What did you see tonight?

[Whistlin Bob]

Have bought my portable rig to France on holiday but opportunities to view have been hard to come by. Had a really good white light solar session on a spotty sun though. Really big area of activity that I managed to grab on the phone through the mak. Was also joined by a friendly Finnish guy and his son from 2 chalets up and they seemed to really enjoy it. Also managed to show them a daytime Venus, which was great, because it really made the point about how big the sunspots are!

[Ratlet]

1 hour ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Have bought my portable rig to France on holiday but opportunities to view have been hard to come by. Had a really good white light solar session on a spotty sun though. Really big area of activity that I managed to grab on the phone through the mak. Was also joined by a friendly Finnish guy and his son from 2 chalets up and they seemed to really enjoy it. Also managed to show them a daytime Venus, which was great, because it really made the point about how big the sunspots are!

Is that an 90mm sv48 from svbony?

Also love the fine focus control on the purple scope.

[Alan White]

I rather like the wooden solar filter frames, nice one @Whistlin Bob
Hope your having a good time.

[SwiMatt]

 

7 hours ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Have bought my portable rig to France on holiday but opportunities to view have been hard to come by. Had a really good white light solar session on a spotty sun though. Really big area of activity that I managed to grab on the phone through the mak. Was also joined by a friendly Finnish guy and his son from 2 chalets up and they seemed to really enjoy it. Also managed to show them a daytime Venus, which was great, because it really made the point about how big the sunspots are!

Here is my picture with a smartphone of the same region (AR 3784), to show how it changed in these 6 hours. I spent 30 minutes observing it, lovely session!

 

[Mr Spock]

Looks clear again tonight 👍

Just ordered the 400mm extension for the EQ5. I'm hoping standing will ease my back problems. I may have to take the mount out in two parts though due to the size  We shall see when it arrives.

[John]

Got the 10 inch dob out currently.

Just picked up the now very faint nova in Vulpecula. Tough though, even with a 10 nch.

Going to have a browse around while the clouds keep their distance.

 

Edited August 16 by John

[Mr Spock]

Just had a peek at the moon. It's just above the fence and to the left of a neighbour's bush. I've never looked at it that low before. Even at x125 it's boiling...

[Paul M]

I saw some new "search light" beams high in my southern sky.

Probably a new installation for Blackpool illuminations which star soon, if nit already. These things aren't usually so high in my sky. This display slews between about 45 degrees up in my ssw sky to maybe 75 degrees up in my wsw sky.

OK, they are shining on the clouds here but experience shows that they aren't invisible in a clear sky. These seem closer than previously too. Might be an advertising feature from a local pub or club.

It'll be interesting to see if I they go off after midnight.

Might be selling up at this rate. 

 

 

 

 

[Mr Spock]

I've only looked a couple of doubles. Transparency is so poor I can barely see mag 9 stars with the 100mm.

[IB20]

First sight of Saturn this season and first view with the SM125ed. Straight away Rhea, Titan, Dione and Iapetus (in an unusual position) jumped out of the EP. The seeing was a bit iffy and clouds were rolling by but a little bit of concentration showed a bright white central belt where the ring system crossed the planet. A faint slither of a darker line showed just underneath. The ansae seemed to bulge in comparison with the thin ring line closer to the planetary disk. Very occasionally a slight dark mark of CD could be seen on the eastern ansa.

Earlier on, for the first time, I saw the apple core structure of M27; the UHC filter really helped to improve what I usually can see. Will re-try when there’s no moon about.

Another impressive performance from the 125ed. 👍🏻

[SwiMatt]

Waking up super early for travelling has its perks... transparency looked amazing, I could see the whole of Cygnus without problems - rare feat with the present light pollution here. No time for a session unfortunately, and I had packed my binoculars. Still, I could eyeball the conjunction of Jupiter and Mars as well as the Pleiades with averted vision. The conjunction is still beautiful even if not at its closest.

[Stu1smartcookie]

A lovely couple of hours of just sitting and pointing at anything emitting light in the sky with the little ZS61 . It wasn't bought for that of course but nonetheless it was one of  those enjoyable evenings of no aligning and no searching for targets . Mainly used a celestron 8-24 zoom . First target was Albireo just to see how the colours look in the scope . Answer , spot on  defined gold and blue . I've had scopes  before that have been poor on this , but you get what you pay for and the ZS61 excels . Saturn was at last visible and although not at its highest I thought "why not " . Of course a small spec at 24mm but the  rings were visible as a line across the planet .. so I swapped EPs for the SVBony 3-8 mm zoom and viewed the planet at 120x ..  a dimmer image but sharp all the same . It's my first view of Saturn this year . 

Sometimes the simple set ups prove to be the most rewarding , don't you think?

[Whistlin Bob]

19 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Is that an 90mm sv48 from svbony?

Also love the fine focus control on the purple scope.

It's a Meade etx105. It's optically great, but the mount gave up several years ago- it's had a new lease of life this year on the dual mount.

The fine focus control is an exquisitely engineered item from B&M 🤣🤣.

[Paz]

11 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Just had a peek at the moon. It's just above the fence and to the left of a neighbour's bush. I've never looked at it that low before. Even at x125 it's boiling...

