What did you see tonight?

[Stu]

38 minutes ago, Telescope40 said:

Hello. Was out earlier myself. Not too long as rather windy. 
However @Stu the crater Riccus, not that I knew the name till now, jumped out at me. The way it was illuminated reminded me of the Sand Monster from Star Wars. Looked like 5 or 6 huge teeth circulating a large open mouth. 🤔🤔  -  new one for the observing log. 

John  

It looked very intriguing didn’t it John? Not one I’ve seen before either.

I caught an ok smartphone shot of it too.

[Davesellars]

It's completely clear here but the transparency is absolutely awful...   Not worth setting up at the moment.

[cajen2]

17 minutes ago, Davesellars said:

It's completely clear here but the transparency is absolutely awful...   Not worth setting up at the moment.

Yes, same for me, DS, though I did set up. The transparency seemed very patchy here - sometimes I'd struggle to see all four of the main stars in the Trapezium (72x mag) but ten minutes later, they were clear. For doubles, I had a quick look at Mintaka - easy enough, but Rigel wouldn't split for me even at 150x, something I've managed several times on other nights. I gave up in the end as I wasn't seeing anything very clearly.

[Pixies]

Seeing was very poor and transparency wasn't great. But it was a clear night, so it was dob-time tonight. I'll write up a proper report tomorrow. Hit quiet a few targets though:

• Trapezium
• Sigma Orionis
• Comet C/2019 L3 ATLAS
• Castor
• NGC 2392
• M67
• Tegmine
• Leo 1 galaxies - M105, NGC 3384, NGC 3389
• and M95 and M96
• Leo Triplet - M65, M66, NGC 3628

Cold stopped play, but first I went back to the comet to note it's change in position after 90 minutes.

The highlight of the evening? The new LED streetlights now mean I can actually see Cancer and M44 naked-eye from the back garden (just)!

[Pixies]

1 hour ago, cajen2 said:

Yes, same for me, DS, though I did set up. The transparency seemed very patchy here - sometimes I'd struggle to see all four of the main stars in the Trapezium (72x mag) but ten minutes later, they were clear. For doubles, I had a quick look at Mintaka - easy enough, but Rigel wouldn't split for me even at 150x, something I've managed several times on other nights. I gave up in the end as I wasn't seeing anything very clearly.

The jetstream was giving us all a kicking tonight: 

[cajen2]

Ah, that probably accounts for it, thanks. I was beginning to worry about my scope!

[Marvin Jenkins]

Managed a short session in Auriga and whilst observing the open cluster M37 I noticed a small diffuse blob between two equal brightness stars. At first I thought ‘Glob’ but upping the mag and checking the charts it was NGC1907 another open cluster, a first for me.

Marvin

[Nyctimene]

After seemingly endless weeks of clouds and rain, I quenched my celestial thirst (at least partially) this evening with a few looks at the moon from 19.00 to 19.30 CET. Through chasing clouds and bad seeing, the 5.1" Skywatcher Heritage Flextube showed the crater trio Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina with some details at mag about 100x, but not the Abulfeda crater chain. Near the Eudoxus - Aristoteles crater pair, the partially lit crater rim of Alexander slightly S gave a nice view, resembling a necklace of jewels extending into the dark part of the moon. (Might be a nice present for the Moon Maiden - ?). But the jet stream turbulence was horrible, so I finished the session after thirty minutes, with that certain feeling of contentness and peace of the soul that accompanies me, when I've been out under the stars.

Stephan

Edited February 7, 2022 by Nyctimene

[PeterC65]

I had high hopes for tonight and it has been clear, but the Moon was too bright for observing anything faint.

Still, I managed to see NGC 869 / NGC 884, the Double Cluster, for the first time. I like targets where I can see two things at once for some reason and this is one of those. M81 / M82 is also a favourite of mine but not with the Skymax 127 (not enough field of view)!

M35 looked good but M31, M81, M82 and even M42 were a bit so-so.

I managed to find Uranus. A definite pale blue disc, noticeably bigger that the dot of a star, but no sign of any moons.

And of course the Moon looked great. Nice views of the whole disc and some great detailed views with the BCO 6mm. The first time I've really made good use of this eyepiece. The detail with the BCO was better than with the ES82 6.7mm I thought, and the ES82 4.7mm just showed too many floaters!

 

[F15Rules]

Got the Pup tonight!!

Just another micro session with Trinity the Tak FS128 tonight. I have just 30 minutes as we're having an early start to drive a long way to family tomorrow..

The sky is great tonight and by naked eye Sirius looked very steady, so I thought maybe tonight's the night..(I've never seen the Pup in this scope before, very frustrating as I've seen it in a Vixen ED103s  a couple of times from my old house).

Anyway, got the star lined up and went straight in with a 9mm Morpheus. Clearly saw 2/3 diffraction rings but not the Pup.

So I upped the magnification with a 1.6x Barlow and this time I was pretty sure I could see the Pup, east north east of Sirius (refractor view, 2" diagonal) at between 12.30 and 1pm position.

