What did you see tonight?

[wesdon1]

On 28/12/2023 at 23:07, Mr Spock said:

Looked outside and it looks clear. I could see the moon and Jupiter. Got my kit out of its cupboard, carried the mount outside and carried it straight back in - clouds were rolling across 😡

@Mr Spock Mate it's even worse for me! I have lost count the number of times I've seen clear weather/clear forecast, carried all my heavy gear down all the stairs from my 3rd floor flat ( big heavy HEQ5 mount, SW 200P Newt. reflector, rucksack on my back with all cables, Laptop, Cameras etc etc, a big flask of hot coffee squeezed into my big coat pocket, ALL carried at the same time!! and then ALL back upstairs at same time!! I fear theft/vandalism, so never leave my gear unattended to go back upstairs for other bits! ) I spent over an hour setting up, then the damn clouds have rolled in!? In Liverpool, I have had about 5-6 nights outside since mid June last year!! I absolutely hate the weather here in northwest England!! 😤

[Telescope40]

Yes. @Stu @Nigella Bryant  John's  @Johnsketch is great. I was using the same sort of magnification too. The band has just morphed into a narrow line and builds back up further on you go. Fascinating, Jim !! 

At least it confirms also my eyeballs are still in working order or maybe the kit I am fortunate to use is making nice gains in views for me ??!! 👍

 

John 

[SwiMatt]

Fourth night in a row with no clouds!

I set up on my balcony before sunset and just got out for a quick look before dinner. Transparency is awful (Albireo invisible to the naked eye), but also seeing seems bad. I tried to split Epsilon Lyrae at 166x and even focus was very hard to reach. I confirmed this on M29 in Cygnus, which only showed the 7-8 stars of the main pattern, all very faint and barely in focus at 100x. Maybe I will get back after dinner for a short session on Jupiter, but I might prefer a movie, honestly... 😅

[Captain Scarlet]

A 90 minute twilight session with my SV140. My first session of any kind for weeks and weeks of storms. We’ve had a run of clear nights lately but I’ve only been able to take advantage now. The Skytee2 seems fine with the 16-odd kg of SV scope.

Jupiter showing multiple bands and some detail, spots and hints of festoon. Saturn very low now, and looking through a tree, but Cassini Division evident, plus Titan and Rhea.

So good for the mental health to finally get a session in.

After dinner though it looks as though cloud has moved in so glad I set up earlier!

Magnus

 

[Froeng]

On 06/01/2024 at 18:14, John said:

The 100mm is delivering good views. So good, that I was moved to try a sketch, which I don't often do:

 

That’s a phenomenal sketch! Nicely done…

[JeremyS]

38 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

A 90 minute twilight session with my SV140. My first session of any kind for weeks and weeks of storms. We’ve had a run of clear nights lately but I’ve only been able to take advantage now. The Skytee2 seems fine with the 16-odd kg of SV scope.

Jupiter showing multiple bands and some detail, spots and hints of festoon. Saturn very low now, and looking through a tree, but Cassini Division evident, plus Titan and Rhea.

So good for the mental health to finally get a session in.

After dinner though it looks as though cloud has moved in so glad I set up earlier!

Magnus

 

Nice set up Magnus.

I am intrigued by that roasting chicken. Have you slit the skin? And is there anything under the skin?

[Captain Scarlet]

1 minute ago, JeremyS said:

Nice set up Magnus.

I am intrigued by that roasting chicken. Have you slit the skin? And is there anything under the skin?

Duck, actually. Yes I slit the skin and rubbed salt in. 3 hours at 125 then up the temp to 155 for an extra hour or so once the potatoes and parsnips have been added. I don’t bother with basting, there’s enough fat under the skin to stop it getting dry. Utterly, utterly divine.

[JeremyS]

Sounds wonderful Magnus.

 

[lunator]

Cracking night tonight. Nothing like a cold blast to give decent seeing and transparency. Observed a few more doubles including one very tight pair, also saw a few new faint fuzzies just defrosting a bit at the mo. 

Cheers

Ian

[John]

10 minutes ago, lunator said:

Cracking night tonight. Nothing like a cold blast to give decent seeing and transparency. Observed a few more doubles including one very tight pair, also saw a few new faint fuzzies just defrosting a bit at the mo. 

Cheers

Ian

Glad it's clear in South Somerset. It's rather cloudy here in North Somerset with only one or two stars peeking through from time to time. A bit disappointing after last night 🤨

Glad you are having a good one though, Ian 🙂

[Mr Spock]

I don't know where people are getting clear skies from. Still cloudy here and forecast cloudy for the next week 

[lunator]

The cloud seems to be pushed.to the East tonight. It's cold but I hope it stays like this for a few nights

Cheers

Ian

[Ags]

Wasn't the best night as clouds were blowing through, but there was enough clear sky for a few good looks at Jupiter with in my 90 mm refractor. Seeing was very stable tonight, the best I've seen Jupiter this season. It's always surprising how the false color around the planet vanishes when I get focus just right. I had my barlow nosepiece screed into the Svbony 3-8 zoom tonight as I was hoping to split Sirius later. The view was best fully zoomed out (5-6 mm effective focal length), but the additional eye relief was very pleasant!

