Excellent night in Northampton

[Pig]

It is nice to be back home and even nicer not to be asleep at 2am, especially when we have clear skies.

I must admit though my back garden does not compare to the 2 amazing light pollution free nights I experienced in Newquay Wales. All the same it is not bad at all and I must not complain. 

I finally found comet Jacques tonight, its a little on the dim side but at least I got to see it before it goes away  The Pleiades are looking excellent, as always, and the whole of it sits nicely in the FOV of the 25mm SLV.  Don't you just have to love refractors for the coverage they yield ?

I hope you all had a chance to get out tonight.

Anyhow goodnight all I am back off outside

[Pete Presland]

lovely clear night, guiding hell though! did manage 10x60 secs of Jacques.

[cotterless45]

Beautiful night ! Had a super refractor sky tour with a friend.

Started off with comet Jacques, then came back to it as it got darker and better. Just very special, with the Milky Way bright over the edge of town.

Hope that you all got to enjoy a lovely still night, hurrah !

Nick.

[Bart]

Gents, I got what I thought was Jacques a couple night ago and thought it was very bright. Hope it was Jacques I was observing. In Cassiopeia.

It was through the 16" though so maybe that was why. Not much of a tail though. Made me think why Charles messier started ruling out the other objects as Jacques looked like a bright galaxy to me.

Barry

[Paul73]

Cracking one here!! Only got the comet in the binos. Looked fantastic against the rich wide starfield.

Visited some old favourites and a few new. The much neglected Messier count up to 107. M30 and M74 looking surprisingly good.

Paul

[mdstuart]

Amazing night here as well...M31 and the double cluster were easy naked eye objects...one of the top 5 seeing nights of the year I would say...due to the lovely clear NW polar maritime airstream...until that volcano blows!

[kerrylewis]

Lovely night here too Shaun - not far away. M74 clear again- I can't believe how long I've looked for this wee chappie! Andromeda galaxy looking superb with detail beyond the core, and comet Jacques speeding through Cassiopeia. Despite my town site I could see the Milky Way and occasionally just stood back and looked at the whole panoply. It was somehow very quite too with a couple of meteors silently zipping along. Magic

[Stu]

Fab night down here too, even had M13 naked eye :-). Spent a lovely couple of hours trawling around Sagittarius

[Pig]

I have just been woken up by the dog licking my face ( I asked her to please behave and go and make me a coffee )

It seems we all had an excellent night  I eventually went to bed around 3:30am.

The good news is the sun is out and I will be able to get a solar session in.

[jkwhinfrey]

Lovely and clear in Daventry last night too. I had the refractor out trying to split a few uneven doubles, some more successfully then others, but of course that's the point ;-)

At the end of the session I sat back and used the mark one eye ball on the Milky Way. The double cluster and M31 were clearly apparent. Strange thing was that I caught a fuzzy hint on the corner of my eye amongst the W of Cassiopeia, pointed the scope at it, and there was C/2014 E2! Luck?

I've had the PST out this morning too and there's lots to see.

It's struck me that I've been pretty lucky with clear nights this year, long may it continue :-)

[Stu]

Lovely and clear in Daventry last night too. I had the refractor out trying to split a few uneven doubles, some more successfully then others, but of course that's the point ;-)

At the end of the session I sat back and used the mark one eye ball on the Milky Way. The double cluster and M31 were clearly apparent. Strange thing was that I caught a fuzzy hint on the corner of my eye amongst the W of Cassiopeia, pointed the scope at it, and there was C/2014 E2! Luck?

I've had the PST out this morning too and there's lots to see.

It's struck me that I've been pretty lucky with clear nights this year, long may it continue :-)

Interesting, I almost convinced myself that I could see it naked eye last night, but put it down to averted imagination ;-)

What's the current brightness?

[scarp15]

Good night here to in Northumberland,  last night. Panning around with the bino's  with lovely view of double cluster and Kemble's Cascade amongst others. The comet was a little higher than I was expecting and particularly bright and galaxy like in profile when I focused the dob onto it. It clearly was whooshing a good distance upwards now from Cassiopeia.  Fabulous views of the Andromeda group, easy sighted naked eye.

[jkwhinfrey]

Interesting, I almost convinced myself that I could see it naked eye last night, but put it down to averted imagination ;-)

What's the current brightness?

I believe it's about mag 8.5, and my skies aren't that good. Still I could have sworn...

[Stu]

I believe it's about mag 8.5, and my skies aren't that good. Still I could have sworn...

Ah, no chance then, but as you say..... :-)

[Pig]

Its a good job I took the time out last night ( 5 hour session and it really flew past) as the forecast is pretty appalling for next week

[Bart]

The good news is the sun is out and I will be able to get a solar session in.

Greedy article!

Barry

[Pig]

Hence the name Pig !!!

[Bart]

[emoji2][emoji1]

Barry

[Bart]

Interesting, I almost convinced myself that I could see it naked eye last night, but put it down to averted imagination ;-)

Funny, like it. Might use that in the future myself. The technique, and the phrase.....