Memorable Astronomical Highlights for 2012

[bomberbaz]

wow laser-jock, that is an awesome image, love it

[JB80]

Well it's interesting really it's been frankly a terrible year for getting my scope out and viewing and while we are all cursing the weather and asking "is this the worst year ever?" I look back and remember some of the things that actually made this year possibly one of the best I've had.

• First up was our trip to Euro Disney believe it or not where I witnessed and photographed my first Solar Halo and Sun dog.
  

• Second was a visit to Provence and while we were there we visited the Haute-Provence Observatory.
  

• Also getting the PST stage 1 mod, it's a spectacular upgrade and having that this year really saved the years observing for me. Thanks a million Ken.
  

• Vixen Polarie. Nuff said.
  

• Seeing the Milky Way visually for the first time in the Northern hemisphere when in Crete.
  

• Seeing the Venus transit from Santorini, it was a close run thing for a while there but in the end it was amazing. A wonderful thing to see from an amazing location.
  

• Viewing Leonids from Loch Ness, excellent dark skies, saw a few and got snowed on. Brilliant.
  

All things considered 'twas an alright year.

[allcart]

Simple stuff for me as I have only come back to astro a few months ago but;

Seeing the bands of Jupiter for the first time.

getting my first usable pic of Andromeda.

Getting my first pic of the Horsehead, although not completely happy with it.

Seeing M42 through the scope.

All simple stuff, but a landmark for me.

[bomberbaz]

All simple stuff, but a landmark for me.

Its the simple things in life that make for the best things, always been an advocate of this view of life

Baz

[JB80]

I almost forgot Perseids, I ended up falling asleep in the backyard. I saw a load of them as well, it was probably the most successful meteor shower I have watched in years.

[Mark at Beaufort]

2012 was a very eventful year in terms of astronomy.

• Saw the Annular solar eclipse in California
  
• Venus Transit - also in California. Was with many american observers who had access to some wonderful kit. Viewed the transit through a 6" Lunt H.Alpha scope and binoviewers - excellent
  
• European Union official trip to Hungary and Slovakia. Saw some great observatories as well as some historic books at the Konkoly observatory in Budapest. First edition copies by Galileo, Kepler, Beyer and a 2nd edition copy of Isaac Newton's famous book. Able to hold them and view them - thought this was a bit mad considering how valuable these books must be worth.
  

On the home front had some great observing nights as well as many sunny days using my PST. I guess one of my enjoyable moments was at a dark site in North Wales when I viewed the North American Neb through my William Optics SD66 frac with the 26mm Nagler and a UHC filter - brilliant.

[EntropyStar]

There's too many to list! This has been my first year with a proper scope so I'm overwhelmed with choice. I'll limit myself to a few!

• Seeing Saturn + 6 moons, and the Cassini Division
  
• Perseus Double Cluster through a widefield EP
  
• The Northern Lights in Iceland (on my birthday and the day I proposed to my OH)
  
• Exploring the Virgo Cluster for the first time
  
• Following the phases of Venus
  
• Vewing Bode's Galaxy for the first time @ SGL 7
  
• Absorbing the staggering amount of information related to visual astronomy, I feel like it's akin to learning to walk for the first time.
  

[freeflyjay]

well only got my first scope in march (10" skywatcher dob) so all of it, saturn really was spectacular, jupiter a couple of weeks ago at 300x mag was like a photo with the grs and great detail in the bands, mars , phases of venus , m42 only 2 days after getting my scope was my first mesier, only added a few more since due to poor weather most of the time but since got m81, m82 and andromeda, m13 and m15, and of course cann`t miss the moon out, i`m 41 and this year was first time i`ve pointed a scope at the sky even though it`s always been a passion never got round to buying a scope till this year, glad i did, think it will be a life long thing now, when i can scrape the cash together really want to try some astro photography but it`s a bit expensive to get all the stuf i need.

[Austin]

It has to be seeing the fireball in september with mates dan and baz while out observing and finally getting my imaging rig after waiting for what felt like forever :)

[Beulah]

Hope you've managed to get out there and catch come photons with that new setup, Austin.

[Austin]

Ive managed to get my head round guiding.... i did take a few hrs worth of subs on m81, but it was really just to famimiarise myself with the whole process of setting up as i didnt have a coma corrector or l.p filter. Now i have them, suprise suprise its cloudy!!! all good fun tho

[KevUU]

I only started this year, so really my highlight was getting into astronomy

But if I had to name some things...

... Jupiter and the Galilean moons

... M31 Andromeda Galaxy with M32 and M110 in the FOV of my widefield scope

... Milky Way with dust lanes visible from Keffalonia, as well as M31, Double cluster, M13, Coathanger, Rosette cluster all visible naked eye

[Paulus17]

Mine as to be getting my first ever proper scope back in June/July an 8" Dob which i really enjoyed using,easy to set up and get out,but since sold on for my latest set up.

Seeing Saturns rings clearly for the first time,M13,Jupiter and four of its moons,the Moon itself with such detail,going to the Birmingham Astronomical society for the first time and using their big scope in the dome there,seeing the double cluster,M42 was/is amazing,but the big let down was missing the fireball as we was going out that night and waiting for the cloud to clear a little which it never did so didn't get to go out.

Lets hope and pray that 2013 will be better weather wise.

Merry Christmas all

[the rev]

Mine may seem a strange highlight, but I finally managed to get a good spectra of Uranus and Jupiter moons and actually got them analysed with some good results.

Also managed to pass the 250 marks on my Arp imaging marathon.