Epick Crom

Thanks, that is definitely cooling my beer cheers here, 34 degrees with thunderstorms over here🌩️😀 Joe

G'Day Kimbo! Good to hear you had a break from the clouds. Nice lunar pics👍 Joe

I would say that is Venus. They had a conjunction yesterday which I wanted too see but got clouded out. If this is a recent pic than it's definitely Venus and the waxing crescent moon.

Wow, the northern lights! I've always wanted too see them. You are one lucky man 👍

Fantastic report Magnus from your picturesque location and congratulations on seeing Ceres for the first time 👍 Wishing you clear skies Joe

G'Day Kostas! NGC 3372 is bright, but M42 is more intense. NGC 3372 is larger and more spread out. Also NGC 3372 has several open clusters imbedded with it. I rate M 42 as the skies brightest nebula, followed by NGC 3372. I don't have any nebula filters yet so have never tried them.NGC 2070 in the Large Magellanic Cloud is also a very bright nebula. You must see NGC3372 some day, it looks spectacular, it's nebulosity is bright enough to show hints of colour when high in the sky. All the best. Joe

Thanks! Leo was available to me but it's still a bit low for the time I observe usually from sundown until 9:30pm max. I'm planning on visiting Leo next week! Clear Skies Joe

G'Day Gerry! If you ever comming Down Under drop me a line, I will be glad to give you a personal tour of our southern skies!

Thanks Magnus! The seeing is normally good here in Perth, but that night was one of the best I've seen, not even a slight ripple. Clear skies to you mate👍

Hi Ratlet, nice first light report on your new 10 inch dob! My scope is the same size as yours and I love the views through it. It will serve you well for years to come. Clear skies Joe

Hello fellow Astronomers! I had a great opportunity last night to carry out multiple observations over vast swathes of the night sky as darkness is starting earlier here in the southern hemisphere and the waning gibbous moon was not due to rise until around 9pm, so my session ran from 7pm until 9:30pm. Sky darkness: Bortle 6/7 backyard. NELM 4. Transparency: Excellent Seeing: Excellent Instrument: Saxon 10 inch dobsonian. I started my voyage with Venus and Mars. Venus was my best view so far this apparition, the steady atmosphere aiding me in clearly seeing it's gibbous shape. Mars presented an almost identical phase, I could make out the tiny dark area of Terra Cimmeria on its tiny 7.5" disk. From there it was time for deep sky, I started in the north, progressively sweeping my way south. TAURUS M1: Why not start at the beginning of the Messier catalogue? I thought. This was actually my clearest view of the supernova remnant so far, even though at best it looked like a vague smudge of light. 118 Tauri: Nice almost evenly matched double star. M45: Beautiful at 50x in my 24mm Panoptic. Faint nebulosity was apparent. NGC 1514: Crystal Ball Nebula. My first time successfully identifying this planetary nebula. Central star prominent, but the vague nebulosity was only seen averted vision at 185x NGC 1647: The third finest open cluster in Taurus for me. Nice, wide and fairly concentrated. AURIGA Was getting low so I just hit two objects from here. M38: I loved this view. Nice, rich open cluster with a spiral shape. M37: Oh my! Very rich, very compact beautiful open cluster! GEMINI M35: Large, beautiful open cluster. I could not make out faint companion cluster NGC 2158 on this night. NGC 2392: Eskimo Nebula. Fantastic planetary nebula with a high surface brightness. Vividly green and looked good at 300x. Castor: Brilliant, off white evenly matched double star. Nice at 680x CANCER M44: Always a crowd pleaser, this wide open cluster showed multiple pairs and triples arranged together at 70x. Iota Cancri: Where have you been all my life? A beautiful yellow and blue double star that I observed for the first time. Beautiful! M67: This is a good, rich open cluster that is unfairly overshadowed by M44. A beauty in its own right. NGC 2775: This galaxy appeared a a faint glow, but I was happy to find it. Another first time sighting. Tegmine (Zeta Cancri): Another stunning double star in Cancer. Actually it's a triple, I resolved all three components at 537x . Incredible view as the image was super steady! CRUX Alpha Crucis: I was treated to another incredible star image, this brilliant white blue double star was breathtaking at 686x. NGC 4755: The Jewel Box. Crystal clear clarity observing this amazing open cluster. Hard for words to do justice to the view at 70x. More sparkles than any diamonds on earth! NGC 4103: I like to call this open cluster the "arrow cluster". Fairly rich with a distinct arrow shape! CARINA NGC 2822: A challenging galaxy to observe as it lies close to the bright star Miaplacidus (Beta Carinae). I just caught a glimpse of its diffuse glow using 343x and by removing Miaplacidus just outside the field of view. NGC 3532: What a spectacle! Very rich, dense and bright open cluster. John Herschel called this cluster among the finest in the sky, I completely agree with him! NGC 3293: The Gem cluster. Very beautiful and compact open cluster. A rival to the Jewel Box in terms of sheer beauty! NGC 2808: Big and bright globular cluster. Resolved as a multitude of very fine, faint stars at 522x. NGC 3372: The mighty ETA Carina Nebula. Wow! Nebulosity and dark lanes visible surrounding the multiple imbedded star clusters of this nebula. Of these clusters, Trumpler 15 looked particularly stunning, shining like a group of diamonds amongst the glow. The Homunculus Nebula surrounding ETA Carina was incredible at high powers, looking almost exactly like a smaller version of the famous Hubble images of it. I finished off my session by observing the remarkable Ghost Of Jupiter planetary nebula NGC 3242 in Hydra. Another highlight on a night of many! I saw it's central star along with intricate details within the nebula that I've never seen before. A ring of glowing light blue nebulosity which reminded me why it is also named " The CBS Eye". It took the magnification of 686x well. The seeing and transparency was my saviour on this night, making up for the light pollution. Thanks for reading this far and wishing you all clear, steady, transparent and hopefully dark skies! Clear skies Joe

