What did you see tonight?

[Captain Scarlet]

You do need an adapter, Kowa make them. It screws into a thread on the inside of the prism housing once you’ve removed the native eyepiece. Changing between adapter-eyepieces is tedious, though. The eyepiece is secured via two small recessed grubscrews in the side of the adapter. You’d want to replace those small grubs with fully nylon or nylon-tipped ones as well, the supplied ones are all SS. Sometimes I don’t bother using the grubs so I can swap eyepieces more easily, though Delos needs to be placed about 5mm proud of the adapter to reach focus, so using “loose” would require a 5mm or so parfocalising ring. It’s not perfect but it works. And being able to use 100x++ on birds during a cool still day always amazes people.

Edited September 16 by Captain Scarlet

[Paz]

2 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

You do need an adapter, Kowa make them. It screws into a thread on the inside of the prism housing once you’ve removed the native eyepiece. Changing between adapter-eyepieces is tedious, though. The eyepiece is secured via two small recessed grubscrews in the side of the adapter. You’d want to replace those small grubs with fully nylon or nylon-tipped ones as well, the supplied ones are all SS. Sometimes I don’t bother using the grubs so I can swap eyepieces more easily, though Delos needs to be placed about 5mm proud of the adapter to reach focus, so using “loose” would require a 5mm or so parfocalising ring. It’s not perfect but it works. And being able to use 100x++ on birds during a cool still day always amazes people.

Thaks very much for posting this, that is exactly what I've been trying to find out.

[John]

Lovely splits of Pi Aurigae and Lambda Cygni with my "oldie but goldie" ED120 refractor. Hazy, thin cloud around so it's not a DSO night but it does seem to be a good doubles night 🙂

300x seems to be no trouble to the scope this evening for these high resolution targets.

 

 

Edited September 16 by John

[Johnny81]

Despite the odd patch of high cloud - the seeing is really good here, definitely a good doubles night, splitting some tighter pairs in Cygnus. Just on drinks break....

[Zermelo]

The seeing is definitely better tonight; the jet stream has moved away. Unfortunately, the high cloud predicted in some of the forecasts has made an appearance, and the moon is making it worse.

Before it got too bad, I did manage to split Zeta1 Aquari (2.4") and Gamma2 Delphini (8.8"), both of which were very pleasing in the SV503 paired with the Svbony 3-8mm zoom (but the diagonal in between them was a Tak - sorry, Svbony😃). I might have stuck at it with the high cloud, but then the dew came on big time and everything was dripping. I must get around to building my dew controller.

[Jim Franklin]

Beautifally clear sky tonight - Here are a series of Moon images I have got so far - minimal processing except for the stacking of multiples for the close up - that is 25 seperate images with filters applied. I am going to take a drive out somewhere really dark. 

[John]

After a rather long break in observing for supper and a bit of rubbish TV, I'm out again observing Saturn and the moon. Thin cloud is acting as a natural filter although it's a touch thicker than I'd like at times. Despite this Saturn and it's rings are looking rather exquisite. Enceladus would be well placed to observe at it's current elongation but the cloud is thick enough to keep it below the threshold of the 120mm aperture tonight, alas.

Fun stuff though I think the gradually thickening cloud is going to put a stop to things soon 🙄 

[saac]

Not a lot other than the Moon, which is no bad thing! Started out well about 2100, trying out my first run at a mosaic of M31, an hour in and the clouds had started to blanket cover the sky. Ach well, not all was lost at least I had a good introduction to setting up a mosaic imaging run on the Asi Air which was incredibly easy.  

Jim 

[John]

Cloud has thinned quite a bit now leading to some decent views of Jupiter (4 cloud belts + 4 moons), Uranus (near the Pleiades) and Neptune's tiny blue disk. 

Good night when you see all 4 outer planets again 🙂

 

[Nik271]

Mars and Jupiter this morning in very good seeing. I could see details in the disturbance of the South equatorial belt by the GRS and some thickening of the North equatorial belt. On Mars for the first time I could detect without any doubt the dark marking in the south hemisphere, this must have been Margaritifer Terra. Mars is only 7'' in diameter but already showing interesting detail. I hope this settled high pressure weather continues for some time!

Edited September 17 by Nik271

[Jim Franklin]

I understand the physics, I can do the maths, but am I alone in being frustrated that the sky is clear and cloud free when busy in daylight, but the minute I get home and start planning - the blooming clouds roll in - even those thin wispy ones ruin images - grrrrr 🫣🫣😂😂😂😂

[bosun21]

Nice and clear here in Oxford for a little while at least. Due to this it's time for the 80ED and Porta II which is my G&G scope. Just going to do some lunar and have a prowl around the clusters in Cassiopeia until the clouds roll in.

 

[lunator]

Pretty clear here in Somerset. The seeing is pretty good. Slightly annoyed I have to be up at 5am tomorrow. I have got the Dob out and tweaked the collimation as we have an observing evening at the astro club tomorrow. I was only using the supplied 25/10mm from the ST80 as these are the ones I will be using tomorrow. The double/double was easily split at x120. 

