cotterless45

Oh no ! Klingons return , must have unmasked ,

At last a clear sky , little dew and comfortably around zero degrees. I'd set up with specific targets in mind , but given the great sky soon drifted around looking at old favourites. A lot of colour up there , Sigma Orionis and what a beautiful sight of this fishhook group. Lepus and" Hind's crimson" ( SAO 150058) , it's gone deep orange , a glowing coal. Slightly brighter and in Canes Venatici, Y ( "La Superba"), a lovely light orange. Reminded me to check out the bright "Garnet" star at the base of Cepheus ,high in the west. Tegmine (Zeta Cancri) and even at low power , the triple popped out. It looked so easy at x240, a bright clean split. As it was nearby , the dusty M67 should never be overlooked , a dusty view.Had a look at that other splendid triple , beta Monocerotis, lovely and bright at x50. Reminded me to visit the outspread "Hagrid's dragon "NGC 2301 , the "Christmas tree", NGC 2264. M50 is a favourite here with so many magnitudes here. NGC 2352, "Avery's island" gave a flying bat shape. Puppis and the fair dusting of M46 and M93. Hydra and the long chain of M48 , right on the border with Monoceros. Canis Major had risen by then and a good chance to compare the winter Albireos of h3945 and iota Cancri , the colour just beautiful. Orion and a sumptuous view of the bright close iota Orionis and Σ747. The view at x50 is filled with interest , with the Trapezium on one side . Second buch of cloud came over , just as I got NGC 2903 in the head of Leo. What a superb evening , hope that you get out for these feasts ! Under clear skies ! careful now, Nick.

Yep. Sounds like you got it . It's a challenge due to the bright primary , closing aperture or using a filter will lose the secondary. The best view that I had of this was with Patbloke's 120 ed. it just showed two tight clean marbles, careful now , Nick.

Lovely , a huge constellation bereft of deep sky interest , but some beautiful binaries , careful now , Nick.

A notebook can give great rewards looking back. Even the roughest of drawings and notes can bring back memories of special events. Here's just a few . There's oppositions , northern lights and comets , not forgetting Jupiter and the year that we didn't have a southern belt. Wishing you a wonderful new year , keep posting and keep safe , Nick.

Phew well done , coping with the seeing takes some doing . Often better after midnight as things up there even out and things down here get sleepy ! careful now , Nick.

Determined to catch Tegmine , what a star ! Kicked off with a gibbous moon , view of post great conjunction and Mars. Quite chill and frost on the scope. Some great views of Camelopardalis. Beautiful views of "Hind's crimson star " R Leporis, settled in a deep glow. Then up to " La Superba" Y Canum venaticorum, brighter but lots of glowing colour. Seeing has been quite poor , but higher up and past midnight and it settled. Strange object flew by , Righto , Tegmine and a very transient view of the fine separation. A fine triple teased out at x240 with an old school Vixen 5mm , giving x240. Looking around , light high humidity gave only the brightest stars. Packed in at one am , wishing you a very happy safe Christmas and the very best for the new year , stay safe , Nick.

Brilliant ! That's a star I point out to those who want a look . It's got the advantages of being visible by eye and gorgeous , Happy Christmad and a better new year ! Nick.

Thanks for replies ! How could I have forgotten Neowise ! I have a pic somewhere on the phone , what a thrilling sight to show the grandchildren . Even my wife gave up Netflix for a view . Happy Christmas and a better new year to all our readers ! We'll meet again , careful now , Nick.

