What did you see tonight?

[cajen2]

Out briefly just now, with Jupiter right next to the moon. As MD says, the moon's glow seems to be reflecting off some haze, making  Jupiter very difficult to focus on and see detail.

I want to view Sigma Orionis and Struve 761 but the bloody street light next to my garden is blocking them. I need to wait an hour or two.

[Nigella Bryant]

Had another two hour session on Jupiter. Not as good seeing as yesterday although I could make out four festoons from the NEB into the equatorial zone. At the top of the NEB I could see three distinct white ovals. The SEB seemed not as mottled as the NEB although at the southern edge there seemed a few darker ovals. There was also a few dark spots along the SSTB. 

I also had a look at the moon. Some fascinating features which I can't name, not much clue about these. Haven't look much at the moon before. I have a new lunar atlas for Christmas so I'll go and take a look. 

[Saganite]

I wasn't able to get out until 9pm this evening and I have been mostly Moon gazing at 184x  using my Denk II bino , pretty cool really; difficult to drag myself away to be honest, but I will, for Orion....in a while  

Edited January 18 by Saganite

[fwm891]

I had a go at the Crab nebula tonight 15x 300s OO VX10 f4.8 ASI2600MC Duo ASKar Ha/OIII 6nm NB filter...

Cropped down just to make processing a bit faster!

 

[John]

I've just packed in for the night after getting some nice glimpses of Sirius B. The seeing stayed steady - earlier I had a tight but clear split of 52 Orionis, which I'm aways pleased to get 🙂

 

[Saganite]

7 minutes ago, John said:

I've just packed in for the night after getting some nice glimpses of Sirius B. The seeing stayed steady - earlier I had a tight but clear split of 52 Orionis, which I'm aways pleased to get 🙂

 

Just tried  both and no luck tonight, not even close, even struggled to split Rigel, so the seeing has deteriorated somewhat.

[DPF]

After six weeks of recovery from a chest infection and being banned from going out, I managed to spend an hour looking at the moon and Jupiter - just so nice to be out again and making the most of a clear evening. Mental health boost achieved 👏👏👏

[RobertI]

I did scurry out briefly last night, primarily to get both moon and Jupiter in the same FOV. The 102ED with the 24mm (2.25 degrees) was not quite wide enough, but the Panaview 38mm (3.7 degrees) got them both. The pairing looked rather lovely. Too cold, back indoors!

[RobertI]

49 minutes ago, DPF said:

After six weeks of recovery from a chest infection and being banned from going out, I managed to spend an hour looking at the moon and Jupiter - just so nice to be out again and making the most of a clear evening. Mental health boost achieved 👏👏👏

Great that you have managed to get out, surprising what a boost an hour under the stars can give. 

[josefk]

10 hours ago, John said:

I've just packed in for the night after getting some nice glimpses of Sirius B. The seeing stayed steady - earlier I had a tight but clear split of 52 Orionis, which I'm aways pleased to get 🙂

 

After some of your comments earlier in the week about Sirius this was on my “to do” list last night as well. Unfortunately even really late on (after midnight) Sirius was a scintillating disco ball. I knew roughly where to look for “B” but even holding Sirius out of the EP it wouldn’t come for me. Next time! 

Edited January 19 by josefk

[John]

16 minutes ago, josefk said:

After some of your comments earlier in the week about Sirius this was on my “to do” list last night as well. Unfortunately even really late on (after midnight) Sirius was a scintillating disco ball. I knew roughly where to look for “B” but even holding Sirius out of the EP it wouldn’t come for me. Next time! 

I had tried with my 130mm refractor the night before last but it was not to be despite the larger aperture.

Last night must have been a little steadier - Sirius A showed a number of diffraction rings rather than the mushy, flaring scatter of light that is often the case. Sirius B popped in and out of visibility just on the edge of the diffraction rings. Very faint and not the most stable view that I have had of it though. I'm finding that my eye needs quite some time to adjust to this task and allowing that to happen on such a cold night tested the patience to be honest with you 🙄

Good luck for the next time 🙂

Edited January 19 by John

[Mr Spock]

Cloudy and mild now for the next week, with clear weather after that - but not cold...

The real secret to surviving cold nights is to put lots of layers on. Enough layers so you can't fit through the door and have to stay inside 

[jjohnson3803]

5 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

The real secret to surviving cold nights is to put lots of layers on. Enough layers so you can't fit through the door and have to stay inside 

 

[Zermelo]

I managed to miss the last two nights due to other commitments, and tonight looks like being the last clear one for a while (according to a consensus of websites, though CO is currently flitting back and forth). 
So the Mak is out cooling, and we'll see what's happening after tea.

