What did you see tonight?

[John]

Saturn has just stolen the show here for me 😁

The 10 inch dob showed sharp views at 300x of the ringed wonder world. Surface banding N & S of the equator clear. Ring system just beginning to tilt so that the sliver of the gap between the rings and the planet could be seen on both sides. 5 moons spotted with Titan tucked in close to the planet and just N of the rings. Iapetus dimmer and much further out.

Great stuff 😀

[IB20]

Spent the night looking at Saturn and moons with the 76Q and 200P. Initially the low altitude meant 100x was about the optimal mag. The dob showed Titan, Tethys, Dione and Rhea nicely. The 3” only Titan and Rhea. HD219236 masquerading as a possible Iapetus candidate but after some comparisons with neighbouring field stars it was confirmed. Planetary wise, still preferred the view through the 3”; although it doesn’t show more, it shows what it shows “better”, especially with more modest magnifications. 

With the moon up spent some time just taking the whole satellite in with my new ES24 68°. A cracking eyepiece that works superbly in the Tak. Spent too much time just looking a this giant floating rock at 40x, although you can  see why in the image!

After Saturn gained some elevation, went for a final view in the 200P. Much crisper views and dropping a 9mm SLV (another cracking eyepiece) in and lo and behold, Iapetus was finally visible. A great way to end the night. 

 

[SuburbanMak]

Back out there tonight after a long break (work drama, hols etc).  Spent a calm couple of hours with the Tak FC-100 & FS60 CB using Baader and SVBony zooms in the main scope and the SL 30mm UFF in the baby Tak. 

Looked at the Double Double, Alberio, Ring and Dumbell nebulae (pleased to get M27 from the garden on a moonwashed night), the Double and Owl clusters, M29, M34 and a tour of the moon.  Good to be back! 
 

 

 

 

[Mr Spock]

It was clear here early on (as it is now), but, you guessed it, cloud rolled over as soon as it got dark. 

[Nik271]

I had a very clear observing session last evening about 11pm and enjoyed the summer classics: The Ring, Dumbell, Albireo, Double Double, M13 and M92. T CrB is still at mag 10 or thereabouts. I used my Skymax 127 with just 2 EPs: 9mm Redline  and 24mm Hyperion. The globulars were sparkling with faint stars with averted vision, a mesmerising sight. I could see two extra faint stars between the Double Double pair, of magnitudes 11.9 and 12.3. 

Incidently does anybody see faint red/orange hint of colour  in the rim of the Ring nebula? I see it regularly (including last night) at high magnification.   

Edited August 25 by Nik271

[PeterC65]

My first session of the season last night (EAA). I tried using the new release of SynScan Pro, which includes plate solving, to align the mount. It worked really well with GOTOs spot on throughout the session. I was also trying a new (to me) Pentax 55mm lens for widefield. It needed to be stopped down and needs a dew heater, but showed some promise.

Objects below 30° were a little nosy and even higher up there was very wispy cloud, but when that cleared I had some of the best views I’ve seen of the Veil Nebula, the Sadr region, and the North American and Pelican Nebulae.

Here is the East Veil Nebula …

NGC6992

There’s a full report here.

[Xilman]

Last night: UZ Boo --- now at V=16.27 +/- 0.02 ---, (4897) Tomhamilton, and (5203) Pavarotti. The pair of asteroids to help determine their rotational periods.

Tonight, almost certainly SFA. Really dusty atmosphere and the volcano Tajogaite is largely obscured, despite being less than 3km away. Anyway, I am still sleepy from last night's (really early today's) session.

Edited August 25 by Xilman
Add Oxford comma.

[Xilman]

2 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

My first session of the season last night (EAA). I tried using the new release of SynScan Pro, which includes plate solving, to align the mount. It worked really well with GOTOs spot on throughout the session.

First thing I do every session is to take a 30s image of at whatever bit of sky the scope is pointing. Maxim DL makes plate solving and subsequent syncing of the scope. After a large slew or two I repeat the process. Almost always the GOTO is withing a few arc seconds of reality.

Highly recommended.

[lunator]

A very brief gap in the clouds gave me chance to look at T CrB. Nothing to report tho' 😀.

