What did you see tonight?

[Stu1smartcookie]

20 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Just in after a successful first light with the ED102S and HEQ5. Captured a load of SER's of Jupiter with the 250 go to dobsonian, also some in IR. Then spent the rest of the night doing visual with the Vixen. The scope is excellent and sharp. I wish it had a dual speed focuser though. I'll do a report tomorrow as I haven't even eaten yet 🙄.

What’s the F ratio of that 🛒 Ian  

great set up mate. Good to chat with you yesterday too 

Stu 

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

What’s the F ratio of that 🛒 Ian  

great set up mate. Good to chat with you yesterday too 

Stu 

Ha ha. I use it to transport everything outside, mount, tripod pillar extension, eyepiece cases etc etc. Saves me repeat journeys indoors. I also enjoyed our chat yesterday. I'm still eyeing a 180 🙄.

[Epick Crom]

Got up at 4:30am this morning observe the close conjunction between Mercury and Mars, seperated by 16'. Got some great views through my 10x50mm binoculars as they were only 4° above the horizon so too low for my dob.

Looked beautiful naked eye as well. A great start to the day 👍

[Captain Scarlet]

Well the Pup was seen tonight, first for this season. An odd session where the seeing varied from moments of superb to often poor. Out for a couple of hours, 70% staring at Sirius. Stellarvue 140 and AZ-EQ6 with Delos 4.5 (208x) allowed me to just sit and look and look without having to nudge. Frozen fingers and misting eyepieces drove me in. Full report tomorrow.

Magnus

 

[fwm891]

Playing with some short exposures on M42 with the rasa 8. No filters, full moon and took 24x 5 second subs. It was a night I was just trying out a new mount (HEM27) and just sending it here there and anywhere and just decided to stop and take a few subs...

 

[Nigella Bryant]

Just had a hazy but nice couple of hours imaging the sun in ha and cak. I was even able to get the CaT out, 😆 

[Saganite]

Forecast here is for clear sky 10pm to 3 am but it is clearing already and Jupiter is good at 130x and softish at 184x so a pair of 18mm should do it.  The atmosphere is fairly steady so hopefully it will improve soon. 

[Mr Spock]

It's clear here but I'm too tired to go out 

[Andy ES]

I’ve found my new dark sky site.

It's my mum’s back garden! 😁

I’ve been staying round with her for a couple of weeks while she recovers from an operation.

Thing is the garden is out of the way and about 150ft long. With scrubby land at the back.

Much darker than my garden.

Had a few great nights with the Binoculars.

Think I’ll have to lug the scope round. Happy Days.

 

 

[Ags]

Glimpsed Betelgeuse between the clouds - intensely red.

[Saganite]

After an enforced  break of an hour thanks to cloud cover the sky is now clear. Io is clearly visible just off centre on the NEB with bino and 18mm BGO pair, 167x.  The transparency has also improved.  This should hold until midnight at least if the forecast is correct.

Edited January 31 by Saganite

[Saganite]

The shadow of Io has now appeared and it is nice to see both Moon and shadow on the disc of the planet. Whilst waiting I have had a quick tour and checked out several star clusters, M41, M46,M47, M48 and M50.  Splits of Mintaka and Rigel were so clear and sharp, so the seeing is good perhaps 6 Pickering. 

Edited January 30 by Saganite

[Saganite]

Just to round off before shutting down a lovely clear sharp capture of E & F in the Trapezium.

[Nigella Bryant]

I tried my new Altair Astro C26 camera. Really impressed, not used an Osc before just a modded canon. Just a screen shot with my mobile phone for now. Guess it's first light, lol. 

[Saganite]

I recently acquired a lovely Lyra Optics 102 f11 and during last evenings observations I had first light with it.  Following the E&F  star sightings I had intended to close up but It was niggling me that it was not aligned with the APM.  My Vixen ED103 had been on the other side of the AZ up until last night, in perfect alignment, and I suppose it was a bit naive to expect the f11 to do the same.  It took a further hour of adjusting to achieve this and having done so I had to  have 'First light '.

