What did you see tonight?

[wookie1965]

Just had it in the TAL same as you just a fuzzy. 

[Saganite]

Persevered as long as I could this evening just to be out, but the seeing is so poor, diabolical in fact, it was not enjoyable.  Still, must take the bad with the good...

[Nakedgun]

4 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Just had a good session on Venus with the 12".

Happy to report the variable polariser I just purchased works a treat and Venus has acceptable brightness with it rather than being overwhelmingly bright. Despite some atmospheric CA, the gibbous disc was clean at x217 with a hint of shade across the centre. Very nice!

~

What diameter is that polarizer, are they made eyepiece-size?

 

 

.

[F15Rules]

Got the FS128 out tonight after a few hours late afternoon sunshine. The atmosphere was murky but I just wanted to get outside with the binoviewers and my new eyepiece pairs..

I went straight to the Trapezium in Orion with my new Maxbright II Binoviewers and my new pairs of Tak Abbe orthos 12.5mm and BGO 18mm. Contrast and sharpness was superb, despite the murk. 

Soon after setting up everything just started to steam up and within 40 minutes or less I gave up.

Feeling both elated and frustrated at the same time, but I've seen enough to know that this binoviewer is by some margin the best I have owned, and on a decent night I think it will be an amazing piece of kit..

Dave

 

[IB20]

29 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Persevered as long as I could this evening just to be out, but the seeing is so poor, diabolical in fact, it was not enjoyable.  Still, must take the bad with the good...

I’m glad someone said it! I had both scopes out and everything looked rubbish. Thought I needed to collimate my dob after Mars looked blank and out of focus. Tried to find the comet but had zero luck either but nipping out with bins just now revealed why, it’s dropped a fair few magnitudes.

 

[Mr Spock]

31 minutes ago, Nakedgun said:

What diameter is that polarizer, are they made eyepiece-size?

Yes, 1.25" or 2". I have the 1.25". It conveniently splits into two. I have one part on the bottom of my 2.5x Powermate and the other on my eyepiece (ortho). All I do is rotate the eyepiece.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/moon-neutral-density-filters/astro-essentials-variable-polarising-moon-filter.html

[josefk]

Not sure where to stick this  as it's not worth its own post and i also had to cheat NGC 1647 into the sketch this morning but anyway - here C/2022 E3 from last night.

Comet C/2022 E3 was the main event more or less for me last night. Report over here (as suggested by Stu below): https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/406545-c2022-e3-ztf-again-with-ngc-1647/

Core clearly visible and quite bright and directionality of the gaseous glow (or at least the off centre nature of the core within the  glow) appearing with averted vision. No tail though or colour for me.

Edited February 14, 2023 by josefk

[Stu]

1 hour ago, josefk said:

Not sure where to stick this  as it's not worth its own post and i also had to cheat NGC 1647 into the sketch this morning but anyway - here C/2022 E3 from last night.

It's a great pairing with NGC 1647 so i recommend it if you get chance while it's there. The cheating was because to draw the cluster required too much red light and i wanted to tease out as much as possible from the comet itself and especially the extent of it versus the tiny stars in its immediate vicinity.

Core clearly visible and quite bright and directionality of the gaseous glow (or at least the off centre nature of the core within the  glow) appearing with averted vision. No tail though or colour for me.

That’s totally worth it’s own thread, might get some more comments as a separate post in the Observing - Widefield, special events and comets section

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/53-observing-widefield-special-events-and-comets/

or the Sketching section

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/21-sketching/

Please do consider posting in one of those.

I’ll repeat my normal refrain; whilst I have no objection to the ‘What did you see tonight?’ thread, so much good stuff gets lost on there with no ability for members to comment, you just have to scroll by and like. Starting a new thread is FREE! 🤣 No one will ever reprimand you for doing it, and we never run out of new threads! So please do consider posting observation reports in the right section where people can properly post comments then link them back here so people find them easily. I love reading observation reports big or small, and we all want a happy Stu, don’t we? 😉🤣

Thank you 👍

 

[josefk]

👍🏼 @Stu

[Mr Spock]

Yeah, this thread is intended for a quick "I'm looking at Jupiter (or whatever) and I can see some great belt detail" or other reports on what you are up to etc. Full, detailed reports, deserve their own thread.

[wesdon1]

17 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Just had a good session on Venus with the 12".

Happy to report the variable polariser I just purchased works a treat and Venus has acceptable brightness with it rather than being overwhelmingly bright. Despite some atmospheric CA, the gibbous disc was clean at x217 with a hint of shade across the centre. Very nice!

My very first filter was a variable. I purchased it to counter effects of Venus and other very bright objects. I too can attest to their effectiveness! 

[PeterStudz]

52 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

My very first filter was a variable. I purchased it to counter effects of Venus and other very bright objects. I too can attest to their effectiveness! 

I agree. I also found it very useful on Mars when it was very bright at/near opposition. Not so much use at other times but then it allowed me to see features on Mars that I would have struggled with if I didn’t use it. 

[Froeng]

Had a look at the comet in the C8 last night. Blighted by light pollution and condensing water vapour (the scope looked like it had been hosed down!), what can I say to describe what I saw? Disappointing? Underwhelming? 
Certainly both of the above. The core was very faintly visible at 40x magnification.

