What did you see tonight?

[IB20]

As I viewed Mars throughout the evening and night the Northern polar hood that was visible earlier on seemed to reduce in visibility and eventually vanished. Any members know why? Is it a seeing or a positional thing or is it something that is happening to the polar region itself?

[Captain Scarlet]

I went out to get rid of the cat detritus and saw the Moon covered in a thin layer of cloud, and a distinct Moon-Rainbow, which I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed before with all the colours, normally the ring is shades of brown. Anyway, a poor iPhone shot which just about shows it:

Edited January 6, 2023 by Captain Scarlet

[Mr Spock]

Back to rain again here 

[Mircea]

On 02/01/2023 at 22:53, PeterC65 said:

My first visual session for a while tonight. I setup for really widefield, using the widefield 72mm APO with the new (to me, curtesy of @bosun21) 2" diagonal and the even wider field 36mm Baader Hyperion Aspheric. With this setup I get x12 and a 6° field of view so I did some prep looking for big targets on Stellarium.....

 

 

Peter

Please let me make a suggestion. With such an instrument like a 72mm aperture and six degrees of actual field, you are well geared to observe OB Associations.

This are somehow exotic objects, pretty unknown, they lay in front of our eyes but we don't see them.

You was just observing one : the Orion Belt stars and Sigma Ori are parts of Ori OB1-B Associations.

OB associations are often ''associated'' with the much more better known star clusters.

The said Ori OB1-B association contain the Collinder 70 open star cluster. The ''S'' shape asterism between Epsilon Ori and Delta Ori are stars in the Cr 70 open cluster.

We read often statements that the Orion Belt stars are forming the Cr 70 open cluster. No, this is wrong. Cr 70 include only Delta Ori and Epsilon Orin of the Orion Belt.

Ori OB1-B include the entire Orion Belt plus Cr 70 open cluster.  At about three degree diameter, this is an object right for your RFT setup.

 

May I suggest also Collinder 65, North of Lambda Ori. It have a diameter of 3,5 degree and contain easy double stars. Plus the carbon star Ruby Star/ 119 Tauri is near.

 

Clear sky, Mircea

[PeterC65]

2 hours ago, Mircea said:

Peter

Please let me make a suggestion. With such an instrument like a 72mm aperture and six degrees of actual field, you are well geared to observe OB Associations.

This are somehow exotic objects, pretty unknown, they lay in front of our eyes but we don't see them.

You was just observing one : the Orion Belt stars and Sigma Ori are parts of Ori OB1-B Associations.

OB associations are often ''associated'' with the much more better known star clusters.

The said Ori OB1-B association contain the Collinder 70 open star cluster. The ''S'' shape asterism between Epsilon Ori and Delta Ori are stars in the Cr 70 open cluster.

We read often statements that the Orion Belt stars are forming the Cr 70 open cluster. No, this is wrong. Cr 70 include only Delta Ori and Epsilon Orin of the Orion Belt.

Ori OB1-B include the entire Orion Belt plus Cr 70 open cluster.  At about three degree diameter, this is an object right for your RFT setup.

 

May I suggest also Collinder 65, North of Lambda Ori. It have a diameter of 3,5 degree and contain easy double stars. Plus the carbon star Ruby Star/ 119 Tauri is near.

 

Clear sky, Mircea

That's interesting to know. I wasn't aware of these OB Associations. The ones in Orion are certainly great widefield targets. Can you point me at a list of them all? I can't seem to find one online.

I've already got Collinder 65 on my list. Just waiting for clear skies ...

 

[Geoff Barnes]

Had a wonderful, rare night out with the 12 inch Dob and focused on Jupiter who was putting on a majestic show just before he disappears behind the trees for another year. My 6.5mm Morpheus was the ep of choice giving 230x mag.

