What did you see tonight?

[Ibbo!]

 

same here in Notts

 

[Ibbo!]

I have been up and down the ladder to the all sky to sort issues out for the last hour or so and now it has subsided

 

[Pixies]

From Edinburgh:

[mcrowle]

I’d set up to repeat last night’s combined Perseid viewing and wide field imaging, thinking how much better the conditions were compared to last night, when all of a sudden the sky is filled with high cloud! The forecast had the cloud coming in much later.

I’ll wait and see if things improve. If not, that will be 3 of my last 4 sessions having ended just after setting up.

Regards, Mike.

Edited August 12 by mcrowle

[westmarch]

3 minutes ago, mcrowle said:

I’d set up to repeat last night’s combined Perseid viewing and wide field imaging, thinking how much better the conditions were compared to last night, when all of a sudden the sky is filled with high cloud! The forecast had the cloud coming in much later.

I’ll wait and see if things improve. If not, that will be 3 of my last 4 sessions having ended just after setting up.

Regards, Mike.

I seems to be coming in twenty minute clear patches here. 
John

[westmarch]

Rate is picking up now. 
John

[Zermelo]

A belated first light for my SV503 102mm ED, mixed in with some Perseid watching.
I'm very pleased with the scope. It showed some nice tight stars in M11 and a lovely Albireo (but isn't it always?). Saturn was a better test, and the only colour fringeing that I could see was atmospheric. I picked up some banding on the disc, and saw Titan, Dione and Iapetus. There was another just visible with averted vision, probably Enceladus. Very little scatter, and nice, dark sky.
But the most pleasing views were of M27. I looked before it was very dark, and was surprised to see it as well as I've seen it before in 5" and 6", with the "apple core" very clear.

We saw several Perseids, including three in two minutes that all left visible trails. But the brightest one by far must have been a sporadic, as it was over in the South and heading towards Perseus.

Have come in now because high cloud has come over from the South, and the dew is very bad. But a good evening.

Edited August 12 by Zermelo

[mcrowle]

Looking clearer here now, so back in action 😄.

Regards, Mike.

[mcrowle]

Nope  - more cloud, and this time the weather radar indicates it’s time to pack up. Just 3 usable 4-minute exposures captured and about 7 Perseids seen. Hope everyone else has a more worthwhile session!

Regards, Mike.

[Vroobel]

It's a great night, despite some clouds. My Canon 6D captures the Perseids, my main setup captures M31 while my OnePlus smartphone just captured a conjunction of Jupiter and Mars. Lovely! 🤩

 

 

Edited August 13 by Vroobel

[Paul M]

I just spotted the planetary duo rising in the east. Very nice visual feast. But as always, no picture? It never happened.

Just a quick snap on the phone camera.

Auriga and much of Perseus included. Some industrial furniture scenery in there too!

While taking in the vista, I saw two bright Perseids. My first and maybe only perseids this year!

[Mr Spock]

Cloudy here again, that annoying high stuff.

[PeterC65]

10 hours ago, Zermelo said:

A belated first light for my SV503 102mm ED, mixed in with some Perseid watching.

Will you post a report about this scope? It's very good value for a 4" Apo.

[Zermelo]

12 minutes ago, PeterC65 said:

Will you post a report about this scope? It's very good value for a 4" Apo.

I will, but I want to get a few more observations in first. It's an FPL51 doublet, by some accounts optically identical to other brandings that have been around longer.

[paulastro]

On 11/12th I managed 13 Perseids from 11.30-1.20am. Last night (12th-13th) I intended a repeat performance, but it wasn't completely clear until about 2am.

I decided to take a couple of images with the Seestar.  I wanted a longer exposure of the Pleiades, to bring out more nebulosity, and a pic of Jupiter and Mars as they close in for their closest approach on the mornings of 14th and 15th. The distances being 25' and 22' respectively. The actual closest approach occurs during daytime. 

This mornings pic was taken at 3.17am with a separation of 49' 21".  They can already easily be seen well together in the same field with any scope/EP combo that can yield a  0.6 degree field.  Well worth a look.

I also saw my brightest Persid so far this morning, which was about mag -4 and left a train for 3/4 seconds.

