Better than expected

[John]

I didn't have a lot of hope for tonight. Despite the lovely day, thin clouds started to creep across the sky as it got dark.

I put my 130mm triplet refractor out to cool hoping to at least get some nice double stars. As it happens the thin clouds are not getting in the way too much so I've been able to pick up some DSO's as well

I'm mid-session at present during this rather warm night. I've been pleased to find the very distant globular cluster NGC 7006 in Delphinius in the past 20 mins. It's quite faint and small in the 5.1" aperture scope and not resolved but then it is around 135,000 light years away !. In the same constellation is another globular, NGC 6934 which is much easier to spot but thats a "mere" 50,000 light years away. I can see that one has a brighter core but I can't resolve stars in it. Neither could William Herschel mind you, when he discovered this globular in 1785, so I'm in good company there !

Herschell also discovered NGC 7006 around a month earlier than NGC 6934 so he was obviously paying attention to the Delpinus area in late Summer just as I am 232 years later

Back to the scope for more .....

[Stu]

Have a great night John. Skies look lovely here but I'm aching like an old man after working in the garden all day so can't face putting a scope out. Just had a little wander in the garden and a 'look up'  

Plenty of nice objects up there are the moment  

[iapa]

100% cloud cover ?

[Chinapig]

Lots of that high, thin, hazy stuff here, making it a bit of wash-put from our back garden.  So grabbed my 10x50 bins, and walked down to the beach.  Still hazy, but not as bad, and had a relaxing tour around, mainly south east to south west, with a gentle sound track from small waves gurgling on the shingle.  Nice...  

[John]

Still rather good here

It's a little "milky" for the fainter DSO's but OK for the brighter ones, doubles and planets. I got a short glimpse of Saturn earlier, very low down but nice details and a few moons at 200x. Neptune is currently in the eyepiece at 343x and I'm getting glimpses of Triton which is mag 13.5 currently and around 15 arc seconds away from Neptune. Good show from the 5.1 inch refractor

Here is the Cartes du Ciel (refractor) view of the Neptune / Triton pair tonight (other moons not visible !):

 

[David Levi]

I'm a bit disappointed with the seeing on this side of the channel (the Bristol that is). The high hazy cloud is affecting good views of some nebulae. I've just been looking at Neptune as well. The first time this year for me and I can see the difference from last year with my better eyepieces. That is, I can see that Neptune is really quite blue. A very pleasing view. Last year it was blanched when looking through the eyepieces that came with the telescope.

[John]

Got to hand it to the mount as well !

I'm using my old HEQ5 non-GOTO eq mount tonight running off D-cell batteries and aligned by pointing the RA axis towards Polaris (not using the polar scope !). I had Neptune centered in the FoV at 343x with an eyepiece with a 50 degree apparent field. Thats not a lot of sky showing !. Popped inside to post the above report, sort out the diagram and go to the loo. Back at the eyepiece 15 minutes later and Neptune is still in the FoV albeit towards the edge now. A couple of dabs on the tracking buttons and off we go again

[John]

1 minute ago, David Levi said:

I'm a bit disappointed with the seeing on this side of the channel (the Bristol that is). The high hazy cloud is affecting good views of some nebulae. I've just been looking at Neptune as well. The first time this year for me and I can see the difference from last year with my better eyepieces. That is, I can see that Neptune is really quite blue. A very pleasing view. Last year it was blanched when looking through the eyepieces that came with the telescope.

Yep - not good for the fainter fuzzies due to lack of transparency (that milkyness I mentioned). Good for other stuff though

[F15Rules]

Sounds like a rewarding night John?..

I've been out myself tonight and lucky enough to have a very good session. I'll do a separate post so as not to hijack your thread..am just back indoors now and feeling quite happy with the evening?.

Enjoy the rest of yours...

