a tour of the usual suspects - M42, Pleiades and M31 since it's been some time since I've had any time at all at the eyepiece. My previous hope (last Sunday) turned out to be snowed off quite heavily. Having completed the initial tour I decided to have another crack at M33 from the back garden, not with much hope of success. This time I decided to star hop from Hamal in Aries via Mothallah in Triangulum. This route worked well - it seems a much more certain star hop than dropping downwards from Mirach in Andromeda. I spent a good long time inspecting the area with several different eyepieces. I could not pick anything up at low magnification and could not 100% remember where the centre was supposed to be. At one point I stuck on the 9mm DeLite and swept across the scene. I think I picked up a hint of a smudge just above the loose ring of stars that I had been looking at. I'm not calling it 'seen' but once back indoors I fired up Stellarium on the laptop. To begin with I could not make head nor tail of the star field but then turned down the limiting magnitude to match the view on the tablet version and then back up to around 9.3 which was a much better match for what I actually saw. The place where I had suspected something in the DeLite was about the right spot. I finished off by going back via the Pleiades again, using the 15mm SLV which provided a nice view and then to M42 again. This time I put the 9mm DeLite on and concentrated on the Trapezium. As usual three stars were straightforward but I could also make out a fourth when I looked hard. I've not managed four with the ST80 before. I packed up after just over an hour having a 6AM start the next day. This morning was lovely too with the waning crescent Moon lit by earthshine in a deep blue sky when we left the house at 6:40. At some point overnight we'd also had a light dusting of snow so that added to the scene.

I have an ST80 and can confirm that it is OK to carry the scope, tripod (mine is a Manfrotto 055 camera tripod) and eyepieces to an observing site in a single trip. In my case it was just walking far enough to get clear of trees rather than a 'hike'. I do like the ST80 - it gives a lot of 'bang for buck' and means that I often do observing on nights when the weather is uncertain and would not be worth the bother of setting up my bigger scope. I generally don't bother with a finder scope or red dot whatever - just put a 26 or 32mm eyepiece on, point the tube by eye and away you go. No idea about your other option sorry.

I have a 15mm SLV and I like it a lot. Mine did not come with a tin of soup though. Did I miss out?

Just back from a week in Yorkshire staying between Catterick and Northallerton. Bortle 4 skies again - a few built up areas but nothing too close. Not really enough observing time to justify a new thread so I thought I'd tag it on here. The trip was timed to coincide with the new moon so the SP102 and ST80 both came along. Unfortunately we were unable to book any very clear skies so the SP102 did not come out to play at all and time with the ST80 was very limited - a couple of hours after we arrived on Friday 1st Oct in the back garden of the cottage and rather constrained by the house and a large tree. The second occasion was the evening of Sunday 3rd after returning from an excellent fish and chip dinner in Whitby. This evening I was on a footpath in a nearby field. The sky started out looking clear but I was fully clouded out after about an hour of observing time. Target-wise there was nothing particularly new. The Milky Way was well visible, a welcome change from home. Both evenings saw broken cloud drifting across the sky so it was largely a matter of looking to see where the clouds weren't and pointing the scope in that direction. I managed to see M33 and M51 again to repeat what I'd been able to do in Cornwall. I tried M101 again but that was not a success. I did remember to stop by the double cluster on the way to Cass... but then Cass was clouded out so I got no time there. I might have managed M110 but cloud interruptions meant that I did not have enough time to be sure whether I saw something or not. I also had a try at NGC7000 on the SUnday. It was pretty much directly overhead so an awkward task involving having the (camera) tripod at full height as well as using the vertical extension to allow the scope to point directly upwards without fouling the legs. I think I could see some nebulosity along the 'east coast' but I really wasn't sure if I was really seeing something or just 'joining the dots'. All in all not much to show for the effort of packing two scopes and their associated bits. The ST80 again proved its value in being able to set up in 5 minutes, hop quickly around a partially clouded sky and show enough in a 26 or 32mm eyepiece to make star hopping an easy task.

Thanks... I'll check out the Own. Definitely some homework needed on targets in Cass. In other news I have managed to grab a bit more shed time so the new dovetail is finished. Now it is chucking it down so I don't want to be traipsing to and from the shed or using my scope.

