What did you see tonight?

[John]

I thought I would post my astro "workflow" this evening to help newcomers to the hobby 🙂

1. Look out door - notice clear sky with stars showing.

2. Put out tripod with mount attached.

3. Put out scope to cool for a few minutes.

4. Pop eyepiece in focuser and snap photo for SGL.

5. Post said photo on SGL:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/274300-show-us-your-set-up-in-action-at-night/?do=findComment&comment=4432599

6. Go back outside full of anticipation of lovely Saturnian views.

7. Notice that the sky has completely clouded over from the west 😒

8. Notice that further west cloud was solid, even thicker and heading my way.

9. Bring scope, tripod and mount back inside.

10. Reach for beer from fridge and type grumpy post on SGL.

Doh !!! - stupid hobby !!!! 🥴

 

[Nik271]

Same here, it was clear an hour ago, now completely clouded over. The forecast says it will be clear after midnight, so I've set up the scope under a waterproof cover in case it indeed clears up (and I manage to wake up)

[John]

25 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Same here, it was clear an hour ago, now completely clouded over. The forecast says it will be clear after midnight, so I've set up the scope under a waterproof cover in case it indeed clears up (and I manage to wake up)

My scope is still out but undercover as well. You never know ......

 

[John]

21 minutes ago, John said:

My scope is still out but undercover as well. You never know ......

 

It's just started to rain quite heavily 😒

[badhex]

Nothing for me tonight but lucky to have had two nights observing (and I believe at least a handful of targets I've never observed before) whilst I'm currently in Bortle 4 skies, despite some dew issues I've mentioned in another post. 

I think the session on Tuesday was in the region of 6-7 hours, and then at least 3 hours yesterday before it was time for tea and the clouds rolled in whilst I was gone. 

Wall to wall rain for the rest of my time here sadly. I'm planning to potentially move here at some point so I'm glad I got chance to "try before we buy" so to speak! 

 

[Mr Spock]

Still cloudy here and we've just had a shower. Will this never end?

[Captain Scarlet]

A very quick session with the 15x56s after some cloud and showers briefly cleared at bedtime. M81/82 nice. M51 and M101 not detected despite much trying, too low in thin haze over Skibbereen. M1 Crab was visible though, as was M33. M42 and M31 both naked eye. Jupiter and Moons. Feet got cold so back in.

Magnus

[scotty1]

Golden Venus rising in the east.

05.00GMT Just managed to see one Leonid skimming past Capella between clouds.

Edited November 17, 2023 by scotty1

[LaurenceT]

Woke up a 5, looked out of the window and just had to go outside! With my completely untutored astro eyes I saw a beautiful Venus showing to the east and round to the south west/west Betelgeuse, Orions belt and the Pleiades were beautiful in the binos but stunning through the ST102.

[Mr Spock]

Clear blue sky so out for some solar. Seeing is boiling at the moment and not much is on display!

[SwiMatt]

I can't believe it! The forecast was finally right

I was just out a couple of hours on my balcony. I managed some good views and sketches of M13, M57, IC4665, Albireo, M27, M29 and even M71. Light pollution is bad here (bortle 7-8) and my backyard is full of artificial lights, so what I can do is limited, but I'm really grateful for this session. 

Some objects were underwhelming (especially M27), but I'm loving small open clusters like M29 more and more! 

EDIT: I went out for a bit later and I got to split Epsilon Lyrae, in addition to spending some more time on Albireo. And also gave a good look at M39 with the 10x50. Great evening!

Edited November 18, 2023 by SwiMatt

[Ags]

I have set up the 90mm refractor tonight for a peek at Jupiter and to try to photograph a few asteroids. It's been clear all night, but of course it's cloudy now. I have hope it is an isolated puff though!

[Ags]

The cloud thinned but did not depart. I did have a nice session watching a Europa Ganymede shadow transit.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Ags

[Mr Spock]

Hmmm, CO is all red, but, the sky is clear. So the Tak is out cooling and pointing at Jupiter 👍

All four moons are on view but no where near the planet.

[Mr Spock]

Transparency is poor and seeing average, but there is still a fair bit of detail at x148.

