What did you see tonight?

[lunator]

4 hours ago, John said:

The seeing seems better than it was same time last night, judging by the views of Saturn at 225x and 300x. 

Seeing was pretty good tonight. I was looking at Jupiter at x300

Cheers

Ian

[bosun21]

No two nights in succession for me I'm afraid. It was clear all day but totally clouded over about 5pm as predicted by the MET app. I'm finding that the MET app is proving quite reliable (for my area at least).

 

[Captain Scarlet]

I suggest Edison for John’s ED120 🙂

[Epick Crom]

I visited all four giant planets last night with my 10 inch dob. Saturn beautiful as usual, but Titan was interesting at 522x, showing a clear disk and as orange as I've ever seen it! Uranus and Neptune were both pleasing, well defined disks. Jupiter breathtaking in size at 522x but features washed out at that power due to wavering seeing conditions.

I tried for M33 but not this night, nothing seen at all. I did however get some pleasing views of NGC 752 and Almach in Andromeda. They only transit at 15° from here so it felt good to see them before they disappear for another year again. All in all a pleasing observing session 😊

[John]

1 hour ago, IB20 said:

EDith?

I'm not one to name things but frosty would be appropriate this evening 🙂

Anyway, "frosty" came in earlier as mentioned above but the fog has eased so I've been tempted out again, this time with the Tak 100. 

How can a scope go from a centrally heated room to -2 degrees outside temperature and deliver sharp and contrasty views of Jupiter at 180x within a few minutes of being put on the mount 🤔

I don't know the answer but the FC100-DL manages it 🙂

I've also just been able to see E & F trapezium in Orion as it rises above the rooftops. That was with the Svbony zoom at the 6mm (150x) to 4mm (225x) settings. Clearly tonights "goldilocks" magnification for this target / scope.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by John

[lunator]

Tonight was my first night at my new location with the Bortle 4 skies and the Moon slightly out of the way.

I had set up Mr Dobbie and had a few doubles on the list (Old habits die hard 😁) I thought I would start with Jupiter and when I first l9ked at it at x50 I could see a clear dark dot. I took the mag Upto x200 and could clearly see a Jupiter Shadow transit and  the GRS. I hadn't realised this was happening but was very pleased to be able view it. After the transit had ended I took the mag up to 300 and the detail on the belts was amazing. 

I decided to move onto some other targets.

.STF25AB Avery tight pair elongated at x150 split at x200 in moments of good seeing. Primary is white, secondary pale blue. C component (~mag 13) seen with averted vision.

My next target was STF41 which is quite close to M31. As I looked up I realised M31 visible naked eye!!! This is not something I'm have seen since being a teenager in SW London. Maybe my eyes aren't as rubbish as I thought 🙂.

M31/32/110 were easily seen in the 24mm at x50.

STF41. A wide pair of uneven magnitude the primary is orange the secondary pale blue. Split at x50.

The final pair were STF64, a close pair of white stars. Split first at x150 and just at x75. Part of a chain of faint stars between, v And and HD4902

All in all a very good session before the high cloud/mist rolled in.

Cheers

Ian

[Nigella Bryant]

I was out twice last night, Saturn wasn't to bad but anything past the scopes native f10 was a mush. I could see the cassini devision, the creamy white equatorial band and darker hood. Next was Jupiter. Tried just at f10 but seeing wasn't the best. Couldn't get a proper focus, jumping in and out of focus. Anyway, thought I'd go in doors for a while and see if things get better.  Went out again at 22.30UT and things had improved and even a little more by 23.00UT. Tried Jupiter at f10 and f25. Details weren't great at f10 but not bad at f25. At f25 I seem to be able to focus better on the moment's of good seeing. Jupiter showed quite a few festoons coming off of the NEB. SEB showed knots and STeB, SSTeb and NTeB, NNTe were visible. The northerly and southerly zones were prominent too.

Nigella 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Nigella Bryant
image of Saturn added from last night

[andrew63]

Just saw a good Andromedid, passing through Cygnus - an unusual greenish  colour.

[scarp15]

Currently observing Jupiter as it transits south. Good steady periods of seeing, distinct barge sighted embedded within the NEB and interesting mottled detailing within the Equatorial Zone. Primary eyepiece; 10mm Delos. 

[Nik271]

Just came in after observing Jupiter and also asteroid (704) Interamnia. Apparently it's the fifth largest asteroid but very dark so never above mag 10. It was discovered as late as  1910. Currently it is mag 10.4 so well within reach of my 4 inch refractor. It is relatively easy to find, 1 degree south of M37. Accurate star chart is required since there are quite a few 10-th magnitude stars in the area:

 

 

[wookie1965]

Snow

[Froeng]

I have been looking at  the “Great Hertfordshire Nebula”, ie freezing fog…

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I got a new telescope in the post today.  We had a good inch of snow last night and heavy fog most of the afternoon so I didn't have my hopes up.  However it's turned into a fairly clear night, with moderate seeing so I thought I'd give it a go.

I own a Celestron C5 and a Sky-Watcher Heritage 100P (that was 30 Quid, so an impulse purchase) but I'm a beginner and have never owned a refractor.  I purchased an Altair Starwave 70ED from these very forums a couple of days ago - ostensibly for astrophotography - but I also like a quick setup with my AZ-GTI.  I've never even really looked down a refractor apart from when I was 14 at school and the Head Boy bought in a old 4" Russian Achromat and showed us all Saturn one night.  I think it's fair to say, that was a life-changing event.