The GRS was on show approaching the southeast limb, and right alongside was Ganymede just visible as a slightly darker spot right near the limb. Seeing conditions were a bit wobbly to say the least and Ganymede flitted in and out of view but was against a lighter coloured band which made viewing possible. After half an hour the transit ended with the tiniest pimple just breaching the edge of the disc and oh so slowly separating into black space.

While all this was happening, little Io was approaching to replace Ganymede and begin his own transit, albeit on a slightly higher trajectory as the GRS closed in on the opposite edge of the Jovian disc, and the cursed trees started blocking the view.

Quite a show to behold and one that will live in the memory for another year.

Mars is now coming into view from behind the trees on the opposite side of the garden and will be the focus of my attention for the foreseeable future, quite low in our sky but just high enough for good views when conditions allow.

[SuburbanMak]

Moonwashed clusters between broken cloud tonight first with 10x50s then fetched out the ST80. 

Played with some different EPs and ended up favouring a Celestron 40mm (10x) and Baader Classic Ortho 18mm (22x) tonight. 

Cruised around Orion, Alpha Perseus & Double Clusters, M35 (just, in the moonlight) Hyades and Pleiades.  Lovely night & seeing and transparency quite good between cloud banks. 
Due another gap in an hour or so, if I stay awake that long… 

[SuburbanMak]

A lot of high haze around last night but was able to grab another quick garden session playing with 2” EPs in the ST80 (31mm Baader Hyperion Aspheric and 26mm GSO Superview).

Initially I could only pick out Mag 3+ stars so the sky looked like a simplified constellation map through Gemini, Auriga, Orion, Taurus, Perseus & Cassiopeia.  
 Enjoyed the very widefield views of the whole Orion sword area, Pleiades, Hyades “the kids” area of Auriga all very pleasing (M36/7/8 being detectable but unspectacular at this Mag in this haze so I went exploring around Auriga). 
Craned overhead to spend some time on the Double Cluster in Perseus - looking good in the surprisingly enjoyable GSO Superview at 26mm (lots of queasy edge distortion but on axis a sharp, bright, contrasty view). 
Best view of this limited session though was of the Orion’s Belt/ Collinder 70 region in the Baader 31mm in a field over five degrees pulling in the whole cluster.  The three main belt stars interwoven with silvery ribbons of fainter stars, beautiful. 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by SuburbanMak

[Ratlet]

The 130PDS is living in the shed at the moment.  With my SVBONY 3-8mm zoom, I can nip out when making dinner and waiting ofr the tatties to boil.  Jupiter is (for my location) very high at this time so the seeing is always much better than later on when it hovers above the house.  Some nice banding evident and went staight from 8mm to 3mm (80 to 216x).  Nice trick that!  Seeing wasn't the best, but got the odd bit of stability with some nice detail popping out.

[Mircea]

PeterC65

The web page of  Larry Mc is a good resource regarding OB Associations :

http://www.stellar-journeys.org/OB-Tour.htm

I learned about this objects from the ''Classic Rich Field'' topic of Allan Dystrup.

At the second post of this topic there is a list of 45 such associations. Not all are visible from northern hemisphere but most.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/565226-classic-rich-field/

Most O-B Associations are big, some are quite huge. To be able to see them I built a 60mm F/4.3 RFT refractor, using a Russian ''Tento'' binocular objective.

It is working fine, it is allowing me to see in one field O-B Associations up to a size of 350 arc minutes, at 10.4x obtained with the X Cel 25mm eyepiece.

However, the are usually star clusters close or included in the OB Associations. So I keep at hand another eyepiece for a higher  magnification like BCO 6mm for 43x.

One night I was able to see 15 O-B Associations with my humble gear.

When watching, we should remember not all stars visible in the right area belong to the O-B Association but only the hot, white and bluish stars.

So what I done, I counted how many stars where white/ blueish and how many yellow or orange in the area of the O-B Association.

Reading the comments in the topic of Allan Dystrup it is mind blowing to try to imagine the distribution in space of the stars and related to us, their evolution in time.

