Working around cloud

[ImmortalBee]

This evening was beautifully clear before sunset, and so obviously it had to cloud over entirely after sunset. Not to be done out of a session I parked the 130P minidob and a few EPs by the back door and waited for a break. At 2300 such a break thankfully arrived. 

Once out I realised that there was a haze of high cloud and hence a reduced NELM.  Deciding that DSO work was out, I hoped instead to find Neptune given it was so near to λ-Aqr. I found that star and it was a lovely orange through the 32mm eyepiece. Centring the view on lambda there were only a few stars visible. Checking against Stellarium the view was consistent with what I saw, assuming a limiting magnitude of a bit over 9 which is a reasonable guess given the haze. I examined the "stars" which Stellarium identified as Neptune and HD 216777 at higher powers (30x and 93x, I wish I had taken a broader range of powers out now or atleast a Barlow) and it did occasionally look bluish but with hindsight I'm worried there was confirmation bias. I insist on seeing difficult objects twice before I cross them off my list, but I am pretty sure I caught my first glimpse of Neptune tonight. I wanted to look for longer to collect more info I could use to confirm the sighting but thick white cloud intervened.

Having hopefully bagged Neptune I decided to try for Uranus (which I have also never seen) but the cloud which stopped me viewing Neptune was spreading fast and instead I settled for a poke around with binoculars (which was inconclusive) before turning instead to the Pleiades which I watched briefly, counting 43 stars before the thick cloud stopped me. I decided to come in at this point.

 

[Edited: No longer so sure about the colouring]

[Charic]

Sounds like you still had a great session.

I'd planned on leaving the scope out earlier, but actually fell asleep shortly after tea and the early evening news! only to wake at 0048  (wasted evening) but the sky is nice and clear  just now,  the only issue? sodium glow from the street lights (will those new LED's make a difference!) yet tonight, I could just make out all the primary Stars in Ursa Minor, which is a good marker as to my conditions here.
Had a quick look around using my 8x40's, the usual targets, standing in the one position where several objects limit my direct vision to the actual street light sources, only contending with the reflections. Pity I have to go back to sleep for my early rise for work, there's always Friday night's to look forward to.

[ImmortalBee]

11 minutes ago, Charic said:

Sounds like you still had a great session.

I'd planned on leaving the scope out earlier, but actually fell asleep shortly after tea and the early evening news! only to wake at 0048  (wasted evening) but the sky is nice and clear  just now,  the only issue? sodium glow from the street lights (will those new LED's make a difference!) yet tonight, I could just make out all the primary Stars in Ursa Minor, which is a good marker as to my conditions here.
Had a quick look around using my 8x40's, the usual targets, standing in the one position where several objects limit my direct vision to the actual street light sources, only contending with the reflections. Pity I have to go back to sleep for my early rise for work, there's always Friday night's to look forward to.

 

Oh dear. Hope you get some nice skies on Friday. 

 

[Red Dwarfer]

Lucky for some , it`s been wall to wall cloud here tonight ... I`ve lost count of the many times that has happened over the past Summer , clear all day then come twilight clouds roll in . 

Think I seen Neptune too one night a while back but couldn`t be sure 100% - thought it had a faint bluish tinge as well . Probably be better to track down with very high magnification .

[ImmortalBee]

3 minutes ago, Red Dwarfer said:

Lucky for some , it`s been wall to wall cloud here tonight ... I`ve lost count of the many times that has happened over the past Summer , clear all day then come twilight clouds roll in . 

Think I seen Neptune too one night a while back but couldn`t be sure 100% - thought it had a faint bluish tinge as well . Probably be better to track down with very high magnification .

 

It sucks doesn't it. I was really lucky to find this 1hr gap where the high cloud was enough to dim things down and degrade but still be workable (I looked at M31 with my binocular for a bit which I didn't mention and it was still pretty good). I'm sure you'll get a break soon enough.

The colouring is hard to explain. I looked at it for a long time and it mostly looked like a normal white star but there were 2 instances where I looked away from the eyepiece briefly and then looked back and the Neptune candidate looked blue before the colour faded. I wonder if my mind was just playing tricks on me after 20 mins of almost continuous observing. Certainly a 130mm instrument in less than ideal seeing doesn't inspire confidence. Hopefully I can confirm it was the right dot though; its close proximity to HD 216777 tonight means that I should be able to pick up the movement away over the next week or so. Even in the 8" I don't think I'll be able to resolve a disc though. Might help pick out the colour perhaps. I don't really know anything about observing Neptune though