What did you see tonight?

[DhamR]

I had what I'd call my first proper night out with the scope last night having finally realised that what I thought was bad collimation, was in fact good collimation (seeing the secondary off-centre) - see my painful beginners thread if you're interested, also includes lots of umming ahhing.

Long story short I bought myself (and the 4yo daughter) a Skywatcher Heritage 150P Virtuoso for Christmas.  Live in Bortle 6 area but other than a few neighbours with over-sensitive motion-sensing lights, very little in the way of stray light.  Which is good as I'm yet to build a shroud for the open end of the tube.  I did have to put one of the garden cushions on top of my daughter's wendy house to block one offending light, worked perfectly.

I've never written an obs report so let me know if I make any faux pas etc.

We started with Jupiter and the moon before even aligning the mount, purely so we could get some views before they disappeared, particularly my 4yo co-observer doesn't have the patience for much else.

• Jupiter's banding at 75x was the clearest I've seen it, could see one largish orange-red band just above the equator.  The four gallilean's were also present, two either side, and it was mind-bending coming back to them shortly afterwards seeing they'd moved.  Motion outside of rising-setting brings the reality of what you're looking at to the forefront.
• The moon herself was great, with the terminator highlighting some interesting craters both at 25mm (30x) and 10mm (75x) but at this point the tiny person ran off inside.

I then got the scope aligned using Deneb and Castor and immediately headed to M42 and M45 as these have been the two objects I've seen most from my garden when testing out the scope.  Ease of location, darkness of the sky in that direction and the lack of obstructions in my garden make them great places to start.

• M45 showed a bit of nebulosity around at least two stars, it was initially hard to discern this from visual issues but I satisfied myself it wasn't poor focus, centralising of the star and that I had no dew.  I had none throughout the night actually, despite my scope freezing itself to the dewy glass table and my aperture cap getting so frosty it started creaking at me.
• M42 was also the best I'd ever seen it, lots of green glow present, obvious recognisable shape, and I split the Trapezium at 75x.  Even got a cheeky photograph (I'll attach later) at 10s with my Canon 60D.
• I also got probably the best views of M31 I've had so far.  Although only any good if I didn't look directly AT it, bloody biology, I definitely saw differentiation in the blur around the disc, but no spiral.
• I tried to spot a few other galaxies and nebulae from the Synscan "Tonight's best" list, including M101 but I couldn't view anything at all.  Most of these were in the NW direction though, which I'm less familiar with the sky of, so I can't be 100% sure I was looking in the right direction.

I then tried to split some doubles, getting a few nailed down, but sadly not taking a note of which I was successful with and which I wasn't.  I wasn't expecting to get many as I know I'm mostly working in the low-power ranges but was pleasantly surprised how obvious some of them appeared.

Edited January 6, 2022 by DhamR

[Stu]

Great report @DhamR 👍. No faux pas’ in there, not that it would matter of there were. An excellent night, good to be getting to grips with the scope now.

[DhamR]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Great report @DhamR 👍. No faux pas’ in there, not that it would matter of there were. An excellent night, good to be getting to grips with the scope now.

I didn't expect as much, but you never know.  There's a lot of terminology and sharing an experience in words that you had with your eye to some glass isn't easy, difficult to know when to stop with the detail.

Edited January 6, 2022 by DhamR

[John]

Some fantastic reports coming in of the past couple of nights observing

They make great reading today as the raindrops are sliding down the windows again

 

[Kon]

13 minutes ago, DhamR said:

I didn't expect as much, but you never know.  There's a lot of terminology and sharing an experience in words that you had with your eye to some glass isn't easy, difficult to know when to stop with the detail.

Excellent report and thanks for sharing. It seems you had an excellent session. I love reading reports with details since i can mentally visualise the targets. Keep them coming.