Sadly it clouded up before Sirius came into view, but I did get a look at M42.

[Stu]

Didn’t have much time or energy last night after a busy day, but I popped the Tak out for a brief couple of looks at Jupiter. When I had my first look at around 8.10pm Io was still just visible as bright dot in the limb darkening and positioned over the SEB. There were also a couple of nice festoons hanging down into the equatorial zone. Later on at about 10pm, I got my best views; the planet looking reasonably sharp and Io’s shadow very prominent. I was hoping for better later as GRS transited but by that time the seeing seemed to have dropped off and the views were very average, GRS and shadow visible but far from distinct and with not much detail unfortunately.

[Stu1smartcookie]

Another night ticked off the calendar and another night of cloud . Possibilities of Tuesday and Wednesday being clear in the East but the wind will be fairly brisk . 

Really liked reading the above reports though .

 

[lunator]

11 hours ago, John said:

Glad it's clear in South Somerset. It's rather cloudy here in North Somerset with only one or two stars peeking through from time to time. A bit disappointing after last night 🤨

Glad you are having a good one though, Ian 🙂

John, I can see your cloud problem, hopefully they will blow through today.

Cheers

Ian

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I really think I must be some kind of cloud deity.  We now have snow falling.  Maybe I should become a meterologist and give up this astronomy malarkey.  I suspect the Venn diagram of 'astronomers' and 'meterologists' has a significant co-incidental section...

[Nakedgun]

~

Clear skies overnight but poor seeing, so I contented myself with 16x70 views of Neptune and Saturn, then Uranus and Jupiter with the four Galilean Moons stretched out west of Jove.

This morning I watched the lunar occultation, and re-emergence, of Antares.

 

 

 

 

While occluded, a snap of Venus and Mercury. Mars came in to view a bit later through 15x56s, but not naked-eye in the brightening sky. I could get no photo of it.

 

 

 

 

.

[Ed in UK]

I got up early this morning and took a drive to the beach with the plan of watching Mercury rise. Didn’t take the scope as I didn’t want sand anywhere near it, plus the forecast was for strong winds. 

I live in the Lincolnshire Wolds, in a valley, so struggle to see anything low in the sky.

I’ve never seen Mercury before so took the opportunity seeing that the sky was relatively clear. I arrived just in time to watch it inch above the horizon. Couldn’t get any photo’s of it on my phone. Managed to watch it for just over an hour before a combination of cloud and the sky getting light made it disappear for me.

Pretty windy and cold on the coast this morning.

Photo below of the lovely sunrise that finally greeted me.

[Ratlet]

Got out on Sunday and burned through another starsense code to try it on my daughter's eye phone after the pixel 6 was a dud and my old honor 20 a no go.

Clearly the software was designed for iPhone.  Worked brilliantly.  Tried my dual band out on the rosette and could see some faint nebulosity.  Then wheeled on up to Auriga for the clusters there (my favourite region of the sky).  Never spotted some of the faint galaxies and small open clusters up there before but was really cool to catch it in the corner of my eye, zero in on it and then just look at exactly what it was.  Panned down to the crab which looked very rectangular.

I was completely taken up with greed and jamming in as many sights as I could.  Next phone will have to be an iPhone unfortunately.  The wife says I shouldn't get a phone for one app, but I don't think see understands.

The pixel 6 got left propped against a bag doing astrophotography and I think it performed well.

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, Ratlet said:

Got out on Sunday and burned through another starsense code to try it on my daughter's eye phone after the pixel 6 was a dud and my old honor 20 a no go.

Clearly the software was designed for iPhone.  Worked brilliantly.  Tried my dual band out on the rosette and could see some faint nebulosity.  Then wheeled on up to Auriga for the clusters there (my favourite region of the sky).  Never spotted some of the faint galaxies and small open clusters up there before but was really cool to catch it in the corner of my eye, zero in on it and then just look at exactly what it was.  Panned down to the crab which looked very rectangular.

I was completely taken up with greed and jamming in as many sights as I could.  Next phone will have to be an iPhone unfortunately.  The wife says I shouldn't get a phone for one app, but I don't think see understands.

The pixel 6 got left propped against a bag doing astrophotography and I think it performed well.

The Starsense app works on two of my Android phones one of which is the Pixel 6 pro the other a cheaper Blackview which I bought solely for the Starsense app. It also works on my iPhone though I never use it for that as it's my main phone for everything else.

[Saganite]

Excellent seeing here, so far. Io now on the limb of Jupiter and the shadow about central.  Lots of detail at 156x, but it will take a lot more tonight I think !

Edited January 15 by Saganite

[mikeDnight]

Just made a rough sketch of Jupiter showing the shadow transit, but seeing here is like observing from the bottom of a swimming pool. Just before packing up I saw the globe of the Moon popping out of Jupiter's limb.

[Nakedgun]

~

Got up early again this morning to catch the 5% illuminated Moon along with Venus & Mercury:

 

 

 

Moon & Mercury:

 

 

 

 

.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Had a look at Jupiter just now.  First clear night in weeks but sadly (and as is typical) various things to do tonight so may not get another chance.  Saw a slight elongation on Jupiter and then realised that must be Io at the end of its transit.  That was cool, considering I was only at 42x.