Last night was looking promising but there was some cloud around early on. I'm in the middle of making a new dovetail to allow ST80 (or even just the camera) to fit directly to the SP mount so decided to head for the shed and make some progress on that. Once I'd had enough of turning handles and chewing away aluminium I had another look at the sky and the clouds had gone so I decided to pop out with the ST80 in its usual grab and go mode for an hour or so before the moon came up. I had no real plan so it was just a case of looking at some familiar objects and a couple of forlorn hopes again. First up was a quick visit to M31 (no bother there but never really stunning) and then a forlorn hope - M33 from my back garden. Unlike my previous session in Cornwall, I had the tablet and Stellarium so finding the spot was no problem but it was indeed a forlorn hope from home, even if the sky was looking good. Another thing that I keep returning to is the double double, Epsilon Lyrae so I gave that another try. No joy with any of the longer eyepieces but I'd dug out my Meade S4000 6.4mm eyepiece for another try. This is not a favourite eyepiece so it doesn't get out much. It could just about split Epsilon 2. I then tried my 5mm BST Starguider which on this evening seemed to be able to produce a usable image. The Starguider could intermittently get a clean split of Epsilon 2. With Epsilon 1 I could not do better than a sausage shape. All in all this is the best I've done on the double double with the ST80. Naturally the SP102 can do rather better. I then went back to M31 and spent a bit more time there. I've never really given much thought to the two smaller galaxies so decided to give that a go. Inspecting the nearby objects more closely one of them was noticeably fuzzy and Stellarium confirmed that this was the right spot for M32. I did not have any luck seeing M110 though. The moon was starting to make its presence felt by now so I shifted leftwards for a scan around Perseus with the 32mm TV Plossl. The area below Mirfak caught my attention as being particularly 'busy' and attractive. I'm not sure what notable objects may or may not be there but it looked lovely anyway. Finally I moved up to Cassiopeia, completely forgetting to stop by the double cluster on the way. For some reason I always feel like there is more to be had from Cass. I really should do some better homework but last night I had to content myself with a quick scan around the main stars, M103 being the only object that particularly drew my attention, looking fuzzy in the ST80. I suspect it would look less fuzzy in a bigger scope. I packed up around 5 past eleven by which time I was feeling just a bit chilly and the moon was really starting to wash things out.

Thanks. I did try toggling that on. It seemed to make a lot of dots on the North York Moors and far fewer elsewhere so I guess that a lot more measurements have been logged by the good people of Yorkshire. Yes I'm familiar with part 2 as well. We've now taken the plunge and booked a place in Yorkshire. It wasn't my first choice but it does seem to be somewhat away from built up areas and has open space nearby but is towards the yellow part of the spectrum on lightpollutionmap. The final decision was the product of family negotiation - dark skies are not the only consideration. The North York Moors will be driveable should the need arise but I'm hoping to set up near to the accommodation... it's so much less mucking about.

I'm planning another short break, on this occasion in sync with the moon phase to give myself a decent chance of some dark skies. I'm not asking for recommendations but I've been looking at the LP numbers for some potential destinations and have so far found them a bit puzzling. Bortle numbers seem somewhat broad brush - almost everywhere rural that I've looked seems to be Bortle 4. Bortle 3 can be had by jumping in the car and heading out into the wilds for the evening. Bortle 2 in even fewer places. The CPRE 'Nightblight' interactive map seems a tad broad brush - there is a lot of ground that makes it into the bottom band Consulting the maps on lightpollutionmap.info gives quite a different picture from the CPRE map. Many places that make the bottom band by the CPRE measure dont seem very dark at all when I look at this one. For example the North York Moors has plenty of 'darkest' areas according to CPRE but is (at best) green on lightpollutionmap.info, unlike, say, Kielder and a donut around Bude which manage blue. Clear Outside gives four numbers - magnitude (understandable but not exactly intuitive), Bortle (understandable and intuitive but broad brush), 'brightness' and 'artificial brightness'. Can anyone explain the last two numbers on Clear Outside... and the (different I think) metric used by CPRE and lightpollutionmap.info ('Word Atlas 2015') ? Should I care more about 'brightness' or 'artificial brightness'? I've also seen it said that numbers based on IR satellite measurements will underestimate the impact of LED lighting... do any of the above suffer from this? I'm probably overthinking things as usual... but once I get started I can't resist a good rabbit hole. All of the destinations are a huge improvement on my LP at home.

Thanks - it definitely wasn't happening until sky conditions improved but I was well pleased to have bagged M51 and M33 and more or less seen M101. Clear Outside has us as Bortle 4 here. I think it may be better because once the building lights are off there really is no artificial light that I can see. A very welcome change from home, just a shame about the moon and the clouds really. We'd heard tell of some biblical deluges back at home, we even sent them a nice photo of the sunny Cornish coast to cheer them up a bit. I don't think it worked 😁 Today has been mostly glorious here again but cloud has now moved in so there will be no repeat performance. We did walk out along the breakwater at Porthleven just after dusk and saw the moon reflecting off the sea which was a lovely scene. Jupiter was also in evidence.