I had a quick look at TCrb, slightly trickier in the scope than in the binos I think I got the location right and. It looked pretty dim.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Telescope40]

Stop the press !! John has actually had a session - maybe mid May since last one. Nothing mind boggling, just a few of the usual from just after sunset.  TAK FS128 nicely cooled. 
Albireo, M11,M13,M2,M15 and then Saturn. Cyclops and BV’s. 
Very nice view with 4mm Nirvana ep - 3 moons.Possibly Titan, Rhea and Tethys. 
About 8.30 the ISS made a flyby and at the same time a real nice bright meteor ☄️ off to the south. Could be the brightest one I’ve ever seen. 
Goes to prove that the night sky is happy to wait patiently for us. 
Happy camper.  John 👍

[Mr Spock]

Having a doubles session in the top of Hercules. Slowly working my way up to Draco. Seeing is excellent - Σ2161 looked amazing in the 100mm at x185.
Despite the moon, transparency isn't bad either. None of the high 'muck' that has been spoiling things here lately.

Just taking a coffee break. Then back out for more doubles. I'm not moving the scope up to the top of the garden so I'll wait until Saturn and the Moon come round the house.

[Nik271]

Saturn looks good even at x200 tonight 😀 Titan very close to the planet, looks almost as dim as Rhea on the western side. Tethys and Dione glimpsed occasionally. There is lots of light pollution from the Moon and city centre south of me. I wish Saturn will hurry up and rise faster...

Edited September 17 by Nik271

[John]

1 hour ago, Telescope40 said:

.....Goes to prove that the night sky is happy to wait patiently for us..... 

Pleased you got some observing in again John 🙂

I agree very much with your sentiment above though - I'm having a night off despite the clear skies. It's a hobby, after all. It will all still be there another time 🙂

[Mircea]

The Moon, Saturn and five stars of Aquarius ( Phi, X, Psi 1-2-3 Aqr), around ten o'clock local time, as seen with naked eyes and my Baigish 8x30mm binocular.

The sky was hazy but the image was beautiful. ( This is how the artist secretly living in myself saw the ''event'', nothing scientific. )

Anyway, it was not quite a conjunction because the distance between the Moon and Saturn was bigger than four degrees.

Mircea

[cajen2]

Saturn's so close to the moon that even I can find it! (Huge LP here and I'm very bad at star hopping!).

It's so long since I've viewed it that I'd forgotten how small the image is, even at 240x mag. Nice with the 4.5 Morpheus but even better with the Svbony zoom set at 3mm. I'd expected a fuzzy image at those mags but it's pretty damn sharp - that has to be the best value EP there is.

Even with such a small view, a couple of moons and some banding are clearly visible.

One of those rare nights when I regret having to sell my 8" dob.... The Starfield 102 is doing a cracking job, but a bit more aperture....🙄

Edited September 17 by cajen2

[Paz]

I was out for a short while with a 72mm refractor and checked out Saturn, the moon  and some nearby doubles.

Saturn was dim and obscured a bit from nearby street light glare. I tried for Neptune the other side if the moon but wasn't confident that I found it.

94 Aquarii, not far below Saturn was a nice double, mag 5.2/7.0 and 12.2" separation. 

Then Zeta Aquarii above Saturn, magnitude 4.1/4.5 and 2.4" separation,  a satisfying split.

On the moon I was checking out the mountains in profile right on the limb, but I happened to have a deep sky filter wheel on so I flicked through the filters on the moon at low magnification. Heres how they looked to my phone camera (all filters are baader the point being to have par focal filters).

Clear focusing filter...

 

UHC L filter... which looks almost like a ND filter to the eye, the colour it presents is not obvious and my phone camera seems to present this as even whiter and brighter than itn ooked to tht eye, but the thin ring of colour around the limb gives it away.

OIII filter...

Hb filter...

C2 SWAN Band filter...

[Mr Spock]

Just having ten minutes. It's turned cold and my fingers are frozen.

There's a nice peak on the limb near Grimaldi. Lots of surface detail on it with the 100mm and 3.5mm LVW (x211). Very crisp view.

[Ratlet]

Seeing is astounding.  Saturn is just gobbling up the power.  Even at 3mm on the dob it's still razor sharp (but zipping through the fov).

[Jim Franklin]

Well, clearly to prove me wrong fropm my earlier comment the sky cleared - seeing is pretty darned good. Cannot resist the Moon, I have not used my SVBony 302 or ASI585MC for a while - so used them tonight - although SharpCap annoyed me by keep crashing. I managed some images of M31 before I got to the point on needing sleep - that is a quick take of 3 images without any real processing - I have a lot to go through to stack properly, but my brain is mush - and its starting to get nippy outside.

[Zermelo]

I seem to have been unlucky down here with the thin, high cloud. It's been coming and going all evening, and of course the full moon makes it a lot worse. A shame that it co-incides with this nice clear spell. Views through the SV503 were difficult, and anything faint was off limits.
So thank goodness for doubles. Fifteen of them tonight, splitting down to 1.9" (HD 172712 in Draco). Iota Cassiopeia showed three tight components, but the best was possibly HR 9094, a lovely, wide, yellow/blue pair, also in Cassiopeia.
I also had a look at some OCs away from the moon, though everything was affected by the lighter background. The double cluster was the best, with some very sharp stars in the Morpheus 17.5mm and nice colour variation.
The seeing ranged from average to good, and the temperature was quite comfortable, though there was a gusty breeze at times that induced some shake. It was certainly an improvement on last night - no dew, and no fog creeping down the valley.

[Mr Spock]

And we are done. A layer of high cloud has come across and brought things to and end.

Not before I got some of the best views of Saturn ever. For years it's been down in the mush, tonight, it was razor sharp.