What did you see tonight?

[Nyctimene]

Was out, unplanned, this morning 03h 30min CEST with the APM MS 16x70 ED under sub-average 5.0 mag skies. After a start with the North America Nebula, that was rather faint, but constantly visible with AV, I gave the Veil a try. The western part, with 52 Cyg at it's center, remained completely invisible, as was Pickering's Triangular Wisp. The brighter eastern section revealed it's familiar curved shape after several minutes of observing. An UHC filter, flipped between eye and eyepiece, improved the view slightly, but less than expected (I was too lazy to fish out the OIII from the eyepiece case stowed away in the house). The binocular effect was distinct - closing one eye (with or without filter) left the Veil invisible. The sky brightened after 04h, so the Auriga open clusters were washed out. No Perseid meteor during the 30 mins of observing.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

 

[SwiMatt]

After more than 2 months of darkness deprivation, I finally was able to see a star (Vega) at 10pm when taking out the dog before bed. I cannot explain how moving and motivating it felt. Summers are rough.

[Stu1smartcookie]

11 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

After more than 2 months of darkness deprivation, I finally was able to see a star (Vega) at 10pm when taking out the dog before bed. I cannot explain how moving and motivating it felt. Summers are rough.

Summer's are indeed rough ... Even if you are prepared or able to observe late into the night the weather rarely plays ball . But now we are getting into the best time of the year.. early autumn leading into the winter months . A great time for astronomy imo 

[Alan White]

Indeed it’s a great time of year as the Astro darkness arrives earlier.
I managed a session last night with my faithful friend Lazarus (ed103) and my az75.

A fun punt around at regular targets and some doubles that I enjoyed and some I struggled with.
The only thing I wanted for was to be able to stay up later, sadly not yet due to medication timings, but it will happen.

I had a truly wonderful night, the sky was not its best, but frankly I didn’t care, it was starlight and the joy of the cosmos, bats, badgers, foxes and the odd hoot of the local,owls.

Lights for the picture only of course…

 

Edited August 10 by Alan White

[lunator]

I had a very short session. I wanted to get my mount's polar alignment checked and tweaked if needed. I then did a quick 1 star align on vega and had a little look around lyra. I then went to Hercules and had a try at Zeta. The seeing wasn't great but there was a hint of the companion at x187. 

I finished off with a quick naked eye look at Corona Borealis but no sign of the eruption. 

Cheers

Ian

[Ags]

Just had a great session with my new solar dual scope setup.

To my great surprise, the two scopes are nearly parallel and the sun was visible in both simultaneously with a 25mm eyepiece in the white light scope, so there is roughly a degree of misalignment still to correct. It was great to quickly switch between the scopes and compare the sun at different wavelengths. Phenomenal sunspot activity today and some enormous proms in Ha.

[paulastro]

I was out from about 11pm to 3.30am.  Great session with the Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob.  Best skies for a while thanks to the return of astronomical darkness.

Highlights were many deep sky objects and a good session on larger targets with my Baader Aspheric 36mm 72degree eyepiece - giving x33 and 2.2 degrees. Targets included the M31 trio, Pleiades. Dble Cluster. Soul Neb, Stock 2 and M33.

I also saw a bright, swift, white -3/-4 Perseid with a trail behind it at 00.40 near Cass heading South.

Planetary wise, l Iooked at Jupitet and Mars but Saturn in a period of rock steady seeing stole the show using the binoviewer and Orthos.  This period lasted over twenty minutes when the planet was behind some thin haze. The fabulous steady seeing enabled some wonderfully surface detail, it looked mottled, beyond my drawing skills. I also had the persistent attention of one of our local Tawny owls, it screeched regularly as .f scolding me 

During the night I took a few pics with the Seestar, which only needs occassional  attention and let's me get on with my visual observing.  The pic below of the M31 trio was taken just before I ended the session.

Edited August 11 by paulastro

[Peter Drew]

Had a quick look out before hopping into bed and caught the bright Perseid that Paul mentioned.     

[scotty1]

During 25 mins of gazing I saw two  Perseids. 

At 04.00 the camera caught this one I didn't see it, as was looking south. 

 

This might be Mercury 

[Mr Spock]

Scope has been out a while. Just had a look at Mizar to assess conditions and it's very wobbly. I'll get some doubles in but it's not a night for high powers.

[Stu1smartcookie]

I've packed it in tonight ... What promised to be a superb, clear night has turned into a clear night with a strong gusting breeze which seems to be  affecting tracking , have to say it's very disappointing .. might just have an hour outside meteor watching . Frustrated though . 

[pete_81]

2x bright perseids over the course of 1hr from 10-11 this evening, one just between Polaris and Cass, the other a bit S of Cass (due east, over apex of our house) from Barnsley, both from N to S. Meant to be clear through evening here, so quick doze before trying again in the wee hours. Anyone else any luck?

[Littleguy80]

Seen a handful of Persieds so far. Got lucky with catching one on camera

[lunator]

I got back from work about 21:45 and decided to do a bit of meteor watching. 

Saw about half a dozen faint ones and 2 fireballs. One of which was a twin track. 

Never seen that before. 😳 

I also saw satellites in a parallel orbit both on polar orbits and fixed position in relationship to each other. 

Cheers

Ian

[Damo1965]

Three really good trails running N to NE between Polaris and Cassiopeia from 22.20 to 23.30. Couple of small flashes almost at zenith here in East Yorkshire while my wife spent some time on the Hercules Cluster - before announcing 'it's just a smudge ' and heading indoors. 

[IB20]

Bagged 4 perseids in about 30 mins. One in particular was superb and left a train that really lingered.

[Ags]

4 bright Perseus over half an hour, plus three flashes (not streaks). I wonder what the flashes could have been.

[PeterC65]

Spent the last 2.5 hours sat on the recliners with the wife gazing up in the general direction of the Summer Triangle. The Milky Way was very clear, from beyond Denib, through the brightest part between Sadr and the centre of the Triangle, and even just beyond Altair. Saturn put in an appearance, rising slowly above the oak tree on our Eastern horizon. We observed around 30 meteors over the session, about half being Persieds I'd say. Some were just a brief flashes in peripheral vision and a couple were coming directly at us. The best of the night was a really bright one starting just below Casseopea and finishing at the Triangle. One of the best meteors we've seen.

[Mr Spock]

Just seen one heading down near Sagitta.

Also nice to be outside in a t-shirt!

[Littleguy80]

Followed up the Persied spotting with hunting down Nova V615 Vul with the 10” dob. Took me a bit of time to confirm that I’d correctly identified the Nova. Then onto Saturn with the Tak. First time seeing it with the rings edge on. Very cool! Picked out 4 moons too. Lovely skies tonight. 

[scotty1]

August 12th 01.00

[Paul M]

Yes, a brightish aurora seen from my Allsky camera in a partly cloudy Cumbria.

[Ibbo!]

25 minutes ago, scotty1 said:

August 12th 01.00

Thanks for posting this as it confirms the red glow on my all sky cam.

[Littleguy80]

Some bonus Aurora just as I’d decided to go to bed!

[Mr Spock]

Came in a while ago - clouded over