What did you see tonight?

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Oh no.  Now I have refractor envy.

[John]

Back out again now, fed and watered 🙂

Still clear skies here and still good seeing. The detail showing on Jupiter is really very nice indeed this evening 

 

Edited January 3 by John

[John]

54 minutes ago, John said:

Back out again now, fed and watered 🙂

Still clear skies here and still good seeing. The detail showing on Jupiter is really very nice indeed this evening 

 

Curses !!! - fine misty rain now and gradually tuning into something steadier. I was enjoying that as well 🤨

[Dark Vader]

Just a quick session for me tonight for the purpose of finder alignment, but managed 30 mins on Jupiter before the clouds rolled in. I'll need to fine tune the finder as I had to use Jupiter for a ball park alignment. Polaris isn't visible from the patio, and the lawn is currently a no go without scuba gear. 

The Orion Optics VX12L I ordered back in June turned up on December 23rd, but I had to wait until today to put it together (working from home, honest boss 😀) as I don't have the space for that, the 200P and Christmas decorations. 

1st impression: Jupiter looked very nice and detailed, once I've finished tweaking collimation and finder alignment it should be a beauty.

[John]

Lovely scope Andy 

Hope your clear skies last a bit longer - mine have been replaced by fine rain now 🙄

[PeterStudz]

Now I have both refractor and reflector envy! Looks good @Dark Vader.

[Dark Vader]

3 minutes ago, John said:

Lovely scope Andy 

Hope your clear skies last a bit longer - mine have been replaced by fine rain now 🙄

Thanks John, clouded over here just after 9 so I gave up. Not raining yet but I'm sure it won't be long... hoping the forecast turns out to be accurate so I can finish the set up.

[mcrowle]

I’ve kept an eye on conditions since earlier today as there was a chance of it being clear, but in the event the ‘scope stayed indoors. There were only intermittent clear spells, and showers threatened.

However, I looked out at 11:50pm for the umpteenth time to assess conditions and was lucky enough to see a tremendous fireball, heading North overhead with multiple bursts! Wonderful to see.

Regards, Mike.

Edited January 4 by mcrowle
Typo

[scotty1]

Unfortunately it was cloudy all night. Clear now though🤐.

Perhaps that fireball Mike witnessed was a Quadrantid meteor, or sporadic. 

Should be clearer skies with high pressure building, if the fog holds off. 

Could be quite a cloudy High with milder air mixed into the Anticyclone 

Edited January 4 by scotty1

[WolfieGlos]

10 hours ago, mcrowle said:

I’ve kept an eye on conditions since earlier today as there was a chance of it being clear, but in the event the ‘scope stayed indoors. There were only intermittent clear spells, and showers threatened.

However, I looked out at 11:50pm for the umpteenth time to assess conditions and was lucky enough to see a tremendous fireball, heading North overhead with multiple bursts! Wonderful to see.

Regards, Mike.

I caught that fireball at 11:50 as well, it streaked for what seemed about 7 or 8 seconds, slowly through the head of Pisces. As you say, an incredible sight.

[bosun21]

All you lucky folks are making me envious. No such cloud gaps for me I’m afraid. At least some of you are getting out there. I really, really must get myself a light G&G set up for these opportunities regardless of how short they are.

[jjohnson3803]

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

All you lucky folks are making me envious. No such cloud gaps for me I’m afraid. At least some of you are getting out there. I really, really must get myself a light G&G set up for these opportunities regardless of how short they are.

It's made a big difference in the total amount of my observing time since I quit waiting for a "good" sky.  Now I'll scoot outside for even a 10-minute look through a sucker hole.  But yes, a very portable GnG is a must.

 

[SwiMatt]

1 minute ago, jjohnson3803 said:

It's made a big difference in the total amount of my observing time since I quit waiting for a "good" sky.  Now I'll scoot outside for even a 10-minute look through a sucker hole.  But yes, a very portable GnG is a must.

 

Imagine, some of us only have the G&G setup due to lack of space, observing from apartment complexes, etc... yet we still complain about the weather

[John]

3 hours ago, bosun21 said:

..... I really, really must get myself a light G&G set up for these opportunities regardless of how short they are.

Without such setups I think I would have given up observing a while back !

 

[JeremyS]

49 minutes ago, John said:

Without such setups I think I would have given up observing a while back !

 

Sad but true John 👍🏻

[cloudsweeper]

Just did a grab 'n' go session with the 4" achromat on Jupiter.  Nice and sharp up to x100, and I was thinking there was, unusually,  very little CA.  Then I noticed there was thin cloud across the sky!

Doug.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

5 hours ago, bosun21 said:

All you lucky folks are making me envious. No such cloud gaps for me I’m afraid. At least some of you are getting out there. I really, really must get myself a light G&G set up for these opportunities regardless of how short they are.

I have a Nexstar mount that I've entirely eschewed for my AZ-GTi.  The only reason I'd get it out again is if I wanted to have two scopes set up at the same time and it was clear.  I know the Nexstar isn't exactly arduous as many setups go but that 15 minutes of faffing around getting it set up and aligned is about 12 minutes longer than I need than with the same OTA (or one of my other OTAs) on the AZ-GTi.  I have an outdoor office and the setup is just by the door.

