Telescope, clear skies, ring nebula

[jonathan]

Had a good three hours out there tonight, how the time flies when you're having fun.  Dew and cold got the better of me but great to get out again after such sporadic summer and autumn sessions (mostly due to laziness!)

[John]

Yes it's quite a nice night tonight too. I've been switching between Uranus and M31 tonight with my 12" dob. Very different targets but both looking good

[Pig]

Beautiful night and it  just got better and better the later it got, the Orion nebula looked fantastic its nice to see it back again.

I could see the milky way from my back garden again

[Paulus17]

Yep had a good night meself,first one in ages.

Set up at 10-30 and finally came in about 4-30 after the dew got too much and the cold in the end.

Had my first look with the mak127 at Jupiter,M42,Mars,and also done quite a bit of imaging mainly on M42 which looked spectacular i thought,really enjoyed it as as said the sky looked just lovely

[crashtestdummy]

Had first view of m42 with the 16" and it looked more magnificent without a filter than the 12" did with one!dust lanes in.andromeda and always nice to see clusters in auriga and orion rising majestically.heres to a good clear winter

[jonathan]

I think a large dob may be my next object of desire.  Would you GOTO or not at 16"?

[m sutton]

Wasn't it wonderful?

 I saw Io transit Jupiter and thought I could make out the GRS out of the corner of my eye - though a little further investigation makes me think it was Europa - which is better! I suspect the breezy conditions were helping calm the seeing (Is this possible?)

I was alternating between Jupiter and M42 as one or the other disappeared behind the patchy clouds.

If they were the only things in the sky I would never tire of looking at them. Which is lucky, as they are two of the handful of things I can readily identify/ navigate to!

[crashtestdummy]

I wouldnt goto on any scope personally.i love looking at the star maps then at the sky and finding them myself.its even funny when you spend 10 minutes wondering where your target is only to realise you have been lining up off the wrong two stars but then you get it right and its a great feeling.

Im currently deciding on 20" or 22" for my next scope,theu can never be big enough or too big

[Space Dragon]

Great to get an extended look at M42 for the first time this year, the nebula stretching out like a bat across the darkening sky as it rose higher.

M31 passing the zenith sometime after midnight also stretched to fill the 4.5º FOV of the 15x70s.

Packed up at what i thought was around midnight, when I got in the car, it was 2.30am ! ......

Roll on winter nights.

[Marki]

Yep, the 29th/30th was a nice night after what seems like a long gap since I was able to get out. As many of the posters above have said, it is really nice to see the return of the winter constellations and old friends like M42. I found it a bit frustrating though, the air seemed very wet and dewey. Found it hard to get and keep decent focus on Jupiter, and anything much above x125-150 was too mushy (but I find Jupiter never takes magnification all that well) - it'll be better in a few weeks when it higher earlier though. Got my first sighting of Uranus too - happy about that :-). 

[jonathan]

Must try to get Uranus and Neptune this time around.  I too noticed the mushy atmosphere, couldn't use the 5mm eyepiece in my 200P on the Ring Nebula as I'd hoped.