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Get your gear out tonight.Uk looks clear.!!!

Grotemobile

By Grotemobile
in The Astro Lounge

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Twiggles

Twiggles

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Managed a couple of hours with the kids for the first time in...well since christmas really. We got some views of jupiter and experimented with our newly modded xbox cam. Will registax that tomorrow to see what we got. Both then asked me about Panstarrs (whats a comet, where is it) and showed them on stellarium that unfortunately we coudlnt see it due to houses being in the way. Jupiter then dropped behind said houses so on to new targets. Betelgeuse was sitting bright in the sky so we took a look at that with both of them trying to decide what colour it was, defocused the star and they took another look, and they were suitably impressed to see that we could find the colour by doing that (thank you stargazing live for that tip!). A good oppurtunity to try and tell them why it was that colour and that it could go bang at any time between now and a couple thousand years or so! The nebula in Orion was the next request..but again pesky houses just had it hidden from view. So, after consulting stellarium we decided to try and see if we could see both stars in Mizar, this again seemed quite impressive to the young minds and more double stars were requested, must get a list of them for next time. With the temperature dropping and bedtime rapidly approaching I thought I'd end the night with a mind blowing cluster of stars, and with the aid of stellarium got bang on the beehive cluster first time round. Another Messier to tick off the list and another round of woahs!

Great night for us cut short only because of cold noses and me having to go back to work tomorrow, would have loved to stay out and bag Saturn though. Always the weekend I guess, and should start looking for a suitable dark (or even darker!) site as viewing in the front garden surrounded by street lights makes navigating to objects difficult, never mind finding them.

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Paul M

Paul M

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I'm not in work tomorrow but I've done my bit for tonight :)

Got m1 after some struggling. Much lower surface brightness than I remember. A sign of the march of light pollution me thinks :(

I'm sure I spotted vesta but couldn't say for sure. Don't have Goto, just rack o' th'eye and patience. I had stellarium on my tablet for guidance but it's all a bit new using it at the Telescope.

I'm sure that if I'd transposed vistas position onto my old and much loved Sky Atlas 2000 I'd have nailed it for sure!

Then I pointed the scope in the general direction of m65/m66. No luck. But I don't even use a finder and rolling on the decking trying to sight along the tube isn't too precise :D

I called it quits, content with my session :)

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DaveS

DaveS

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Well I *think* I've got some subs of M65/6 but not sure until I stack them, now trying for M81/2. Very hit-or-miss as I can't see anything until I get an image in APT. Must try and sort out why CdC is playing silly games with the mount. Maybe tomorrow I'll give imaging a miss unless it's stunningly clear and just try and sort out my software issues.

I'm not sure DcD and APT can inhabit the same desktop, and I'm also a bit fed up with the way CdC messes up the desktop anyway.

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laser_jock99

laser_jock99

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Well I *think* I've got some subs of M65/6 but not sure until I stack them, now trying for M81/2. Very hit-or-miss as I can't see anything until I get an image in APT. Must try and sort out why CdC is playing silly games with the mount. Maybe tomorrow I'll give imaging a miss unless it's stunningly clear and just try and sort out my software issues.

I'm not sure DcD and APT can inhabit the same desktop, and I'm also a bit fed up with the way CdC messes up the desktop anyway.

I've definately got m65/66- can't tell if the super nova is there till I process the data.

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jonathan

jonathan

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The clouds rolled in and quickly swamped the entire dusk sky, no chance for Panstarrs or any other stars for that matter. Peeked out of the window occasionally and it seemed to be thick cloud one minute, clear patches to the West the next, then total cloud cover again. On the weather satellite I am just where all those clouds come piling in from the North Sea.

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astro mick

astro mick

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The clouds rolled in and quickly swamped the entire dusk sky, no chance for Panstarrs or any other stars for that matter. Peeked out of the window occasionally and it seemed to be thick cloud one minute, clear patches to the West the next, then total cloud cover again. On the weather satellite I am just where all those clouds come piling in from the North Sea.

