What did you see tonight?

[John]

This image that I snapped last night shows a couple of the Lunar 100 targets:  A = the Leibeniz Mountans (L96) and B = crater Drygalski (L94)

 

[Mr Spock]

Always nice to see these south pole objects. 

[F15Rules]

3 hours ago, vineyard said:

An other-worldly night last night sitting under the luminous Wolf Moon, w the STF7 and going on a double-star trail across Auriga.  Used an old Nalger 12T2 for much of the time until about 3" separation & then switched to a 9 Delite or Nag zoom.  The 12T2 was just lovely - a real porthole feel and pin point stars.  Gave a more intimate feel at the EP vs the Delite.  Seeing must have been v good indeed as managed to resolve 0.9" separation, a first for me.

PS @Nik271 thanks for that video link - those must be the Leibnitz mountains I caught in the second image here then (I was wondering whether they were mountains or just crater rims).

Sounds like a great session, Vin!

I too have a 12mm Nagler T2, my only TV eyepiece, and it's a cracker..great wide fov with lovely contrast, very sharp, and it barlows well to make a very capable 5-6mm high power ocular👍.

Congratulations on getting a sub 1" split for the first time too.

Dave 

[vineyard]

Thanks Dave @F15Rules yes I'm v fond of it - it's just got something special about it hasn't it (& is a bit of a hand grenade!).  I don't really use it as much as I should, mostly b/c its been a while since I did so much visual - need to change that this yr.

And ooh that's good to know about it barlowing well - 5mm w 82 degree, now that has to be tried - cheers!

Vin

[IB20]

Terrible seeing tonight here, lots of atmospheric rippling on the moon and Sirius is scintillating like mad. Struggling to push the magnification. Not worth pursuing as it’s too cold to wait around for conditions to calm down. 

[cajen2]

It was cloudy here all day, then cleared up at dusk.....intended to go out after dinner and.....fog. Thick, impenetrable fog.

[Stu]

A wonderful hour for me with the 8” f8, managed to observe and follow Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1, really good to watch, and boy was it motoring along!

[Epick Crom]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

A wonderful hour for me with the 8” f8, managed to observe and follow Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1, really good to watch, and boy was it motoring along!

Well done Stu, that must have been amazing to see live! Was clouded over here last night so no chance for me. Might try tonight!

[Buqibu]

Looked at Orion, The Great Nebula looked fantastic, a large faint cloud of gas. The main four members of the Trapezium easily visible. I think I split Rigel as well, though I'm not sure, somewhere I read it says the magnitude difference is very tricky, other places say its a relatively easy double, might have just been my imagination, hard to say. Iota Orionis looked beautiful, so did HR 1887 and 1886 (very close together, almost like a double). Mintaka looked great as well, thats the double in Orion's belt. Also saw M35, very beautiful cluster (though I couldn't see the smallee ngc next to it). M36 in Auriga was very impressive. For some reason M37 and M38 weren't jumping out at me, I could see stars around that area but not sure if I saw the clusters. Checked out Castor, very equal double, reminded me of Mesarthim in Ares. The Moon was starting to come up and it was getting very cold so I called it a night. Succesful session!

 

Telescope: Celestron AstroMaster 102

Eyepieces: Celestron 20mm, Celestron Zoom + Barlow 2x

 

Bortle around 7 according to maps

 

Thanks for reading!

[Saganite]

I have had nice views of Neptune and Uranus very early this evening and I will hope to get  a few doubles and star clusters with my 5" f15 for as long as I stay out tonight.  The seeing is good but not the same as the incredibly stable seeing of 17th/18th !

Edited January 19, 2022 by Saganite

[John]

5 minutes ago, Saganite said:

I have had nice views of Neptune and Uranus this evening and I will hope to get  a few doubles and star clusters with my 5" f15 for as long as I stay out tonight.  The seeing is good but not the same as the incredibly stable seeing of 17th/18th !

I agree re: the seeing Steve. We seem to have some effects of the jetstream tonight I think.

 

[Saganite]

It is a pity John, but I do not recall seeing as superb as the other night, for many years, so I guess I will have a long wait for the next..

I am going to have a good go however, at the ones I failed to get last week, Orionis 52 & 32.

[JDF]

Had a go at splitting some doubles in orion after the obligatory bins tour. Rigel gave me no chance at all but managed to split Mintaka and  Delta Orionis C quite easily, tried Alnitak but no joy there either. Only 3 of the trapezium stars were clear to see so maybe it's seeing conditions tonight rather than my eyesight causing the difficulty I'm having.

Haydes is very quickly becoming my favourite view through the 10x50's, beautiful tonight.

[Kon]

I tried to see the (7482) 1994 PC1 asteroid earlier but failed due to light haze. Things cleared now but the moon is too bright to try for it. The moon took magnification quite well, 6.7mm EP, although 8.8mm was better due to some 'boiling' effect. I spent some time in Mare Crisium. Petavious and Langrenus looked really nice and I enjoyed the central peak in both. I got a quick snapshot at the EP as well. Looking all the smaller craters scattered further up is rather mesmerising, in my eyes.

[John]

13 minutes ago, Saganite said:

It is a pity John, but I do not recall seeing as superb as the other night, for many years, so I guess I will have a long wait for the next..