The tripod now also has a couple of pouches attached to it which contain my Barlow lens, another eyepiece, a soft glasses case and a battery pack for the AZ-GTi, so I can grab the full setup with one hand and my adjustable plastic stool with the other and plonk it down on the patio.  I can be up and ready with a rough alignment in under 3 minutes using GOTO or in under a minute if I'm going manual.

It's really changed the amount of observing I do.  Previously I'd wait days and days for perfect conditions to justify getting the Nexstar mount out, the big Celestron Power Tank, setting it all up and aligning it because it was a hassle.  Most of my sessions are short and opportunistic at the moment (stop sniggering at the back!) but because I have a lightweight, quick setup I have done more observing in the last month than I had in the year previous.

Perhaps the 'awkward middle ground' between having a permanent observatory and a grab-and-go setup is where many that rarely use their equipment are?

[Bugdozer]

2 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

I have a Nexstar mount that I've entirely eschewed for my AZ-GTi.  The only reason I'd get it out again is if I wanted to have two scopes set up at the same time and it was clear.  I know the Nexstar isn't exactly arduous as many setups go but that 15 minutes of faffing around getting it set up and aligned is about 12 minutes longer than I need than with the same OTA (or one of my other OTAs) on the AZ-GTi.  I have an outdoor office and the setup is just by the door.

The tripod now also has a couple of pouches attached to it which contain my Barlow lens, another eyepiece, a soft glasses case and a battery pack for the AZ-GTi, so I can grab the full setup with one hand and my adjustable plastic stool with the other and plonk it down on the patio.  I can be up and ready with a rough alignment in under 3 minutes using GOTO or in under a minute if I'm going manual.

It's really changed the amount of observing I do.  Previously I'd wait days and days for perfect conditions to justify getting the Nexstar mount out, the big Celestron Power Tank, setting it all up and aligning it because it was a hassle.  Most of my sessions are short and opportunistic at the moment (stop sniggering at the back!) but because I have a lightweight, quick setup I have done more observing in the last month than I had in the year previous.

Perhaps the 'awkward middle ground' between having a permanent observatory and a grab-and-go setup is where many that rarely use their equipment are?

If it's taking you 15 minutes to set up a Nexstar, unless you have the whole thing completely disassembled, you're doing something wrong somewhere.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

3 minutes ago, Bugdozer said:

If it's taking you 15 minutes to set up a Nexstar, unless you have the whole thing completely disassembled, you're doing something wrong somewhere.

What you're failing to take into account is my enormous ineptitude and the fact that yes, it is completely disassembled.

[Bugdozer]

1 minute ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

What you're failing to take into account is my enormous ineptitude and the fact that yes, it is completely disassembled.

Fair enough if you are starting from scratch each time. Also, those three bolts that hold the mount onto the tripod base require around three billion turns each. 

[SwiMatt]

In opposition to the gods' laws, the skies are clear on the same night that my new gear arrived 🤣 I just tested my new UWA 66° 9 mm eyepiece (goldline) with a short session on Jupiter, which was in a nice configuration in the sky with HD13739 masquerading as a fifth satellite. Seeing was decent and at 166x I managed to get the planet into focus without problems.

The 66° apparent FOV changes everything in my planetary observation, and the magnification gave me a beautiful view of Jupiter. The great red spot was not on the visible surface, but I think I could see some darker "stripes" between North and South equatorial bands - are these the festoons? I need to get myself a primer on Jupiter surface characteristics!

I also pointed the telescope at M31 for a small star-hopping exercise but it remains so underwhelming in these skies...

Edited January 5 by SwiMatt

[Zermelo]

34 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

I need to get myself a primer on Jupiter surface characteristics!

The following was posted on a thread here not long ago (not by me) :

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I observed my neighbour's bin store lid in my garden tonight, having flown over the 6 foot fence and then (presumably) right over my 10-foot high garden office to land next to the damson tree.

I don't think there will be much observing happening today...

[Epick Crom]

I had a pleasant tour of Taurus last night.

Observed M 45, Hyades, NGC 1647, M 1 ( with averted imagination ☺️), asteroid Vesta, picked up two new to me double stars 47 Tauri and 103 Tauri and observed the faint planetary NGC 1514. Also hit Jupiter and Uranus, both planets looked great! 

Moved over to Orion where I observed the charming little open cluster NGC 1662 ( it looks like a sailboat to me) and I also had a stunning observation of M 42 where I saw a reddish tinge to its outer nebulosity for the first time. All in all a smashing night 👍

[ED Splitter]

Got 20 mins and a bit more between the clouds. Kept to a 27mm panoptic at the outset as was intending to comet hunt. Clouds put an end to that. Started on Jupiter, 27mm not typically planetary but it gives some detail with 4”frac and it resolves the moons as discs in an overall pleasing FOV. The sky Visibility looked good and clear as could resolve the trapezium in Orion easily at 27mm. Having obtained a degree of confidence following a watch of the sky at night YouTube video for January I then moved over to Sirius and increased mag.

Using a 6mm bco I could detect something in the overwhelming light of Sirius, backed off slightly with a 7mm bgo which confirmed the something in a neater form. I went all in for mag with a 3.2mm starguider and waited for Sirius to rise a little, 20mins later there it was the dog and pup. No comet but will take that. Observed that wonderful sight until the clouds ruined it, all of 2 mins. Then packed up and went in for a celebratory chip butty.