An August clear sky beckons ......

[John]

Shorts, t-shirt and a big refractor

[mark81]

Looks like a beast! (The telescope that is...) 

With the warm weather and the skies looking crystal clear I can't wait to get out their either....

Have a great night

Mark

[alan potts]

Just a bit of cloud here for the first day this month.

Alan

[PeterW]

Don’t jinx it....

[Marvin Jenkins]

What does that thing weigh? I recently borrowed a William Optics 66mm frac (baby) to compare against my 130 newt. Supprised by how heavy it was. Nice bit of kit thought, very well made.

[mdstuart]

Enjoy. Might be a bit of high cloud but that's not going to stop me.

[John]

7 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

What does that thing weigh? I recently borrowed a William Optics 66mm frac (baby) to compare against my 130 newt. Supprised by how heavy it was. Nice bit of kit thought, very well made.

9.5kg with tube rings, finder and diagonal. 3 lens elements weigh a bit but the scope is quite well balanced.

[mdstuart]

I think mine is heavier 🏋

All set up and ready to go but mind the rainguage..

[mdstuart]

Yes I know I missed a bit with the painting...

[Stu]

Nice out there, shorts and T shirt for me too. F8 is out, Saturn looking really nice just now. Watching a film now, will pop out for a bit later on.

[Stu]

Saturn looking as good as I've seen it this apparition. Cassini etched black against the rings, A, B and C rings clear and lovely surface banding on the planet. A number of moons around too, need to check which ones in a bit.

[John]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

Saturn looking as good as I've seen it this apparition. Cassini etched black against the rings, A, B and C rings clear and lovely surface banding on the planet. A number of moons around too, need to check which ones in a bit.

Saturn the highlight for me too so far. 200x (Ethos 6mm) is so crisp and sharp. 5 moons and I think I've glimpsed Enceladus a couple of times but it's close to the N side of the planet so it's a little doused in glare.

Got some thin, stringy cloud drifting about just now around the S horizon which is mildly annoying.

 

[Stu]

Yep, 9mm BGO for me at x177 is best. Need an 8mm BGO really, 7mm is a bit too much 

[Space Hopper]

Cloudy in Derby mainly ; with the odd clearer bit here and there

Had a quick look with the binocs, but it wasn't clear enough to get the scope out.

 

[Stu]

Nice little session for me, finished now.

M11 looked fantastic at high power, lovely V shapes showing up.

M13, pretty impressive and resolving well into the core with averted vision bringing out even more stars.  Couldn't quite get the Propeller although hints of it showed up.

M27, main core shape plus the outer reaches showing a little with OIII

M57, excellent again with OIII

Caroline's Rose, beautiful swirling faint stars, larger than I remember but then I probably saw it last with a 4"

Finally the Veil. Pretty impressive given the skies here (Mag 19). The Witch's Broom sweeping through 52 Cygni, although there wasn't enough contrast for the split in the broom. The two hooks in the Eastern Veil were visible though nothing like as clear as I've seen under dark skies. No real sign of Pickering's Wisp, and I drew a blank on the NAN.

All in all a very rewarding little session, probably the nicest views I've had of the Veil from home.

[mdstuart]

I managed to spot one new galaxy, NGC 137 in between the high cloud.

Saturn was very sharp as you say John.

My highlight was my wife looking at the wild duck cluster. She says it looks like a town with its lights on from a plane. Sometimes someone who only looks through a scope rarely gives such an accurate description!

Mark

[Trikeflyer]

7 hours ago, Tubby Bear said:

Cloudy in Derby mainly ; with the odd clearer bit here and there

Had a quick look with the binocs, but it wasn't clear enough to get the scope out.

 

Same here. Got the bins set up, had about 30mins observing then cloud. Started Steve Tomkins Sky At Night Bino tour. Kemble cascade was the highlight - simply stunning. Cassiopeia clusters were nice, M31 was ok, cloud rolled in session done. Nice to be out in the warm weather. 

Hope those of you that had clearer skies enjoyed yourselves, thanks to those who posted reports so far, I’m looking forward to reading more about your observing sessions last night.

Steve 

[Stu]

48 minutes ago, Trikeflyer said:

Kemble cascade was the highlight - simply stunning

It's a cracker isn't it Steve? Really nice binocular target.

[jock1958]

Thought I was in for a good night but high level wispy cloud interrupted viewing constantly.

Started off with Jupiter which was ok at best, Saturn was crisp and detailed before cloud came over.

Managed a glimpse of the eastern side of the Veil with my OIII filter & 24mm pan, thinking I will have to invest in a lower power eyepiece (35mm pan?) to see the whole nebula instead of bite sized chunks. 

