observing possibility tonight

[beamish]

didn't see any fireball tho caught a few satellites and a bright meteorite flare the other night- packing up about 1/2 hr ago I'm sure I just caught the back end of the ISS. Seeing mediocre-good at times. Transferring data we'll see later how good/bad it is.

[cotterless45]

Crystal night, like walking into a planetarium. We had heavy rain and bad cloud early evening, then it just cleared, neat. I put some viewing on Observing ;Deep Sky, cracking,

Nick.

[Dreamweaver]

Woke at ten past four this morning and looked out the window. Dark clear sky. Thought I’m having some of this - threw fifteen jumpers and a hat on and floored the motor. Had me 90mm Mak in passenger seat, EQ1 etc in boot and found quiet bit off the A20 near Brands Hatch.

Jupiter was stunning too. I spent more time looking at Jupiter though with her four moons, one of them just visible over the north east of the edge of planet but actually clear of it. I could see space between them. (I suppose if you see through a dob it would be the south east, - not sure though). I could see two dark bandings on Jupiter and after a while (I spent a good twenty minutes continuously observing) I could make out the bandings were a subtle brown/purple colour and further discovered that the upper band in fact was be made up of two smaller bands as there was a clear division between them. Never seen that before! The lower band of the three was darker and not quite as wide as the top two. This was seen through the 7mm Celestron. Wish I attached the RA motor as keeping the image centralised was bit cold on the hand. I'll remember to take gloves next time.

Then looked back at Orion but it had virtually disappeared! Where did it go? I realised it was now getting light and being washed out.

So glad I made the effort to get up observe the wonders of the sky…

[Dreamweaver]

_{Sorry, previous posting was premature, haven't been able to sort out the editing thing as yet is there any way one can delete once posted?}

_{Woke at ten past four this morning and looked out the window. Dark clear sky. Thought I’m having some of this - threw fifteen jumpers and a hat on and floored the motor. Had me 90mm Mak in passenger seat, EQ1 etc in boot and found quiet bit off the A20 near Brands Hatch. Orion was screaming at me... just right there, right in front of me. Put the scope straight on it.}

_{Orion nebular first time ever seen. I've seen Orion's belt hundreds, if not thousands of times in my life but never ever the nebular. Amazing. Jaw dropping stuff. Best and brightest view for me was seen though the 32mm plossl. It was enormous and so there!}

_{Jupiter was stunning too. I spent more time looking at Jupiter though with her four moons, one of them just visible over the north east of the edge of planet but actually clear of it. I could see space between them. (I suppose if you see through a dob it would be the south east, - not sure though). I could see two dark bandings on Jupiter and after a while (I spent a good twenty minutes continuously observing) I could make out the bandings were a subtle brown/purple colour and further discovered that the upper band in fact was be made up of two smaller bands as there was a clear division between them. Never seen that before! The lower band of the three was darker and not quite as wide as the top two. This was seen through the 7mm Celestron. Wish I attached the RA motor as keeping the image centralised was bit cold on the hand. I'll remember to take gloves next time.}

_{Then looked back at Orion but it had virtually disappeared! Where did it go? I realised it was now getting light and being washed out.}

_{So glad I made the effort to get up observe the wonders of the sky…}

[earth titan]

I have to say it was a fantastic evening. Cleared up quicker than the BBC suggested so a good session.

I even managed to find M76 which is normally too faint for my 200mm SCT from the obsy.

Typed by me, using fumms...

[Delboy_Hog]

Yup, t'was a good night. Missed the fireball event as went to bed early in order to be up just before 2am, but caught a huge flash and trail of light in the East sometime between 3 and 4am I would think.

Seeing was ok here, the breeze dropped off and seeing improved quite a bit around 5ish, though by then I was swimminng in dew and it was all over for the night! My desire for an imaging-specific set up to go with my mak127 is growing - I increasingly find my self wishing I could be doing some visual work while the camera is in action, and it'd be lovely to be touring the skies with one scope while t'other is working away capturing some images that I can tinker with on the nights when I can't get outside because of the weather.

Had a fantastic (and more than a little scary) meeting with a fox - I was lost in the depths of my laptop screen, saw a sudden blur to my left which made me jump. Fox had walked down the side of the house and was no more than 2 metres away from me. He stopped to look at me as I looked up, jumped over the low wall and padded off down the garden - absolutely silent. I'm a bit on edge when i'm out on an evening (don't live in the nicest part of Leeds!) and even a drop of water from the roof catches my attention, but I simply didn't hear the fox at all, even as he trotted past a few feet away, incredible. Only realised after my heart rate had dropped a bit that my camera was within arms reach to my right, but by then he was gone - so quietly I don't even know which way he went!

Didn't get to see my hedgehog friend, though I could hear him eating slugs in the hedge...believe me, quite possibly the most disgusting sound i've ever heard in my entire life!

So of my aims for the evening, I really only achieved 1 out of 4, which was trying the webcam with the 3x barlow. No stunning result, but good to know it's do-able. Failed at keeping the dew away, failed at photographing the hedgehog and realised when i got in I'd under-exposed most of my footage for the evening, so probably won't be able to create the animation I was after...lesson learned: small laptop screen with sharpcap in 'night-mode' does not give you a good representation of what you're actually capturing!

And yet despite all of that, as I clambered back into bed at 6am, Mrs_Hog asked if I'd had a good time, and I realised that I was grinning from ear to ear. What a fantastic hobby this is!