I did take a photo as well as seen in the imaging thread over here:

 

[PeterStudz]

Nice clear night here in Southampton. Unfortunately I have to go off and be “romantic” 😀

[PeterC65]

More of a learning than observing session last night, only five targets, M1, M82, M81, NGC3938 and M106, the last two new to me, but I discovered that ...

Edge of field star distortion in the BHA 36mm is quite annoying, and there is even some with the ES68 24mm, but it's much less noticeable.

I do need the Clear filter (no filter) as well as the Luminance filter (visible light) for EEVA. It's great for faint galaxies with structure but not much colour, broadband emitters that benefit from the extra light grab.

The Explorer 150PDS with the Baader Classic Q Barlow (measured at x1.7 with my camera) does a good job with small faint objects, better than the Baader Hyperion Barlow (measured at x2.4) which gives just a bit too much magnification.

A light breeze is enough to set the Explorer 150PDS rocking on the SynScan AZ GOTO mount (it is slightly over the weight limit) but the SharpCap FWHM filter is great for ignoring the windy frames and waiting for the steady ones.

 

[Mr Spock]

Got everything out and set up and... it's clouded over.

[cloudsweeper]

1 hour ago, PeterStudz said:

Nice clear night here in Southampton. Unfortunately I have to go off and be “romantic” 😀

Poor you!  💖

[Stu1smartcookie]

So like others I have been conscripted to a restaurant where I have spent precious astro money on , admittedly, a decent meal .. 

I was desperate to get the new scope (starwave 6" ) out but as we know , rushing stuff isn't advisable in this hobby so I contented myself with just a quick peek . Almost stumbled on the Beehive which looked fantastic , a couple of bright stars did show a bit of CA but it's expected . Can't wait to see how it fares with globs. 

As with all purchases it looks like clouds are guaranteed for the next few nights  zzzz 

I need to upgrade the saddles on the skytee as although it held the scope , I am a bit nervous with the stock saddles . .  Can anyone tell me if there is a knack in removing the slow motion knobs , after removing the grub screws they still feel like they are welded !!!! 

Looking forward to a proper nights viewing . 

[Sunshine]

Jupiter!

[CraigT82]

Quick look at Jupiter and Mars but seeings was very poor. Took a tour round some beautiful open clusters (my new favourite things!)  instead:

Ms 36 (Pinwheel), 37 & 38 (Starfish) all in Auriga

M35 in Gemini

M34 in Perseus

Double cluster in Perseus

M45 (Pleiades) in Taurus

Quick look at M42

finally M44 (Beehive) in Cancer   

All lovely looking through a 4” frac with a Stella Lyra 30mm UFF and followed up with an 18mm BCO.

 

 

[Pixies]

Spending a few days away in a (posh)  cabin in North Yorks with the family. Of course I brought some gear, although the forecast was poor. ST80, AZgti, zoom and binos 

Last night was good, so I did a quick tour of some highlights for my brother. There was a little high cloud, so had to dodge around a little . The sky was dark enough to see Andromeda naked-eye earlier, but it was behind the trees by the time we were out. Ticked-off:

Double cluster

Pleiades

Beehive

E3(ZTF) comet

M81/82

Leo Triplet

M51 Whirlpool 

M35/36/37

But to be honest, he was most impressed just using the binos!

 

[Epick Crom]

I had excellent seeing conditions last night, the atmosphere was super steady, so I decided to go to town observing several objects at 686x ( my 3.5 mm saxon eyepiece barlowed X2) using my 1200mm f4.7 10 inch dob.

Mars: Despite being 9" across, this magnification showed me Valles Marineris as a dark spot. The image still really sharp.

NGC 104: 47 Tucanae. An absolute explosion of stars at this magnification! The steady seeing making it possible. Almost overwhelming.

M42 : Orion Nebula. Wow, my best ever view! The nebulosity still really bright at this magnification, with an incredible amount of details within the nebulosity. Dark rifts everywhere. I saw several faint stars glinting within the nebula that I had never seen before. All six stars of the trap plainly visible. The view is seared into my memory!

I also looked at Sigma Orionis, Tegmine and Castor at the same magnification. Just beautiful and still surprisingly sharp!

I highly recommend applying very high power on nights when you have excellent seeing and transparency. Even from my bortle 6 backyard the views were incredible. Wishing everyone clear and steady skies.

Joe

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Epick Crom

[Justin richens]

I saw lots of clouds tonight…. Nothing to report

[SuburbanMak]

An unforecast break in the clouds tonight allowed a quick bino session with the Canon IS 10x42’s. 
Nice views of the Beehive (M44), Coma cluster (Melotte 111) a stunning object in this format, M3 a big fuzzy star in its context and the Markarian’s chain area in  Virgo.  Visually a bunch of dim, smudgy “stars” but conceptually awesome to consider the vastness of space and time captured in that 6.5 degree field of view. 
These bins are fantastic. 

 

[IB20]

Jupiter and Venus looking magnificent. The conjunction should be a belter. 🤞🏼