What a year ! Plagued particularly by rapidly changing weather , which has dominated observing . It's been a challenge that some of us deal with hoping for better times. Several rewards , starting with Solar. June gave an indication that Sol was waking up. 31st of July gave an extraordinary prom.I hurriedly phoned up LeeB to have a look. We were both stunned at the extraordinary view. Since then only the weather has limited observing . http://halpha.nso.edu/ has given daily updates of wakening Sol , as have the reports of Aurora. Night ! Some 46 sessions this year , boosted in the autumn by Mars opposition. Observing Mars was challenging with reducing the aperture and a moon filter being effective in controlling glare. A lot of detail was found , but took some teasing out. September gave one night of extraordinary observing with the mare sirenum very obvious. Saturn showed surface details, a clear Cassini and an outer ring darker area . It was fortunate that Patbloke had come over and great to share such views. Jupiter didn't disappoint a few nights later with an Io shadow transit. A busy year for both carbon and binary stars. Including "Hind's Crimson", "La Superba" and the "garnet star". July brought a few weeks in darkest Northumberland , just amazed at how dark the skies are on the borders. Some specials included Comet C/2017 T2 Panstarrs rising up into Cassiopeia from Perseus , C/2019 Y4 Atlas and 289P Blanpain. Otherwise some excitement from "Hubble's variable nebula"(NGC 2261), The "ghost of Jupiter" (NGC 3242) and the surprising bright M17. Astounded to catch the Space X satellite train in late March , very close together and numerous ! The year ended with a spectacular view of Saturn sitting over Jupiter before the great conjunction. A challenging year, but made enjoyable by transient and seasonal delights, Careful now and all the very best wishes for next year , Nick.

Brilliant ! You might care to add next time out , 15 Mon.(SAO 114258) At the base of the Christmas tree is a stunning multiple. That Σ848 is a stunning 2.3" separation binary at the end of the 37 in NGC 2169, always adds something to cluster observing that these newest stars are binary rich. This particularly applies to M44 ,with both SLE and Σ binaries filling the view. Not had much luck with skies here , either wobbling or cloudy ! Better next year ! careful now , Nick.

You just can't beat the clarity of a long large frac ! In addition to binaries , it'll open up brighter deep sky targets , Nick.

Brilliant ! Nothing beats simplicity , look for the blue of Neptune and the green of Uranus , clear skies ! Nick.

You've hit a lot of variables here . The biggest one is transparency and seeing which with observing binaries will dominate proceedings. Synscan can be put out by random factors , it can be hit and miss. Some nights stars are wobbling like coloured jelly , especially if the jet stream is over us . Other nights , there's a magic stillness that usually comes after midnight .Some nights Synscan can be bang on , and other nights you feel like chucking it away ! There are enough challenges to keep you busy , oh , I haven't added in clouds ! clear skies and "careful now ! " (Father Ted), Nick.

Waiting, waiting and at last an early start and through to midnight. The dew was extreme , eventually freezing . Gave competing with that a miss. Another few views of Mars. I've been busy tweaking between aperture closure and filters. Old school moon filter came out best , along with some transient light high cloud. Taurus looked remarkably comfy to view on my chair , so I visited a few binary gems . Of these Σ559 showed a real gem of a brilliantly bright pair split by a hair . Drifted around some Messier's and old favourites. Hoping that you're all keeping safe , wrap up for those winter gems , Nick.

A week in Northumberland and this week in the Scottish Borders.A couple of hours of clear sky. Last evening and half past three this morning were just stunning. We're some 15 miles inland from Berwick upon Tweed, it's open countryside. The sky was as dark and as stunning that I've seen in the western Isles. Firstly the Milky Way was a wide twisting broken bright stream across the sky . Through Cygnus, rift and coalsac , it halted before splitting carrying on down to the horizon. Next the constellations . It takes some time to get adjusted to so many stars. Mars helped in orientation. This morning , Cassiopeia was not a "W" ! It looked like a wide twisted Perseus. Orion looked huge , his multi-starred club /bow arcing to the huge Hyades.Not often that I've seen the shape of Monoceros. Gemini could not be made out , if you were unaware of its size and shape. Our ancestors must have sat around fires to get the constellation shapes. Auriga was breathtaking . The odd fuzz showed where the larger clusters were. Including a very bright patch of the double cluster. My evening view showed the swirl and knots of M33 through 15x70 binoculars. M31 just filled the field of view. The MW just showed a background of bark brown star filled areas. This area of the country is scarcely visited and well worth exploring, especially for delights the very dark skies bring, Stay safe and clear skies , Nick

Lovely report and indeed cracking views. I kept picking up a small bright area on the limb, but it was very transient . Hoping for a great opposition , Nick.

