Balancing on the lid of the Teapot

[John]

Very nice night tonight. Got the Tak FC100DL out on the Ercole mount (see pic below)

Lots of great venusian, lunar and jovian views earlier

Moved to the front garden to get a good view of Saturn later on. The ringed planet looked very nice for it's low altitude and the Cassini division, main equatorial belt, ring shadow across planetary disk and 5 moons were seen well at around 180x. Possibly glimpses of the crepe ring too. The moons were Titan, Tethys, Rhea, Dione and, further out, Iapetus. Below Saturn I could just about get the scope onto Lambda Sagittari (Kaus Borealis) which is the top of the lid of the "Teapot" asterism and by panning around at lower power I was able to pick up the Sagittarian globular clusters of Messier 22 and Messier 28. M22 is a large, bright globular cluster and would be really spectacular if it were higher in the sky than it is from my part of the UK. M28 is a little fainter and more compact but starts to resolve even with the limited aperture in use tonight.

This part of the sky is about as low as I cen get a scope onto from my back yard. Not a part of the sky that I'm able to view often so it's nice to pay it a visit and remind myself of our holiday to Costa Rica last year when I viewed the same area with binoculars from the foot of the volcano Arenal. It was much higher in the sky from there !

I stayed up for Mars last night but I'm too tired tonight so I'll call it a day at that.  

 

[Stu]

Had  good club night tonight John, a variety of scopes out including my Tak and Gavin's TEC160. Seeing was decidedly wobbly at times, the moon looked like it was underwater, but it gradually improved and we managed some very respectable views of Jupiter with GRS well positioned.

When did you get another Ercole?

[Davey-T]

Had a look at Jupiter earlier using SCT @200X but seeing hadn't improved from solar earlier, could make out nice deep orange GRS  in moments of better seeing and the moons looked nice all lined up, had a look at the Moon while waiting for Saturn to appear, pretty wobbly as per Stu, now blind in one eye as I can't find the ND filter anywhere, I've got a feeling it's in an eyepiece I gave away.

Just had another look for the elusive comet 21P GZ while waiting for Saturn and Mars to come out from behind the trees but still can't find it..

Dave

 

[Littleguy80]

Had to stay up late for work tonight, just from home, so popped out for a quick session. Saturn and Mars to start with, seeing wasn't great but still very enjoyable. After that I cruised around Sagittarius with the 20mm, picking up M22, M24, M25, M16, M17 and M8. There were others but those we the ones I lingered on. It was really nice because I found everything from memory. No referring to SkySafari or anything else. When I get done with work, I'll grab another look at Mars when it's a bit higher  

[John]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Had  good club night tonight John, a variety of scopes out including my Tak and Gavin's TEC160. Seeing was decidedly wobbly at times, the moon looked like it was underwater, but it gradually improved and we managed some very respectable views of Jupiter with GRS well positioned.

When did you get another Ercole?

Club night for me is tomorrow (Friday).

The Ercole arrived today. Rather amazingly I've had 2 sessions with it on it's arrival day - white light, solar this afternoon and the nighttime session this evening. The mount is good 

[Littleguy80]

On returning to Mars and Saturn, the seeing had improved but still wasn’t great. I had the Cassini Division and at least 4 moons. On Mars, I could pick out darker regions. I believe this was Valles Marineris, assuming SkySafari is accurate. Still over a month until opposition too!

[alan potts]

Weather is not doing its normal thing then John. I've been too tired of late to bother doing anything, one of the problems of being up every morning at 5.30. Got all the gardens and field nice and tiry, down came 3 days of rain and after only one day the weeds are taking over, sometimes I wish I had only a flower box on the window.

Alan

[MarsG76]

Sounds like a good night of observing.... Did you see any features on Mars, is the dust storm as bad as its reported everywhere?

[Stu]

4 hours ago, John said:

The mount is good 

I've always liked them and have a nice one at the moment. It seems to cope with the Tak without a CW

[John]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

I've always liked them and have a nice one at the moment. It seems to cope with the Tak without a CW

Mine doesn't actually need the CW for the Tak or the ED120 but it smooths the motions to have a small one on.

[John]

3 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Sounds like a good night of observing.... Did you see any features on Mars, is the dust storm as bad as its reported everywhere?

I didn't stay up for Mars last night (other than a quick naked eye glimpse  before going to bed). The previous night I observed it with my 70mm ED refractor and could see dark marking and hints of the S pole cap at 150x. I think the dust storm is having an effect on some regions of the planet but not all over by any means.