Observing Session 23/09/21

[lunator]

Observing session 23/09/21
I managed a quick observing session on the night of the 23rd.
Transparency was fairly good, but seeing was mainly 3/5 with occasionally more settled periods.

I took up my usual spot and started with Jupiter, the GRS was clearly visible and the 4 Moons and also visible with 3 on one ] side and one on the other. I pushed the magnification up to 100 (4mm ortho.).

The 2 closest moons Europa an Ganymede made an almost straight line pointing at the GRS. This was at 8pm. Also the belt that contained the GRS has a stronger colour in front of the GRS than behind, I had never really noticed this before.

I moved onto Saturn and Titan. The view was ok but the variable seeing made it less enjoyable than usual. I decided a quick check on RS Oph was in order. 

I last checked RS Oph on the 21st and in the 2 days no real changes could be detected. It still appears around mag 9.9. It is hanging in there....:).

Moving onto V1405 Cass it had faded again. It was clearly fainter than HD20819 (6.61) slightly fainter than HD220057 (6.94) and brighter than HD220770 (7.81) so I estimated mag 7.3.   In the 12.5mm  (x32) I got my first glimpse of M52, a faint sprinkling of stars.

I wanted to revisit the M2/Saturn Nebula/M73 area from the 21st as the moon was not affecting the sky too much. Also the GRS should be fairly central on Jupiter. 

I moved the scope back to Jupiter and the GRS was visible when the seeing settled but what really caught my eye was the relative change in the positions of Europa and Ganymede. In the 30 minutes I had been looking elsewhere the distance between them had halved.

I pretty much forgot to watch the GRS and spent the next 30 minutes watching them belt past each other. By 9pm Europa appeared further from the limb than Ganymede. I am used to following orbital motion as a double star observer, as I have observed Porrima and Zeta Cancri but this this takes years not minutes to observe. 

About 9.15 I decided to move onto the other targets.

Found M2 and the 12.5mm ortho showed it very well. Push the mag to x100 but the view was  not great.

Moved onto the Saturn Nebula and at x100 I could clearly see the elongated shape.
M73 & M72 I couldn’t see as the Moon was beginning to have an effect.

I made a final return to Jupiter and could see that the GRS was disappearing and Ganymede was getting close to being occulted, with work tomorrow. I called it a night around 10.15. 
Cheers
Ian

[Stu]

Nice report @lunator. What scope were you using?

[lunator]

Hi Stu

I was using my ST80 with my range of orthos.25/12.5/6/5/4mm

Cheers

Ian

 

 

[Stu]

29 minutes ago, lunator said:

Hi Stu

I was using my ST80 with my range of orthos.25/12.5/6/5/4mm

Cheers

Ian

 

 

Great results for an ST80 Ian 👍👍

[lunator]

Hi Stu

My 12.5mm ortho is a brilliant eyepiece, the 4mm is pretty good too. 

I am sure the OMC250 would beat the ST80 Hands down but the ST80 allows me to see parts of the sky I can't see from the obs.

Cheers

Ian. 

[SuburbanMak]

Really interesting report thank you - am inspired to track down the Saturn nebula! 

[lunator]

Go for it it was easier to find than I thought. 

Cheers

Ian

 

[russ]

20 hours ago, lunator said:

Hi Stu

I was using my ST80 with my range of orthos.25/12.5/6/5/4mm

Cheers

Ian

 

 

Really nice report Ian.  Amazing what you can do with an ST80. Since getting the ST150 I haven't touched my C6 or ED100. I have been amazed how well it does on planets. Bought it as a low power sweeper and now use it as a general purpose everything. So much so I sold the ED100. 

[Sunshine]

Nice report, that ST80 sounds like a great grab and go scope! 

[lunator]

2 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Nice report, that ST80 sounds like a great grab and go scope! 

It is ideal.

You can just pick it up and be out observing in 2mins. 

Cheers

Ian