What did you see tonight?

[Epick Crom]

Cloudy here in Perth but caught a glimpse of Venus, Mars and Saturn close together naked eye early in the morning. A splendid sight enhanced by seeing Jupiter a few degrees above the eastern horizon below them.

Joe

[badhex]

Have been struggling a bit with anxiety, work stress (and an expensive astro purchase which didn't quite go to plan), all of which has made me feel like I couldn't face getting out even when we've had a stretch of clear nights.

Last week I decided to forgo the larger scope and get back out with the AZ-GTi and ZS73 to revisit a bunch of targets I've been observing in the 102 F7, allowing me to also compare the experience between the two. 

Targets included:

Uranus 

Delta Ori

Zeta Ori

M42

NGC 1980 / Struve 747

37 cluster

Satellite cluster (a new one for me) 

Double cluster

Mizar/Alcor

ISS naked eye

 

It goes without saying the ZS73 is noticeably less powerful at almost half the light gathering capability, but nonetheless still a great little scope with super sharp contrasty views, and super quick to get set up and cooled down. Nice to change things up and have different experience, and I felt better for getting back out. 

[Kon]

Just popped the Dob out. New moon with excellent transparency. It will be a fun night.

[SuburbanMak]

Popped in for a warm and to say good night to folks, going back out. 
The new-to-me 10” Dob is working.  
Many more stars in M36,7,8 than before. Super views of M81/2 and a first from the garden on M65/6 - this thing really does grab some light!  M3 is mesmerising.  
I have some stuff to learn about collimation, I have achieved acceptable but certainly not perfect star test so far. 
 

Waiting for M13 & M57 to rise from the murk… more later. 

Edited April 2, 2022 by SuburbanMak

[Stu1smartcookie]

21 hours ago, badhex said:

Have been struggling a bit with anxiety, work stress (and an expensive astro purchase which didn't quite go to plan), all of which has made me feel like I couldn't face getting out even when we've had a stretch of clear nights.

Last week I decided to forgo the larger scope and get back out with the AZ-GTi and ZS73 to revisit a bunch of targets I've been observing in the 102 F7, allowing me to also compare the experience between the two. 

Targets included:

Uranus 

Delta Ori

Zeta Ori

M42

NGC 1980 / Struve 747

37 cluster

Satellite cluster (a new one for me) 

Double cluster

Mizar/Alcor

ISS naked eye

 

It goes without saying the ZS73 is noticeably less powerful at almost half the light gathering capability, but nonetheless still a great little scope with super sharp contrasty views, and super quick to get set up and cooled down. Nice to change things up and have different experience, and I felt better for getting back out. 

Firstly mate sorry to read about your problems but delighted that you got out with the ZS73 . As most of us know , despite that much used “aperture is everything “ quote , using a small scope can and is often more satisfying. 

[badhex]

4 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Firstly mate sorry to read about your problems but delighted that you got out with the ZS73 . As most of us know , despite that much used “aperture is everything “ quote , using a small scope can and is often more satisfying. 

Thanks Stu, appreciated. The ZS73 is a great little scope and pairs extremely well with the AZ-GTi. I'd almost forgotten how fun this combo is, I haven't had either out since November last year as I've been exclusively using the 102ED + Skytee in that time. 

[AstroNebulee]

22 hours ago, badhex said:

Have been struggling a bit with anxiety, work stress (and an expensive astro purchase which didn't quite go to plan), all of which has made me feel like I couldn't face getting out even when we've had a stretch of clear nights.

Last week I decided to forgo the larger scope and get back out with the AZ-GTi and ZS73 to revisit a bunch of targets I've been observing in the 102 F7, allowing me to also compare the experience between the two. 

Targets included:

Uranus 

Delta Ori

Zeta Ori

M42

NGC 1980 / Struve 747

37 cluster

Satellite cluster (a new one for me) 

Double cluster

Mizar/Alcor

ISS naked eye

 

It goes without saying the ZS73 is noticeably less powerful at almost half the light gathering capability, but nonetheless still a great little scope with super sharp contrasty views, and super quick to get set up and cooled down. Nice to change things up and have different experience, and I felt better for getting back out. 

Take care of yourself, just do what makes you happy. Pleased you got out and got some observing in 👍

[badhex]

26 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Take care of yourself, just do what makes you happy. Pleased you got out and got some observing in 👍

Thanks Lee! Looking forward to the next session 🙂

[PeterC65]

12 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:

Popped in for a warm and to say good night to folks, going back out. 
The new-to-me 10” Dob is working.  
Many more stars in M36,7,8 than before. Super views of M81/2 and a first from the garden on M65/6 - this thing really does grab some light!  M3 is mesmerising.  
I have some stuff to learn about collimation, I have achieved acceptable but certainly not perfect star test so far. 
 

Waiting for M13 & M57 to rise from the murk… more later. 

It sounds like the view through the 10" Dob is substantially better than through the Mak. I'd love to hear more about how you rate them both, perhaps in a separate thread.

I keep wanting more aperture and have considered a StellaLyra 10" Dob, but I value the GoTo and Tracking on my current mount (I've no experience with a manual mount), and I'm not sure how I'd get on with the Newtonian eyepiece position (as opposed to a diagonal that I can cant over). I'd be interested to hear what you think about these things since you're coming from the same setup as me.

[NeonSpectres]

Saturday evening started out so well... polar aligned just as the stars came out and the tracking was so good that I didn't even need to adjust the position for the second calibration star! Target that evening was M81 and surrounding area (I was using Nikon D7200 with Tamron 100-400mm lens (@400mm)) as it was pretty high up above the LP zone.