The O-B Associations are objects to be seen part with the eye, part with the mind.

 

Clear sky, Mircea

 

[IB20]

Absolutely clear but blowing a gale. Can’t be more frustrating conditions than these. Not even entertaining the idea of going out. 👎🏼

[Mr Spock]

1 hour ago, IB20 said:

Absolutely clear but blowing a gale. Can’t be more frustrating conditions than these. Not even entertaining the idea of going out. 👎🏼

Same here. It's absolutely howling. Sky was clear earlier but you'd have to be mad to put a scope out in this!

[Epick Crom]

Seeing was excellent last night here in Perth. This enabled me to use 534x on Mars to great effect. I saw a very distinct white polar cap and several dark markings through my 10 inch dob even though Mars has now shrunk to 13". 

Im positive I saw Valles Marineris for the first time as well, so chuffed I am!

Wishing you all clear skies 

[josefk]

Well if it's not one thing it's another - 1st clear night since the 2nd January and yet 25mph winds. I did foolishly try a little scope but even at 30x and mounted no more than 3-foot off the ground it was vibrating too much so reverted to mounted binoculars at 15x.

I must have been subconsciously influenced by the talk of OB associations above. Collinder 70 was pretty as expected in a 4.5 degrees FOV but i made no attempt to distinguish Cr70 stars from the busy (and lovely) star field here. The whole Orion area including M42 below looks lovely at any magnification including just 15x. Collinder 65 - like Cr70 - taking advantage of the big FOV but no attempt to pick it out from the star field in detail. Also the smaller open clusters Collinder 69 and Caldwell 50 (no nebulosity detected here even at this big exit pupil), then NGC 2244 (Herschel VII-2), NGC 2232 (VIII-25), NGC 1817 (VII-4), and NGC 1807 (h348). 

It was good to be out in general (and to observe a few more Herschels definitely) but there was no peace and quiet in it in this stiff breeze so i would be hard pressed to say it was an enjoyable session exactly. Fingers crossed for something in the next few nights.

[josefk]

8 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Same here. It's absolutely howling. Sky was clear earlier but you'd have to be mad to put a scope out in this!

...i am that man! 😂

[Epick Crom]

The Crab Nebula M1 has always been a nemesis of mine, my previous best sighting of it was extremely vague at best. But last night I caught in along the meridian line and was treated to my best ever view of the supernova remnant. I could clearly see it with averted vision as a fuzzy formless patch. My love for it has now grown!

[badhex]

I had a couple of short sessions in early November, but had fewer than 30 mins of observing time since then 😱

Partly this was due to recovery from shoulder surgery (I even got my 80ED/skytee setup and ready to go under a BBQ cover on the covered balcony so I didn't need to move anything) , but actually the main issue is pretty much continual cloud cover for the whole of the last two months. Very annoying as my time with my current scopes is limited - everything gets shipped to the UK in a couple of weeks and I won't see it again until probably June! 

[SuburbanMak]

Delayed note of a session Thursday night… 

Made it out with the ST80 in 2inch mode to get first light on the Stellyra 30mm UFF & the verdict is… fantastic ! Crisp, colour-rich & contrasty views of pin sharp stars across 90% of the 5.3 degree field and even the edge distortion greatly reduced over the Baader Hyperion 31mm Aspheric as hoped. 

I at last I have the widefield monster I planned when adding the TSOptics  2inch focusser & diagonal 18 months ago. 

Was dodging between clouds & transparency was mixed along with still plenty of moon but had so much fun looking anew at Orion, Pleiades, Hyades, DC, Beehive, M35 even managed to pick M81 & M82 out of the moonlit murk in AV. 
Superb eyepiece and will give the ST80 a new lease of life - on balance I’d have been better off laying out on an ED72 right from the start but having flocked, fettled and converted I’ve now paired it with the perfect eyepiece to enjoy its use! 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by SuburbanMak

[Saganite]

Using just the Vixen at the moment, and the seeing is very good. Jupiter and Mars showing good detail so far , Albireo presenting text book diffraction patterns, beautiful colours, very steady !