I then went in with a Baader 2.25x Barlow in the Morpheus, at 260x. This time there wasn't any doubt, there it was..and I was able to repeat the confirmation with the Morph 9mm and 1.6x barlow at 184x.

The seeing is everything to get this split and I'm so chuffed to finally get this monkey off my back here in the Lincolnshire Wolds 👍🤩.

Got to go in now, but a big smile on my face tonight  ...hope some of you get it as well!

Dave

Edited February 10, 2022 by F15Rules
Additional text info

[cajen2]

Very clear seeing where I am, with just occasional thin cloud. Viewed my usual suspects because the moon's in the way of most things new that I want to see, so: doubles Mintaka, Alnitak and Rigel, Trapezium (the clearest I've ever seen it - even thought I might have seen E and F with averted vision, but probably not at only 150x). Wanted to see Castor and Pollux, but too high for my old bones to spot through a grotty RDF, grovelling on the ground!

Oh, and the moon of course - clear as a bell.

Edited February 10, 2022 by cajen2

[F15Rules]

It's quite possible that you saw the E and F components at 150x..I regularly see them with my 128mm apo at less than 100x in good conditions 😃

Dave

Edited February 10, 2022 by F15Rules
Typo

[cajen2]

10 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

It's quite possible that you saw the E and F components at 150x..I regularly see them with my 128mm apo at less than 109x I. Good conditions 😃

Dave

Do you know, you're right, Dave. I've just been out again and I'm pretty sure I saw them with averted vision.

Also caught all three stars in Hatysa, along with the easy doubles Struve 745 and 747.

Annoyingly, I've "done" all these before but it's nice to confirm them.

[Zermelo]

Seeing was very good tonight. The moon was awkward, so I took the Mak out for mostly doubles.

I split the third star in Tegmine for the first time, and saw some new ones: 57 Cancri at 1.5", HD294272 (in the same field as the four stars of Sigma Orionis, very nice) and SAO 57548.

Took a quick look at HD84406 in UMa (nothing remarkable at all, except for what else is looking at it at the moment), and finished on some great views of the moon at 300x.

[Stu]

Nice one @F15Rules 👍. No chance here, the seeing was very average unfortunately. I had the 130mm out and mainly viewed the Moon which looked beautiful at medium powers but the detail wasn’t there at high powers. I spotted parts of Hadley Rille, a few Plato craterlets and plenty of other features. Copernicus looked stunning of course.

I hopped around a few DSOs, M42 of course, Sigma Orionis of course 🤪🤪. Also looked at NGC2244, the cluster in the Rosette nebula (no chance of the nebula with the Moon up of course). Also the Christmas tree cluster which looked very nice. NGC2186 I caught on the way past, and I also dropped in on my old favourite NGC2169.

A few doubles/triples, Beta Mon, Alnitak and Algieba to finish off. Good to be out, although not a particularly memorable night.

EDIT I forgot to mention the occultation of 99 Tauri at about 18.34. It’s a mag 5.8 star and it blinked out instantly behind the dark limb of the Moon. Nice.

[Stardaze]

1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

Got the Pup tonight!!

Just another micro session with Trinity the Tak FS128 tonight. I have just 30 minutes as we're having an early start to drive a long way to family tomorrow..

The sky is great tonight and by naked eye Sirius looked very steady, so I thought maybe tonight's the night..(I've never seen the Pup in this scope before, very frustrating as I've seen it in a Vixen ED103s  a couple of times from my old house).

Anyway, got the star lined up and went straight in with a 9mm Morpheus. Clearly saw 2/3 diffraction rings but not the Pup.

So I upped the magnification with a 1.6x Barlow and this time I was pretty sure I could see the Pup, east north east of Sirius (refractor view, 2" diagonal) at between 12.30 and 1pm position.

I then went in with a Baader 2.25x Barlow in the Morpheus, at 260x. This time there wasn't any doubt, there it was..and I was able to repeat the confirmation with the Morph 9mm and 1.6x barlow at 184x.

The seeing is everything to get this split and I'm so chuffed to finally get this monkey off my back here in the Lincolnshire Wolds 👍🤩.

Got to go in now, but a big smile on my face tonight  ...hope some of you get it as well!

Dave

Super result Dave. I tried and tried for it tonight but no joy. Ended up at 363x but still to no avail. It wasn’t perfectly steady here tonight (only could see the E star in the trapezium) but the moon was a little too dominant to even pick out tegmine, so ended up mostly trying for the pup and plenty of the moon. Still new with lunar so really taking in the dominant craters. Found the Thor hammer again as pointed out by @John

 

[Stu]

10 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Seeing was very good tonight.

Crazy how the seeing can be so different even not that far away. Perhaps because I’m looking over the town it is worse here, not sure. Might need to head south of Crewkerne for some better views.

[cajen2]

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Crazy how the seeing can be so different even not that far away. Perhaps because I’m looking over the town it is worse here, not sure. Might need to head south of Crewkerne for some better views.

Yes, you two are both in Somerset and I'm in Yate, yet my seeing was more like Zermelo's.