Popped out around 2.5 hours later to find that the camera battery had almost run down (no major issue) but that my stars had begun to trail badly in the last few frames (they were fine up until that point!) so maybe the mount hit zenith then had a bit of trouble going over? Big issue however was my pin-sharp(ish) stars turning into donuts!:

First Light Frame

Last (before star trails) Light Frame:

Looks like I was a victim of 'Lens Creep' so I'll try and restrain it with an elastic band next time...

Out of the 250 Light Frame I could use, only 28 were picked by DSS. I did manage to salvage this though and run it through Astronomy.net so the evening wasn't a complete loss:

Learning a little each time I go out so hopefully everything will go right next time I have an imaging session! 😁

[Mr Spock]

Moon looks good tonight. Mare Nectaris is perfectly placed.

[Davesellars]

Had a very quick session with the 4" refractor testing out some new (to me) binoviewers.  Had a good look at the Moon but the seeing was atrocious even using 25mm eyepieces with the included 2x barlow for 57x it was very unsteady.  I was able to make judge using 10mm eyepieces (that were not quite matched) that with the binoviewers this magnification (143x) seemed about ideal for the amount of contrast and brightness though.

[Mr Spock]

Seeing distinctly wobbly, but usable with the 12" and 8mm LVW - x190. I briefly used the 6mm SLV, but its x253 was too much for the conditions and just a bit blurry.

I was intrigued by five white spots through Mare Serenitatis on the terminator. They appear to be Linné A, B, F, H and G just starting to show. Shame I can't watch them fully emerge. They should be on view tomorrow though, along with Linné itself.

[chrispj]

9 hours ago, Davesellars said:

Had a very quick session with the 4" refractor testing out some new (to me) binoviewers.  Had a good look at the Moon but the seeing was atrocious even using 25mm eyepieces with the included 2x barlow for 57x it was very unsteady.  I was able to make judge using 10mm eyepieces (that were not quite matched) that with the binoviewers this magnification (143x) seemed about ideal for the amount of contrast and brightness though.

Snap! The high cloud cleared after 9pm for me and I had my first look through the new binoviewer at the moon, using a pair of Astro Essential 20mm plossls. Lovely viewing, much more comfortable for me than using single eye. Will look forward very much to using them on the planets later in the year, though I'll need to add to my eye piece collection first...

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Seeing is fantastic and a post covid treat, the lunar X and V. Excuse the shaky mobile pic...

The cat keeping me company...

Edited April 8, 2022 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[F15Rules]

Cloudy here in the Lincolnshire Wolds, despite the tea time TV forecast suggesting clear skies... they may just not have reached us yet.

We have a roofing company coming tomorrow at 7.30am to do a job which was quoted for in mid January (😱🥴), so if it's not cleared by 9.30pm I won't be getting out..

Dave

Edited April 8, 2022 by F15Rules

[Kon]

After the light rain, the sky has cleared and the moon looks great. A lot of nice details along the terminator. XVL nicely visible. I was drawn to Hipparchus and the small rills inside. The mountains around the Mare Serenitatis are showing nice details and fairly sharp.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Kon

[Pixies]

The lunar X and V were incredibly bright and conspicuous. Have been using the Vixen 80M tonight and bout to go back out for some double star splitting.

[Captain Scarlet]

First Light in Ireland for my LZOS 105, I’ve been dying to try it for years actually with my Nagler 31 for 21x nearly 4 degs FoV in dark (-ish given Luna) skies. Lovely quick tour of a few favourites including double cluster, Alnilam S, Pleiades, Polaris A/B and half-split the double-double with the Delos 6. 4 Trapezium stars were detectable with the N31 too which surprised me. Observing chair certainly helped there.

As mentioned in the Lunar observing thread X and V were seen, and a random occultation, around 2225, it just snuffed out, I think it was that well-known star TYC 1903-0472-1 😂

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Captain Scarlet

[SuburbanMak]

Hadn’t expected to observe tonight but spotted it clearing after midnight. Had a hankering to look through the lovely old Clarkson 3” that I’ve neglected a bit recently. Missed the moon but decided to see how many Messier objects I could identify from the back yard, turned into a bit of a classic, will post an observing report tomorrow. Seeing is cracking here right now but sadly have things to do tomorrow…

[Franklin]

Other half snoring again, couldn't sleep, so up at 5am to be greeted by a rising Venus in the SE, showing a gibbous phase through the SD81s and also got my first 2022 view of Mars and Saturn. All very low and shimmering. Roll on summer.

[F15Rules]

5 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:

Hadn’t expected to observe tonight but spotted it clearing after midnight. Had a hankering to look through the lovely old Clarkson 3” that I’ve neglected a bit recently. Missed the moon but decided to see how many Messier objects I could identify from the back yard, turned into a bit of a classic, will post an observing report tomorrow. Seeing is cracking here right now but sadly have things to do tomorrow…

That lovely setup should be on the "Show us your scope in action at night" thread Mark!

Look forward to reading your report on its' performance 😊.

Dave

[Kon]

Moon is looking stunning. Extremely stable at the moment. I was observing Purbach and I was impressed by the 'wall'? inside it; a long shadow running. I need to do some reading to find what it is called. Walther is showing amazing details even the small cratelets.

[Mr Spock]

Moon is looking great with the 12". Hadley Rille is very prominent. A small section just below the top bend is in shadow but the rest looks spectacular.

Vallis Alpes Rille proved a bit more elusive. Spent about 15 mins collimating the scope as it was out again, when I'd done, there it was. Just visible at x253 in the 6mm SLV. Just shows how important collimation is.

[Stu]

51 minutes ago, Kon said:

Moon is looking stunning. Extremely stable at the moment. I was observing Purbach and I was impressed by the 'wall'? inside it; a long shadow running. I need to do some reading to find what it is called. Walther is showing amazing details even the small cratelets.

Same here! Very stable seeing, the best I’ve seen in quite some time.