Yes same here,i,m south of Brid,and am on the edge of total frustration.Not one night this year.All last week the forescasts have said to-night Tuesday would be great for us,well guess what its now changed,and it looks like those clouds are going to roll in again,right over us.

Until this eastly wind switches around to the West,i think wer,e scuppered.Then it it will be the usual Atlantic Fronts bringing even more dismal grey skies.

I need a dark room.

Mick.

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Beulah

Beulah

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I wasn't going to go out last night due to exhaustion but was encouraged by everyone on this thread - thank you!! :)

Dragged my sorry self outside last night for an hour and was richly rewarded by a host of galaxies and star cluster study.

SGL is a support network for failed stargazers! (Early Jan 2013 was the last time I was out)

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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I wasn't going to go out last night due to exhaustion but was encouraged by everyone on this thread - thank you!! :)

Dragged my sorry self outside last night for an hour and was richly rewarded by a host of galaxies and star cluster study.

SGL is a support network for failed stargazers! (Early Jan 2013 was the last time I was out)

Great to hear that your perseverance was rewarded

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The Sailor

The Sailor

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A great night finally finishing about 0315 hrs after capaturing Panstarrs with the QHY5. The only dissapointment was for some reason I could not get focus with my Canon 450D on the 80ED, have to figure out what I was doing wrong, the problem with not getting out for so long and my old memory is going on how setups are done ;). As soon as breakfast is finished I will see what avi's I captured, happy days :).

Jim

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Sobel

Sobel

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Had an amazing night last night. It was broken cloud all day, even at 7pm we looked out and thought no way will we see anything decent with this cloud.

Thankfully we checked again at 9pm and it had cleared up just enough for us to say, let's take a quick peek at Jupiter.

Ended up 3 hours later after seeing loads!

Jupiter + 4 moons

Split Castor

M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)

Panstarrs

Saw 2 satellites whiz through the FOV when looking at Eta Cass (I should say trying to find it)

1 X Meteor

1 X Iridium flare (possibly)

M13 (Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, was spectacular!)

M57 (Ring Nebula, just. Was low down in the NE-ish horizon just over some houses, so conditions weren't the best)

M1 (Crab nebula, again very faint, seeing conditions not ideal)

And assorted other things after hopping around, namely a few open clusters which were lovely to look at and taking a look at most of the bright stars in the sky.

So glad we finally managed to get out! It helped that I had aligned my RDF on the scope earlier that day.

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DaveS

DaveS

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I'm glad so many people had a great night last night, and my sympathies to those who were clouded out.

The big problem with London is there's so much light pollution that it only needs a slight haze or dust to scatter it and reduce the LVM to derisory levels, which is what I had last night.

On a fairly good night LVM is about 4, and a very good one will see 4.5. Last night it was somewhere between (I would guess) 3-3.5. Theta Leonis was just visible, Iota Leonis wasn't which made searching for M65 / 65 more difficult than it should have been.

There has been a run lately of potentially clear nights where the dust / haze combined with the LP has reduced the LVM to un-usable levels, on occasion down to 2-2.5.

We need some steady rain and wind to clear the air, then maybe we'll be able to see something here.

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laser_jock99

laser_jock99

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A great night finally finishing about 0315 hrs after capaturing Panstarrs with the QHY5. The only dissapointment was for some reason I could not get focus with my Canon 450D on the 80ED, have to figure out what I was doing wrong, the problem with not getting out for so long and my old memory is going on how setups are done ;). As soon as breakfast is finished I will see what avi's I captured, happy days :).

Jim

Finally packed in at 03:00 myself as work beckoned.......

I will have a look at what I captured later. How hight is Panstarrs in the mornings now? I don't have a good eastern horizon here?

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The Sailor

The Sailor

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How hight is Panstarrs in the mornings now? I don't have a good eastern horizon here?

Due to the extra height in the attic I was able get it quite early. Not expecting to see anything as it was down low I used Stellarium to hop to it and came upon it slightly off where Stellarium said it would be, probably my alignment out :). Anyway here is one frame from the avi, not that good:

Jim

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