J HERSCHEL Better placed than I've EVER seen it LOOK NOW

[paulastro]

Time now 19.24pm, Gassendi also well placed.  JH is outstanding!

Going back out

[paulastro]

PS JH is N of Sinus Iridium on the terminator, you can't miss it.

[Fraunhoffer]

It looked so clear last night - even managed to get the barlow on the end of 8mm (150x) on my little 102/600 .
Lovely views.

 

[elliot]

It was an amazing moon. A tiny break in the clouds for us in Ireland, just enough to grab this featuring J Herschel, with my iPhone (with a small amount of help from a 10" dob). That is JH at 4 o'clock isn't it? 

Gassendi at 150x was amazing. The detail from the crater floor was gobsmacking.

[Stu]

Will post up separately but great views between clouds here too. Mewlon 210 binoviewing at x200 ish (never quite sure!). Pics attached don't do the views justice. Seeing was wavy but stable enough for lovely views.

[paulastro]

Excellent Stu.  Love the pics, especially the one of J Herschel.  I'd never seen it so well placed (that I can remember) and in the four inch refractor the detail was stunning, and Gassendi was good too.  I snapped a couple of views with my smartphone just to show the lunation - but as for you, the seeing was very changeable, better visually than photo-wise in my case! 

 

[Stu]

Those are great shots Paul, you've got more detail than I got in Gassendi, really nice. What power was that at? I should really try with a single eyepiece and a phone mount not through the binoviewer.

Can you highlight J Herschel for me Paul, I'm not sure which one it is.

[Stu]

30 minutes ago, Stu said:

Can you highlight J Herschel for me Paul, I'm not sure which one it is.

Think I found it

[paulastro]

Many thanks Stu, you are very kind.  I was using my 17.5mm Morpheus and a x2 Celestron Ultima barlow on my 102ED, it's f6.9.  I also had to use the zoom on the phone's camera so that the image filled more of the phone's screen.  Alas on my 'ancient' smartphone the zoom is digital so it degrades the image.  The Morpheus is the best eyepiece I have for the purpose due to it's large front eye lens and wide eye relief of course. 

In my pic J Hershel is on the terminator to the right of Sinus Iridium.  It is the largest walled formation on the terminator in that direction, to me it looks like some sort of flatfish with it's tail pointing behind it to the right .

[paulastro]

That's the one Stu!  I thought you knew this when I saw your pictures as it was well framed in your photo .  If you look at some of the orbiter images of it, it's a fabulously detailed formation with all sorts features within it. 

[Stu]

1 minute ago, paulastro said:

That's the one Stu!  I thought you knew this when I saw your pictures as it was well framed in your photo .  If you look at some of the orbiter images of it, it's a fabulously detailed formation with all sorts features within it. 

I'm afraid my lunar geography is not what it should be, I was looking at it but was not sure it was J Herschel. I know now!

Just an aside, don't forget that you can post in the Celestial Events Heads Up forum for events like this and then people who have subscribed to it for notifications will get alerted.

[paulastro]

Thanks Stu.  I knew there was somewhere else I should be posting it when I rushed inside to alert folks.  I'm afraid I was in such a rush to get back outside I couldn't remember where it was in my panic to return to the eyepiece. Thanks for the reminder, I've made a note of it on my calendar!

[Stu]

It's no problem at all of course Paul, I just wanted to use the opportunity to promote that section a little. If anyone sees anything interesting coming up either on the night or further ahead then that is a great place to alert people to it. Useful alerting people to solar proms or other nice features too.