[MercianDabbler]

21 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

The Moon showed so many interesting details. On the Northern part of the terminator, I found what looked like some interesting rugged mountains with a sort of canyon coming out on the lit surface, maybe some pious soul saw something similar and can help me identify what that could be? I haven't got a Moon Atlas yet

Worth looking at http://www.waltonastrogroup.co.uk/ - under 'Helpful Resources' they have some excellent annotated images of the moon in various phases. I've found these much more useful than anything else I've tried because they actually look like what I'm seeing... most other things are 'flat' and don't show how the shadows vary with different moon phases.

[PeterC65]

Yet another EAA session last night, this time narrow field, with the 72mm refractor (1.48° FoV) paired with the Barlowed 8” Newtonian (0.38° FoV).

The Moon was looking really crisp with the IR pass filter and SharpCap’s new planetary / lunar live stacking.

But I spent most of the session pointing in the opposite direction, working my way down the sky through a bunch of small but (mostly) interesting shaped galaxies: M81, M82, NGC3077, NGC2976, NGC1961, NGC2403, NGC2146, NGC2336, NGC2841, NGC3079, NGC3359, NGC3185/87/89/93 (Leo Quartet), M95, M96, M100, NGC4216.

By the end of the session the Newtonian’s secondary was dewed up and objects started looking a bit mushy, but the highlight of the session has to be the last object, NGC4216, a galaxy containing a supernova. SN2024gy was only discovered 15 days ago but was clearly visible and almost as bright as the galaxies centre.

There’s a full report here.

[Nik271]

The shadows playing  on the floor of Plato  are fabulous tonight. My seeing is meh, not possible to go over x100 but still plenty of detail visible. The straight wall looks good too.

Edited January 19 by Nik271

[Stu]

Just seen a very nice ISS pass close by the Jupiter and the Moon. It then disappeared into the Earth’s shadow which was cool.

Seeing is not great here. FS-128 out, and the Moon looks good but could be lovely if it settles down. Hadley Rille visible but seeing makes it harder. Illumination on Clavius is nice, unusual. Rupus Recta nicely illuminated and Rima Birt also visible. Loads more of course.

On Jupiter, there is a very dark grey blue spot under the NEB which I assume is the root of a festoon but not sure. Last night I also saw a dark area behind GRS which was not something I had seen previously. Always something to look out for.

[Stu]

Had another look and yes, it looks like just a well defined festoon, there nice ones that I could see.

[Nigella Bryant]

Out again on Jupiter, some nice well defined festoons, counted at least four possibly five from the bottom of the NEB. Think I could see four white ovals in the SEB too. Phone pic of screen attached, not great pic, lol. 

Added an image from Skysafari. Probably the festoons that I observed and the white ovals.

Edited January 19 by Nigella Bryant

[Zermelo]

The seeing is very average here, and doubles are difficult, but the moon is surprisingly good at around x160.

The central peaks of Eratosthenes and Tycho are both picked out in the shadow, and Rupes Recta is prominent.

[AstroNebulee]

Just had a peaceful and relaxing hour observing the moon. Set up my AzGti with the Skymax 90mm and helios 7.2-21mm hyperflex zoom. Mostly zoomed in at 7.2mm

I enjoyed watching the shadows in the crater Plato and the shadows formed by the 2 prominences? Mons Pico and Pico b (had to look those up) the shadows stretching out. I found these really enthralling. Also looking at the just lit rim of the crater Clavius as it was seemingly suspended in the darkness. (similar the the jeweled handle of the Jura mountains effect) 

Lee 

Edited January 19 by AstroNebulee

[GrumpiusMaximus]

My partner's Dad has been over today so after work, I got my little scope out and pointed it at Jupiter and the Moon for him.  He's in his 60s and has never looked through a half-decent scope.

He was still talking about the terminator details on the Moon about two hours later.  So it obviously made an impact.  Decent transparency but a lot of moisture in the air and very cold.  Emptied a bucket of water that had filled up over the last month in the garden the top of it was a solid inch of ice!  I did start thinking about the diffraction qualities of ice and then realised the cold had got to me and I'd better go and warm up...

[Ags]

Went out with my I'm Not Bothered setup - the same one as in my avatar, but set up on a very light and tall tripod. Eyepiece was the Svbony 3-8 Zoom, why use anything else? Jupiter was very sharp down to the 3mm setting on the zoom and the moon was a mass of detail - I felt the scope could have pushed to even higher magnification tonight, if I had a suitable eyepiece. I had a long look at the Trapezium, I am convinced I glimpsed the E star. Encouraged by that I tried some unequal doubles - Rigel and Polaris - unsuccessfully, and took easy Castor as a consolation prize. 

Edited January 19 by Ags

[Nigella Bryant]

Took a look at the moon too, phone pics of screen. Not good at the moon, but think it's called "The Straight Wall" in the first pic, lol.