Jump to content

Clear Skies Tonight

Pig

By Pig
in Discussions - Eyepieces

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply
AlexB67

AlexB67

Posted
Posted

Preparing my chimenea in a bit for the garden to keep me warm outside. First a bit of lunar viewing with the small Dob and the new Maxvision 20mm which will hopefully impress the lady sufficiently and open up to the idea that buying the 28mm is a good idea or else convince that a televue is the only answer :0) 

Don't worry, the scope will not be anywhere near the fie.   Later if all is good the bigger Dob will come out. Will have my left over curry from sunday outside by the fire.  Great evening ahead I hope. :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
John

John

Posted
Posted

I've been observing the moon for the past hour with my 12" dob. Some nice views but the seeing seems very variable. Just glimpses of the good stuff between the wobbles in the atmosphere. I guess there are a few central heating systems on around me though, as it's a chilly night.

I'm trying to glimpse the rille that runs up the lunar Apline Valley. It's a tough challenge at the best of times and, so far tonight i've only had the most fleeting glimpses of it. The craterlets in Plato showed some nice structure @397x a few minutes ago though so perhaps things are improving as the moon is rising higher :smiley:  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SnakeyJ

SnakeyJ

Posted
Posted

Looks good down these parts - just waiting for the moon to set, but have 90 mins on M81/M82 and just waiting to switch over to Jupiter as it rises over the trees,   Hope the seeing will be better than my last three attempts on Jupiter!

Once the moons set I can setup for a run on M42 to get some short 5s and more 120s shots and off to bed ;)

Clear skies to all!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Luke

Luke

Posted
Posted

I carried out my plan for the most part of moon, followed by a bit of sleep, and an early start - apart from I did not observe the moon, I just imaged it. I had put the mount in a bit of a silly place and by the time the imaging was done, the moon was obscured by trees. :BangHead:

The morning session with a 10 inch dob was fab. M42, the Beehive, galaxies in Leo, M81 and 82 were gorgeous, M51 showing a clear hint of sprial, nothingness where M101 was supposed to be (perhaps I missed), Jupiter with a shadow passing over, Double Cluster, and a few more.

When I put an OIII filter on I was surprised by the mass of nebulosity in M42.

I then thought what a perfect little session it was, all I needed to round it off was a decent meteorite. Just before I packed in, I caught a bright light above my head and looked up to catch one of the best meteorites I have seen to date passing directly overhead, with a long smokey trail.

I think I could get used to these early morning starts! I am sadly not a night owl and felt so much more alert.

Hope lots of you got a good session in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Luke

Luke

Posted
Posted

Thanks, Shaun :smiley:

What were your highlights? I think Jupiter stole it for me with fleeting decent detail and the shadow passing over, I have no idea which moon it was.

Excellent Luke :smiley:  There will have been some good sessions last night I am sure. We had very clear skies here :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pig

Pig

Posted
  • Author
Posted

To be honest Luke I had to go to my Brothers after only one hour of observing :sad:  He has bought some binoviewers and couldn't get them to work so I had to go and help him sort it.

My highlights came from equipment as it happens, this was shared between the Starsense and getting good views through the BGO :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
John

John

Posted
Posted

It was an interesting session last night due to the highly variable seeing conditions. Smaller apertures were doing much better than larger ones for any sort of high power viewing.

The transparency was not too bad though and I managed to see E & F Trapezium with my ED120 refractor quite nicely. I did manage my 1st view of comet Lovejoy before I packed up and came in, which was nice :smiley:  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
moffer

moffer

Posted
Posted

Last night was a bit of a mixed bag for us at our regular site on top of a hill in the Welsh valleys. My son brought his his mate along for a first light with his new (used) Meade LX90 8". We had a few problems setting it up and spent a large part of the session trying to sort things out. We eventually got it up and running - much to his relief!  Was the first time I've used an SCT and a goto and was pretty impressed!... I enjoy star hopping with our dob and would prefer that to pressing a couple of buttons to locate an object with the goto, but not being a big nudging fan was dead jealous of the auto tracking. 

After sorting the SCT there wasn't much time left for observing with work in the morning for my son and his mate.  Sky conditions were not great with lots of moisture in the air causing the finder on the 200p to dew up. So we picked some easy targets... not bad views of the moon at 200x, also looked at albiero and the garnet star along with quick views of m57 and m13. The latter two far from  their best with the moonlit sky and mediocre transparency.

Back at the SCT... we looked at the moon at 170x and m31 at 80x, the lowest power available for the SCT at the minute.  Highlights of the night were our first ever views of Uranus and Neptune, which given the conditions would have been impossible to find (for us anyway) without the goto.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.