What did you see tonight?

[Ratlet]

Usually my phone never captures the view through an eyepiece, but quite chuffed with this for a quick snap.  Going to try for Jupiter before bed.  GRS should be presenting and the seeing is so good tonight I feel it might finally be my time.

Edit:  half an hour later I got it.  Had to reposition the dob, but got it.  Either the seeing isn't as good in the east or the collimation got a dunt.  But I could quite clearly make out the spot.

Thus concludes my first entirely planetary based session.  Glad I finally got to experience a proper Saturn.  Hopefully we get a few more night like that!

Edited September 18 by Ratlet

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, Jim Franklin said:

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.

What capture settings did you use for M31 tonight, exposure length etc? I'm surprised that you captured it so well in broadband with a full moon washing the sky out. Please tell me your secret. Lovely image.

[bosun21]

2 hours ago, cajen2 said:

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....🙄

The old cake and eat it syndrome strikes again. You replaced it with a very good alternative though Clive. Everybody should have a 4" F7 frac in my book.

[bish]

I'm out looking at the partial eclipse now. No work tomorrow. On holiday in Cornwall and have no kit other than a camera with 80mm lens.  Can still see the Shadow clearly when you crop down. Looks fine with the naked eye too so not too worried about forgetting g bins.

[Captain Scarlet]

Just saw the eclipse, very nice, worth getting up at 0340 for. Used my 400/2.8+1.4x extender to get a picture or two which I hope to post up later in the morning. For now, back to 💤.

[GasGiant]

Not the best ive seen the moon last night but clear enough for a snap

[Johnny81]

Went out as soon as darkness hit. Finished off most of a list I made of doubles in Cygnus, making the most of the decent seeing. I didn't plan well though, by 10pm Deneb and anything along that plain is high in the sky and my 40+ year old body isn't that accustomed to Yoga... and the little Mak was vertical on the AZ40. The Moon was above the house by this point and had some nice quick views before packing up.

[Captain Scarlet]

My effort

 

[ST_Steve]

First night out for some time and although a short session I entertained myself with Saturn and a trip around the moon.

Seeing was good here and reasonably warm. As others have said, Saturn was very sharp and looked great in the 4” with 4.5mm Morph. First time my wife has seen the ringed planet and hasn’t stopped talking about it since…

Forecast is hopefully good for the next couple of nights 🤞

[Peter Drew]

Went outside at midnight, very bright silvery-white Moon with Saturn sharing the scene, sometimes naked eye is all you need.  My "good" eye, following my recent cataract operation provided a really crisp view, I have just received notification that my other eye will be done on October 10 so binoviewing should be up to full strength this coming season.      🙂

[cajen2]

9 hours ago, bosun21 said:

The old cake and eat it syndrome strikes again. You replaced it with a very good alternative though Clive. Everybody should have a 4" F7 frac in my book.

Oh, I quite agree... let's just say I couldn't get away with both....😉

[paulastro]

Out in the early hours of Sept 18th to go for the GRS transit and the 8% partial umbral Lunar eclipse later on.  While waiting for the GRS transit I took a  some pics with the Seestar, the Double Cluster, M52 OC in Cass and also SH2 -171.  Not really a good night for pics with a full Moon and a lot of haze and thin cloud. It always surprises me what the Seestar can churn out in adverse conditions.

I had good views of the GRS transit in the Celestron 8 inch Explorer 8 inch Dob, though seeing not so good after it had passed the CM.  

Is clouded up completely by 2.30, about, forty minutes  before the umbral phase of the Lunar eclipse was due to start so I packed up the Seestar and Dob, it looked fairly hopeless - I should have known better.

Indoors, around 3.10, I decided just to nip outside with my 8x32 binos to check the sky, and when I stepped out there  was the Moon already showing the start of the unbral shadow coming onto the NE limb.  

It was mostly cloudy, but until 3.58 I had frequent views of the Lunar shadow creeping larger and then receeding after passing  the maximum  phase at 3.45

The cloud passing over the Moon and with its numerous cloud patterns and changing colours and form were fabulous.  Though only a small umbral phase, it was one of the most beautiful of the numerous Lunar eclipses I have seen, quite stunning at times.   

A wonderful early morning sojourn.

The SVBony SV202 ED binoculars I was using are a superb value binocular that I bought a couple of weeks ago for £110 from Amazon. I read about them in Neil English's newish book ' Choosing & Using Binoculars' - essential reading if you're  after a new pair of binocs, not only for the inexperienced.