M13 was an absolute delight with my 3-6 zoom, like opening a box of jewels.

Finished off with Zeta Herculis, not convinced I managed to split it at x225 it seems like a wobbling miss shaped airy disc on one side?  🤔 apologies for poor description! 

 

[John]

1 hour ago, jock1958 said:

Thought I was in for a good night but high level wispy cloud interrupted viewing constantly.

Started off with Jupiter which was ok at best, Saturn was crisp and detailed before cloud came over.

Managed a glimpse of the eastern side of the Veil with my OIII filter & 24mm pan, thinking I will have to invest in a lower power eyepiece (35mm pan?) to see the whole nebula instead of bite sized chunks. 

M13 was an absolute delight with my 3-6 zoom, like opening a box of jewels.

Finished off with Zeta Herculis, not convinced I managed to split it at x225 it seems like a wobbling miss shaped airy disc on one side?  🤔 apologies for poor description! 

 

I had that wispy cloud issue as well. Dodging those showed some nice dark skies though.

Your description of a nearly split zeta hercules sounds right.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, jock1958 said:

Thought I was in for a good night but high level wispy cloud interrupted viewing constantly.

Started off with Jupiter which was ok at best, Saturn was crisp and detailed before cloud came over.

Managed a glimpse of the eastern side of the Veil with my OIII filter & 24mm pan, thinking I will have to invest in a lower power eyepiece (35mm pan?) to see the whole nebula instead of bite sized chunks. 

M13 was an absolute delight with my 3-6 zoom, like opening a box of jewels.

Finished off with Zeta Herculis, not convinced I managed to split it at x225 it seems like a wobbling miss shaped airy disc on one side?  🤔 apologies for poor description! 

 

For once I had some really nice clear skies and avoided the wispy cloud. Sounds like quite a few of us had good seeing though with sharp views of Saturn.

You need around 3.5 degrees to get the whole Veil in, but more is better. It is well worth achieving if you can, a really fabulous object to see in one field. My 740mm focal length Tak will do it with a 30mm 82 degree eyepiece but the Genesis is better at 500mm focal length, that gives nearly 5 degrees.

Zeta Herc is a tricky blighter. I got two clear airy disks when it split so you will know when you've done it. If the seeing is off, it will just be a wobbly mess in my experience!

[jock1958]

28 minutes ago, Stu said:

For once I had some really nice clear skies and avoided the wispy cloud. Sounds like quite a few of us had good seeing though with sharp views of Saturn.

You need around 3.5 degrees to get the whole Veil in, but more is better. It is well worth achieving if you can, a really fabulous object to see in one field. My 740mm focal length Tak will do it with a 30mm 82 degree eyepiece but the Genesis is better at 500mm focal length, that gives nearly 5 degrees.

Zeta Herc is a tricky blighter. I got two clear airy disks when it split so you will know when you've done it. If the seeing is off, it will just be a wobbly mess in my experience!

Thanks Stu for your input. As I've only got 1.25" eyepieces and diagonal for my Tak 100DL, will I need to step up to a 2" diagonal & a 30mm + eyepiece to achieve 3.5 or more degrees?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, jock1958 said:

Thanks Stu for your input. As I've only got 1.25" eyepieces and diagonal for my Tak 100DL, will I need to step up to a 2" diagonal & a 30mm + eyepiece to achieve 3.5 or more degrees?

2" will certainly give you a wider FOV but you will struggle with the DL due to its longer focal length. The DC is just on the limit really, ideally you need about 650mm focal length or less to be comfortable. John's lovely Vixen is f6.5 and that does it nicely, my Genesis is f5 so is even wider.

These charts show the DL, DC and Genesis with first a 24mm Panoptic (1.25") second a 30mm 82 degree ES (2"), the third one is a 41mm Panoptic (2") and finally a 56mm Plossl (2"). In each one, the DL is the inner circle, DC mid and Genesis outer circle. So you can see the DL is always going to struggle, with the Plossl giving the same field of view as the 41mm but with a larger exit pupil (6.2mm) which may help when filtering with an OIII under dark skies. It is certainly the cheapest way to start experimenting!

So, you will get wider with 2", but it may be simpler to get a different scope with a shorter focal length although you would still need the 2" eyepiece.

[JeremyS]

15 hours ago, John said:

Shorts, t-shirt and a big refractor

 

14 hours ago, Stu said:

Nice out there, shorts and T shirt for me too.

That's how I started out, but the long trousers and fleece soon came out. Colder up here!

[wookie1965]

I'm not jealous at all no really I'm not with a full cloud sky😭