I am going to have a good go however, at the ones I failed to get last week, Orionis 52 & 32.

I got 32 Orionis with my Vixen ED102SS earlier this evening but it was right on the margin of possibility tonight - the split came and went as the seeing fluctuated.

[Davesellars]

Had a great session from 6 to 9pm on various DSOs and also Ceres into the bargain.  Just waiting for the Moon to rise a touch more and will give it a go...   Really clear tonight and the transparency was not too shoddy either!  Seems to be getting a bit more dewy out there at the moment as I just checked the scope over so maybe a quick session on the moon to finish off the night.

[Epick Crom]

Ok I know this object is way too far south for most of you guys but I thought I would mention it here as it has a tounge twisting name: last night I observed the double star Epsilon Chamaeleontis! Name aside, it is an attractive double 😊

[tombardier]

I've been out looking at the moon with my 10" f/4.7 newt and binoviewers.  The seeing wasn't steady, but detail was resolving well enough to make it worthwhile observing!  I didn't have the mist that accompanied the good seeing recently, but the transparency was very good, and I found some enjoyment looking through some new (to me) Pentax PCF 12x50 WPII binoculars.  I bought them because I've realised recently that my astigmatism really is compromising my viewing pleasure, and looking at wide-field views or stars has always been less than satisfactory for me.  I bought these to replace my Pentax SP 10x50s with only 13mm of eye relief, and eyecups that don't fold down.  The PCFs have 20mm of eye relief, and are just a bit classier in every respect, so I've been able to try using my glasses.  I've got to say, the view through them using my glasses was fantastic, with sharp stars visible everywhere, and also many many more faint stars visible; this, on a night with a very bright moon!  I had a look at the double cluster, and just did some general scanning.  I can't wait for some dark nights now to really start enjoying them!

[Saganite]

Just spent 30 odd minutes on Orionis 32 and I cannot split it. What I thought might be a dark split line, is I believe the gap in the diffraction ring. I need the atmospheric stability of the other night and it will show readily I am sure, as the Dawes limit for Andromeda is 0.9", so doable,  but not tonight.  I can only see the 4 main stars of The Trapezium also.

[Telescope40]

2 minutes ago, tombardier said:

I've been out looking at the moon with my 10" f/4.7 newt and binoviewers.  The seeing wasn't steady, but detail was resolving well enough to make it worthwhile observing!  I didn't have the mist that accompanied the good seeing recently, but the transparency was very good, and I found some enjoyment looking through some new (to me) Pentax PCF 12x50 WPII binoculars.  I bought them because I've realised recently that my astigmatism really is compromising my viewing pleasure, and looking at wide-field views or stars has always been less than satisfactory for me.  I bought these to replace my Pentax SP 10x50s with only 13mm of eye relief, and eyecups that don't fold down.  The PCFs have 20mm of eye relief, and are just a bit classier in every respect, so I've been able to try using my glasses.  I've got to say, the view through them using my glasses was fantastic, with sharp stars visible everywhere, and also many many more faint stars visible; this, on a night with a very bright moon!  I had a look at the double cluster, and just did some general scanning.  I can't wait for some dark nights now to really start enjoying them!

Tom. Good to hear the new Pentax binos are working for you. 
Regards.  John 

[John]

3 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Just spent 30 odd minutes on Orionis 32 and I cannot split it. What I thought might be a dark split line, is I believe the gap in the diffraction ring. I need the atmospheric stability of the other night and it will show readily I am sure, as the Dawes limit for Andromeda is 0.9", so doable,  but not tonight.  I can only see the 4 main stars of The Trapezium also.

The seeing just is not as good tonight as it has been lately Steve.

Later in the week it looks as though we will be clear of the jetstream again so, clouds allowing, the scopes will be able to go that extra yard

Edited January 19, 2022 by John

[Kimboman]

Hi I went out early as soon as I could see the sky glow of the Moon but it was not yet visible from my location .

I set my SkyWatcher 127 on goto and waited until the Moon became visible over the neighbours roof.

The viewing wasn't to bad not to bright and the seeing was good a most enjoyable couple of hours.

[Captain Scarlet]

I set up my skymax180 and got about 5 minutes on 7 Taurii before my vista became this, contrary to forecast.

… irritated, I packed up after sitting waiting for it all to clear for 15 minutes. By the time I was past the point of no return in packing up, it suddenly cleared and not a cloud was to be seen. I’ve just taken out my Kowa grab-n-go for a consolation.

Grrrr. Magnus

edit: I did a quick tour at 30x with the Kowa 30w eyepiece and took in the Mintaka S, M42 and the 4 trapezium stars I must say were exquisite little jewels sitting there in the middle. Sigma Orionis system also lovely. I took in Almach, just split at 30x, couldn’t split Rigel, Cor Caroli was easy and Polaris was split too, which I was quite pleased about: 88mm and 30x. 
Something salvaged at least.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Captain Scarlet

[IB20]

Our celestial neighbour amongst another hobby. Didn’t do us much luck 😅

[John]

Just had a nice hour looking at the moon before the clouds came over. Petavius was looking wonderful with it's central peak complex and the great cleft extending from that, across the floor of the crater, to it's tiered rim. The Messier pair of craters were looking very fine as well.

Nice end to the evening