Orion now

[triton1]

Just been out and I haven't seen it like this for agggggggges absolutley beautiful,skies here are wonderful Sirius is crystal and I'm not in a position to get my scope out typical perfect night.

[barkis]

Then just make the best of it with your Bino's. if you have some, or Naked Eye,

still a magic widefield  sight with the eyeballs.

What a sight it would be, If Betelgeuse went Nova while you were watching.

Some New Year that would be. 

However, the Sad part is, The Orion Constellation would look very odd indeed 

without that big Red Right Shoulder of his.

[laser_jock99]

Sky does indeed look uber clear. Odd that, New Year's Eve- I have other plans for tonight !!

[Craig20264]

Looking smashing. Shame about the garden party across the back of my house. Lit up like a football stadium. Grrrrrr. Not even getting the camera out until after midnight.

[happy-kat]

It is unbelievably clear here best for 8 months at least!

Sat out with binoculars just enjoying the view.

[Gina]

Clear here too but far too hazardous to venture across the sloping bog to the observatory...

[knobby]

Really lovely tonight, grabbed about 30 minutes on Orion , a PIC of me camera ...

[niallk]

Nice pic!

Went out the back garden, with the hope of searching for E & F in the Trap. The Milky Way was arcing beautifully overhead at zenith, Orion steadily rising, and the stars did not seem to be twinkling much -- could the seeing be good for once I thought??!

I set up my 15" and left it cooling with a fan for 2.5hrs while I got the kids to bed and stuff. Zipped on my old snowboarding jacket and went out with my new Paracorr in hand ... couldn't see a star! Nope, not just dark adaption needed - a big bank of high cloud had rolled in from the west :/ I had the hope of getting up early to see Jupiter and Catalina, but knew from the atlantic forescast simulator that it was not looking likely. But had hoped to get an hour in before midnight though...

Oh well, put away the scope again: here's to better weather in 2016 (as the rain beats off the window here)!!

[bingevader]

The 'scope wouldn't have stayed up in the wind!

However, crystal clear here too, for about half an hour, then rain and hail!

Same as the night before but then, instead of Orion, it was Auriga perfectly framed in clear sky surrounded by cloud. 

[Gina]

It was clear here for several hours but I didn't risk crossing the slippery slope from house to observatory in the dark even with a good torch.  I might have had trouble getting my feet out of the mud anyway   The 5 day forecast is for more heavy rain and winds   I guess it must end sometime or at least give us some respite.  Mustn't grumble too much though - others are in a far far worse situation.  House and observatory have so far survived the storms even if my so called "sun lounge" didn't.

[DaveS]

I managed 4 hours on the Rosette last night, 2 each in Ha and [NII]. Even though the moon was rising from 11.30 it didn't wipe out the sky. Orion was very well placed, but I'm leaving M42 alone until I have more skill at combining exposures.

Even without a 'scope to look through it was still good to be out under the stars for a change, even though the temp reminded me that we were, actually, in winter. Had a good look around with the bins. Eventually packed up about 1.15 as I would have needed a meridian flip to continue, the moon was getting steadily higher, and I was getting steadily colder!

[Drop Of Sun]

It was very good here, I had my first session in nearly two months! I was so happy to finally get to see the Orion nebula for the first time this season

I hoped conditions would be decent, solar was okay earlier in the day, with good contrast/transparency.

Mizar and Alcor looked nice and crisp, which is my usual quick test for how things are looking.

Anyway, the great nebula, utterly breathtaking, worth every second of the wait   Any musings I have had about slimming down the gear disappeared in seconds. The missus preferred a wide unfiltered view with a 21mm Ethos. I was split between that and a higher power view with a 10mm Delos.

We tried for, and bagged, the Horsehead. Sure, very faint indeed, but definitely there under our okay skies (16 inch dob, 14mm and 17.3mm Delos eyepieces using a 0.5x reducer, Astronomik h-beta filter).

The clusters in Auriga were superb, high up in the sky. The little cluster near M38 that we can catch in the same wide view (thanks to John, who pointed this out to us years ago at SGL) was the clearest I have seen it. Similarly, the faint cluster near M35 in Gemini was gorgeous. Really I think the clusters especially shone last night, little jewels that really zinged out. The double cluster, NGC457, Caroline's Rose, the Beehive, 37 cluster. And Pleiades looked like it had nebulosity around it, I don't know if it was the nebulosity for sure, but it sure did look like it!

After the missus called it a night, I tried some lunar imaging, the first time that I have used the goto dob for this (Skywatcher 400P). It's a huge mirror for lunar, maybe too big, but my normal lunar scope is 8 inches and I like the idea of using something bigger now and then. I did not push the mag very high but here is my first effort with it:

I hope lots of others managed to enjoy a decent spell!

[jason.p]

Beautiful clear sky here too around midnight. Typical. Other arrangements had been made for me. Planned on having a quick look around with the bins, but right on cue cloud rolled in. This morning back to normal. .....more rain!

,

[Johannes]

Nice picture. I also was looking at the moon nice and steady and Jupiter all the moons were on one side of the planet

[triton1]

Guess what more rain and wind here the one night that was mint I couldn't get my scope out typical

[jonathan]

Work has been a pain in the bum this last year so I stayed in with a cider and luxury food items to see in the new year.  Really do want to get my big one out soon though, the mud pies in the back garden make me reluctant to do all the heavy lifting, maybe I need to invest in some spiked golf shoes!

[DaveS]

Looked out of my conservatory this morning, the rain was coming down so hard my patio was flooding. The forecast for the week is dire, even down here.

[triton1]

The rain here just won,t quit I have never seen so bad but I must remember what people are going through further up north it must be terrible for them especially at this time of year.

[bob9039]

Was a nice clear night here as well, it's been a couple weeks since had a night out. Was also viewing Orion Nebula, when the next door neighbors wandered over to check things out. i grin ear to ear with some of the reactions by people when they're looking at something millions of miles away.

[DaveS]

It's not raining now, and last time I looked the sky was sort-of clear, but so orange as to be unusable, even for NB. In any case the patio is still so wet that i'm not putting any electrics out, even with a RCD at the house end.