Unexpected night to be out

[JamesF]

The forecast for last night was not encouraging with cloud until not long before dawn so I wasn't expecting to get out, especially when I came in from putting the chickens to bed at about 8pm and the moon as almost completely obscured by cloud. I was very pleasantly surprised to see a clear sky when I checked around 11pm. As I'd not really planned anything specific to look at I decided to take some wide field images of Cassiopeia and Perseus and get some more images of Jupiter.

Whilst taking the wide field shots I just lay back in a reclining chair and toured the sky unaided. The Milky Way was beautifully clear as was M31 which in fact was not only visible but also had a distinguishable shape. As we got into the small hours the three clusters in Auriga were easy to make out and just before I called it a night at around 3:30am I saw that Cancer was well above the horizon and the Beehive cluster looked stunning. I also saw a dozen or so meteors during the night, most fairly faint, but four or five were very bright and one in particular left a very bright trail.

Based on the stars I could see in Ursa Minor, which was probably in its least advantageous position being aligned away from Polaris to the north when I checked, I'd still estimate NELM as around 6.0, so I don't think I can expect it to get a whole lot better.

No idea what the images look like. I did suffer a bit from the 50mm lens dewing up when doing the wide field images as it was pointing almost straight up, but I want to get set up for a solar shot this morning so they'll have to wait.

The opportunities for observing have been few and far between, but I've really enjoyed the time I've spent observing this summer. Somehow it's very pleasing to see the winter constellations returning to the night sky though. I'm feeling quite tempted to try to keep going with the wide field imaging and pick up a few that aren't necessarily in the plane of the Milky Way.

Anyone else get out last night?

James

[Mike73]

The forecast showed that the patchy cloud would clear around midnight so I went out about 10 and set everything up early.

Now one of the things I love about going to my dark site is the peace and quiet so with a cup of coffee I sat down on a bench and watched the clouds float past with the sound of the waves breaking on the beach a couple hundred feet below....Bliss!!

I guess I must of relaxed a little too much as the next thing I knew I was soaking wet with dew and it was 1.30am!! Still cloudy I decided I'd had enough of 'stargazing' for one night, packed up and went home!!

So even though I fully intended to have another great night under the stars all I actually did was go to sleep in a dark field for 2 1/2 hours!!

[chiltonstar]

I popped out at 4:00 am - it was totally clear with a very good view of Orion (nearly due S). It was raining dew though, so I didn't bother with a scope but used my pre-warmed 15x70s!

Chris

[JamesF]

So even though I fully intended to have another great night under the stars all I actually did was go to sleep in a dark field for 2 1/2 hours!!

I was actually feeling very tired after finishing work yesterday having had a bit of a stressful week, but I got a bit of a second wind later in the evening. I can't completely guarantee that I didn't drift off for the odd few minutes whilst reclining looking at the stars though. I was running a plan in APT for Cassiopeia and just left it going once I was happy that it was looking ok, but it definitely seemed to finish somewhat more quickly than I expected

James

[womblemaster]

friend was at guisborough priory last night, and reported on her fkhk pages seeing meteors. dont really have any details tho...