3 clear nights!

[scarp15]

Nice report from the other night, good luck for Saturday. The Saturday forecast looks particularly good here N/E, with a full night potential for clear sky and sub zero temperature, transparency just might be excellent, will root out my winter salopettes and walking boots. Might be a new moon, this scenario for a Saturday, once in a blue moon. 

[Littleguy80]

Just back home (3:15am). Night 2 was fantastic and surpassed night 1. Will write up a report later in the day. Hope everyone else had a good night out  Time for bed! 

[Littleguy80]

For those that are interested, here's the write up for night 2!

 

[Littleguy80]

I nearly gave up on clear night number 3. The alarm is set for 5:20 AM for work and I’m feeling the lack of sleep from night 2’s session. The scope sat outside cooling with clouds overhead but then around 10pm the skies cleared. Out I went to complete the hat trick of consecutive nights observing. 

First stop was Uranus. My only solar system object of the 3 sessions. It looked like a pale green disc at 180x in my 5mm BGO. A satisfying view and a good test of high power viewing ahead of my next target. 

The E and F stars in the Trapezium are proving more difficult to spot than I expected. I’d planned for tonight’s attempt and spent some time finding a guide as to the exact locations of the stars. Knowing exactly where to look could only help. My Barlow doesn’t get much use now that I have a good range of eyepieces. However, tonight I added the Barlow nose piece, at 1.5x, onto my 6mm BGO to give a magnification of 225x. Previous highest magnification tried on the trapezium was 180x. Even with the high mag and knowledge of where to look, I failed to see the E or F stars. A couple of times I thought I caught the E star with averted vision but too briefly to call it a confirmed sighting. I’m resolved to keep trying for the E and F stars. With others targets I’ve failed to see, the key has usually been persistence. Sooner or later everything will come together and the target will be seen!

As this is a story of threes, I felt one more target was required to finish the night. M38, the Starfish cluster was my choice. It seems such a delicate cluster despite being quite dense with stars. What looked like a smal nebulous patch with 2 bright stars just above M38 caught my eye. I looked this up afterwards and I believe this was NGC 1907, a small open cluster. 

Like last night I saw several small meteors. Leonids and Taurids I would think. These have made a great addition to the views at the eyepiece. 

The last 3 nights have been a real treat. It’s great when the weather service gets it right when predicting clear nights. Hope everyone else has enjoyed some great views  

[newtyng5]

Wow, sounds like you made the most of it. Over here in notts, its been cloudy (Thursday was clear, but very misty). Lets hope for more clear skies!

[newtyng5]

Also Neil, see any Leonids?

If anyone got to see > what was the leonid maximum like? Any enhanced activity? . On another forum someone said they saw 3 in a small break in the cloud, within minutes. (I have my doubts). Interested.

Clear skies!

[Littleguy80]

6 hours ago, newtyng5 said:

Also Neil, see any Leonids?

If anyone got to see > what was the leonid maximum like? Any enhanced activity? . On another forum someone said they saw 3 in a small break in the cloud, within minutes. (I have my doubts). Interested.

Clear skies!

Yes, saw quite a few over the last couple of nights. All fairly small. Not sure on numbers as I wasn't specifically looking for them

[cloudsweeper]

Another good account of an enjoyable time, Neil!

You're right about persistence - it took me 2.25 years to see Jupiter's GRS!

Doug.

[Astro Imp]

Nice one Neil, good to see you're making the most of the skies.

Last night here it was pretty grim, mostly cloud but I looked out about 10ish and had difficulty seeing the Orion belt stars so stayed in.

[Littleguy80]

52 minutes ago, Astro Imp said:

Nice one Neil, good to see you're making the most of the skies.

Last night here it was pretty grim, mostly cloud but I looked out about 10ish and had difficulty seeing the Orion belt stars so stayed in.

Thanks Alan. Seems cruel that you're not that far away but don't get the same clear skies  

[Astro Imp]

1 minute ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thanks Alan. Seems cruel that you're not that far away but don't get the same clear skies  

You're right there Neil, hoping my turn will come, not that I wish you bad luck.

Keep posting, you're reports are always interesting and worth reading.

[kirkster501]

We had three reasonable nights at last.  Well, one clear night Thursday (and a spectacular clear one at that) and cloud dodging Friday and Saturday.  So good was Thursday I may even got a glimpse of the horse head.

I think that has made it a record for me since I got back into serious astronomy in 2011......  I cannot remember consecutive clear nights before midnight for a long time.

[kirkster501]

19 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thanks Alan. Seems cruel that you're not that far away but don't get the same clear skies  

Yep, even if you're in the same geographical area, certain cloud banks may miss one person but plague another...  I have been on both sides of that coin!

[Littleguy80]

2 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

We had three reasonable nights at last.  Well, one clear night Thursday (and a spectacular clear one at that) and cloud dodging Friday and Saturday.  So good was Thursday I may even got a glimpse of the horse head.

I think that has made it a record for me since I got back into serious astronomy in 2011......  I cannot remember consecutive clear nights before midnight for a long time.

Glad you got some clear skies! Seeing the horse head is a great achievement!