[Pixies]

Started late tonight, so straight to the moon. Spent a while observing Vallis Alpes at various magnifications. I was hoping to see the rille down the centre but no luck. The cliff on the southern edge was showing sharp black edges at times, so I thought I might have had a chance, though. For those in the know, would tonight's angle of illumination been suitable to see the rille?

Noticed a star on the dark limb of the moon: 103 Tauri. It was about to be occulted, so waited to watch it pop out of sight - which it did at 12:42 am.

Have come back in now. I might wait for the moon to get lower then have a shot at some doubles in Bootes.

[wookie1965]

clouds here forecast clear at 3am all the way through, went bed at 8pm got up at 3,15am expecting my first session in 6 months only to be confronted with clouds.

I have been in and out every half hour checking for the slightest hint of any clear patches to no avail.

[Saganite]

11 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Got the Pup tonight!!

Just another micro session with Trinity the Tak FS128 tonight. I have just 30 minutes as we're having an early start to drive a long way to family tomorrow..

The sky is great tonight and by naked eye Sirius looked very steady, so I thought maybe tonight's the night..(I've never seen the Pup in this scope before, very frustrating as I've seen it in a Vixen ED103s  a couple of times from my old house).

Anyway, got the star lined up and went straight in with a 9mm Morpheus. Clearly saw 2/3 diffraction rings but not the Pup.

So I upped the magnification with a 1.6x Barlow and this time I was pretty sure I could see the Pup, east north east of Sirius (refractor view, 2" diagonal) at between 12.30 and 1pm position.

I then went in with a Baader 2.25x Barlow in the Morpheus, at 260x. This time there wasn't any doubt, there it was..and I was able to repeat the confirmation with the Morph 9mm and 1.6x barlow at 184x.

The seeing is everything to get this split and I'm so chuffed to finally get this monkey off my back here in the Lincolnshire Wolds 👍🤩.

Got to go in now, but a big smile on my face tonight  ...hope some of you get it as well!

Dave

Well done Dave, very pleased for you !

[Kon]

I had a look at Venus this morning around 630am. A nice thin crescent appearance to it. Very different from the fuller one I had seen in November.

[Zermelo]

10 hours ago, Stu said:

Crazy how the seeing can be so different even not that far away. Perhaps because I’m looking over the town it is worse here, not sure. Might need to head south of Crewkerne for some better views.

Yes, that is a bit odd.

Of course, it could be down to my having many fewer observing years!

To be a bit more descriptive, what I was seeing were mostly stars having clear discs and an unbroken first diffraction ring, even some of the fainter ones (e.g. three out of the four in Sigma Orionis). I map that onto Pickering 8 or 9. But what I did sometimes see last night was a kind of "wobble" superimposed onto the view. I didn't interpret this as a seeing artefact because the star discs and diffraction rings didn't alter intrinsically, they just moved about a bit. On other nights, when I've had bad seeing the discs and arcs themselves have been unstable (or invisible, in really bad cases) and the motion has been much faster. I could deal with the "wobble" last night because is wasn't so fast that I couldn't follow the star with my eye and still see faint companions. When I've seen this effect in the past, I've put it down either to a bit of a breeze becoming noticeable at high magnifications, or else some imperfection in the mount's tracking (it's not an expensive one). But I suppose it could be atmospheric, perhaps a larger-scale cell movement.

As for the effects of houses, I certainly do notice that at times, with targets that are just above rooftops. Some of the objects last night were away from my closest neighbours, but I think your southern view is probably better than mine for that.

I did look at Metcheck before I went out and it was quite optimistic, despite a strong jetstream:

 

 

[jock1958]

14 hours ago, F15Rules said:

So I upped the magnification with a 1.6x Barlow and this time I was pretty sure I could see the Pup, east north east of Sirius (refractor view, 2" diagonal) at between 12.30 and 1pm position.

Well done Dave, I tried for it again last night with my Tak FC-100DL & TV 3-6 zoom (150x - 300x). It was the best I've seen Sirius for some time with two to three diffraction rings showing sporadically, however there was still too much scintillation obscuring any chance to reveal the Pup. Maybe the extra bit of aperture in your FS128 gives you the edge 🤔  

Never mind there's still a few weeks left before it gets too low and I know roughly where to look, (upper left looking through my Tak!)

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by jock1958

[F15Rules]

32 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Well done Dave, I tried for it again last night with my Tak FC-100DL & TV 3-6 zoom (150x - 300x). It was the best I've seen Sirius for some time with two to three diffraction rings showing sporadically, however there was still too much scintillation obscuring any chance to reveal the Pup. Maybe the extra bit of aperture in your FS128 gives you the edge 🤔  

Never mind there's still a few weeks left before it gets too low and I know roughly where to look, (upper left looking through my Tak!)

 

Hi Iain,

Thanks for that..I should have mentioned, I used a moon filter too, and that definitely helped!

Oh, and its upper right through your Tak if you're using a normal diagonal or prism...image is right way up but East and West are reversed..😉

Good luck!!

Dave