I was observing the waxing gibbous moon last night in very good seeing conditions. I used my 2x Barlow and 2.3mm eyepiece for a magnification of 1,044x my max power. All I can say is WOW! The Apennine Mts looked 3D with clear texture visible on each individual peak, with a strong sense of floating above the mountain range and seeing the partly shadow covered floor below. An incredible experience! Joe

I had a lovely session last night with my 10 inch dob, seeing was very steady. Waxing crescent moon looked awesome, l looked at Rimae Atlas, Pyrenees Mountains, Rima Cauchy and Hercules crater with smaller crater Hercules G within it. Actually saw vague dark markings on Mars small 8" disk, with it's distinctive gibbous phase. I observed both Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF and C/2017 PANSTARRS, nice to see them although both are fading. Picked up three new to me objects in Gemini: NGC 2331 open cluster, Bowyer 5 double star and NGC 2371 planetary nebula. Wishing you all clear skies! Joe

Thanks for the enjoyable read Magnus. What a galactic haul ! 👍

I had excellent seeing conditions last night, the atmosphere was super steady, so I decided to go to town observing several objects at 686x ( my 3.5 mm saxon eyepiece barlowed X2) using my 1200mm f4.7 10 inch dob. Mars: Despite being 9" across, this magnification showed me Valles Marineris as a dark spot. The image still really sharp. NGC 104: 47 Tucanae. An absolute explosion of stars at this magnification! The steady seeing making it possible. Almost overwhelming. M42 : Orion Nebula. Wow, my best ever view! The nebulosity still really bright at this magnification, with an incredible amount of details within the nebulosity. Dark rifts everywhere. I saw several faint stars glinting within the nebula that I had never seen before. All six stars of the trap plainly visible. The view is seared into my memory! I also looked at Sigma Orionis, Tegmine and Castor at the same magnification. Just beautiful and still surprisingly sharp! I highly recommend applying very high power on nights when you have excellent seeing and transparency. Even from my bortle 6 backyard the views were incredible. Wishing everyone clear and steady skies. Joe

Nice report Paul. I hope you are ok now after that incident 🤞 Joe

I had the opportunity last night to compare two comets currently in two opposite parts of the sky. Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF in the north in Auriga and comet C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS in the south in Tucana . They are both currently listed at 6.1 magnitude. I used my 10 inch dobsonian. ZTF was 25° up and looked bright with a star like nucleus surrounded by a bright green coma and showed a faint tail. PANSTARRS was 31° up and was faintly visible, glowing feebly as a diffuse spot. No other features seen. So the winner of the cometary shoot out: C/2022 E3 ZTF! Joe

Kostas this is amazing work! I have heard about this satellite but haven't seen it yet. It's incredible that you managed to capture some details, well done👍

I saw Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF last night on my second attempt, this time with my 10 inch dobsonian. Even from my bortle 6 backyard and at an elevation of 18° in Auriga this comet appeared bright in my eyepiece at 70x. It's coma appearing greenish. At 343x magnification it's coma appeared slightly elongated. It was very close to the double star HD 277311, a fantastic sight! Its tail was visible with averted vision. While in the area I took the opportunity to split the double stars 5 Aurigae, Omega Auriga and HD 277309. Returning to ZTF showed it had already moved appreciably in the couple of minutes I was observing the double stars. This comet is truly flying! A beautiful comet and I'm happy to have finally seen it. Wishing you all clear skies! Joe

The Green Comet ZTF is finally above the horizon here in Australia. I had a go using my 10x50mm binos last night ( it is still to low down for my dob). I saw the "kids" asterism in Auriga but no comet to be seen 😭 Will try again tonight, this time using my dob🤞

In my book any observing is better than none at all, even if it lasted 5 minutes! Your perseverance paid off👍

Great stuff Kimboman! Nothing like converting new blood into our hobby. My son is on the same path too👍 Wishing you clear skies! Joe

I have noticed that there are so many interesting unnamed features on the moon, your find is the latest example. When is the IAU going to start giving them official names?? In the meantime I agree that we call this feature "Zermelo's Ring"☺️

Hi mate and welcome to Stargazers Lounge! Yes it is amazing how quickly things can move in the sky, especially when you are paying attention to where they are. This shows that the Earth is pulling us all along at a fair clip! One fascinating thing I like doing is observing the dark side of the waxing crescent moon through a telescope slowly inch it's way towards a star then cover it ( an occultation). This demonstrates the moon's own eastward motion in real time. The celestrial mechanics of Astronomy are endlessly fascinating! Joe

Excellent report and illustrations! I'm waiting patiently for this comet to become visible for us Down Under. Thanks for posting!