Edited September 18 by paulastro

[paulastro]

4 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

Went outside at midnight, very bright silvery-white Moon with Saturn sharing the scene, sometimes naked eye is all you need.  My "good" eye, following my recent cataract operation provided a really crisp view, I have just received notification that my other eye will be done on October 10 so binoviewing should be up to full strength this coming season.      🙂

That's great news about your op Peter 😊👍.

[Johnny81]

Some clear patches but cloud moving rapidly... sad to say after a good run of clear evenings but the clouds are back! 

[SwiMatt]

I was at a football game and from the stands I saw the Moon better and longer than I could for the whole Summer 😂 

Edited September 18 by SwiMatt

[John]

Blustery winds plus thin hazy clouds here. I went with the 85mm Tele Vue just to get some fresh air, observe a few double stars and Saturn now that it's above my neighbours roofline.

Saturn can just be seen to the right of the chimney stack in this photo.

The Nagler zooms suit this little scope extremely well  (the 2-4mm is in the diagonal in the photo)🙂

 

[lunator]

We had a viewing night at the astro society tonight. Had good views of the Moon, Saturn several doubles and M57. 

Cheers

Ian

[Jim Franklin]

Not out for long last night, had an early start. Took about 25 images with an EOS500D, Sigma 600mm catadioptric lens with a 2x teleconverter, this image was ISO1600 at 1/180th second, it was the best of those I took at various ISOs and shutter speeds - This was done quickly before I stayed out all night as it was crystal clear 🫣

[Zermelo]

I've set up tonight since the apps are all saying clear, but there's been a distinct haze in the air all day, and quite a gusty breeze.

Weather's coming from the NE, and I seem to be just South of a line of cloud that's currently holding its place, but with some high stuff encroaching on the other side.

We can but try 🤞🔭✨🪐

[lunator]

There is definitely some high cloud with the Moon glow being slightly worse than last night.

Looked at a few doubles and Saturn (although a tree did make this tricky) 

TCrb still wasn't visible naked eye. Keeping my fingers crossed.....

Cheers

Ian

[bosun21]

2 hours ago, Zermelo said:

I've set up tonight since the apps are all saying clear, but there's been a distinct haze in the air all day, and quite a gusty breeze.

Weather's coming from the NE, and I seem to be just South of a line of cloud that's currently holding its place, but with some high stuff encroaching on the other side.

We can but try 🤞🔭✨🪐

I'm in Oxford right on the southern end of the clouds and it's correct as of now. Clouded out.

 

[Zermelo]

The wind didn't die down, so it was a case of watching targets oscillate wildly for 30 seconds, then grabbing a second or two of stillness. Mrs. Z came out for a look, and asked if we needed a better mount. I'm taking that as a "soft" approval. 

With the wind, the high cloud and the moon, it was always going to be another doubles session. There are several coloured pairs around at the moment. Albireo and Almach are the most obvious, but the SV503 also showed some subtler yellow/blue contrast in 95 Her, Miram and HR 6758.  Tighter pair Tau Oph at 1.4" was resolved but not split, and HD 166480 at 1.2" was only elongated, probably about right for a 102mm. I suspect the underlying seeing was actually quite good.

I did have a quick look at Saturn, and between gusts it did look sharp. Bands to the North and South were clearly visible. Titan was the only moon I could see; the others were quite close to the planet.

 

[PeterStudz]

Clear here in Southampton with some haze, but very windy and gusty. Although my garden is sheltered I’m not a fan of observing when it’s so gusty, so decided to give tonight a miss. 

 

 

[Mr_Cat]

I've not been using my SCT much recently as to be honest it's a PITA to move out every night, setup, polar align etc etc for less than dark skies...

But then yesterday the postie brought me a Starsense Autoalign so I figured "why not give it a try??"

And despite one missing bit in the instruction  costing me maybe 25 mins it was totally worth it. Next time it will be power on, select align, let it do it's stuff for 2 mins and job done.

I spent most of my time on Saturn and Jupiter  - it was  a little hazy so I just stuck to visual and had a very very nice time
 

[PeterC65]

1 hour ago, Mr_Cat said:

But then yesterday the postie brought me a Starsense Autoalign so I figured "why not give it a try??"

Sky-Watcher are doing their own version of StarSense. The latest version of the SynScan app will auto align any Sky-Watcher mount using plate solving via the smartphones camera or via a camera fitted to the finderscope (or main scope). This is effectively a free version of StarSense if you use the SynScan app on your smartphone and have it attached to your scope. Sky-Watcher will be bringing out a suitable phone holder for this, but I expect those currently available will do the job.