What did you see tonight?

[Mr Spock]

Looks good. Scope is out cooling.

New mount extension brings the eyepiece up to standing height, which is good. What's bad is the extra weight and awkwardness of the whole thing 

[John]

I've got my ED120 refractor out mostly to align a new finder I've put on it. Now that's done I guess I'd better look at a few things with it ! 😁

Seeing seems steady but transparency only mediocre. 

[Mr Spock]

The only other issue with the scope that high is looking through a RA finder! 

[Mr Spock]

Moments ago saw a really bright meteor, short lived, moving across the top of Corona. Way brighter than Venus...

[Xilman]

Currently taking images of (5203) Pavarotti. Prior to that UZ Boo, T CrB and V1117 Her.

 

[IB20]

Out with the much neglected Starwave 102ED-R tonight. Cruising the starfields of Scutum with the ES68° 24mm. Some lovely doubles, particularly h-Aquilae, a golden primary with a dimmer orange companion. Tried again unsuccessfully for NAN and the Veil with both UHC and OIII filters but no dice. Need darker skies for sure.

Over to Andromeda with its lovely bright core, unbelievably saw M32 for the first time too although I reckon I’ve seen it plenty of times and just not realised it! 

With Saturn finally on show had an extended session and could easily make out Rhea, Tethys and Titan. The gaps in the ring system nice and visible, occasional glimpse of the CD although sometimes I think my brain is filling in some information that’s not actually there. 

Finished off in Cassiopeia with M103, NGC663 and Stock 2. Small confession, I’d never seen the double cluster through a scope before tonight and wow, just a superb and captivating object. Looked stunning through both 24mm and 17.5mm Morph. Understand the fuss now! 

Wonderful session, the Starwave is a great scope, glad I haven’t sold it. The ES68° 24mm just gets better and better too. Even saw a couple of sporadic meteors too!
 

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 22:48 by IB20

[Mr Spock]

Some doubles in Aquila...

[Xilman]

1 hour ago, Xilman said:

Currently taking images of (5203) Pavarotti. Prior to that UZ Boo, T CrB and V1117 Her.

 

90 minutes of (5203) Pavarotti completed. Ten minutes into another 90 on (2168) Swope.

[Jim Franklin]

First night for a while - In the garden. 

Bit of high level cloud, but seeing OK - Nice clear views of Jupiter and the Galilean moons all spread out in a line - Didn't image Jupiter - managed a nice one of M45 Pleiades. Not my best shot. 5 of 2min exposures using the 102mm mounted on the LX90 using the ZWO ASI 071MC Pro - needs processing properly. Tomorrow night, if clear, I will get Jupiter - need some good images as not taken any for a while, tonight was a bit of a shakedown. 

[CraigT82]

Nothing really, went out at 1.15am to capture some Saturn images and although the sky looked clear I could barely see any stars and couldn’t even find Saturn visually. Boo. 
 

Did have a bit of a visual session around 9am though, checked out some doubles and asterisms, so not all lost. 

[Damo1965]

Saturn a bit of a washout for me (East Yorkshire) as she was only at 16deg alt and above the black garage roof which always affects seeing. Managed to see Titan and Rhea though.

Swung off to Herc Cluster which was excellent and spending some time around AR Cass and Delta Cass (never noticed it is bright blue with the Oiii on)

Managed to knock over the birdbath so called it a night. 

[Saganite]

First time out with my dob since fitting a Baader Steeltrack and re collimating, which proved to be spot on.  The seeing was steady but transparency was not very good, lots of high level cloud and great lumps of the stuff blotting the sky.

My intention was just to check out the scope but a quick look at one object led to another etc, so inspite of the mediocre conditions I was out for a couple of hours and a look at 13 ' lollipops '.

Moving from M57 to M56 and then down to M71 my star hopping went awry and I came across what I thought was a smallish clump of cloud. I lingered, waiting for it to disperse but it didn't and upon checking the atlas discovered it was M27 The Dumbbell Nebula, a very pleasant surprise.

M31 was majestic as always and  M33 was nowhere to be seen, but then I knew with the conditions ,that it wouldn't.....ever the optimist...

The last 'lollipop' was the very beautiful Double Cluster, dominating the sea of stars in my FOV, all pinpoints out to the field stop, and I spent some time just soaking it in, finishing at 12.45am

Edited Friday at 08:19 by Saganite

[Mr Spock]

Last night I could just about (with averted vision) glimpse δ Aql at mag 3.4...

I need that Lotto win so I can move somewhere with dark skies.

[Mr Spock]

Hoping for some good seeing tonight. The jetstream is well to the north 👍

[inedible_hulk]

Woke in the night and couldn’t settle, so took my ST80 out to grab my first Saturn of the year.

Seeing was excellent, but transparency wasn’t so good, with some thin high level cloud limiting things to between mag 8 and mag 9.

Saturn clearly visible as a disk at x60 and x85. No features visible on the disk. The rings were visible as a narrow line extending either side of the disk. On occasion I could discern the rings as a separate feature crossing the disc. Titan was clearly visible, but faint.

A quick comparison with my SvBony 3-8mm zoom at 8-6mm with my ES 82 degree 6.7mm and 4.7mm eyepieces showed the latter to be crisper and with more contrast, when combined with a Baader prism diagonal, on this target and in these conditions.

