What did you see tonight?

[markse68]

27 minutes ago, josefk said:

Sigma Orionis (48 Ori) observed for the second time in three days - this time "camping out" to observe the fourth component "C".

strange- SkySafari doesn’t show “C” 🤷‍♂️ I’ll have to have a look!

Lovely sketch btw! I keep thinking i should get sketching again it’s such a good thing to do but it was just too cold and damp last night

Mark

Edited November 23, 2022 by markse68

[josefk]

7 minutes ago, markse68 said:

strange- SkySafari doesn’t show “C” 🤷‍♂️ I’ll have to have a look!

Lovely sketch btw! I keep thinking i should get sketching again it’s such a good thing to do but it was just too cold and damp last night

Mark

It doesn't indeed and thats why i missed it the first time round! Even knowing exactly where to look on a second attempt it is tricky. This will get tidied up to an index card later but here is the EP "sketch" from last night. I'm enjoying recording my observations like this but my dark adapted eyesight is so bad it's a complete Mr Bean faff glasses on/off, red light on/off, drop pen, knock scope by still having glasses on when going back to the eyepiece... etc...

Sigma Orionis is the letters group - C not seen to start with but finally seen and marked (in the little group outside the EP FOV) and Struve 761 is the numbers marked group to the west. 

[Astro_Dad]

22/11

An excellent night out with the Stellalyra 8” Dob. 

A planetary focus but with a selection of deep sky objects also. 

Jupiter was wonderful - conditions steady providing fine colour detail and showing good contrast between the belts and zones. 

Mars was a revelation - so often it can be overly bright and so hard to discern detail but this was a milestrone for me - beating anything I saw at the 2020 opposition. 

Also took in M45 (Pleiades), M31 (Andromeda Galaxy), NGC 752 (open cluster), the Double Cluster (NGC 884/869) and M34 (open cluster). 

A brilliant evening with a more in depth report here:

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by Astro_Dad
Predictive text error and addition of NGC 752

[Ratlet]

I spent the last couple days flocking my 130PDS and blackening the edges of the secondary which had some overspray type of thing going on with the silvering.  It was supposed to be cloudy tonight but honestly there was more gaps than clouds so I dragged everything out for a quick test.  Ran through the usual suspects M31(which was visible easily by eye) M45 which was delightful as always.   What was less delightful was the triangle that formed around the stars when I was in or out of focus.  Must have put the mirror clips back in a nip too tight.  I had a quick squint at Jupiter and Mars with the 8mm/2xbarlow but, well... I'll get back to them in a bit.

I tried something new tonight wiht M33.  I'm still struggling with star hopping but getting better.  I think using the 32mm plossl as a finder might not be the best bet.  It gives too many stars and it makes it disorientating.  I managed to find M33 easily enough from Mothallah.  A distinct bright patch although still very faint lying smack dab in the middle of an equatorial trangle of stars.  The glow filled almost all of the area within the traingle.  I got a sketch off, but it needs some more work on the galaxy.

The clouds started to win the battle for sky about now so I decided to pack up.  I normally use my Ramsden 4mm as a dustcap for my scope since it's apparently borderline useless.  For a laugh I threw I put it in and pointed the scope at Mars.  Got to say that despite the fact that my eyeball was basically touching the eyepiece, the FOV was miniscule and the field stop was more of a field gradient it handily knocked the spots off my 8mm BST and 2x barlow in terms of the actual target.  I'll put money on the line that I could see colour variation, some slightly darker regions visible in the infrequent good seeing.  I swung to Jupiter when the clouds covered mars and again the eyepiece was great.  Best view of Jupiter I've had so far.  The red spot wasn't facing, but I'm pretty sure that if it was I would have been able to see it.

Edited:. Added the sketch.  It was remarkably faint, but definitely there.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Ratlet

[Ratlet]

Clear Outside informed me that there should be an hour of of orange about 22:00 and while it might not be thought of as good, it's good enough.  I slackened off the mirror clips after last nights session so wanted to test it out. The triangle being absent although given that I gave the tube precisely as long as it took me to eat a Bourbon Cream to cool down, I did see some tube currents, which were actually kind of cool.

The Dust Cap (SR 4mm) was pressed into service again.  I did a bit more of a comparison between the barlowed 8mm and the cap.  Whilst on average the BST had a better image, Jupiter itself had better contrast withe the SR.  I was also able to resolve Io with the SR and could not with the barlowed 8mm.  Jupiter was pretty low over the house and in some low cloud that was skirting town so it wasn't the greatest view, but it was still fun.

I'm starting to see the attraction with Mars now.  There was a distinct dark area on the East.  It almost looked like 2 separate blobs, one on the Northern hemisphere and one on the South.  One of the main things I can conclude though is that for planetary observing the best thing you can do is give it time.  I need to figure out a way of sketching planets, or at least documenting my observations.

