What did you see tonight?

[Littleguy80]

I almost talked myself into just going to bed this evening but instead decided to get the Tak out for a look at Jupiter. I spent most of my time moving between the gas giant and the Moon above. Noting the slowly improving views as both climbed higher in the sky. I’ve started watching Brian Cox’s Solar System series on iPlayer. Thinking about this gave me the idea to chase down all the outer planets. Using the Nagler 22, I navigated to Uranus from the Pleiades. Uranus giving a strong green colour in the Nagler and showing as lovely disc at higher powers. Saturn was next, seeing was poorer here but Saturn never disappoints. Neptune completed the tour as a tiny blue disc. Again, the strong colour in the Nagler was the most engaging view. A nice relaxing way to finish off the weekend. 

[Mr Spock]

I can actually see the comet from the garden - not visually. It's over the top of the houses opposite.

It's clouding over now but I've had the 100mm on it. Looks great in the 30mm UFF at x25.

[PeterStudz]

13 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I can actually see the comet from the garden - not visually. It's over the top of the houses opposite.

It's clouding over now but I've had the 100mm on it. Looks great in the 30mm UFF at x25.

After I saw this I went out… unbelievably I can see it too (in binoculars) from light polluted Southampton. Just over the rooftops!

[Mr Spock]

Snap through the Tak...

Not bad considering my LP!

[scotty1]

Yesterday evening despite a very thin veil of cloud  with gaps , I could see Comet A3. Easy to pick out with 10x50 bins, but not naked eye. 

Tried to see some Orionids from 03.30, had a look for around 25 minutes. Didn't see any meteors , although with the moon 82% near the radiant not surprised. Camera didn't pick any up during two hours of photos.

Edit: for the last three nights I've seen starlink heading west-east around 20.00 . I'm guessing these are different launches , wouldn't be the same set coming over?  I've never seen them three days in succession. 

Edited Monday at 21:31 by scotty1

[Mr Spock]

while I was bringing the kit in, Starlink went over. I counted 21, each as bright as Vega. They aren't very well aligned to each other and a couple looked quite close.

[lunator]

Has a good look at comet. The conditions were better tonight and the comet look good next to 19 Oph and the other stars in the field.

TCrb is still waiting...

Had a brief look at M30.

We also saw several satellite phenomena that caught us by surprise. Firstly there was a satellite about as bright as the ISS but on a polar orbit (South to North). Then my wife spotted  a 'space worm' it was faint grey extended line heading north south. Finally there were 12 satellites heading West/East there were irregularly spaced  out but all on the same trajectory. I am assuming it is a starlink launch.

Cheers

Ian

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Very cloudy tonight but I was still able to image the comet through the haze, and to see it through binoculars.

[IB20]

Very windy with a lot of wobbly air but the views of Saturn through the DL are something to behold. The contrast of the ring’s shadow on the front of the planetary disc is incredibly defined and razor sharp. This is my 2nd play with it and it has showed it both times. The atmosphere is all over the place but the views are remarkable. I haven’t seen it this defined in either the 102ED-R or SM125ED to date. 

A ladder of sandy coloured bands climb the northern hemisphere up to a dark polar hood. Dione, Rhea and Tethys is an L shaped formation just off the Eastern limb. 😍

I think I have found my planetary scope, Jupiter and Mars can’t come round soon enough.

[Elp]

Well I was planning on having a gander at Tsuchinshan after a few minutes of imaging it after looking for a viable off site location for days, but got spooked by a lingering vehicle nearby whom decided it was time to switch on headlights full beam.

[Mr Spock]

I've just checked that image against CdC. Despite only being an 8s exposure it reaches mag 13.7. Once I get the mount polar aligned I'll be able to go deeper. 

Oddly, looking at the original 5568 x 3712, the star shapes are fine. When I tried the FS60 it was horrible and would have needed a corrector to get good star images (I haven't bothered with it).

I might try imaging a few clusters.

[Johnny81]

High cloud till about 8pm then cleared nicely, moon out the way for a good hour as well. Plenty of doubles in Pisces tonight, although there is a lot of murk and whilst in the area had a look at Neptune and Saturn (only seen one moon, probably titan) as well. Jupiter with all 4 Galilean Moons looking awesome. 

Edited Monday at 22:11 by Johnny81

[Whistlin Bob]

Out for the evening, so not much astro opportunity, and came home to a milky sky. Had twenty minutes, though, with 8" dob on the moon (4mm Nirvana @ 300* just breathtaking) and Jupiter (7mm Celestron - bit soft, but still lovely).

Very nice way to finish the day. 

[Ratlet]

Back at work tomorrow and it's been off and on cloudy  and perpetually blowing quite hard.  Had a look at Jupiter and the moon out the window and they are looking pretty good.  I think we're out of the Jetstream up here but it is just a bit too late for me.

[paulastro]

Pic of CometTsuchinshan taken this evening, Oct 21st, at home in Oakworth with the Seestar.

[LaurenceT]

Nice views of Saturn with the Startravel 102 and the Baader Zoom at 8 degrees, my wife even came outside for a peek wearing her jimjams!

[AlcorAlly]

I very much enjoyed the GRS display this evening. At around 82x with binoviewer and 4” refractor Jupiter was majestic. GRS looked like an eye starring back at me 👁️

[John]

Two short sessions with the Tele Vue 85 for me this evening. Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon and some double stars gave me my "astro fix" this evening. 

The TV 85 is a marvellous tool for grab and go observing. Straight out the door I was able to use 200x and get razor sharp views of Saturn.

 

[Mr Spock]

I did a reprocess of last night's image. I'm not happy how the forum is presenting it though. On my screen the comet is smooth with no artifacts, and the star colours are a mix of blue, white, yellow and orange. Looks great. I can barely see the colours here 

[globular]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

I'm not happy how the forum is presenting it though.

When an image is embedded in a thread a lower quality version is displayed so that the thread loads nice a quickly.

If people double click on the image a full detailed version opens in another window. 

Nice image 

[PeterStudz]

Last night. Handheld image from an iPhone. Considering I’m in Bortle 7 Southampton I’m really surprised to see anything at all! Could see it in binoculars, but unfortunately didn’t have a telescope out. My grab and go was having a service 😕 Might try and edit these later.

 

[ED Splitter]

Waited out in the twilight for half an hour to see comet. Only when it started to get dark could I pick it up in binoculars, the tale only visible with averted vision. Not as good as last Thursday sadly. Couldn’t get scope on it before the clouds. 
Shame as my daughter was keeping me company and was asking for the comet. We did get to see Venus, Saturn, alpha Hercules, Altair, the ring nebula and the double cluster. So not all bad. 
picture for attention. The phone did a weird ai thing in silhouette. 
 

 

[Mr Spock]

7 hours ago, globular said:

If people double click on the image a full detailed version opens in another window.

Nope. Double clicking does nothing. If you open the image in another window it looks the same.

[Mr Spock]

Scope's out ready for the next round. 

Got my polar alignment sorted. After messing with the extension I got a few weeks ago, it was out - way out. Polaris was barely in the polar scope's field of view! How the heck it managed 8 seconds is a miracle. Should be good up to 30 seconds at double the focal length now. It worked before with my CC 6".

[Mr Spock]

Tonight's a bust. I've had the Tak on the comet but transparency is horrible. I can see it averted vision only in the bins, and the tail looks faint in the scope.

Overhead, I can barely make out Lyra...

Must be high cloud.