Cheers

Ian

[scotty1]

Thin high cloud , and now cloudy with stratus. There was clear spells about 02.20 had a look at the moon near the Pleiades. 

Pentax 55-300mm

1/160th f7.1 iso 500

1 sec f6.3 iso 1000

Edited August 26 by scotty1

[Whistlin Bob]

Too busy to post yesterday, but had a wonderful Saturday night. Forecast was a bit iffy, but it turned out well until 2am 🙂. Had the 14" big boy out - the highlights were-

M13- seen this so many times now in binoviewers, but it still puts a massive smile on my face: a messy big ball of resolved stars, I can gaze at it for ages. So I did!

Saturn- I needed the aperture mask to see the best of the disk, but it gave some really nice detail and banding, again in the binoviewers. I then took the mask off and switched to the baader zoom for some moon spotting. I got Tethys, Titan, maybe Mijmas, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus (not Hyperion, I think). 

Lunar- I'm not often up late enough for waning gibbous, so it was lots of new views for me scanning up and down the terminator. Best one was a really strange 'horned' shadow on the floor of Maurolycus - must be an amazing landscape to generate that! I wasn't able to grab a picture, but the image halfway down this Wikipedia page shows a bit of it: 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurolycus_(crater)

Lovely session 😃

[lunator]

Conditions weren't great but managed a quick look at T CrB. Still no change.

Cheers

Ian

[Pixies]

Surprise clear night here. Too tired to set anything up except the Seestar.

Might check for aurora too.

[saac]

Clouds on, clouds off, clouds on, clouds off...... You get the picture, gave up on trying to collimate the scope and picked up a pair of binoculars that I discovered I had forgotten about! Managed to find Andromeda and had a wee quick marvel at my favourite faint fuzzie just to make sure it was still there, it was   Then clouds on again,,, going to bed  

Jim 

[IB20]

Conditions clear out of nowhere so a quick grab of the IS bins. Scanned Cassiopeia and looked for the Veil in Cygnus, without success. A good look at big bright fuzzy Andromeda and then turned my attention to Saturn. Two obvious spokes compared to the usual elongated oval shape with regular bins. More impressively was able to spot Titan, excellent.

[magnahrl]

Started the evening with a serious collimation of my vintage C8. The air was so calm so I actually collimated in focus.  Luxury!  Altair and Beta Pegasus were the targets.

Main target for the evening was the double 72 Pegasus and indeed without any doubt I got a clean split with black space between A and B in E-W position. Both white colours with and an orange tint. 444X and 500X. Vixen GP mount. I must have stared at the beutiful sight for almost 20 min.

10 Aries was split at 222 and 250X. N pos.

Saturn still low above horizon but a beuty as always. Could only suspect a hint of banding on the globe. No Cass div on the rings.

Very fine evening/night. No wind, pleasantly warm 15C ,  good seeing, sometimes maybe 8/10P. Observed from my balcony.

Had to stop too early as I must rise & shine early tomorow. GRRRR!!!

Thanks for reading and Clear Skies🙂

Magnus A.

 

Edited Wednesday at 22:44 by magnahrl

[Vroobel]

I didn't expect that two my setups may work tonight. The sky is so surprisingly clear that I easily saw M31, M57 and M13 through an Olympus 10x50 binoculars. I'll try to find something else. 😊

P.S. Liverpool, Bortle 9+ 😉

 

Edited Wednesday at 23:14 by Vroobel

[SwiMatt]

It was clear here until about 00.30 CEST, I was out at my observation spot in the woods with the Mak 127. Unfortunately my list for the night was a lot of targets too low on the horizon where the air glow was horrible. Transparency and seeing were quite decent towards zenith so I ended up doing a small session on some known targets: M57, as clear as ever (I also sketched it, you can find it on the sketching forum), Albireo, Epsilon Lyrae and M27 - interrupted by clouds. I also spent way too long looking for M56, but without success. It's a small and quite faint globular cluster, so maybe it's just a tough target for my tools and skies.