To finish off I cast my eye North and hunted down M81/M82.  I tried star hopping from Alhaud IV but got a bit frustrated and in the end basically just ended up jumping FOV widths according to Stellarium.  Not very precise but still a kick when they both scrolled into the FOV.  I used the 32mm plossl and it framed them both okay, but perhaps a little too large a field and as they are in the same direction as town I think that the exit pupil (6.4mm) might be a tad large and it makes the sky a bit bright.  Unfortunately I don't really have  a decent eyepiece better suited.  Hopefully Santa will bring me that 12mm BST for Christmas as this would probably be ideal for each individually.

[josefk]

Murky hazy sky here in South Lincolnshire last night and twinkling badly too so just a few doubles in Taurus to relax. 

62 Tauri (Struve 534), Chi Tauri (Struve 528), Kappa 1 & 2 Tauri (Struve 541), and Omega2 Tauri. 

At the start of the session i couldn't split Theta Auriga (4.4") and at the end of the session Mars had astigmatic/diffraction spike like light beams (in a refractor!) shooting off into the damp in all directions so i think both seeing and transparency pretty bad!

It was like 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' all evening though. The RAF have been drilling low level night flying here every evening this week. I don't know what they're flying but they're pretty big and pretty cool.

Edited November 25, 2022 by josefk

[josefk]

On 23/11/2022 at 23:52, Ratlet said:

I spent the last couple days flocking my 130PDS and blackening the edges of the secondary which had some overspray type of thing going on with the silvering.  It was supposed to be cloudy tonight but honestly there was more gaps than clouds so I dragged everything out for a quick test.  Ran through the usual suspects M31(which was visible easily by eye) M45 which was delightful as always.   What was less delightful was the triangle that formed around the stars when I was in or out of focus.  Must have put the mirror clips back in a nip too tight.  I had a quick squint at Jupiter and Mars with the 8mm/2xbarlow but, well... I'll get back to them in a bit.

I tried something new tonight wiht M33.  I'm still struggling with star hopping but getting better.  I think using the 32mm plossl as a finder might not be the best bet.  It gives too many stars and it makes it disorientating.  I managed to find M33 easily enough from Mothallah.  A distinct bright patch although still very faint lying smack dab in the middle of an equatorial trangle of stars.  The glow filled almost all of the area within the traingle.  I got a sketch off, but it needs some more work on the galaxy.

The clouds started to win the battle for sky about now so I decided to pack up.  I normally use my Ramsden 4mm as a dustcap for my scope since it's apparently borderline useless.  For a laugh I threw I put it in and pointed the scope at Mars.  Got to say that despite the fact that my eyeball was basically touching the eyepiece, the FOV was miniscule and the field stop was more of a field gradient it handily knocked the spots off my 8mm BST and 2x barlow in terms of the actual target.  I'll put money on the line that I could see colour variation, some slightly darker regions visible in the infrequent good seeing.  I swung to Jupiter when the clouds covered mars and again the eyepiece was great.  Best view of Jupiter I've had so far.  The red spot wasn't facing, but I'm pretty sure that if it was I would have been able to see it.

Edited:. Added the sketch.  It was remarkably faint, but definitely there.

just a cheeky word to the wise @Ratlet - I've liked your sketches before and noticed you sketch light on dark (i think you're not inverting). If you do i've found sketching on index cards rather than in a pad to be utterly transformative and they come in black 🙂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/A6-Black-Card-Stock-Sheets/dp/B00UQ3FM54?th=1

Edited November 25, 2022 by josefk

[Ratlet]

37 minutes ago, josefk said:

just a cheeky word to the wise @Ratlet - I've liked your sketches before and noticed you sketch light on dark (i think you're not inverting). If you do i've found sketching on index cards rather than in a pad to be utterly transformative and they come in black 🙂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/A6-Black-Card-Stock-Sheets/dp/B00UQ3FM54?th=1

Thank you for you kind comment.  I'm really enjoying the sketching.

I do invert, but you are an absolute life saver!  I've been wanting to try light on black but I could find a cheap source of black card.  Kind of put me off trying.

I'll let the kids know and they can get me some for Christmas along with some pastels and other stuff.

 

Thanks again

[scotty1]

From a couple of nights ago while looking for meteors. These were taken between 01.00-02.15 am

This maybe a Taurid 

Two wide-field shots first with DSLR 

From my pixel 4a 

[Stu1smartcookie]

23 minutes ago, scotty1 said:

From a couple of nights ago while looking for meteors. These were taken between 01.00-02.15 am

This maybe a Taurid 

Two wide-field shots first with DSLR 

From my pixel 4a 

love that third photo 

[josefk]

Atmospheric pics @scotty1. Nice.

[Mr Spock]

It it real? The sky is clear and the big lad is out cooling. Here's hoping... 😜

[Mr Spock]

An hour later, it's cloudy... I can still see Jupiter so I'm going to leave the scope out and hope for the best.