Well, I had a quick half hour on Betelguese, Jupiter, M42, the Moon and the Pleiades and I'm an instant convert.  I get it now.  The rich contrast of a good refractor, and the low power (420mm (70mm, F6)) is astonishing and makes observing so easy.  Looking down a 20mm Wililam Optics Swan gave me breathtaking views of the starfields and whacking on a barlow and the omnipresent Celestron 9mm Omni to give me 90x views was crisp on the Moon, with relief of craters on the terminator jumping out.  The banding around Jupiter was clear and sharp.  My C5 is good on Jupiter but this was every bit as pleasant, with a better contrast.

M42 was also beautiful and the trapezium was clear and shone brightly from the centre.  Averted viewing gave abundant, wispy nebulosity and high contrast against the black.

It only took 30 minutes and I'm a complete refractor convert.

@heliumstar Thank you for being a fantastic seller and thank you for the 70ED.  It's exceeded my expectations.

Edited December 2, 2023 by GrumpiusMaximus

[Epick Crom]

As others have noted, Jupiter is really putting on a show at the moment. Last night I spent 2 hrs observing it and enjoying a shadow transit of Io. 

Whilst observing this event I also saw a prominent dark marking in the North Equatorial Belt, a brown barge perhaps? I'm still brushing up on the names of Jupiter's various cloud features, but this marked the first time I've clearly seen a brown barge on Jupiter using my 10 inch dob, very pleased with that. Jupiter is very turbulent at the moment!

[SwiMatt]

Tonight I saw... probably the best sky I've seen in my short tenure as astronomy hobbyist. It was absolutely incredible. I've even spotted the Crab Nebula! Hopefully I'll get a similar night tomorrow...

 

[Captain Scarlet]

Just in from a session with my 12”. Stunning transparency, pretty poor seeing. M42 nebulosity three-dimensional but Trapezium stars fuzzy. That said, E was visible and F came and went. Sigma Orionis C star I could see but all bright stars were disappointing. Jupiter had moments of amazing clarity, the reddest I’ve seen the GRS, but only moments. Definitely worth setting up and getting out but far from the best session I’ve had. A handful of meteors.

Magnus

[IB20]

First bit of clear sky I’ve had since last week so just popped out with the 76Q. The seeing is atrocious though so I’ve already come back in. Just missed the GRS but the dark knuckle in the NEB was visible. Split Rigel quickly but the A star looked a dog’s dinner.
Seems to be a huge amount of moisture in the atmosphere, boo. 👎🏼

[John]

3 minutes ago, IB20 said:

First bit of clear sky I’ve had since last week so just popped out with the 76Q. The seeing is atrocious though so I’ve already come back in. Just missed the GRS but the dark knuckle in the NEB was visible. Split Rigel quickly but the A star looked a dog’s dinner.
Seems to be a huge amount of moisture in the atmosphere, boo. 👎🏼

Is "dark knuckle" on the approved jovian features list ? 😁

It's a great term, even if it isn't 🙂

[JeremyS]

Surprisingly it’s been clear here all evening. Doing VS photometry. Seeing not brilliant, so not doing any visual observing.
Come in to warm up.

[Captain Scarlet]

49 minutes ago, IB20 said:

First bit of clear sky I’ve had since last week so just popped out with the 76Q. The seeing is atrocious though so I’ve already come back in. Just missed the GRS but the dark knuckle in the NEB was visible. Split Rigel quickly but the A star looked a dog’s dinner.
Seems to be a huge amount of moisture in the atmosphere, boo. 👎🏼

Your description of Rigel perfectly describes my own view of it last night.

[Ratlet]

First time out in what feels like ages.  The local scouts were doing astronomy badge so the missus absconded with my books.  I'm just of night shift so took the daughter out to look at Jupiter and Pleiades rather than deal with a gaggle of squirrels.

Seeing was pretty decent, to early for the grs but managed to catch it disappear on the limb once the bairn was of to bed.

Got the first Orion of the winter season in.  The seeing was not to bad.  Stars were a bit twinkly but plenty of detail visible in the nebulosity for me.

Tried out a dual band filter on it but not sure if it improved the view much.  Brighter nebulosity at the cost of everything else.

[saac]

Weather report at 5pm was that it would be clear but it was clouded over all night , just gone out to lock up the obsy  

Jim

[Franklin]

Super clear sky all night here in NE Derbyshire and quite mild compared to earlier in the week. My first session was just after dusk and I viewed Saturn which has now passed the meridian at this early hour. Jupiter was next on the list and I observed the emergence of Ganymede from its occultation behind Jupiter and then later the eclipse of Ganymede by Jupiter's shadow, it took nearly 15 minutes to completely disappear. Star clusters in Perseus, Taurus, Auriga and Gemini took up another hour and then watched for Ganymede to appear out of the shadow. Pretty amazing stuff really and I'm sure clever people could gain a lot of knowledge from the timing of these events but for me it's just the wow factor. Continued with some doubles in Orion and Rigel was looking good, the seeing cooperating for a change. Back out again before dawn and observed M44 the Beehive cluster in Cancer (better in the binoculars), Leo high in the South and the Moon showing bright earthshine. I find observing the waning Moon to be more interesting, as I am not as familiar with the Eastern illumination, it offers quite a different view to the Luna landscape. Spica to the SE but no chance of galaxy hunting with the moon where it is so finished the night with Venus, very bright, gibbous and getting noticeably smaller from the last time I observed.

[josefk]

Sounds like a busy and enjoyable session or pair of sessions @Franklin - i've never knowingly seen an eclipse of a Jovian moon so i enjoyed it via your description 🙂 

[Franklin]

16 minutes ago, josefk said:

i've never knowingly seen an eclipse of a Jovian moon

Put this link on your Taskbar and you'll never miss a Jovian moon event again!

Jupiter's Moons (skyandtelescope.org)