1st clear sky in ages!!!

[king-jaffethehutt]

Hi Guys

first clear skies in ages here in Manchester.

Got out early doors and had a quick look at Jupiter & Venus before they dip below the roof of house, quick look at m42 also...happy days!! er nights!!!

Nice bit of detail on Jupiter with cloud bands and 4 moons. Venus usual blindingly bright self and M42 as usual...wonderful!!

Scope outside and just waiting for Saturn

Had a quick look at Mars and think I can see a dark patch of detail

Clear skies

King-jaffe

[king-jaffethehutt]

that'll teach me!!! Hello cloud my old friend... Not!!

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

How did you find the seeing tonight? I popped out at about 8pm to catch a last jupiter of the season, but could barely see one band. The image was like rippling mush, by far the worst i've ever seen.

I know it's getting low in the sky now, but tonight was ridiculous. I put my high power EP's away straight away and spent some time on the double cluster and orion instead.

[Double Kick Drum]

I managed to get an hour with the scope before the fog rolled in very quickly.

[king-jaffethehutt]

Not too bad at around 8pm but nowhere near as good as some of the views in Oct/Nov, Have had some seriously bad seeing conditions recently.

I had actually begin to think something was wrong with my scope, glad somebody local is having similar problems as I thought it was my fault.

hopefully it will pick up soon

[king-jaffethehutt]

ha ha, Local?? thought you were in Manchester Jimmy......Doh!!!

I should pay more attention...

[cs1cjc]

Jupiter is quite low in the sky now, so views are not as good as earlier in the year. I think this is compounded by the temptation to have a quick look before it sets, when the scope is first taken out and before the scope is properly cooled, for an hour or so in the case of a reflector.

It was a wonderful evening though and thanks to Mars, I saw more galaxies in one night than I have ever seen before.

[tony4563]

Mars looked great here last night through the Mak.

Plenty of surface detail and sharp polar cap.

The Dob in comparison was brighter, but more affected by seeing.

The Mak won on the night.

[ianpadley]

Also in South Cumbria. Finally I got a decent view of Mars with my new C8. Seeing was much improved compred with recent, so much so I went back in for the lappy and webcam and tried some images..not processed yet so we'll see. Visually, I saw two distinct dark patchs and a much lighter area...would this be the Elysium area?

Looks OK for a few days on and off here.

[sulaco]

I've got a curse of a constant light mist in Colchester where we seem to get clear skies but the slight evening haze just acts like a diffuser for the light pollution, so wide filed is hard