Having a break now while GRS comes a bit further round. Should be central in about an hour and a half.

[Mr Spock]

Just watched the GRS go dead centre. Looks a lovely colour. Nice chance to try out the new 3.5mm - looks pretty good v the 3.3mm TOE.

I've come in now as it's gotten very windy and there's a lot of intermittent cloud coming across. Still, it's a night I wasn't expecting.

[John]

I've had a few shortish periods of observing Jupiter this evening with my 100mm refractor.

Here, the seeing is not so good so 130x or so seems to be the most useful magnification. Some interesting structure in the north equatorial belt and a couple of festoon-type features in the equatorial zone. Quite a hard fight to tease out the details though and plenty of clouds about to increase the challenge further.

I had a quick look at Theta Aurigae - 4.5 arc second separation but a big difference in component magnitudes - mag 2.6 and mag 7.2.

Not a great night for observing by any means 🙄

[IB20]

Yeah quite breezy here but clear so out with the 8x and 15x bins. The Hyades, Pleiades and Melotte 20 looking spectacular. Transparency is good and it’s great just soaking up the thousands of stars on show. 
Jupiter’s moons are nicely spread and clearly visible at both magnifications.

Have been thinking recently about purchasing some IS bins, nights like tonight are almost making that a certainty.

[Mr Spock]

2 minutes ago, John said:

Some interesting structure in the north equatorial belt and a couple of festoon-type features in the equatorial zone.

There was an interesting dark 'knot' dead centre when GRS was near the limb earlier. Watched it rotate as GRS came round. Quite a complex feature.

Due to the seeing my best views were at x148 with the 5mm. Shame going higher wasn't of much use as it certainly was full of interesting detail.

[Mr Spock]

There are clear patches again but I'm staying inside. The wind is gusting to 50 mph at the moment 

[John]

Seeing has improved a bit here so a bit more magnification could be used to watch the GRS as it neared the end of it's transit. The South Temperate Belt seems well defined as it follows the southern edge of GRS across the disk. Thinner but nearly as dark as the South Equatorial Belt. On the disk area in advance (west) of the GRS the STB seems more or less absent for a while before becoming visible again. I think this break in the STB is due to a large vortex immediately to the SW of the GRS. 

I found Uranus nearby as well. It's disk (3.8 arc seconds) seems pale grey/green to my eye tonight. 300x showed the disk very obviously.

 

[Epick Crom]

I had a clear sky last night but was too tired from work to haul out the 10 inch dob. I settled for an informal session with my VisionKing 5x25's.

Was treated to the zig zagging shape of Lacerta skimming the northern horizon, as well as the spectacular rising of Sirius! Sirius was flashing colours furiously, low on the horizon. What a light show in my VisionKing's 😊

[John]

Final spot of observing for me this evening comprised my first look at some of Orion's gems this season as they peeked above the rooflines.

Rigel, Alnitak, Sigma and Eta Orionis nicely split - welcome to the cloudy UK skies Orion ! 🙂

Edited November 18, 2023 by John

[Stu]

What did I see tonight? Naked eye stars, clearly for the first time in ages.

Why you say? Well, either I or the lovely Mrs Stu have been carefully sitting on any pair of glasses I had, so I was down to my last pair. These were broken at both sides so I had to carefully wedge the lens in 🤪.

When I finally got round to visiting Specsavers, I decided to get two new pairs of varifocals, and get an old pair of reading glasses re glazed for pure distance. I tried them tonight, and it’s a pleasure to get clear, undistorted views with nice tight stars. Very pleasing. 

[Beulah]

The weather has been absolutely awful during the late summer/early autumn season. I have never known a time where so much cloud has been present and any clear skies are very short lived. Give the bloke who invented binoculars a nobel peace prize! 

There are some real gems to be discovered using binos.. I've particularly enjoyed the blue-and-orangeness of Omicron Cygni and 30 Cygni in Cygnus which appears in the field of view as if it is a  beautiful double. Plus some open cluster goodness in Cassiopeia, Kemble's Cascade, etc. 

As with all things, these clouds will pass and hopefully I can clean the dust off the photon bucket to a clear sky one day....😁