What did you see tonight?

[Guest]

Well as i figured no stars tonight.  The haze is still with us and the farmers will be working ground all night.  The wildfires in Canada did give us a bit of a different looking sunset, so i will take that for what its worth.  I keep thinking back to the last time i was out with really good skies.....it was early November since i have been out for any amount of time.  

[RobertI]

Very tired after a manic two weeks at work, but determined to get outside as I’ve missed many clear moonless nights. The first thing that came to hand was my 60mm RACI finder, and putting in a 17.5mm Morpheus gave a nice 12x magnification. In a bright sky I was pleased to very quickly track down galaxies M81 & M82, M51, globulars M13, M56 and M3 and the very large cluster Melotte 111, fitting into the FOV. That was good enough to get my fix and still get some sleep. Why doesn’t someone manufacture a nice pair of right angled 10x50s which can be hand held - surely they’d be winners with us astronomers? 

[maw lod qan]

4am this morning, heading out to work. I had just enough time to sit down in the car when out of my peripheral vision I saw a brilliant meteor to the North East.

It lasted long enough for me to turn my head and see it disappear!

Lucky for me I'm on my side of the pond. If I had been on your side, sitting on the wrong side of the car, I would have missed it completely! 😁

[Mr Spock]

For anyone out right now the sun is spectacular. So many spots it looks like a dalmatian (well almost). 

[bosun21]

Out again last night with the Starfield 102. Set up at 9pm, polar aligned at 10.30pm and started observing at 11.30pm. The sky is only dark for a really short period now hence the times above. I kicked off with a few globular clusters, M13, M3, and the open cluster M11. All were defined well with the Morpheus 17.5 and 12.5mm despite the seeing not being the best. M11 was particularly pleasing. I then viewed the two PN’s M27 & M57 with the addition of an Astronomik UHC filter increasing the magnification with a 9mm on the ring nebula. I then had an impulse to view Albireo which I did with the 9, 6.5, and 4.5mm Morpheus. The colors were very bright and standing out really well tonight. It had now reached the point of astro darkness so I tried a few galaxies next. M101, M51 and M81 & 82. All were clearly visible despite the seeing and transparency dropping. I spent a good time on M81 coaxing out more detail. The sky is already starting to brighten so I called it a night.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Out again last night with the Starfield 102. Set up at 9pm, polar aligned at 10.30pm and started observing at 11.30pm. The sky is only dark for a really short period now hence the times above. I kicked off with a few globular clusters, M13, M3, and the open cluster M11. All were defined well with the Morpheus 17.5 and 12.5mm despite the seeing not being the best. M11 was particularly pleasing. I then viewed the two PN’s M27 & M57 with the addition of an Astronomik UHC filter increasing the magnification with a 9mm on the ring nebula. I then had an impulse to view Albireo which I did with the 9, 6.5, and 4.5mm Morpheus. The colors were very bright and standing out really well tonight. It had now reached the point of astro darkness so I tried a few galaxies next. M101, M51 and M81 & 82. All were clearly visible despite the seeing and transparency dropping. I spent a good time on M81 coaxing out more detail. The sky is already starting to brighten so I called it a night.

M101 has a new Supernova, mag 14 or so.  If we ever get clear skies i will be going for it 

[cajen2]

6 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

M101 has a new Supernova, mag 14 or so.  If we ever get clear skies i will be going for it 

14.9. I think that's asking a bit much of B21's poor old 4" frac! 😅 Might even give your 16" dob pause for thought...

[Guest]

2 hours ago, cajen2 said:

14.9. I think that's asking a bit much of B21's poor old 4" frac! 😅 Might even give your 16" dob pause for thought...

It will definitely be at the edge of the capabilities of the scope.  There is a calculator out there that tells me at 200x i should just get it with a bit of room to spare.  At 250x just a bit more.   A guy has to try. 

[bosun21]

23 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

It will definitely be at the edge of the capabilities of the scope.  There is a calculator out there that tells me at 200x i should just get it with a bit of room to spare.  At 250x just a bit more.   A guy has to try. 

Your 16” assuming an 1800mm focal length will have a magnitude reach of 15.49. So that’s 0.59 more than the 14.9 of the target. These figures are calculated without taking into consideration the seeing conditions or transparency of the atmosphere. No harm in trying i suppose.

[Froeng]

A friend and I had a four hour deep sky session at a site in rural Cambridgeshire. Big safari with galaxies, globs and planetaries. Still tired! Highlights included: M13, M3, M27, M57, M81/2, M51, M94, M102, M64, M87, Markarian’s chain and other brighter fuzzies. At 2am high haze and later fog ended the night for us. Brilliant after so many weeks of clouds…

Edited May 20, 2023 by Froeng

[Guest]

43 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Your 16” assuming an 1800mm focal length will have a magnitude reach of 15.49. So that’s 0.59 more than the 14.9 of the target. These figures are calculated without taking into consideration the seeing conditions or transparency of the atmosphere. No harm in trying i suppose.