[PeterC65]

The cloud cover map was showing two hours of clear sky just before midnight last night so I decided to go for my first visual session of the season. I set up the Explorer 200 alongside the 72mm refractor, the latter fitted with a 2” diagonal and the StellaLyra UFF 30mm for widefield. Target selection was a bit rushed as I hadn’t decide whether to go ahead until 9pm.

M11 Nice and clear with the Explorer 200 but I could see no sign of the Milky Way with either scope. The sky always seems very bright with the widefield setup.

IC4665 This one really needed the widefield view to get any context.

NGC6633 Not your usual star cluster due to the ‘I’ shape formed by the star grouping.

IC4756 Another interesting cluster shape.

Cr399 The Coathanger was only perceptible with the widefield setup and try as I might I could not make it out with the Explorer 200.

M71 This one needed the Explorer 200 with some magnification (8.8mm) to bring out the tiny stars of the globular. I could just about distinguish between some of them.

M27 The Dumbbell Nebula was obvious immediately with both scopes but I needed the Explorer 200 and a UHC filter to pick out the apple core shape. Interestingly the OIII filter didn’t improve things.

NGC6940 Another good star cluster to observe with the Explorer 200.

M57 I was expecting to struggle with the Ring Nebula and I couldn’t see it with the 72mm refractor but it was fairly clear with the Explorer 200. After winding up the magnification (8.8mm) and selecting the UHC filter I could clearly make out the ring shape. This time it was a little better with the OIII filter.

SAO049528 Sadr Nice star field but no nebulosity, even with the Explorer 200 and UHC filter. Interesting to compare this experience with an EAA session I did a few nights back of the same object when I could see masses of nebula. To be fair the predicted cloud bank was starting to roll in.

M31 Looking for something lower in the sky to avoid the cloud bank I skipped some intended targets and took a look at Andromeda. I’m always disappointed with galaxies when I observe them visually and even with the Explorer 200 it was still just a fuzzy blob.

Saturn First Planet of the season and lower still in the sky. With the Explorer 200 and 4.7mm I could make out the rings, almost edge on, but no more detail. Checking Stellarium today, I could also see Titan.

I was using a new observing hood some of the time and it proved very useful for maintaining my dark adaption and just keeping my focus on the view through the eyepiece. I did still need the eyepatch though.

 

[Nik271]

As others have noted trasparency was not great but the seeing was excellent in the morning. I observed Jupiter and Mars with my Skymax 127 and amazingly Jupiter supported magnification in the  x180 range. I coul see details in the belts and a couple of white ovals in the  equatorial zone. Mars was small but at x250 I could see the northern polar hood as a bright haze, and a dark band further south, I think it was Cimmeria. Definitely worth getting up early!

[Stu1smartcookie]

8 hours ago, Jim Franklin said:

First night for a while - In the garden. 

Bit of high level cloud, but seeing OK - Nice clear views of Jupiter and the Galilean moons all spread out in a line - Didn't image Jupiter - managed a nice one of M45 Pleiades. Not my best shot. 5 of 2min exposures using the 102mm mounted on the LX90 using the ZWO ASI 071MC Pro - needs processing properly. Tomorrow night, if clear, I will get Jupiter - need some good images as not taken any for a while, tonight was a bit of a shakedown. 

i really like this image ,not sure what else is needed here , uncluttered and very "clean" 

[Jim Franklin]

17 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

i really like this image ,not sure what else is needed here , uncluttered and very "clean" 

Thanks - I usually like to bring out the nebulosity that surrounds many of the stars in the cluster - but I think sdome of what is in this image is also high level, very whispy cloud fragments.

I have drawn a picture of Jupiter - I am no artist and drawing with a HB pencil in the dark does not do the mighty J justice...but I will share it later once I have scanned it in. 

[Jim Franklin]

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Hoping for some good seeing tonight. The jetstream is well to the north 👍

You and me both. Mr Spock. 

[Jim Franklin]

2 hours ago, Nik271 said:

As others have noted trasparency was not great but the seeing was excellent in the morning. I observed Jupiter and Mars with my Skymax 127 and amazingly Jupiter supported magnification in the  x180 range. I coul see details in the belts and a couple of white ovals in the  equatorial zone. Mars was small but at x250 I could see the northern polar hood as a bright haze, and a dark band further south, I think it was Cimmeria. Definitely worth getting up early!

Being down the road from you I suspect we shared the seeing locally, I had the same experience with the sky, Jupiter, for me in the 8", was a bit more defined, I have drawn a very poor image of it (I am no artist) which I will share later once scanned. 

[Jim Franklin]

Here is my drawing of Jupiter - in my defence

1. I was left unsupervised

2. It was dark

3. It was on my knee

4. I am shiite at drawing

5. It was only a HD pencil

 

🥴🥴😂😂😂😂

 

[SwiMatt]

3 minutes ago, Jim Franklin said:

2. It was dark

 

    

Nice sketch! You should post on the Sketching forum next time you are left unsupervised

[scotty1]

Lazy astronomy with the phone 

ISS flies in to chimney pot 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by scotty1

[IB20]

Soupy seeing tonight, lots more light pollution too. Some quick views of Andromeda, M57 and Saturn but not nearly as good as last night. Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Titan all on show. Iapetus should be too but I wasn’t able to spot it.