What did you see tonight?

[westmarch]

Clear skies in Galloway and Red Aurora alert just in, fingers crossed. 

John

[globular]

Clear(ish) forecast here too, amazingly.
Kit is out and I'm getting excited.

Only spanner in the works is the Jetstream, but I'm going to ignore it.

[Zermelo]

Looking to be clear here, but cold.

The seeing may be poor, but it's been too long since I was last out. There may be aurorae too!

[Mr Spock]

Had a quick look at the moon. Partly shaded by the fence and boiling, even at x46.

[PeterC65]

Getting ready for my third night of EAA in a row, this time with the 72mm refractor and the 8" Newtonian.

The bright spot is the Moon by the way, not some light pollution, thanks goodness.

 

Edited September 12 by PeterC65

[SwiMatt]

I just went out to test my new phone camera which comes with a dedicated astrophoto software. Not too bad for a 4 minutes exposure, the AI software behind is definitely doing a lot of heavy lifting (and I edited myself some curves according to taste). I look forward to see what this camera can do with less LP. Also, did I pick up some aurora or is it just clouds..?

 

Edited September 12 by SwiMatt

[GrumpiusMaximus]

@SwiMatt Predicted aurora here tonight and it looks like you've picked it up there.  Nice one.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Got my 70mm ED out.  Spent five minutes out there, saw the clouds rolling in and then saw lightning.  No, I'm not going to be outside with my face near a collection of metal poles with lightning around...

[Jim Franklin]

Thumbnail of Tonight's Moon. 

Meade ETX90 with Canon EOS5D mkIII at prime focus. Single image. ISO600 120 second tracked exposure on Skywatcher EQ5 Pro mount.

[lunator]

Had a quick session with my reassembled 114mm  Newt. I am hoping to use it at a local outreach event on the 18th so trying to get it sorted. 

Did have a decent view of Saturn and Titan. Alberieo,  Bizarre and Alcor. 

5am start tomorrow so it is unlikely I will see the Aurora.....

Good viewing to anyone hoping to see the Aurora

cheers

Ian

[inedible_hulk]

Nipped down the mere as the app was showing red to see if we could catch the aurora. Seemingly no such luck, but did catch a bright meteor low to the northeastern horizon which seemed to break up at the end.

[Mr Spock]

Just popped in for a warm, a coffee and a snack.  It's only 5° out there! 🥶

[Nik271]

I just realised I missed a transit and shadow transit of Rhea which finished a few munutes ago. Did anybody manage to see this? The seeing is quite poor here.

[Nik271]

1 hour ago, SwiMatt said:

Also, did I pick up some aurora or is it just clouds..?

 

Definitely the aurora. Should be good from Sweden:

 

https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/auroral-activity/auroral-oval.html#ovation-1

[globular]

5° here too and I'm in for a few minutes to warm up with a cuppa.
It's great to be out observing again. Saturn is looking quite nice considering. A few surface bands and ring gaps on display - cassini division eluding me though.

[globular]

1 hour ago, Jim Franklin said:

Thumbnail of Tonight's Moon

You have big thumbs 😉

[Captain Scarlet]

Seeing not great here too,  but was looking at Saturn towards the SSE and someone put on a very bright floodlight behind me or so I thought. I turned around to catch the brightest fireball I’ve ever seen in its last moments as it broke up into several pieces.  Turned the night into almost dsylight, quite incredible

Edited September 12 by Captain Scarlet

[Nik271]

Actually the seeing is ok at the zenith. Fawaris, Delta Cygni is looking good at x150. The secondary seems slightly yellow, first time I notice colour in this double.

Saturn is not very sharp by contrast. I could spot Tethys, but so far the emerging Rhea near the western limb  is eluding me.

 

[John]

Just finished an enjoyable session with my TV 85. I was pleased to get NGC 404 (Mirach's Ghost) and Messier 33 this evening in the little refractor.

Plenty of other, brighter targets as well. 

"diamonds on velvet" effect very apparent when viewing the double cluster in Perseus 😁

[saac]

Sky is stunning tonight really clear and the air is still and not a cloud in sight. I took a break from using the telescope but couldn't resist a half hour just standing under the stars and enjoying the stillness of all.  

Jim 

[Zermelo]

Worth going out, though the seeing wasn't too good, as predicted.

A few doubles, a few open clusters, Saturn and the Eastern Veil (with UHC). Not quite as cold as I'd feared, but eventually forced in by heavy dew and fog advancing up the valley. Nice to be out again.

[IB20]

First time seeing Neptune through bins, massively helped by IS tech. Located north of the three straight line stars of 20, 24 & 27 Piscium and does actually have a blueish hue. 

[globular]

In for another warm up. Really enjoying it out there, mainly because it's so rare these days for me.
Lots of old favourites. Notables: M71 was surprisingly nice. M15 was almost a wow. But then I do like globulars.

[Ratlet]

Collection of old familiars tonight.  Saturn was looking good.  Seeing was mostly okay but when it firmed up every so often was very good.  Pretty sure I clocked Rhea just above the disc and there was occasional hints of subtle banding.  Probably should have had another go later once it had cleared the neighbours house.

M31 was reasonably good in the 17.5mm Morpheus and the 24mm holy hand grenade.  Decided to get M33 again, not done it in ages but decided to see how it faired in the 102.  Not sure if it was the scope or me getting better but it was a fairly easy observation.  Might try the 10" to see how the extra incheadnaffect the image 

[globular]

1 hour ago, John said:

I was pleased to get NGC 404 (Mirach's Ghost)

I went and had a look. If I defocused I could see it in the 3rd diffraction ring of Mirach. But properly focused I couldn't make it out.
Any hints on what I'm doing wrong?
I was clouded out during my attempt so maybe conditions were failing rather than my observation skills. 🤔