I chose  of course the Trap and was rewarded with E&F, tiny and pin sharp. A star test on Betelgeuse revealed  near identical rings inside and outside of focus. A look at Jupiter was very sharp and neat, much smaller than I had been seeing all evening through the 6"  but still very pleasing, with the merest hint of purple around the planets limb.  Sigma Orionis revealed 4 stars, , pin sharp, Tegmine  a delight and Uranus very small but sharp and pale blue completed the little scopes foray into the night sky , in my hands at least.  I don't really know why I felt the desire for this scope having the 6" and the 4" Vixen mounted together for the last year or so. I had explained to Dave ( F15) that it was an itch  that needed scratching but it is a bit more than that.  Modest in aperture but long in tube, it just looks beautiful and performs very well, and I just wanted it .  Almost eighteen months ago I culled the herd from six  telescopes to three and felt better but now I am back to five, four of them refractors, and don't feel any worse. There is no hope.

[F15Rules]

Thats briliant, Steve..we need lots of pics of the Lyra please. I well remember Glen at Lyra optical: he only ever sold quality products, and I remember he did a good trade on Tani Circle T volcano orthoscopics as well as his branded "Lyra" scopes (I think these were made for him by Kunming Optics - and very high quality optics they were too!

I too, owned one his 4" achromats and it was great..I think (but cannot be sure) that I sold it eventually to Phil Jaworwek, (but I'm sure he will correct me if I'm wrong!😉). A really fine scope and great value for money👍.

I managed a last farewell session with Trinity the Tak FS128 last night..😩😓😂.

The sky looked great. However, the seeing was coming and going a lot, with moments of both mush and real clarity.

M42 was beautiful, with the Axiom LX 23mm the contrast was stunning, and after a few minutes when my eyes were dark adapted, both E and F stars were clearly visible with direct vision. The Tak's contrast is amazing, the  view to the "right side"of the nebula (east, as in refractor view with diagonal,) was jet black, contrasting so sharply wwith the ghostly "batwings" of the nebula itself.

Also to the "right" of the Trapezium there are two stars, one brighter than the other, and the fainter sometimes hard to see..interestingly, with cyclops view, both E and F were clear, and both the above stars were visible, the fainter one with averted vision.

However, through the Maxbright II binoviewers, and despite the more comfortable two eye viewing experience, I couldnt see E or F - and only the brighter of the two stars to the east.

This probably reflects my eyes as much as anything, but consistently reflects what I have experienced ever since using binoviewers..I estimate that using binoviewers loses me about a half magnitude in the visibility of faintest objects, which I think is also due to the prisms and splitting of the light path in two.

This just means my observing is always likely to be a mixture of using binoviewers AND cyclops styles, whatever scope I use.

The Pleiades was just stunning with the 31mm "Terminagler" type Axiom LX..84 degrees of diamonds and blackness!🤩.

Jupiter was mushy but to be honest I was more interested, in such a tramsparent night, on drinking in the fabulous wide angled views.

I will remember the Tak with such fondness and consider myself to be honoured to have had it in my care for the past 7 years.

But now its time to move on, and all being well she will be with her new keeper on Friday..and I will hopefully have a new main scope next week..

TBC..😊😅

Dave

Edited January 31 by F15Rules
Photo added

[Saganite]

An excellent session and a fitting farewell to Trinity, Dave. 

I felt sad when I parted with my beloved Andromeda, a scope you also knew so well, but it was the right thing to do as it now is for you.  You will love your new scope and enjoy a new chapter , as am I.  All that matters is that we keep looking up.

Somebody famous said that , not I....

Edited January 31 by Saganite

[johnturley]

Observed Jupiter after 5pm last night through my 14in Newtonian and Esprit 150 in time for the Great Red Spot transit, viewing conditions were reasonable, but not great., limiting the usable magnification to around 160x through both instruments. I was however able to make out the GRS through both instruments, the view through the Esprit was sharper (as usual), but the colour of GRS stood out more through the larger Newtonian. I looked again at around 7 pm, but surprisingly perhaps, viewing conditions had significantly deteriorated.

