ISS and strange 'lights'

[Skywatcher130]

Last night didn't go quite as planned as I forgot to charge power pack (assumed it would be OK,  will not make that mistake again ?).

Anyways,  I knew that the ISS was due for a flyover at 7.57 so I sat outside with a cup of hot tea and watched as it went by (5 minutes @ 72 degrees max so pretty good show). Was the brightest I had seen it yet,  just wish I could photograph it. 

I decided to do a bit of star gazing with the naked eye.  I'm still learning my way around the sky so time well spent.  Orion is getting harder to spot from my garden and I saw the now tiny Mars underneath the Pleiades cluster.  Cassiopeia looked great and I kicked myself for not having the scope in use as I was going to look at Andromeda with my new eyepiece. 

Then over to the west I could see what looked like hazy beam like shapes. Clouds maybe or a distant laser show?  I was reading my Sky at Night magazine this morning when I noticed on page 47 (March edition)  an article about the zodiacal lights.  Well it was in the right place at the right time as described - 90 minutes after sunset. I'm wondering now if I really did see it.  It looks to be clear again tonight so I will have a look and hopefully take a picture. Did anyone else spot this? 

Deb 

[Paz]

On 29/03/2019 at 10:23, Skywatcher130 said:

I decided to do a bit of star gazing with the naked eye.  I'm still learning my way around the sky so time well spent. 

Getting out there and just having a look up with no scope or binoculars is a really good way of learning your way around, I still spend some time doing this most times I go out.

[Stu]

What are your skies like @Skywatcher130? I think the Zodiacal light needs better than Bortle 5 or 4 skies to be clearly evident, which is magnitude 5.5 to 6 NELM ie fairly dark!

 

[Eastman]

On ‎29‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 11:23, Skywatcher130 said:

I decided to do a bit of star gazing with the naked eye

Good job, that's the basic to learn your way arround the stars

[Skywatcher130]

@Stu supposedly Bortle 5 but not sure that's true as there's been a lot of new builds in our area the last few years.  We ended up going up to our 'dark sky' location on Friday which is Bortle 4. By comparison it's vastly different in darkness. Put it this way,  there were so many stars out I struggled to make out The Plough ?