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The seeing is phenomenal NOW!

DaveGibbons

By DaveGibbons
in The Astro Lounge

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Lynxi

Lynxi

Posted
Posted

Still cloudy here but finally it's starting to clear up! Might catch Jupiter tonight if not should catch Saturn later if the clouds do finish clearing up!

Happy viewing those who don't have cloud cover!

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John

John

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Great here in North Somerset as well :)

I've been using "silly power" on the Moon with my ED120 - 411x and the views are still holding up. The Straight Wall is far from straight tonight !.

Waiting for Leo and Mars to rise over the rooftops now.

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sanmatt

sanmatt

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Posted

Not sure what I saw tonight, but facing West something big bright and red was very very low down on the horizon. Dont think it was Mars, Im fairly sure thats in the other direction. I couldnt get a great look, it was so low down that it was almost behind someones fence!

edit - I just checked on Stellarium, maybe it was Venus? (or Vega??)

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magic77

magic77

Posted
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Fantastic clear skies here in Snowdonia, great views of Jupiter, best viewing conditions for a very long time, able to use TMB 5mm with no distortion!! Mars Just risen above mountains, should be great in an hour or so. Great to see so many others are enjoying too!!!:)

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x6gas

x6gas

Posted
Posted
Not sure what I saw tonight, but facing West something big bright and red was very very low down on the horizon. Dont think it was Mars, Im fairly sure thats in the other direction. I couldnt get a great look, it was so low down that it was almost behind someones fence!

edit - I just checked on Stellarium, maybe it was Venus? (or Vega??)

Venus wouldn't look red - it's quite 'white'. Could it have been Scheat?

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Captain Caveman

Captain Caveman

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Posted

Had a good view of the moon with my boy and his new eyepiece to get x50 and he loved it. Then I popped up to a friend who had told me they couldn't get their refractor to work and didn't think they had any EP's

When I went up I found a Televue Pronto 70mm with 480 EFL and lots of dirt and dust on every glass surface.

They had a 17mm plossl but they had it in a 2x barlow which made their viewing and finding really poor, and they hadn't realised it could come out

After a quick clean up, I took it outside and stuck it on Jupiter showing great views of the Galillean moons, then the moon with really crisp views of its features (much better than the mini-dob though probably due to the EPs as well) and then a look at M42

IF I'm lucky they'll get into some stargazing as its a really nice scope on a solid mount (though a funy style I've not seen before with each leg rotating out independently) and they live miles from any LP

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x6gas

x6gas

Posted
Posted

Really clear tonight. Had a tough time deciding whether to do some planetary imaging or grab some more data on a couple of deep-sky projects... Decided on the latter so the imaging kit grabed a few subs of the Flaming Star Nebula and I've added an hours worth of Ha Horsehead data... Should really be capturing the B channel on such a good night, I think, but I'm impatient to get the Ha together. Hopefully I'll get another 90 minutes worth before the night is out.

Cold outside so I'm just nipping out every half hour or so to check everything is ok and PHD is still doing its stuff... already had the power lead drop out of my guide cam!

Really don't want to waste a night like this!

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jasonbirder

jasonbirder

Posted
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Crystal clear blue skies today...clear at teatime driving home with the moon jupiter and venus nicely visible in the twilight...still clear as I put the scope outside to cool while I cut up a mouse mat to make a telrad dew cover ahead of the long session I have planned tonight...

(I think you all know where this is going)

Look outside at 9 as i boil the kettle for my flask....

Aaaargh cloud...where did THAT come from!!!

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malc-c

malc-c

Posted
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Really clear tonight. Had a tough time deciding whether to do some planetary imaging or grab some more data on a couple of deep-sky projects... Decided on the latter

Same here... but seeing that everyone is shouting about how good the seeing is, and now Mars is up I'm undecided as to continuing with some dso's or swapping the cameras over and capturing some video... Thing is I've captured 4 hrs worth of data having got PHD working well and I'm scared to upset anything :)

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Crimson Sunset

Crimson Sunset

Posted
Posted

Good seeing here too! I only have the EPs that came with my scope so i could only up the magnification to 120x on Jupiter, but it showed more detail than i've seen as of yet.

Now to wait the agonising few hours til Saturn and Mars are both high enough to see...:)

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astro mick

astro mick

Posted
Posted

Mik3.

The message "The star did,nt travel enough" indicates there was,nt enough movement of the star for PHD to calibrate for guiding.You need to increase some of the parameters in its settings.

Click on the Brain icon,and that will display your current setings.

Problem is i cant remember which ones to increase.

A specific search on the web should help,or ask again in the relevant sections of this forum.

Mick.

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Mik3

Mik3

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Posted
Mik3.

The message "The star did,nt travel enough" indicates there was,nt enough movement of the star for PHD to calibrate for guiding.You need to increase some of the parameters in its settings.

Click on the Brain icon,and that will display your current setings.

Problem is i cant remember which ones to increase.

A specific search on the web should help,or ask again in the relevant sections of this forum.

Mick.

Thanks, I managed to figure it out, it was callibration step. Wasted most the time on 30s subs though, and now the clouds are incoming.

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waynezilla

waynezilla

Posted
Posted

Spent the evening with my camera pointed at M81/M82. A lovely crisp evening in Cheshire (Warrington) although some clouds have rolled in now.

Whatever the pics turn out like I have definitely captured M81/M82 for the first time, so I'm pretty pleased.

G'night!

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Squagnut

Squagnut

Posted
Posted
Spent the evening with my camera pointed at M81/M82. A lovely crisp evening in Cheshire (Warrington) although some clouds have rolled in now.

Whatever the pics turn out like I have definitely captured M81/M82 for the first time, so I'm pretty pleased.

G'night!

I saw M81 tonight for the first time (first time I've tried), so it's definitely viewable. Excellent seeing here in Cumbria - very cold (but I have fantastic warm clothing) but also very dry - a great combination.

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x6gas

x6gas

Posted
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I hope to take advantage of the mostly clear skies we have at moment, deep sky is out of the question with the Moon up but Mars is tempting :)

Yeah - it's typical isn't it, but I am hoping that narrowband will be OK, hence grabbing some Ha data...

Don't want to jinx it, but it's looking good for tonight too so maybe I'll be able to finish off the Ha of Horsehead. I'm up to 4hrs worth of 10 minute subs now, though the framing on some of the early one's isn't great and I may yet discard some. Still, if I can bag another 2 hours tonight I'll be happy - that's really the maximum I can get in one night as Orion is obscured in the South-east for me, so it only really makes sense to image it once it's crossed the meridian...

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