What did you see tonight?

[Captain Scarlet]

An unexpected session for me tonight with the big new refractor. I set it out early to see Jupiter Venus and the Moon but the seeing was terrible. I left it all out anyway on the off-chance. Good thing I did. I went back out around 11pm and ‘twas unexpectedly clear. So I cherry-picked from my SGL-gleaned ongoing list of targets.

32 Orionis was a split, my first ever attempt. It was coming and going with micro-seeing. I fancied they were slightly different colours, one yellow/whiter, the other bluer? Possibly atmospheric-induced though. 52 Orionis was a no-go despite two tries, getting worse as Orion sank. Tegmine zeta Cancri was also split, the tight pair separating beautifully from moment to moment. Wasat (delta Geminorum) was like a high-mag Polaris, lovely. Polaris itself of course. Session ended when trying to select for local carbon stars my Nexus crashed, I called it a night.

Cheers, Magnus

Edited February 25, 2023 by Captain Scarlet

[VNA]

Hello, clouds, rain, clouds and yes some snow on the local hills such as the Berkley hills at 1,500 feet.
Major  roads with some elevations are closed--yes this is California and so late in the season?

My 10" SCT is set to go  and well covered!  ;- (

[Froeng]

And yes - the clouds did clear for me here in the UK.

As the moon was bright, I had a look at some double stars:

Almach, Miram, wasat, Theta Aurigae, 118 Tauri.

Then we had a light shower, but I was prepared with some plastic covering.

On to Propus, and dazzling Castor!

Also Mars, earlier Venus and Jupiter (showing Ganymede’s shadow).

All in the C8 with Binoviewer at 225x mag…

packed up at 21.30 as it was 2deg C.

 

[Epick Crom]

I had a lovely session last night with my 10 inch dob, seeing was very steady.

Waxing crescent moon looked awesome, l looked at Rimae Atlas, Pyrenees Mountains, Rima Cauchy and Hercules crater with smaller crater Hercules G within it.

Actually saw vague dark markings on Mars small 8" disk, with it's distinctive gibbous phase.

I observed both Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF and C/2017 PANSTARRS, nice to see them although both are fading.

Picked up three new to me objects in Gemini: NGC 2331 open cluster, Bowyer 5 double star and NGC 2371 planetary nebula. 

Wishing you all clear skies!

Joe

[Kon]

I was out last night and did a tour of the Leo galaxies with my 8" Dob after I spent 2hrs collimating it (I thought i was losing collimation but it is the movement of the cheap focuser that makes it look like it loses collimation relative to the cheshire eyepiece; i think that's sorted now. I abs odid the milk carton modification as well). Transparency was excellent.  I started with a star test and all good 🤣. The Leo triplet, M65/66/NGC3628 was the first one and all of them were visible in the same FOV. I then moved to NGC3367 and 3377. Further down NGC3412/M105/NGC3384. M95 and M96 showing some disc like shape. All bright even at mag 10-11.5 (as i said transparency was excellent). A set of galaxies that eluded me last year was Hickson 44; NGC3185/NGC3193/NGC3189 were all visible (no sign of NGC3187 as it is beyond my 8" Dob), although NGC3185 was only coming with averted vision. I finished off with Markarian's Chain. Just mesmerising, galaxy after galaxy after galaxy.

[jetstream]

I just had a wicked razor sharp lunar session with the VX10 and 90mmSV.  The seeing supported 500x tonight and I feel the VX10 is maxed out at this level and had the 15" been out who knows how high it would have went, higher than 500x I know that.

The 90SV chugged out a razor at 262x, again proving its merit with the 2.4mm.

I spent most time around a comfortable 300x with the Leica zoom/VIP in the dob and just over 200x in the frac. The SV gave a jet, inky black sky surrounding the moon, what a sight in itself. No scatter.

What did I see tonight?

Very fine radial ejecta outside a nice crisp  crater  👍

 

[CraigT82]

Finally managed to see Hind’s Crimson Star, after reading about it in the other thread. I’ve already had one unsuccessful attempt at observing this star, and last night looked like it was also going to be fruitless.

However once I realised I could use a newly purchased Nikon 2x teleconverter as viewing aid to see more stars whilst simultaneously looking through the RDF (the main star hopping guide star Mu Leporis was not visible naked eye), I was able to confidently place the scope in the right spot and it was then just a case of watching and waiting and eventually the very dim but unmistakably red star popped into view. 

