lunator

I'm in Bortle 3 skies at the mo. I only have my ST80 on a photo tripod. I have been following the immense sunspot group over the last few days. Last night was clear-ish to start with a lot of contrails tat created thin high cloud. Started with the very thin cresent Moon. Using the 12mm Pentax gave me x33. I need to look up the craters I could see. I then had a look at STF1825 in Bootes it took the 5mm ortho to split at x100. After 10pm the sky began to clear so I thought I would see how an 80mm scope in bortle 3 compares to other scopes I have used in Bortlle 4/5. Using well known Messier objects. M51 was fairly obvious, found quite easily, slight brighter in the 20mm SWAN eyepiece tan I can see it in my 15x70 at home (B4). M109 proved difficult. I managed it in the 12mm but to get a clear sighting I had to move Phecda out of the field of view. I went back to something easier and tried for M65/66. These were visible in the 20mm SWAN and I could glimpse NGC3628. My final challenge was M64. It proved trickier than I thought but the conditions were deteriorating due to mist. I got a reasonable view at x33. My final target was R Vir. It's brightness does appear to have changed much but it was trickier using the scope rather than the Binos and the mist may have been a factor. I called it a night as everything was getting very wet and the mist was getting thicker. Cheers Ian

The group 3664 is astounding. When the the seeing settled the numerous fainter sunspots popped out. Very good sketch 😀. Cheers Ian

I spent some time viewing the. Sunspots this morning. It is interesting that it is linked to an M class flare. I was chatting about this with my wife and thought it would be linked to a strong flare. I was amazed how much the groups changed in less than 24 hours. Cheers Ian

I had a look atnthe sunspots this morning and was surprised at the changes in less than 24 hours. The complex of Sunspots near the centre of the disk is quite amazing. I look forward to seeing so e more sketches. Cheers Ian

Hi John I have managed to get my 8" dob in the car as well as a dog & teenager. I only have a medium sized hatchback. It is amazing what you can fit in a car. sometimes 🙂 Usually I just take my ST80 + Horizon tripod. If you could find something similar size and weight wise to an ST80 but with a bit more aperture then I think it would be ideal. Cheers Ian

Very good sketch, lots of detail. It must have been tricky capturing all that detail. Cheers Ian

Very Good image. I had a look at the Sun in WL today and it looks amazing and you have caught it well. Cheers Ian

Nice report 🙂 Doubles are always good targets if conditions are less than perfect. Cheers Ian

Very good sketch. The Sun is very active and you have caught the detail well. 😀 Cheers Ian

Very good image Andy. Plenty of detail 😀 Cheers Ian

There were a few clouds about this evening after work but I did grab the Binos for a quick look. R virginis is continuing to increase in brightness. I also managed to get a glimpse of M63. After another look at M51. I wasn't successful with M108. Cheers Ian

Paul For orbital mechanics I would recommend zeta Cnc. I have been following this system since 2006 and the orbital motion is clear. The nice extra bonus is the AC pair gives a very useful reference for the AB motion. Cheers Ian

Neil Very good images, 😀 Lots of detail. Cheers Ian

John good catch. 👍 I had a quick check of R Vir, not a significant change from last night. l was pleased and surprised to spot M51 and M101 in the 15x70's Cheers Ian

I haven't had much chance to observe recently but I did pop out briefly last night with the Bimos to check on R Vir. It is still brightening. There was some high cloud around but to me it looked very similar to HD109417 which is mag 6.75. The other thing I noticed was the number of satellites visible.... Cheers Ian

I am usually a double star enthusiast but I have been following R Virginis a mira type variable. This has led me down a rabbit hole 😀. I thought I would compare R Vir to other Mira stars and this then morphed into reading up about the Mira period luminosity relationship. There is quite a lot of papers but one thing I could not find was the relationship between peak luminosity and period. I used the GAIA parallax/Colour. and the AAVSO on 93 Mira type stars to compare. There were a couple a curious things to note. Ther seem to be a couple of red dwarfs in the mix ( or the parallax is wrong...), and there is a clear relationship between peak absolute magnitude and period, and a less clear relationship between colour and luminosity. I have not calculated extinction or metallicity that will be next. Cheers Ian Mira period_L.docx

Been at my local astro meet tonight but had a look at the Moon in the binos Clavius was clear to see. Also checked R Virginis I put the at ~7.8 Cheers Ian

It is a very good sketch. That is a very interesting part of the Moon to observe and you have captured it well. Cheers Ian

M44 can look really good in binoculars when not washed out by the Moon🙂

I have the joys of an early start but had a quick at the Moon and a variable R Virginis. It is due to increse in brightness from 8th to 6ish mag over the next few weeks. So I am going to try and follow it. Cheers Ian

I have taken quite a few images of Double Stars. I haven't done anything recently as I have been focused in other areas. They are not super hard to image but the biggest challenge is getting the balance right if you want to catch fainter field stars as well.

I was working tonight but managed to get outside for a short session with the 15x70's. The Moon looked spectacular (again) 😀 with plenty of detail on the terminator. M44 was more washed out by the moonlight. I did manage to spot M67 and M53. I think I also spotted NGC5053 which is a Globular Cluster very close to M53. Cheers Ian

It did clear up here for a bit but I only had time for a short Bino session. The Moon did look spectacular and I enjoyed observing the craters. I quick sweep of Auriga picked up M38/36. I then popped over to M44 as it always looks good in in Binos. I wasn't able to split Zeta Cnc 🙃😊. A final sweep through Leo and Hydra where I enjoyed looking at some of the more strongly coloured stars. Cheers Ian

Had a quick look through the 15x70's this evening. There was quite a lot of fast moving cloud. The Moon terminator and craters looked very good and I got a glimpse of M38. I tried for some Galaxies in Leo and Virgo but I am not sure I could be certain of seeing anything. Cheers Ian

Very nice report . I am slowly getting into galaxy observing myself. Cheers Ian