 

 

Edited August 13 by paulastro

[Nigella Bryant]

Perseid with aurora last night in Devon UK. Canon 1200d, 30sec each frame. From my front garden. 

 

Edited August 13 by Nigella Bryant
Pic's added

[Mr Spock]

Put the scope out an hour ago as it was clear, just looked out and it's cloudy... 😡

[lunator]

I've had a quite nice session with the 15*70s. I'm learning the bit of sky in Sagittarius, Scutum etc. I have never really had a chance to learn this bit of the sky so the binoculars are ideal before I start looking in more detail using my scopes. 

I have also crossed off a few more Messiers 

Cheers

Ian

[johnturley]

15 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Put the scope out an hour ago as it was clear, just looked out and it's cloudy... 😡

Same happened to me nearby in Dronfield, was wanting to observe the Mars/Jupiter conjunction.

John 

[Mr Spock]

These forecasts are frustrating. There was nothing but cloud on CO. Just had an hour and a half snooze after listening to some music, woke up to find the sky clear. CO now has clear sky tonight and tomorrow.
Scope is out and I'm having a doubles session in Aquila.

At least the snooze means I can stay up a while 

[Mr Spock]

Called it a night. Seeing is really poor. Didn't even bother with Saturn 

[Ratlet]

After torrential rain all day I kept the faith that CO would be right for once and sure enough it was clear.

Out with the 4" tecno-sky.  Really nice session and tried to get some new things in so went carbon star hunting.

Managed to get some time on Jupiter and had to run in to get the svbony zoom.  Fair few meteors tonight and finished the evening off with a really bright one that almost cut Pleiades in half.

[saac]

Lovely clear night tonight in Fife so first real opportunity to give my recently acquired RASA 8 a shake down. Started with an imaging run of NG 7317 (Stephan's Quintet) , all unguided at the moment so just having a play with different sub exposures to get a feel for what the scope does. It earns its F2 credentials, this thing is fast.  Turned onto M31 to have a play with the ASiAir's mosaic planner - couldn't get it to fully work (I was in the wrong mode) so for a bit of fun I shot off some 1 minute subs  - itching to see how they process but was impressed with the detail captured in the preview stretch. Finished with a look at Saturn, I hardly ever use the video mode on the camera so that was novel and sure enough you can never get enough of the magnificent ringed planet. Time checked 2 am so I thought I'd better wrap up and as I was closing the observatory roof I poked my head out to the east and was welcomed by a magnificent sight of Jupiter and Mars starting to part company. Best thing about tonight though - this was all done wearing a T shirt and not a whisper of dew. Did somebody say winter is coming. 

Jim

[Vroobel]

At the end of another imaging session I found Jupiter, Mars and Pleiades again, so took something better than my smartphone: Canon 6D with Tamron 17-35mm (@ 35mm, ISO1600, 10s, F/5.6). I was surprised when I found a meteor as a bonus. Nice combo. 🤩

 

 

Edited August 16 by Vroobel

[Mr_Cat]

It's been a poor couple of months since I got the ASO EAF on my 925 in May - mentioned to the Mrs that in all that time I've been out with it once.. But I have spent pretty much the last four weeks doing theatre gigs in addition to my 9-5 so I haven't really had much time..

My last show of this run was last saturday just in time for the perseids  - one of our first "dates" was the Mrs and I heading to a dark sky site with a hip flask, some pringles and sitting and enjoying the show so we headed out again on tuesday.  Took the mini mak and Eq3 with me to test it's portability (yes, it is..) and we sat down, the skies darkened and cleared we both picked up a couple of meteors before the cloud rolled in and ended that..

Then last night as we were heading to bed I spotted clear skies again. Headed out on to the terrace with the mini mak and star hopped about for a bit - with being busy I've not got a target list atm. Then spotted something  - Saturn down low in the east, got the mak onto it and could see some detail but not much so swapped the 150 onto the mount.  Spent a very pleasant 20 mins on Saturn - looked like the rings are almost "side on" as while I could see the edge I couldn't discern any depth.

Hopefully this will be a regular target over the next month and I can get the 925 onto it sometime

Photo of the mini mak set up and waiting for darkness

Edited August 16 by Mr_Cat