[Stu]

On 19/11/2022 at 23:23, Astro_Dad said:

19/11

Stump Cross Caverns (Yorkshire Dales) Dark Skies Event

Something a bit different tonight - a Dark Skies event at nearby Stump Cross Caverns, combining astronomy with geology - another interest of mine.

Astronomers Chris Higgins and Martin Whipp, from the Lime Tree Observatory gave a presentation overlooking the splendid North Yorkshire Dales (in December 2020, we were designated an International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark-Sky Association).

Sadly no clear skies tonight though - quite the opposite with thick fog descending, but still (in the spirit of this thread) did see and get hands on with some interesting astronomy related objects. Notably a fascinating collection of meteorite fragments. The most interesting was undoubtedly a piece of the Allende meteorite, which broke up in the atmosphere at Chihuahua, Mexico near the village of Pueblito de Allende, in 1969. The main interest here is that inclusions in Allende (and other carbonaceous chondrites) are thought to be the earliest-formed solids in the solar nebula. The experts were keen to point out for example the c7 billion year old nanodiamonds within the material - these have been well studied and form a remarkable story. 

The evening concluded with an exploration of the cave system - which I’ve visited before, but this was the first time I’ve experienced it illuminated with a UV torch only, highlighting quite spectacularly the features in the limestone and calcite structures. So an interesting and unusual Saturday night despite the very unclear skies!

This sort of post deserves its own thread I think, then people can comment on it specifically. Sounds really interesting.

[Stu]

Just walking out after getting my COViD booster, and looked up to see Jupiter shining brightly and the ISS passing over too. Nice.

[Astro_Dad]

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

This sort of post deserves its own thread I think, then people can comment on it specifically. Sounds really interesting.

You’re right @Stu- I’ll post it up as a separate new thread  - observing reports? 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Astro_Dad

[Stu]

1 minute ago, Astro_Dad said:

You’re right @Stu- I’ll post it up as a separate new thread  - observing reports? 

Yes, give it a go there 👍

[Andy ES]

Lovely clear night after sunny day in Essex.

Bright Jupiter and Mars then...

FOOTBALL! (and beer)🍺🍺😁

[Ratlet]

Spied an all too brief gap in the clouds.

Went out for a quick look at Jupiter.  The seeing was surprisingly good all things considered despite the hazy high cloud.  Dust cap continuing to do good service although my joy at the high contrast is contending with the frustration of the garbage everything else.  Only took the 8mm BST out and despite its comparable lack of contrast, I think it had the better views all in all.  I think I'll need to pick up the 5mm BST when I get paid.  And a better tripod.  The carbon fibre has a bit too much woblle with the mass of the 130PDS on it and the AZ5.  Unfortunately FLO and RVO are out of the 3/8" Steel Tripods.

Starting to get into the planetary stuff now, so it's inevitable that I'm going to become a moon observer (because I also found that dull).  A Mak 127 would probably be a good shout.  In fact there was a guy in my village selling one for a really good price a couple months ago.  Unfortunately that guy... was me lol. 

[Mr Spock]

Scope's back inside. I am way beyond sick of this weather 😡

[cloudsweeper]

Didn't do so badly here.  Got the big 127L frac out of the shed at 4.40pm.  

Jupiter bright, low, SE - bands crisp at x150, moons very sharp.  Not as good at x179.

Saturn appeared a bit later, lower, near south.  A faint Titan came into view at x69.

To complete the trio, I hopped from Jupiter west to Neptune (mag 7.8), and got it at the centre of a "squashed Y".  At a range of mags I saw no hint of colour, but it was still good to see the most remote planet.

Not a bad 90 minutes before clouds rolled in.  Packed away.  Clouds dispersed.  Drat!!

Doug.

[Ian McCallum]

22 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Scope's back inside. I am way beyond sick of this weather 😡

I know how you feel.🙄

[Astro_Dad]

11 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

love that third photo 

Agree - very impressive shot 👍🏻

[scotty1]

9 minutes ago, Astro_Dad said:

Agree - very impressive shot 👍🏻

 

9 minutes ago, Astro_Dad said:

 

 

9 minutes ago, Astro_Dad said:

Agree - very impressive shot 👍🏻

Ironic the phone pic was the most liked 😄

I used RAW and Snapseed+ inbuilt phone editor. 

Sorry about the strange quotes , poor phone signal

Edited November 25, 2022 by scotty1

[Ags]

I had a look at Mars and Castor with my 90 mm frac, then set up for imaging Mars. Seeing was very stable and I enjoyed the sharp image on the laptop screen. After shooting a couple of sequences, I decided to have try doing planetary-style imaging on the Trapezium. This was a too short 3  minute burst of 200 ms frames shot with C6 at f10, binned.