I also got some company from a local cat, that was a very nice encounter

[Captain Scarlet]

After what’s been an age, a late-change-of-forecast heralded a clear night. I hadn’t yet seen Saturn at all this season so that was my priority, if nothing else. As it turned out, it was indeed nothing else, aside from Titan Rhea and Tethys. I had intended to move on to the Veil and M57, but the weather Gods had other plans.

It was nonetheless a not-unsatisfying session, First Light for a couple of things: Vixen GPD2 mount (manual but driven in RA) and Baader VIP Barlow. Having an RA-driven mount is very nice, I must say. Saturn just stayed where it was in the eyepiece! Luxury.

Clear whilst setting up, bands of cloud soon started arriving, so M31 was naked eye one moment, even Saturn obscured the next. I was finally driven to rush-pack-up by a heavy rain-squall. I got about 10 minutes observing in. Seeing seemed quite good and the view through the Barlow with Baader 10mm ortho was great, for only a few seconds before the cloud.

I had my SV140mm on the GPD2, it seemed to pose no problems. Full report to follow, it merits one, I think.

Magnus 

Edited Wednesday at 23:56 by Captain Scarlet

[Nik271]

I was lucky to have very transparent sky at 10:30pm last night. Still plenty of LP in suburban Oxford, but at least I could see all the main stars of Ursa Minor, so about 5-th magnitude stars visible with naked eye.

I finally managed to see the full outline of North America Nebula NGC7000 (previously I could only detect the 'California' part). I used a 8nm OIII filter and my smallest teslecope, the 70mm F6 refractor. With 24 Hyperion I get more than 3 degrees  FoV which just about fits the nebula. The 'Gulf of Mexico' was very obvious. I could detect the northern part of the NAN extending even further beyond the FoV almost to 60 Cygni. I looked for the nearby Pelican nebula but could not convince myself for certain that I detected it.

Another highlight of the evening was getting to see the Eastern and Western Veil in the same Fov. It just about fitted in. In the past I struggled with the Western Veil since 52 Cygni is right in the middle, but this time it was very clear, like a thin ghostly dagger with a jewel in the middle. On the other hand the Eastern veil was mich easiler, a glowing crescent hanging in space like a blowing sail. 

 I bought the small refractor primary for my Ha Quark but it is proving very useful at night time too. It can split the Double Double and Izar at x105 without breaking a sweat. Everybody should have one 🙂

Edited Thursday at 09:51 by Nik271

[scotty1]

Winter constellations 04.00 with phone 

I like the familiar pattern of Orion, but when he appears I start to feer the approach of cold weather and goodbye summer.  

The ISS went past Jupiter as I was freeing up memory on the phone....

 

Edited Thursday at 14:28 by scotty1

[magnahrl]

@ Magnus, having a RA driven mount is indeed nice. I can`t live without one as I often use high magnifications.......

Magnus A.

[jhonson]

On 14/12/2021 at 19:40, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Giving up on the weather forecasts I've not even checked for the last week. Tonight locking up, I looked out and the sky was crystal! A good opportunity to try the Opticron 15x70s on my old aluminium Monfrotto Art monopod & Neewer ball head. The whole system worked as expected I managed about 45 minutes just gazing really. Lunar, Pleiades, Hyades and about half the session spent on Orion. I could definitely make out the 'wings' of M42. The longer I looked, the more I saw. The binoculars really provide a sense of scale compared to a telescope view. M42 looked massive against the background expanse.

A nice relaxing session at a balmy 8°c. Unfortunately I forgot to wipe the damp off the garden chair and my bottom was soaked when I went in. 🙄

Those Opticron 15x70s are fantastic for spotting details like M42’s wings.

[Whistlin Bob]

11 hours ago, Nik271 said:

finally managed to see the full outline of North America Nebula NGC7000 (previously I could only detect the 'California' part)

That really is an outstanding result👍

[jjohnson3803]

11 hours ago, scotty1 said:

Winter constellations 04.00 with phone 

I like the familiar pattern of Orion, but when he appears I start to feel the approach of cold weather and goodbye summer.  

I'm with you on that one.  On the one hand I'm thinking, "It'll be nice to observe Tau / Ori / Aur in the morning again." 

On the other I'm thinking, "Another miserable Midwest winter coming."  It doesn't help that my son keeps urging me to move to Mexico.   🙂