Sky looks wonderful tonight in Cork - Ireland

[Rihard]

Folks, what a wonderful sky tonight!

The seeing seems also to be very good down here!

How are things going at your locations?

Why my new scope hasn't arrived yet?

[mike.brightmore]

The sky WAS clear here in North East Lincolnshire but the clouds have rolled in now.

[Celestdon]

really clear here in south yorkshire, just the odd cloud. had a good few hours but im getting cold and im up at 5 so its time to call it a night

[Rihard]

I was even able to image a nice starred sky

[tony4563]

It's been a lovely night tonight.

Had three scopes out to hopefully catch a decent glimpse of Mars at opposition.

Started off with the ED80 whilst the 150 Mak and 10" Dob were cooling down.

What a fabulous scope the ED80 is. I popped in a 40mm Paragon (70 degree FOV) and was greeted by masses of beautiful pinpoint stars. The Double Cluster was just stunning at low mags. Pleides and M42 absolutely gorgeous. Turned to mars and upped the magnification. At x120 the image of mars was surprisingly bright for a small aperture scope like this. Unfortunately Mars was above my rooftop so with a combination of seeing, and thermals from the house, the view was a little mushy. There were definate darker markings but I could not get it to focus to see the detail.

It was the same for the 150 Mak. I keep it in the garage so it was pretty cool to start but even after cooling further, the image was still pretty mushy, although this time I was starting to get short glimpses of the polar cap in and out.

I then turned my attention to the Dob.

First thing I noticed was just how instantly brighter Mars was with the extra aperture.

At the same magnifications I was seeing more detail than with the other scopes.

Although it was constantly in and out of focus, It looked stunning when the seeing allowed it. Darker markings were obvious and the polar cap could clearly be seen.

A truly beautiful sight when conditions allowed it.

I was getting cold by now so I thought I'd nip in and warm up for a bit. Hopefully Mars would be higher when I got out and I would get a more steady view.

Alas it was not to be.

Although it was still a beautiful clear night, the seeing actually got worse and I could only make out an orange ball of mush.

At least I got to see it earlier. Will try again later this week and make the most of the opposition.

It wont be as close as this for a long time, so it's worth percevereing!

[Marki]

A nice clear sky here is Sheffield at last. M42 and Pleiades as gorgeous as ever is my bins. Got some of the scopes out and managed to get some nice views of Jupiter with three moons (think Europa must have been behind) and what looked like a three-quarter phase of Venus, and just now Saturn is lovely (albeit not too much detail).

But whenever I try, I just can't make Mars anything more than a ball of mush as Tony4563 put it. This planet is really a bit of a challenge for me. Tried pushing x176 with the Starwave 102 ED, but it actually seemed as good with the TAL100RS at x125. Did manage to get a hint of the polar cap, and a very feint suggestion of darkening on the right hand side after I put the Baader neodymium filter on (not sure if that actually helped or if it was just wishful thinking on my part...). However, any higher mags and I just lost it - no definition and just a bright blob. Oh well, better luck next time and was good to get to see anything at all after the past few nights here!

Off to bed now - alarm going off at 6am .

Clear skies all!

[Rihard]

Nice stuff guys.

With the naked eye I also spotted Saturn (after about 10 years ) and Mars was over my home almost all night (well, until 2:00 AM at least, then I went to sleep).

I saw the pleiades earlier and Orion (how easy is that ) and photographed the beehive with my tele zoom. Venus and Jupiter were magnificent but I'd say the seeing was not as good as I thought; I can normally make out jupiter moons with the zoom lens but this time it was very fuzzy. I've also tried to image Saturn and Mars with no luck

Just can't wait to get my new telescope delivered because I don't want to miss these exceptional chances In Sardinia I was well able to make out jupiter bands with a SW 114 reflector and also with my oldish cheap Konus 114 one, I just can't imagine what I can see with a 200p!!

[tony4563]

Now THAT will be a whole new ball game!