Very nice seeing tonight

[Laurie61]

Have had a quick look at the moon and Jupiter, the seeing seems nice and stable. Jupiter is showing the GRS and is following the new oval feature, both are distinct. Have been looking around the Sinus Iridum on the moon and I can see features too small to be marked on my Virtual Moon Atlas with the 300 mm. Looking forward to another shadow transit on Jupiter later and then a look at Mars.       

[Luke]

Does it tend to be better around this time in the evening at this part of the year? It seems to go downhill by the time I am getting out, around 9pm!

I'll be super excited if I can get some high-res lunar shots, the Moon was looking most magnificent when I left work, and so was the setting Sun.

[Steve Ward]

Better than here then , Sirius is almost going on and off like a lighthouse and the shimmering undulation on the Moon is dreadful ... 

Might try again later but the hope of a decent assault on Mars tonight is gone I fear ... 

[Laurie61]

Transparency has reduced a little but still fine here   

[floppygoose]

I will be setting up in a few mins, but a bit concerned about the brightness of the moon. Probably won't bother with DSOs tonight

Phil

[Pig]

Its looking a bit hazy here tonight

[AlexB67]

Seeing was very variable. I was having a real fight with it, yet at times for short moments it was good, but one average, well, shall we say I've head better for sure. A little strange because it was that kind of hazy weather, this is often excellent for planets, not so much tonight though.  Still I managed enough to see 4 craterlets on Plato, and  a bunch of the small pytheas  little fellas, so happy in all, but it was hard work for some of that lunar 100 stuff 

[AlexB67]

Still I managed enough to see 4 craterlets on Plato.

Must correct myself and announce myself a happy bunny. After checking my moon atlas pictures and my notes what I saw, 2 of them showed as 1 to me, so 5 if that is not seen as cheating. In fact  swear I saw a 6th one on and off but I was not sure so did not count it, but it matches the atlas where I thought I saw it. That would fit as the smaller one being 1.75km, and seeing the lunar resolution of a 10 inch Dob is 1.75 km that would be getting pretty much to the limit as to what I might see, assuming size without shadow, so smaller may be doable.

Perhaps seeing wasn't that bad after all, but still, I found a lot of that heat haze effect throughout tonight and Jupiter kept blurring in and out a lot of the time with only brief moments of good seeing.

[AstroAdam]

I've borrowed my society's 14" dob to play with.  Unfortunately, the primary reason (faint DSOs), are currently being washed out well and truly by the moon.   I'll just have to be patient...

[nicks90]

Jupiter was very variable this evening, at one point it coped with x300 as the shadow transit started, the degraded rapidly to the point it only looked good and crisp at x100.

Then the cloud ruined it all.....

[cotterless45]

It was all sharp, then fuzzy here. Managed the GRS and moon transit. Got good detail at x220. Then onto the Moon and finished up with a few bright doubles in Orion, too bright to continue,

Nick.

[Laurie61]

I think I must have been in a favoured spot tonight, seeing has slowly improved although with the usual wobbly periods. Jupiter and the moon were fine at up to 300x and I am now on Mars at 340x. Its showing surface detail and polar cap   

[AlexB67]

Got somewhat better here. Before hitting the sack I got the small heritage 5 inch out seeing it would cool more quickly. Mars looked rather good in the little scope I must say, first time I saw it in the heritage. 5mm BGO with 1.5 barlow element. Funnily enough the only eyepiece I can use with the 1.5 barlow element  and have enough focus travel.  All the other eyepieces the scope runs out of focus travel with the 1.5 barlow element and only work with the full  2x barlow. The 1.5x  gives me a nice 190x with the 5mm BGO in the heritage 130p.

The colour depth was very impressive, beautiful yellow almost orange tints, hard to describe the colour really. On occasion even very subtly the darker patches revealed themselves.  Since I got that 5mm BGO I have almost rediscovered a new love for the small little heritage 130pas a planetary scope, Jupiter was stupendous  in it.  Sure, it doesn't beat the 10 inch Dob for detail, but it is almost a satisfaction to see how much you can tease out with the smaller scope, and it shows a lot of detail with that eyepiece and more than just the two main bands, smaller details can be seen well.

Now bed time and sorry for the rant, but I was rather stoked again with that nice second session of the evening before bed   

[Laurie61]

Does it tend to be better around this time in the evening at this part of the year? It seems to go downhill by the time I am getting out, around 9pm!

I'll be super excited if I can get some high-res lunar shots, the Moon was looking most magnificent when I left work, and so was the setting Sun.

I have noticed that seeing conditions can be good just after sundown and then go off, It might then take 2-3-4 hours to recover. It must have something to do with day time ground heating and then cooling after sunset ? 

I was happy with last night here, in terms of seeing the atmosphere was quite steady. The jet stream is well north of the UK at the moment which just leaves local conditions to impact the view. I have found that in these conditions seeing quite often improves as the night goes on and is at its best after midnight. 

It was nice to bag Mars, if I don't manage to see it again this time around I can at least say I'v had one good look at it   Jupiter put on a great show with GRS, shadow transit and amazing moon alignment although I lost it quite early as I had positioned the scope to better see Mars later on. I would say that last night would sneak into my top ten best seeing nights of the year here.    

[nicks90]

 I would say that last night would sneak into my top ten best seeing nights of the year here.

you mean you've actually had 10 nights with the scope out this year already??? jeez, you must live in the nicest weather bubble in the UK!