Edited February 26, 2023 by CraigT82

[PatG]

A brief session on Friday night. Using the OO VX10L. From about 20:30 - 22:30.
 

Only second time I’ve used this scope (new to me) and was the first light since taking out and cleaning the mirrors last weekend, upgrading the primary collimation knobs that were really stiff and also repairing the Crayford focuser that a bearing had come loose in. I have also fitted a 60mm RA finder scope.
 

I’m still acquainting myself with a dob, so working out how to collimate etc is a bit of a learning curve and not sure it is very well collimated yet…. 
 

I was using the SL UFF 30mm as well as 9,12.5 and 17.5 Baader Morph EPs.
 

Mindful this was a manual session / no goto, thought I would keep it simple…..

- Rigel - image quite turbulent but I put this down to scope still cooling down as probably only only out 30min or so. Notwithstanding, the secondary star visible. Encouraging. Morph 17.5mm

- M42 - very pleasing views, with 17.5mm, delicate nebula almost filling the EP, concentrating on the trapezium and tinkering with the slow mo on the focuser (still a bit sticky and I need to work out how to improve this) I thought I could make out the E component, nearby A, at about 7 or 8 o’clock but it came and went in the seeing and incredibly feint in comparison to the brighter star. Deciding to increase the mag to 12.5mm and sure enough it was there, studying further around, Theta 1 Orionis After a while I also spotted the F component, again close by the brighter C component and coming in and out of visibility. Had a brief nudge round the immediate vicinity of M42 and there is a lot going on. Came across a lovely double nearby but still trying to work out which one it is. A bit of research later to identify.

Tonight was the first time I have successful observed the E&F components, so quite pleased with this mindful of re-collimation / scope service works as noted above. 

Other brief observations…

Aldebaran and Hyades - Lovely and nice contrast 

Mars - quite dazzling but could not make out any detail

Sirius - Dazzling also but no sign of the pup!

Castor - Really high up and comfortable split using the 12.5 Morph. Still getting used to the diffraction spikes!

Finished off with a brief look M45, starting with 17.5 and then dropping back to 30mm, followed by M44, both most pleasing with 30mm UFF also randomly came across a couple of other open clusters around Gemini but didn’t have any maps with me so not sure which ones they were. 
 

All in all a good couple of hours, I’m not convinced the scope is perfectly collimated yet, but must be reasonably collimated I guess, this is clearly a WIP and not also completely satisfied with star shapes but it was hasty session and although using a fan, cool down was definitely a factor in the first half of the session. 

 

 

 

 

 

[markse68]

Out with the Flamsteed last night in a freezing northerly but despite the cold it was a lovely evening spent showing several new members a few select targets and getting a few wows  It was quite a low key turnout but those that came knew way more about what I was showing them than i did haha 🤣 Targets were mainly the moon and Mars- Jupiter was too low and mushy, Venus pretty sharp though.

Started off with a bit of a disaster- set up my scope which normally holds collimation very well but none of my finders (starsense, reddot, raci) were finding my targets! Assuming it was collimation i spent about half an hour on Polaris trying to realign to the finders, but i think my finder mount must have shifted  Managed to get it close enough and startest collimation seemed ok but will have to do it properly again today if i have time. 

Moon terminator was beguiling- some wonderfully detailed craters- one in particular stood out for its keyhole form- Torricelli. Don’t think i’ve ever noticed it before! Theophilus was magnificent with its dramatic trifurcated central peak but I kept getting drawn back to Torricelli and its surroundings. No sign of the new crater though  

Mars though tiny now was super crisp at 200x with some suggestion of surface mottling but no real discernible detail. 

Also viewed a few clusters- the double was surprisingly vivid and the Owl (bat!) was lovely as ever

Oh and of course M42 and the trapezium nice and sharp- was able to make out the e star but not so confident about f.

Had a few tries at Sirius and momentarily thought the pup might have materialised from the glare but not for long enough to be confident. Sirius was nice and tight though. 

We were lucky with the weather- clear from 7-11 when we packed up, frozen but happy  

Mark

[markse68]

On 23/02/2023 at 04:31, SuburbanMak said:

made my judgements about them based in reaction 

haha- exactly! If I get an “ hmm, is that it” reaction I can’t help myself wondering what’s wrong with them

Mark

[ONIKKINEN]

Had a look at the Moon with the 90mm sort of achromat Long Perng. Seeing not great but very nice views with a 2.5x barlow + XW7 giving a nice power of 178x which the scope wont go above in any seeing.