[Kon]

6 minutes ago, John said:

Some fantastic reports coming in of the past couple of nights observing

They make great reading today as the raindrops are sliding down the windows again

I think many people had excellent/near-excellent conditions the last 2 nights. It's been a while the Observing section had so many reports. Nice reading all the reports and descriptions of all the different targets. Let's hope tonights rain is just a blip 😉

[JDF]

6 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

 I couldn’t for the life of me see two stars in SAO 131907 Rigel though!

 

It's not just me then 🙂 

[Stu]

6 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

I couldn’t for the life of me see two stars in SAO 131907 Rigel though!

It’s there, believe me! The primary is bright and can ‘flare’ when the seeing isn’t good, and this can hide the tiny secondary. I saw it last night at x57 in a small refractor, but it can take higher power to get the secondary clear of the glare.

[Saganite]

14 minutes ago, Stu said:

It’s there, believe me! The primary is bright and can ‘flare’ when the seeing isn’t good, and this can hide the tiny secondary. I saw it last night at x57 in a small refractor, but it can take higher power to get the secondary clear of the glare.

I also split Rigel along with the other Orion doubles last night, a really clean beautiful split at 90x

Edited January 6, 2022 by Saganite

[Stu]

More clear skies tonight but no scope for me, just a quick look at the beautiful crescent Moon in my 8x42s.

[JDF]

7 minutes ago, Stu said:

More clear skies tonight but no scope for me, just a quick look at the beautiful crescent Moon in my 8x42s.

Same here, ticked Mare Crisium off my freshly started Lunar 100 with the 8x50s, we have a forecast of snow tonight into tomorrow so that will have to do for tonight.

[Saganite]

Wet here but tomorrow evening is looking ok for maybe 3 hours....🤞

[Alan White]

3 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Wet here but tomorrow evening is looking ok for maybe 3 hours....🤞

Same for me Steve, so may get to try the binoviewer very soon 🤞

[Saganite]

Good for you Al, I hope it stays clear.

Good to hear from you.

Steve

[John]

Miraculously, after a very rainy day, the skies have just cleared for a while so I've popped the ED120 refractor out. I doubt it will last long but you never know !

 

[DhamR]

I just had a quick look out too before bed. We had snow here earlier so was surprised to see it clear. Lots of twinkling out there and some cloud about but orion's jewels were showing still. 

Plieades looked lovely too, a bit of sparkle didn't hurt them!

Quick q that's been bugging me, what's this in Stellarium? 

[John]

7 minutes ago, John said:

Miraculously, after a very rainy day, the skies have just cleared for a while so I've popped the ED120 refractor out. I doubt it will last long but you never know !

 

Yikes - dodging showers now !!!

The things we do to catch some starlight

In between the clouds / light rain flurries the stars look lovely and very tempting (of course !).

 

 

[John]

19 minutes ago, John said:

Yikes - dodging showers now !!!

The things we do to catch some starlight

In between the clouds / light rain flurries the stars look lovely and very tempting (of course !).

 

 

Can't go on much longer like this but the clear patches of sky are pretty nice - just not enough of them.

Have managed to see an Owl, a Cats Eye and an Eskimo though, nebulae that is

Beta Monocerotis will always put a smile on my face - what a gorgeous triple star

 

[Kon]

Very quick session tonight due to catching up with work; Pleiades with some nice nebulosity, quick look at M42, the star field in Taurus including NGC1647, the nearby NGC1662. Skies are very clear due to the rain but I cannot afford another late night. Looking forward to reading more reports tomorrow.

[Epick Crom]

57 minutes ago, John said:

Miraculously, after a very rainy day, the skies have just cleared for a while so I've popped the ED120 refractor out. I doubt it will last long but you never know !

 

Good luck 🤞

[davhei]

First evening with a good moon in a long time forecasted to be clear from sunset to sunrise. Haven’t had my dob out since mid october but this was a great night to drive to my dark site. Very transparent skies but fairly poor seeing. Cold and crisp, minus seven celsius.

