What did you see tonight?

[AndrewRrrrrr]

Seen from West Sussex coast at 22:01 a massive at least 3 part fireball passed travelling from west to east and ending up in  Cygnus. I didn't have my distance glasses with as was peering through a telescope so a bit fuzzy! covered a good 60 degrees of the sky. was an orange-yellow colour and maybe was visible for 5 seconds. Wow! was absolutely amazing, never seen one like that before. 

Any else see it?

[John]

5 minutes ago, GasGiant said:

........ I didnt get to see Saturn very well last year but tonight shes out !  First time ive seen it properly. How long before discs start 'coming back' ? 

 

 

The last 6 frames of this give some idea:

[PeterStudz]

20 minutes ago, GasGiant said:

 

 

Going to get up at around 3 for Jupiter and Mars. Apparently its going to be clear all night !

 

 

 

Don’t forget Uranus & Neptune

[Xilman]

Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me!

Nice, almost haze-free night and seeing about as good as we get here. Set up, focussed, etc and turned to AY Lyr, which is about V=18.2 at the moment. After 12 minutes the VS was visible but probably not measurable (I'll know tomorrow).

The cloud coverage then became 100%, the first time at night for weeks 😢

[GasGiant]

8 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

Don’t forget Uranus & Neptune

If I can find em 😀

[PeterStudz]

3 minutes ago, GasGiant said:

If I can find em 😀

I just have my smartphone strapped to the OTA and an app to find anything that I have trouble with. Works every time!

[IB20]

The clouds have rolled in so I only got an hour with Saturn. Best I’ve seen it this season as it’s getting higher earlier. The SM125 frac made short work of neighbouring Tethys and Dione; the brightest I’ve seen Tethys. Rhea is hovering just above the eastern ansae which I’ve never seen before and Titan is always obvious. Iapetus is off plane in a strange position but visible after locating with averted vision. Tried for Enceladus but nothing convincing. Occasional glimpses of the CD when pockets of good seeing occurred.

[scotty1]

Just the summer triangle, the moon, Saturn, Arcturus.

I didn't see this myself, but someone on another forum I go on, said they had witnessed a bright meteor viewed from Norfolk heading north west at 20.21. 

Edited September 15 by scotty1

[John]

11 hours ago, GasGiant said:

If I can find em 😀

Neptune needs a fair amount of magnitude to make out it's disk - it's just 2.4 arc seconds so about the same as the star pairs separation in Epsilon Lyrae (the "Double Double"). With a 5 inch or larger aperture and high magnification (like 250x or more) it is possible to see Neptune's largest moon Triton under good conditions. 

A few of Uranus's moons can be spotted as well, with slightly more aperture again.

Edited September 15 by John

[lunator]

Decent conditions tonight. Had a look at several doubles in Ophiuchus the Moon and Saturn. All in all a pretty good session.

I did see one curious sight. I initially thought I saw the ISS going overhead but I got SS7pro out the ISS was below the horizon and the trajectory looked wrong. 

Not sue what satellite it was but I will try and find it on Heavons above.

Cheers

Ian

[Ratlet]

Went to bed fairly early last night.  Felt absolutely rotten with a stinking headache.  Woke up about 0400 feeling a lot better and very refreshed.  To my surprise the skies were clear so I dragged out the grab and go (10" Dob).

Orion was a bit disapointing and nothing I could do would get much detail out of the nebulosity; a combination of the incoming dawn and some thin and wispy clouds.  Fortunately I had bigger fish to fry.

Mars was looking okay, not the best I've seen being both tiny and ludicrously bright.  I wasn't really setup for it to be honest, I didn't have my VPF which normally helps.  Still some differences in colouration were evident and the SVBony 3-8mm zoom continues to be an absolute beast.

Jupiter on the other hand was spectacular.  Plenty of detail on show and the moons were as widely spread as I've seen them.  The central band had plenty of turbulence evident and some hotspots and barges (I think) were visible.  Not too sure on the naming.  Once again @Louis D's suggestion of stacking a yellow and moonglow filter to give a dirt cheap contrast booster kicked the view up a notch.  I can imagine that some would find the yellow tinge a bit intrusive, however for me it adds to the view as it gives me huge nostalgia for the Voyager images from back in the day.

Two learnings from the session would be that I've been spoiled with  the 102ED and having tracking on the mount.  Secondly I think I might have to invest in a 2" VPF or polarising filter so I can get a bit finer control over the brightness by fitting the 2" to the 2" to 1.25" reducer and the 1.25" bit on to my eyepiece.

Great little session.

[GasGiant]

Well,  what a session....

Up at 3 am and Jupiter was SPECTACULAR.  I've never seen it so clear. I dont think i had it better last winter. I stayed on it for ages, did some sweeps and couldnt help coming back to it again and again. 

Couldn't find Neptune or Uranus but found Mars. Could I see some shading on Mars? or was it my mind playing tricks on because I know what it looks like 🤔😃

[josefk]

I feel like i missed out on Jupiter last night reading on here - cloud brought me in at 00:00 while Jupiter was still only rising but maybe a coffee and a nap and a second session later would have paid dividends. Damn.

Anyway i very happily clocked up my hundredth 1st time observation made in this calender year - NGC 6811 an Open Cluster in Cygnus had the honour. This is a subtle little cluster easily overshadowed by a brighter group of stars that isn't in fact "anything" just to its west. The brighter group does include at least one Struve double but i suspect with better planning there would be more doubles in the immediate vicinity to have a look at. 