We're staying near Constantine in Cornwall for a short break. It was not planned as an astronomy getaway, in fact it was hardly planned at all, being rescheduled once and finally booked at about 3 days notice. The ST80 has come along for the ride, just in case. Skies so far have not been great but last night (Tuesday 14th) was forecast to be clear so the ST80 came out. The day itself was glorious and the sky was clear into the early evening but driving back from our coast path walk there was a worrying haze over the land to the north. As darkness was falling I looked out over Goonhilly to the south and it was very misty. Some low clouds were also developing to the north. I headed out as darkness was falling. The cloud was now starting to be intrusive but was whipping across the sky quite briskly so there were windows of clarity. My plan was to try to see some of the more well known galaxies that had eluded me from home, primarily M33, M51 and M101, starting with the Ursa Major area while it was highest. Things did not go to plan for the first couple of hours - I'd just get my bearings and start to increase the magnification on the M101 area and then clouds would intervene. After a long time waiting for Ursa Major to clear I decided that the Andromeda area seemed less cloud affected so I moved the scope and pointed at M31, not a difficult one to spot. From there I star hopped downwards to look for M33. I'd managed to leave my tablet on charge at home so I was relying on a laptop outdoors instead - far from ideal when you need to do the keyboard by feel. To cut a long story short I found the right area but could see no convincing sign of M33. By 10PM I was on the verge of giving up completely and then noticed that the clouds had mostly dissipated so went back and tried M101 again but still could not convince myself that I was seeing it. I decided to try M51 before packing up, hopping down from Alkaid... and there it was! - as obvious as I could wish for trying to turn a three sided asterism into a four sided figure. I tried a few eyepieces and all of them showed it but none showed any detail. The moon was by now getting lower and the skies looked nice and dark so after that success I revisited M101. This was still a struggle but I could now convince myself that I was seeing something more often than not. I then moved the scope again and set up for M33. Then the laptop battery died. I took it indoors and plugged it in for another star hop check and convinced myself that this was not going to be an easy one to do from memory. Back at the scope I had Mirach in view and fitted the 30mm Plossl. I made a tentative downwards sweep and was surprised to see a fuzzy blob come into view - not at all difficult to see now so no tricky star hopping was required. This one was definitely best at low magnification so that the contrast between the galaxy and the surrounding sky could be seen - the 15mm SLV was too much for it. Finally I stopped by M31 and enjoyed some easier viewing before packing up just after 11PM.

Thanks. Actually I think I am getting the hang of framing with the piggybacked camera a little better - having the image preview on the tablet is a huge help and I can then compare the star field with Stellarium even if I can't see the nebula. I guess I can add more frames another evening - this area of sky does have the advantage of being well positioned for a long time.

The pic of Lyra. A single 30 second frame at f8 and 1600 ISO. Cropped maybe 20% from the height and a bit less from the width. I just about got the double double in... in spite of forgetting to check it when getting my aim sorted on the night. M57 is there at the bottom too. I don't think it would impress many non-astronomers but I like it anyway. Once again the Sonnar has produced some err... dtstinctive... patterns around the brighter stars. The veil nebula pic was more of a disappointment. I could make out a couple of traces of the nebula after stacking and stretching... but only if I know exactly where to look for it. Clearly a lot more than 25 mins of exposure time needed.

A lovely night last night. It's been a while since I've been out but last night was a new moon and was showing as wall to wall green on Clear Outside so it would have been rude not to. Things still seemed very hazy though. I decided to get the SP102 out and set up the RA drive so that I could take some photos. I set up around 9PM. With the house fully opened up to try to cool things down and most of the lights off I decided to start off with Jupiter and drag my wife and son away from their activities for a look. I put the 15mm Vixen SLV onto the scope which gave a nice balance between fitting the scene in and being able to see some detail on Jupiter's disc. To begin with we could see only three of the four Galilean moons with Gannymeade and Callisto close together and Io on the opposite side. The tablet version of Stellarium was also showing Europa closer in than Io but it was not visible... and then it was. Checking the desktop Stellarium, it seems that it came out of shadow around 21:42. My wife was happy to have seen Europa reappear before I did. Saturn was already behind a tree so I thought I'd shoot for another easy to find target - M57 and share that view with the Mrs before the attention span expired. That worked to plan as well. Having found it using the piggybacked ST80 I tried the 9mm DeLite in the SP102 but could not really get the nearby stars sharp so I went back to the 15mm SLV which was still enough for us to make out the doughut shape. Once the view sharing was over I moved on to taking some photos. For this I was piggybacking my Canon 70D and a 135mm Carl Zeiss Sonnar lens that I picked up very cheaply on eBay. I also (finally) managed to get Wifi working between the camera and tablet so that I could preview the photos on the tablet screen. I really should have done this ages ago but it's one more thing to set up and my single previous attempt did not work. I had a couple of photographic targets, both at high altitude angles to minimise the haze... the first was an attempt to get the whole of Lyra into one frame. Stellarium indicated that it would fit if the orientation was favourable and I think I managed it but have not yet downloaded the pictures. I took a few frames of Lyra and then pointed at the Veil Nebula. I took a lot more frames here but could not see the nebula in the previews. Whether it will show up after stacking remains to be seen. I started packing up around 23:40. While the camera was clicking away I was sat in a garden chair just enjoying the unassisted view of Cygnus and the aroma of the night scented stock in the garden. All in all a very pleasant evening to be out.

Glad that you got to the bottom of the problem. Looks like @alacant was right. I'm using all freebie tools myself. I very rarely pay money for software... kinda ironic since I get paid to work on the stuff. There are plenty of folks who say good things about the paid tools that specialise in AP postprocessing though. Better tools should do better at cleaning up AP specific problems like light pollution gradients but no tool can put back data that is not there so learning how to get good data and spending the time to get plenty of it is the most important thing IMHO. I can't claim to be anything other than a learner myself.

Could be... in which case try 'intersection mode' in Stacking Settings/Result - then it will only stack the area that is covered by all of your frames. Checking the individual frames would also confirm whether this is happening... you can do that in DSS by clicking on your light frames one by one in the files list.