I then looked for the 2 comets which should have been on view, Pons Brooks in Cygnus, and P Kushida in Taurus, but was unable to spot either comet. P Kushida was always going to be difficult in my Bortle 5 skies at around magnitude +10 (fainter than predicted in the ephemeris), but I did expect to spot Pons-Brooks, which should have been around +8.5, similar in magnitude to the Ring Nebula in Lyra, which I usually find quite easy to spot. However Pons-Brooks was quite low down by then, and the lights were still on at the nearby school (they go out later in the evening), causing the sky to be brighter than normal.

I finally took a quick look at Uranus which showed up as a pale greenish-blue disc, as with the GRS, the colour was more obvious through the 14in Newtonian. 

John  

Edited January 31 by johnturley

[inedible_hulk]

I managed to grab an hour or so last night. The seeing was generally good, but there was a marked deterioration in transparency closer to the horizon. 

Orion was nearing culmination affording an excellent opportunity for a first view of M42 through the Starfield 102/UFF 30mm combo. The nebula was easily observed within a wider starry expanse and averted vision afforded more than a hint of the extensive ‘wings’. Although the magnification was low (x24), the four ‘keystone’ stars of the Trapezium could be discerned. Fabulous !

Lepus, aka The Hare, is a new discovery for me, despite being located immediately below Orion.  Two targets were selected for observation, NGC 1964, a spiral galaxy and M79, a globular cluster. Despite careful observation, and in the case of the latter, searching, neither were observed. I would estimate that poor transparency meant that the effective observable threshold in the vicinity of the horizon was maybe as little as magnitude 7. 

It’s always nice to finish on a positive result. Sitting high in the sky and out of the murk was M1, the Crab Nebula. It was readily located adjacent to Zeta Tauri and observed at x24 (UFF 30mm) and x40 (ES 82 18mm). Easily visible as a faint oval cloud, but no hint of any the detailed internal structure was apparent.

In all, a short but satisfying session 😊

[Saganite]

Shadow of Io and the GRS nicely positioned just off centre at the moment. Seeing is fair.

Edited February 1 by Saganite

[johnturley]

18 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Shadow of Io and the GRS nicely positioned just off centre at the moment. Seeing is fair.

Totally cloudy here.

John

[Nigella Bryant]

Another couple of hours on solar this afternoon. A lovely bright flare was seen and much more. Mobile phone shots of computer screen.

[Zermelo]

On 31/01/2024 at 16:05, inedible_hulk said:

I managed to grab an hour or so last night. The seeing was generally good, but there was a marked deterioration in transparency closer to the horizon. 

Orion was nearing culmination affording an excellent opportunity for a first view of M42 through the Starfield 102/UFF 30mm combo. The nebula was easily observed within a wider starry expanse and averted vision afforded more than a hint of the extensive ‘wings’. Although the magnification was low (x24), the four ‘keystone’ stars of the Trapezium could be discerned. Fabulous !

Lepus, aka The Hare, is a new discovery for me, despite being located immediately below Orion.  Two targets were selected for observation, NGC 1964, a spiral galaxy and M79, a globular cluster. Despite careful observation, and in the case of the latter, searching, neither were observed. I would estimate that poor transparency meant that the effective observable threshold in the vicinity of the horizon was maybe as little as magnitude 7. 

It’s always nice to finish on a positive result. Sitting high in the sky and out of the murk was M1, the Crab Nebula. It was readily located adjacent to Zeta Tauri and observed at x24 (UFF 30mm) and x40 (ES 82 18mm). Easily visible as a faint oval cloud, but no hint of any the detailed internal structure was apparent.

In all, a short but satisfying session 😊

Congratulations on M79, it's one of a handful of Messiers that have eluded me so far. You really need a decent southern horizon at these latitudes.

[jjohnson3803]

After a month (or more) of garbage weather, I was able to spend about an hour observing the moon today.  😀

[inedible_hulk]

1 hour ago, Zermelo said:

Congratulations on M79, it's one of a handful of Messiers that have eluded me so far. You really need a decent southern horizon at these latitudes.

Lost in the murk unfortunately ☹️. Maybe next time.