That's pretty much my experience lady night, the gaps between the clouds were too short find and observe things so I had a look at the low moon. It was like looking through a fast running river!

[John]

17 minutes ago, Paz said:

That's pretty much my experience lady night, the gaps between the clouds were too short find and observe things so I had a look at the low moon. It was like looking through a fast running river!

The seeing was OK here but the transparency was not up to much. Even with a 10 inch showpiece DSO's were not at their best. The moon was too low here for my dob so I left that for another time.

Bristol AS BBQ this evening so a nice social even if it is hazy again 🙂

[scotty1]

The sky was clear until 21.30 and then instant low clouds, was hoping for a late Perseid and the early am planets. Might try again tonight weather permitting. 

Quite a lot of cirrus incoming, not a good sky for astronomy.

Edited August 17 by scotty1

[globular]

Jetstream should be a bit better tonight for most of England and Wales ...

... and the seeing indexes and bad layers look promising too.

I'm going to shake down my kit ready for tonight and optimistically ignore the 50% low cloud cover forecast for my area.

 

Edited August 17 by globular
typo

[PeterStudz]

Nice, mainly planetary, session this morning in my back garden with my 200p Dob. However, seeing was far from good and transparency iffy with intermittent high clouds.

Saturn - cold make out the ring gap and shadows. Subtle banding on the planet. Rhea, Titan & Dione easy to make out with Titan very close to the planet, between the disc and rings. 

Watched Jupiter and Mars rising close together. A very nice sight. Had to wait a while until they passed some tall trees. Took a bit of a break. 

To pass the time I had a look at Almach (Gamma Andromedae). An easy split which I could even see in my finder. Really pretty contrasting colours. Played around with different Magnification. Also attempted a smartphone snap. Doesn’t do it justice but I’ve attached it here to illustrate. 

Jupiter - I could make out the GRS and banding. Always nice to see the Spot, but I’ve had it so much better in the past. Could just make out some interesting/unusual festoons in the EZ adjacent to the GRS. If only the seeing was better!

Mars - tiny and wobbly, but with an obvious phase. White area over the North Pole obvious. Faint albedo features could be made out in the south during moment of better seeing.

By now it was 4:20am and I packed up… clouds rolling in.

[bosun21]

Out last night with the 180 Maksutov to primarily image Saturn. I passed my time until then with visual on several planetary nebula. The usual suspects of M27 and M57 were first with both of them defined nicely both with and without an UHC filter. Then it was over to NGC 7662(blue snowball). This has now become one of my favourite PN's. No filter required and with a 10mm UFF for 270x it was gorgeous to observe. Double cluster and a few other clusters around Cassiopeia next before a customary look at M31. The seeing was poor as was the transparency so I cracked on and took half a dozen SER files of Saturn. Due to the poor seeing I decided not to stay up to image both Jupiter and Mars when they would appear in the small hours. I broke everything down and headed back indoors. After a few hours I went back outside at 3.15am with my binoculars for a quick tour of our approaching seasons skies . Orion just peeking up over the horizon. Pity the seeing was poor. Sunday night is looking good though 🤞.

 

Edited August 17 by bosun21
Add photo

[Steve Ward]

1 minute ago, bosun21 said:

Out last night with the 180 Maksutov to primarily image Saturn. I passed my time until then with visual on several planetary nebula. The usual suspects of M27 and M57 were first with both of them defined nicely both with and without an UHC filter. Then it was over to NGC 7662(blue snowball). This has now become one of my favourite PN's. No filter required and with a 10mm UFF for 270x it was gorgeous to observe. Double cluster and a few other clusters around Cassiopeia next before a customary look at M31. The seeing was poor as was the transparency so I cracked on and took half a dozen SER files of Saturn. Due to the poor seeing I decided not to stay up to image both Jupiter and Mars when they would appear in the small hours. I broke everything down and headed back indoors. After a few hours I went back outside at 3.15am with my binoculars for a quick tour of our approaching seasons skies . Orion just peeking up over the horizon. Pity the seeing was poor. Sunday night is looking good though 🤞.

Sorry it was as I predicted , this morning was a lot steadier for my solar session as the jetstream's shifted north briefly , should be a lot better tonight at least before it drifts back in for Monday-ish.

[bosun21]

2 minutes ago, Steve Ward said:

Sorry it was as I predicted , this morning was a lot steadier for my solar session as the jetstream's shifted north briefly , should be a lot better tonight at least before it drifts back in for Monday-ish.

It's Sunday I'm hoping for. I'm unfortunately clouded out tonight according to all my weather apps. Fingers crossed 🤞.

[PeterStudz]

2 hours ago, bosun21 said:

It's Sunday I'm hoping for. I'm unfortunately clouded out tonight according to all my weather apps. Fingers crossed 🤞.

There’s quite a bit of intermittent cloud about in the south which isn’t easy to forecast. Then there’s this!…

[scotty1]

Wondered why the sky was so milky 

[bosun21]

4 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

There’s quite a bit of intermittent cloud about in the south which isn’t easy to forecast. Then there’s this!…

Just something else we need to contend with amongst all the other variables. On those special nights when everything does come together makes it all worthwhile and failures are forgotten quickly.

[Stu]

Hardly any stars visible tonight due to the smoke up there.

However, as a result, there is a stunning orange Moon rising which is well worth a look.