Or so i thought, but trying with the new narrower Baader solar continuum filter im seeing a crazy increase in clarity, its like seeing was suddenly an arcsecond better and most of the high frequency fuzz is gone! This time i could definitely use more power, but alas i have run out of glass for that. Recommend others give it a try, it really improved the views a lot with mine.

[Pixies]

Very bright aurora off Portobello beach. Photos to come

[M40]

Was I the only one to spot whatever it was to fall out of the sky last night? 27th Feb about 22.25. Travelling roughly Bridgwater to Bath direction. Doing a bit of stargazing walking doggy and was fortunate to be looking in the right direction. 

[Nyctimene]

Nice view of the Venus-Jupiter conjunction this evening with the mighty 130 P Flextube. At 25x mag, both planets were well placed within the 2.5° TFoV. Jupiter's four moons, 3 to the W, were visible, as well as the equatorial bands with higher mags (72x, 108x). Venus was visible as a very bright disc, but I could not make out the 85% phase, due to the rather bad seeing close to the horizon.

Had a short look at the moon, the terminator over M. Imbrium and M. Nubium.  Rupes Recta (the "Straight Wall") gave a nice, contrasty view; and I was able to make out the small crater Thebit D (5 km diameter) at the Wall's N end. The Rima Birt remained invisible. Alphonsus showed the three dark lava spots on it's floor. The seeing worsened, so I finished after half an hour of observing at 19h 45min CET.

Details about the planet conjunction during the next days I've posted in the "Head's up!" section.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

[Epick Crom]

I was observing the waxing gibbous moon last night in very good seeing conditions.

I used my 2x Barlow and 2.3mm eyepiece for a magnification of 1,044x my max power. All I can say is WOW! The Apennine Mts looked 3D with clear texture visible on each individual peak, with a strong sense of floating above the mountain range and seeing the partly shadow covered floor below. An incredible experience!

Joe

[Nik271]

Jupiter and Venus in the same field of view. Clouds parted over Oxford at about 5pm and stayed clear for a whole hour. The two planets were easily visible with naked eye from 5:45pm. I quickly set up my grab and go Skymax 127 on AZ5. With a 20mm 68 degree Svbony EP at x75 both planets were fitting in the extreme opposite edges of the field. Seeing was poor, just managed to resolve the gibbous shape of Venus and the two main belts of Jupiter. Clouds duly arrived 15 minutes later.

[Ouroboros]

I got a brief glimpse of the conjunction through bins before the clouds rolled in. 

[Stu]

Nice, and unexpected views of the conjunction here. Lovely with the naked eye, and also great through the scope, both planets fitting comfortably in the field of view of the Tak.

[Moonshed]

Due to the clouds rolling in what I saw tonight was a documentary about beavers in the UK and I’ve just started watching a documentary about Stephanie Slater, “The Girl in the Box”. 
(sigh)

Much sooner be looking through the scope at anything!

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

11 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

Due to the clouds rolling in what I saw tonight was a documentary about beavers in the UK and I’ve just started watching a documentary about Stephanie Slater, “The Girl in the Box”. 
(sigh)

Much sooner be looking through the scope at anything!

Haha... I turned over after the Beavers to the documentary about Mormons...

Before that the Jupiter/Venus conjunction poked through the clouds for five minutes. 🙄

My part of the world has been a cloud magnet for weeks. It will be clear at full moon though!

[Moonshed]

16 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

It will be clear at full moon though!

Of course it will. You can’t tell me that the weather hasn’t evolved to frustrate astronomers.

[Nakedgun]

 

~

Rain and wind all day, it even tried to snow in the early afternoon (unheard of for us), but it cleared off at sunset for the show.

 

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Edited March 2, 2023 by Nakedgun

[Captain Scarlet]

Getting ready for tonight, shootout on the Moon.

[Moonshed]

9 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Getting ready for tonight, shootout on the Moon.

 

Methinks you are tempting the weather gods!

[jetstream]

24 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Getting ready for tonight, shootout on the Moon

Ok, I think I'm ready to give up the ice and snow and move there Magnus! Great luck tonight!