Didn't expect this and been working in the dome so everything moved out hence just the Vixen set up .   Should be a good night !

[scotty1]

Woke up at 04.00 am today to check for  C/2022 E3 (ZTF). 

Clear sky untill about 04.40 am , found the comet easily with a wide 90mm photo shot above Corona Borealis. Then got my bros 10x50 bins and could see the Comet fairly easily. 

The clouds rolled in after about 30 mins. Quite cold 3.5 C and windy. 

Quick in camera RAW to JPG 

Single shot 300mm f5.8 10 seconds ISO 6400 with Pentax K70 + Astrotracer.

Edited January 15, 2023 by scotty1

[Saganite]

Easy split of Rigel so I thought E&F in the Trapezium would show , but just not quite high enough yet, so  later hopefully.  The seeing remains steady.

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by Saganite

[Froeng]

Had an early Mars session from 6-7pm today. Seeing was mixed, could not see that much detail. The disk if the planet is now noticeably smaller than beginning of Jan!

Saw the polar cap and a great desert…

[Ratlet]

Cloud was fairly heavy north of the wall today, however I was Adam Ant that I was going to test out the AZ-GTi before I returned to work on Tuesday.  Managed to get an alignment on Betelguese, Castor and Mars whilst the scope cooled and with some troubleshooting got it talking to Sky Safari.  How foolish of me to think that Sky Safari should talk to the mount, when it is really needing to talk to the app…

Beehive Cluster was first and looked stunning.  The scope had cooled down and the stars were tack sharp in the 32mm Plossl (20x).  A beautiful target and a fantastic advert for low power plossls.

I got a cracking view of Mars through the clouds.  It was completely monochrome, but the seeing was very stable despite the hazy clouds (not sure how that works).  I managed to get the svbony 3-8mm zoom right up to 3mm (216x).  I could make out some darker regions on the eastern limb I think, although it was not constant and kept coming and going.  Having a look about there was total cloud cover at this point ( I could only just see Mars naked eye) so I probably looked a bit of a Charlie sat at the scope looking at clouds.  This won’t have been helped by me having rotated my hat so one of the ear flaps was over my left eye.

I rounded out with M35.  I’m going to be honest and say that before I started observing clusters I thought they sounded about the dullest thing imaginable.  I think that’s because I only ever saw photos of them.  They just don’t capture the magic at all.  The SVBONY at 8mm(51x) did a good job but I swapped to the 12mm BST (54x) but either way it was incredible.  No sign of NGC 2158, but I didn’t know to look for it.  I’ll need to make a note and try again next time.

I’ve very impressed with the goto, but ultimately the tracking is the biggest boost.  It’s nice to be able to change eyepieces and not have to re-find the target. 

I was also using the extension pillar without the legs extended which put the scope at a good height to observe whilst sitting down on the back of a summer chair.  That was a massive game changer.  Incredibly comfortable and the extra stability makes the views so much better.  I’ll need to get started building that observing chair next month.

[bosun21]

On 02/01/2023 at 23:35, RobertI said:

Nice clear night, but it’s just a humid hell, bino eyepieces instantly fogged and by the time I had attached the eyepiece dewstraps, the objective was starting to dew - a very rare occurrence. I’d run out of dew heater sockets so time to pack away and order a 4-way dew heater controller! Mars looked very good tonight…briefly. 

Just buy a 2 way splitter cable for your binoviewer eyepieces and then the other can do your objective.

[rojay]

I had a short session yesterday evening, with clouds coming and going. Looked at Mars and the nearby Pleiades: very different angular sizes! Jupiter was just going behind a neighbour's chimney, so I lugged the Dob to the other end of the garden, which was worthwhile as the view was very clear with definite hints of structure in the bands.