Cheeky little bino session

[Pixies]

Clear Outside had been showing red all day so I hadn't been planning anything for tonight. But when I posted something a little while ago, the CO table in my signature showed green! I checked outside and it was clear! The waning crescent moon was up but low behind some houses, so I grabbed the binos, a deck chair and settled down for quick session.

North east is the best direction from my back garden. Although a 3 storey tenement nextdoor stands in the way, it's towards the sea and little light pollution in that direction, so the darkest views are there. I always feel a little uncomfortable though, as I'm viewing over the roof and probably look like I'm peeking into the top flats' windows!

First I checked the nova is Cassiopeia. It's dimmer now and I had to use averted vision to see it. Hopefully it'll flare up again! Then over to M31. The sky was pretty transparent and dark, so the core of the galaxy was  nice and bright. The dust lanes on the NW edge making the fuzz fade more abruptly than the opposite side and I really got a feeling of something wider than the central core. M32 was visible too.

Counting upwards, M33 seemed the next obvious target! I've not yet observed it but the sky seemed pretty good and after a year of observing faint fuzzies, I wondered whether I might have my eye in now? But no - still no luck. I know where it should be and spent a good 20 minutes on the target. At times I thought I had it, but probably just "averted imagination" (as someone wittily put it, recently). I'll try again at a dark site soon.

OK - M34 then! Nice and easy to find Quite a large cluster and a good bino target. Then hopped over to NGC752, which I found using a 'hockey-stick' pattern of stars just to the west of it. Wide and loose, I need to try this in the ST80.

The moon was starting to make its presence felt now and the sky was brightening, so I had a quick shot at Jupiter and could only see 2 moons. Turns out that to the east, Europa and Io were very close to each other, plus Callisto was hidden by the glare of the planet as it is starting to transit. No going to stay up that late though!

Edited September 1, 2021 by Pixies

[Stardaze]

Great to hear the weather has subsided for you. It’s been thick over all week and thought it was forecast the same for the week ahead but then just saw this…😱

[cotterless45]

Been terrible think cloud here . Decided to hold my own star party camping in the garden. No sign of clear skies yet , here's hoping for the New Moon ,

old Nick.

[wookie1965]

Well astropanel says clear all night however clear outside says clear up until 11pm but met office says cloudy all night so I am just going to keep my eye out and going by that rather than taking these forecasts as factual. 

[callisto]

6 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

so I am just going to keep my eye out and going by that rather than taking these forecasts as factual. 

It amazes me that we are in 2021 and with all the latest tech out there the UK weather forecasters are mostly 50% right!

I think our forecasters are the only ones in the world who use the words "changeable", "hit and miss" & "probably".......some countries get the forecast right even down to how many raindrops there will be 😁

[wookie1965]

Just now, callisto said:

It amazes me that we are in 2021 and with all the latest tech out there the UK weather forecasters are mostly 50% right!

I think our forecasters are the only ones in the world who use the words "changeable", "hit and miss" & "probably".......some countries get the forecast right even down to how many raindrops there will be 😁

Oh don't I know it just have to see how the 1.2billion super computer works at the met office next year for that money I want to know how many rain drops are going to hit the roof of my house. 

[callisto]

It would be more reliable if they just licked their finger and stuck it out the window 😄