NGC 6819 observed just prior as my 99th "new discovery" in this year was even nicer - it would be very easy to look at this location and mistake several bright diamond and triangle asterisms as the OC but in fact the actual NGC OC is a super subtle but super rewarding dusting of stars that only revealed themselves (at least to me and with 85mm aperture) after waiting a few moments for them to appear. The OC is mag. 7.3 and 13' across - i saw it as a rectangular group elongated NS (more or less). Quite beguiling actually, they would disappear if my eye went to the brighter stars, very pretty and recommended.

A super peaceful evening out enjoying the moonlight rather than cursing it and no dew! Yay!

 

 

Edited September 15 by josefk
typo

[Johnny81]

Decent seeing last night warmer evening as well, with only some wobble on Saturn which peeked above my house at 10.40ish! Looked absolutely fantastic in the mak 127. 

Plenty of double star spotting in Aquila and Sagitta but some wash out from the moon below, not to mention the light pollution both the usual and every single neighbour light on.

Stars looking like perfect fried eggs at x100 plus.. airy disk or collamation issue??

Also the biggest house spider i have ever seen on the kitchen floor whilst packing up before bed time.... 

 

Edited September 15 by Johnny81

[GasGiant]

14 minutes ago, Johnny81 said:

Also the biggest house spider i have ever seen on the kitchen floor whilst packing up before bed time.... 

 

Ah yes. Tis the season husbands/dad's become the heroes of the house. We've had a few beauts so far and as usual its up to me to catch and release 😃

[PeterStudz]

Just woken up after being out up from 2:15am until 5am. Southampton, SkyWatcher 8” Dob.

Seeing very good, probably due to the jetstream being well out of the way.

Jupiter - as it got higher I could occasionally push Jupiter to  x375. The GRS in view with details, ovals and trailing swirls visible. Some interesting festoons and hotspots too. The EZ has a few disturbances, one large one to the west of the GRS was obviously. The EZ seems more active than last yr which I’ve noticed before when looking at the planet.

Mars - surprisingly sharp with it still being small, but it is now larger than when I last saw it almost exactly a month ago. Its phase very obvious. I could easily see the unmistakable white of the  North Polar Hood and some subtle and dappled albedo features to the south running E-W. A little towards the terminator too. No southern icecap visible.

I also took a look at the Orion Nebula. Played around with the Astronomik UHC with the nebula for the first time. Definitely enhances the nebulosity here!

Uranus - a lovely blue/green little ball which was still well defined at x375. Could not see any of its moons.

 

 

Edited September 15 by PeterStudz

[josefk]

1 minute ago, PeterStudz said:

Jupiter - as it got higher I could occasionally push Jupiter to  x375. The GRS in view with details, ovals and trailing swirls visible. Some interesting festoons and hotspots too. The EZ has a few disturbances, one large one to the west of the GRS was obviously. The EZ seems more active than last yr which I’ve noticed before when looking at the planet.

GRRRRR. that does not soften my sense of missing out! 🤣

[TiffsAndAstro]

at midnight last night, sky had cleared.

at 12:08am i was set up and polar aligning.

At 12:13am i started my sequence.

At 12:15am clouds covered half the sky including my target  

nice guiding (relatively) while it lasted....

im sure tonight will be clear.

Edited September 15 by TiffsAndAstro

[Jim Franklin]

Gutted - I had to go to bed as I was knackered, but it seems the sky cleared. My other half was out with a friend and after dropping her off came home around 01:00hrs - she said when he pulled on the drive the sky was clear - "like leds shining in a mine" was how she put it - I thought she was joing - but reading comments here make me think she wasn't. I am on school run duty Tuesday - so I weil have an early night and get up about 02:00hrs to enjoy the allegedly clear skies we are supposed to have.

[PeterStudz]

9 hours ago, josefk said:

GRRRRR. that does not soften my sense of missing out! 🤣

If it’s any consolation I dithered and missed Saturn. I dithered because I knew that I had to drive to London today (got back about an hour ago) and obviously needed some sleep.

So, I initially went to bed. Then couldn’t sleep very well as I knew I was likely missing a good night. At that point I made my mind up to go for a few hours at most. After that I was at least able to get some sleep!

[josefk]

It’s a funny old hobby isn’t it. It sounds  like you were well rewarded with Jupiter though. 
There are some more clear nights in the outlook this week (according to the BBC at least, it’s not so optimistic on Clear Outside). Fingers crossed. 

[SwiMatt]

Here too the sky seemed amazing yesterday night. Unfortunately going out wasn't on the cards for me 

But tonight I saw... Clouds and haze, haze and clouds 

[Pixies]

Very bright white meteor at 21:05 tonight in Edinburgh. Went from Perseus, through Cassiopeia to Cygnus over about 3 seconds.

Lots of images on the UK meteor network website, too. 

[Captain Scarlet]

0215 just plonked out my grab and go setup, Kowa 88mm and Delos 4.5 for 113x for a quick look before bed at Saturn and Jupiter, Saturn surprisingly sharp with Titan and Rhea on show, then Jupiter a bit less clear with all four moons strung out “right”.

Magnus

Edited September 16 by Captain Scarlet

[Paz]

10 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

0215 just plonked out my grab and go setup, Kowa 88mm and Delos 4.5 for 113x for a quick look before bed at Saturn and Jupiter, Saturn surprisingly sharp with Titan and Rhea on show, then Jupiter a bit less clear with all four moons strung out “right”.

Magnus

Could I ask does the Kowa 88mm focus with any eyepieces and does it need an adapter or do they go straight in? I've been mulling over getting a spotting scope for terrestrial/bird watching and have concluded if I do then I want to use my existing eyepieces (Delos), so I've been trying to establish which spotting scopes would be possible.