Spent some time collimating and started off at Gamma Andromedae at x44, my lowest magnification. Gold and blue clearly split, sparkling jewels.

Proceeded on to NGC 891 which was barely discernable, quite large though. Slender edge-on shape. A bit disappointed that it was so faint, compared to say the needle NGC 4565, but to be fair it was in a sector of sky with a disturbing light globe from the city.

Nearby M34 filled most of the eyepiece with a smattering of stars. Very nice open cluster.

Star hopped my way beyond Mirfak in Perseus to NGC 1528 & 1545 set near a bright triangle asterism. What a great pair, like a little double cluster with NGC 1528 looking spectacular.

Went through the Auriga clusters and enjoyed M37 especially. Familiar sights but I’m always happy to come back to them.

Then the showpiece, the great orion nebula that was really looking its best to my dark adapted eyes, extending its wings to fill the eyepiece. Took an extended tour to NGC 1980 and Iota Orionis, M43, NGC 1973, -75, -77, all showing nebulosity.

Lastly I increased the mag to split a few nearby doubles, Iota Orionis, Struve 747, 754 and 750 with Struve 754 looking especially captivating with the clearly blue companion shimmering next to the primary. Beautiful contrast that held my attention a long time.

Very glad to be out with the dob under dark skies again. Cold winter evenings have a certain magic to them. Large ice crystals on the OTA were sparkling in starlight when I packed it up in the car.

Edited January 7, 2022 by davhei

[Davesellars]

Just before going to bed around 1:30am - I looked outside only to see a clear sky!  After a long day and 2 long observing nights previously I was not in a condition to get the scope out though.  I did get up at 5am and had a quick scan around by eye - it was partly cloudy but great to now see Leo, Vrigo Coma Berenices high up now signalling proper start of galaxy season!

Looking forward to the next session and need to plan my Herschel 400 targets...

[Stu]

I was about to post an audacious claim to have seen Mercury through my scope at only 2.5 degrees above the horizon, from my garden.

My doubts crept in when I saw that Mercury had, in fact, developed a beautiful ring system, very much like Satu…… DOH! 🤣🤣

[Epick Crom]

7 hours ago, Stu said:

I was about to post an audacious claim to have seen Mercury through my scope at only 2.5 degrees above the horizon, from my garden.

My doubts crept in when I saw that Mercury had, in fact, developed a beautiful ring system, very much like Satu…… DOH! 🤣🤣

Stu, you must have seen the fabled Rings Of Mercury 😂

[SuburbanMak]

The weatherman said I’d get a clear window 8-11pm in Hampshire so as I was out and about in the Dad-taxi anyway I saddled up and drove out to my site.   Looked quite nice when I arrived, seeing wobbly low down but clear overhead and transparency looking OK -  although nothing like earlier in the week. 
 

Duly set up Mak & ST80 - aligned on Procyon (piled on some magnification for curiosity but unsurprisingly no sign of a split) and Rigel (nice split at 63x although slightly wobbly). Pottered around Orion with the ST80 and the 31mm BHA’s massive views. Looked at M78. 
 

Enjoyed M42 for a few moments before hopping across to the Pleiades and on in search of M76 the Little Dumbell Nebula. Nothing where the GoTo wanted it to be so I began my usual search pattern only to realise I could see nothing at all. Stepping back I saw that the cloud had built from the West.  
 

Gave up on my target list and went back to M42/3 until cloud overwhelmed that too so I looked at a wobbly moon shining through cloud for a bit then packed up the gear. 
 

There were a few remaining clear holes before the lid really slammed shut so I broke out the 10x50s and enjoyed the Auriga clusters, M35, Orion starfields, Pleiades, Hyades and one of my favourite binocular views the Alpha Persei cluster. 
 

Even though I got clouded out there was still beauty to be had in the situation, wide sweep of partly obscured constellations and the lights twinkling down on the Solent coast. 
 

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by SuburbanMak