Dave

[John]

Thanks Dave - look forward to reading about your session

[John]

Ok - fine session finished off with the lovely triple star Iota Cassiopeiae - stunning at 400x, then the rather faint Messier 76, "The Little Dumbbell  Nebula". A bi-polar planetary nebula that, with a little help from the NBP filter, looked more like it's other name, "The Cork Nebula" tonight.

All in all an excellent nights observing given the misgivings I had earlier

 

 

[alan potts]

Nice report as always from you. Nice here too but it seems my blood has 5 Michelin stars for the mosquitoes clan and while the spray keeps them off my arms and legs the little (naughty words) get me through my shirt.

Alan

[Mark at Beaufort]

Great report John. I went observing PNs again - mainly In Aquila but this time used the 12" Dob. It became very milky around midnight so I stopped around this time.

[Piero]

Another nice report!

High clouds over here but still sufficient for planets and bright DSO.

[chiltonstar]

Nice report John. Goodish too here although Neptune kept on hiding behind cloud - Uranus was a nice blue ping pong ball scudding along though. Had a look at Epsilon Arietis (cn) which seems a Pi Aquilae double imo.

Chris

[John]

10 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

Nice report John. Goodish too here although Neptune kept on hiding behind cloud - Uranus was a nice blue ping pong ball scudding along though. Had a look at Epsilon Arietis (cn) which seems a Pi Aquilae double imo.

Chris

Thanks Chris.

I was going to wait up for Uranus to clear the conifers but tiredness started to set in and I didn't want any accidents taking my setup down so I did the sensible thing. I'll have to check out Epsilon Arietis in due course 

I did Pi Aquilae and about a dozen other nice binaries last night as well as the stuff mentioned. Most notable was a decent though still very tough split of Lambda Cygni I think.

[niallk]

Nice report John!

I spent the weekend in London, and was thinking to myself that people might be getting nice skies with the great weather Managed 2 stars naked eye from London Bridge 

[Red Dwarfer]

Great report and a lot of ground covered - low fast cloud here last night ... maybe have better luck tonight 

[Red Dwarfer]

29 minutes ago, niallk said:

Managed 2 stars naked eye from London Bridge

Alpha Easy Jeti and Beta Easy Jeti 

[Special K]

Very nice report and thanks for giving it in real time!  Last night was a little up and down on the visibility front but gee ain't it nice when it's warm!!!  I was having more of a challenge from slugs emerging on the deck than with clouds. 

I went for Saturn as you did and man that was a beaut despite being nearly on the horizon!  I backed off to 100x for the best look and eyeballing the angle of the scope I reckon it was only 10 degrees up....the tube was practically horizontal. I'm assuming that was Titon to the NE. 

It started off clear here and the 6" had been cooling since after dinner. But the sky got brighter with LP bouncing off that haze. Didn't stop me from some cracking views of various things: Dumbell gave me shock-awe when I installed the O-III and I got caught up with the Double Double towards the end.  M57 was very pleasing which made me think I should have just remained in this area all along as it was the clearest part of the sky.  

Interesting, I was having a glance at Delphinus and there are clearly some hidden objects in there of interest as you've found. Thanks!

[chiltonstar]

Even better here last night John! The seeing was good enough to hold Lambda Cygni as a resolved pair at x540, and even Neptune was visible for most of the time. I got hints of Triton for part of the time at x270, but it was not clearly held in view.

Chris

[John]

1 hour ago, chiltonstar said:

Even better here last night John! The seeing was good enough to hold Lambda Cygni as a resolved pair at x540, and even Neptune was visible for most of the time. I got hints of Triton for part of the time at x270, but it was not clearly held in view.

Chris

Better here last night as well Chris !:

Triton is tough to hold for long. I use a technique which I call localised averted vision where I can slightly de-focus the main target just using my eye and this usually helps faint point sources close to it to "pop" out just a little better. It's a bit like viewing those "magic eye" pictures where you deliberately focus on a point "beyond" the printed page.

Triton was not much easier with the 12" last night than it was with the 130mm refractor the night before. I think this was because the moon was around 10 arc seconds from the planets disk rather than 15 on the previous night.