Thanks Mark ! I found that with the aperture closed down to 120mm that an old school "Moon" filter took too much light . There was barely any difference turning the single polarising filter . I don't know what others have found . I did hear of colour filters being used . I did find that using no filter just gave you glare and that it's rare to nip inside for drink and toast and it not affecting the views ! Hope everyone enjoys Mars and looking forward to the opposition on the 13th of October , Nick.

You wake up in the night. Groggily and half asleep , walk out into the garden. That cloud filled forecast has broken into crystal dark sky . High in the south sits a very bright Mars ." I wonder what it looks like that high ?" The following nights bring cloud then clear skies but with wobbly seeing . Even Jupiter hardly shows it's bands. Setting up at 11 , this time I'm waiting and watching out for that early morning height of Mars. First views and wow ! Focus on the ice cap and wait until the surface comes to view. Just don't keep fiddling with it . Both eyes open with a hand over the non observing eye, gets the eyepatch out . Sits and draws, funny what detail you can see. The surface shows not only darker bits. But delicate channels where one arm flows off. It's still wow at x240 with a 10mm Vixen plossl in x2 Barlow.I settle at x240 with an old school heavyweight ,5mm Vixen LVW and a single polarising filter . Just no breeze , hardly any dew and a lovely Mars. 2.15, dew is getting heavy , sleep calls . Thank you red planet for an unforgettable night, Stay safe and clear skies , Old Nick.

Chuffed that you got there in the end . The Equinox 120 gave just crisp and amazing views . No need to road test it , came up trumps with every target . Certain that you will continue and share your enthusiasm, old Nick.

Looks bang on target . Great to a drawing of what's in the eyepiece , well caught ! Nick.

Ditto, there wasn't a forecast giving out the misery of cloud pouring in. Seems high presssure does little favours for seeing . There have been a few nights when I thought that there was something wrong with the Optics or my eyes. Just blame the sky ! old Nick.

Patbloke arrived with his 120ed . We were well tooled up , Eq6 pro, C6r and a manual heavy duty CG5. Kicked off with Jupiter , bit blurry. That followed a heated discussion on there being no finder scope on the ed , interesting alignment ! Saturn was stunning. Best that I'd ever seen. I had goosebumps on my neck which spread down to my legs. The detail was amazing with a dark band outside the Cassini and plenty surface details at x216. It was rock steady and just a crystal view. Mars as soon as it cleared the houses showed a bright polar cap and surface markings. We waited as it climbed higher . I moved the ed to the manual CG5 down the garden and told Pat to sit down and play with apertures, eyepieces and filters. I used a 120 aperture and an nd filter on the C6r. Best views were x240 up to just under x300. The ice cap was clearly defined with Syrtis Major dark on the surface. Seeing was exceptionally good. We enjoyed the view from both scopes and a selection of eyepieces. It was an exceptional night shared , pat left after 2 and I carried on for another hour, clear skies ! Nick.

Fantastic sight in the Lunt 35 old Nick

So so with this . I regret buying Astro gear in the past when I began and all that sparkled was thought to be essential. Now I've settled on the best gear I can afford and in that way am really happy. Before you sit on money , remember that there's no pockets in a shroud. My parents had a huge house and money. It's now gone with mother being in a care home for ten years. They never went on holiday and had a pretty miserable life worrying about money ! We spend a right amount on holidays and trips. This has taken us to fabulous places and experiences. This has luckily included dark skies. If you really need to spend to enjoy the sky , then ensure you get to a dark sky ( when this virus has allowed). Same for spending on our grandchildren, we have a weekly WhatsApp quiz and take their prizes ( games for indoors and the garden) around a few days later. You can spend for pleasure and memories. Sparkly things soon lose their lustre, just chill out and enjoy what you afford, keep safe , Nick.