It is right at edge that is for sure. If i ever get clear skies again i will be going for it.  If I can't get it with mine.... Well I will just have to go over to the Observatory and turn the 36 inch reflector named Big Blue loose on it.  Nothing like have a bit of access to a scope that big. 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Mike Q

[Ratlet]

5 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Out again last night with the Starfield 102. Set up at 9pm, polar aligned at 10.30pm and started observing at 11.30pm. The sky is only dark for a really short period now hence the times above. I kicked off with a few globular clusters, M13, M3, and the open cluster M11. All were defined well with the Morpheus 17.5 and 12.5mm despite the seeing not being the best. M11 was particularly pleasing. I then viewed the two PN’s M27 & M57 with the addition of an Astronomik UHC filter increasing the magnification with a 9mm on the ring nebula. I then had an impulse to view Albireo which I did with the 9, 6.5, and 4.5mm Morpheus. The colors were very bright and standing out really well tonight. It had now reached the point of astro darkness so I tried a few galaxies next. M101, M51 and M81 & 82. All were clearly visible despite the seeing and transparency dropping. I spent a good time on M81 coaxing out more detail. The sky is already starting to brighten so I called it a night.

Did you view M27 and M67 in nautical twilight?  Curious as to how they looked.

We're about to run out of even nautical twilight shortly up here.  Last week of it for me!

[bosun21]

You mean M57?. I actually viewed them on the crossover from twilight to dark. The ring nebula was the best for me and the dumbell a little fainter. The UHC helped with them both. Your 10” dobsonian will be better and brighter. I’ve never actually viewed them in twilight. HTH.

[Mr Spock]

After a clear day I was hoping for a good night. Unfortunately a significant amount of high cloud put an stop on that. 

A bad cold / chesty cough doesn't help the mood much. Sitting here now at 02:15 because I can't sleep 😡

[Guest]

After many months of clouds , cold and generally sub par skies, tonight the clouds (mostly) went away and left us clear skies in North Central Ohio.  The temp was a balmy 55 degrees F and 74% humidity as the set up started.  Dew control was going to be a challenge and the heaters were on even before darkness fell.  I put the light shroud on the 16 as protection against dew as i dont have heaters for it as of yet.  I also ran its three fans the entire time.  The wife set up the Stellina and when darkness fell... We were off to the races.  I actually had a list of things that we were looking at but it got soaked.... Along with everything else and it is no longer readable.  We were not in a big hurry tonight and hit just a few targets in the two hour session. She sent "the robot" off to M101 while i was off to Venus.  It looked decent in the 10, but in a 16 with the 8.5mm ES eyepiece, i believe I was seeing detail in cloud structure.  Had i toned it down with a filter i am sure i would have seen more.  Since Mars was in the same general direction.... Why not.  Not really a lot going on with Mars, even in the 16 it wasnt all that and a big bag of chips.  I stopped for a bit and savored some fine Kentucky bourbon and just kind of watched the sky for a bit then got back to it.  The Ring in the 10 inch and a 14mm was its normal ghostly blue and i still swear i can just make out the remnants of the star in the center.  In the 16 with a 20mm, well adverted vision, you dont need that.  We bounced around looking at some clusters as most of our favorites are still below or just above the horizon.  Finally it was time for good old M13.  In the 10 inch with the 14mm, well thats just a good picture, move the 14mm to the 16.... yeah that was truly a oh wow moment and easily the image of the night winner.  It was our first decent night in months, but it was far from perfect.  The skies looked clear initially but there were still some stability issues going on up there.  Some place to the south it seems that they added some more lights as it definitely seemed brighter in that direction and overall the sky never really got black, it seemed like it was more a dark blue.  But i am not going to complain.  Two hours is twice the amount of time i have had for all the sessions between November and now.  It was a good night.  

On a side note.... the Stellarvue 13x80 finder scope on the 16 inch.... worth every penny.  There is nothing like basically having a frac on your reflector as a finder.

I attached a couple of pics, one is of our set up and the other shows the dew that the 10 inch collected.  You can see where the heaters stopped the dew.  This wouldn't be considered a heavy dew either.  

Edit ... I have added the photo of M101 and its supernova.  There has been no post processing done to this other then to press the enhance button in the photo editor. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Mike Q

[Nik271]

Finally managed to see the brightest visual quasar 3C 273   Thanks to @John for pointing this one out! I tried two nights, on Friday night with my 127 SW Mak, and it was on the edge of visiblity with averted vision. Last night I brought out the big brother 180 SW  Mak and the quasar was much easier to pick up. Amazing, to see an object 2 billion light years away! I found it manually with the help of 9x50 finder and this chart from Stellarium. Once I got to the 10-th magnitide star (circled) I navigated with the scope using 12mm BST giving about x230 magnification to darken the sky. It was 11pm so not proper astro-darkness yet. It's rapidly getting very late in the season to see it as it starts to get lower before it gets truly dark.

 

 

 

[RobertI]

3 hours ago, Mike Q said:

After many months of clouds , cold and generally sub par skies, tonight the clouds (mostly) went away and ledt us clear skies in North Central Ohio.  The temp was a balmy 55 degrees F and 74% humidity as the set up started.  Dew control was going to be a challenge and the heaters were on even before darkness fell.  I put the light shroud on the 16 as protection against dew as i dont have heaters for it as of yet.  I also ran its three fans the entire time.  The wife set up the Stellina and when darkness fell... We were off to the races.  I actually had a list of things that we were looking at but it got soaked.... Along with everything else and it is no longer readable.  We were not in a big hurry tonight and hit just a few targets in the two hour session. She sent "the robot" off to M101 while i was off to Venus.  It looked decent in the 10, but in a 16 with the 8.5mm ES eyepiece, i believe I was seeing detail in cloud structure.  Had i toned it down with a filter i am sure i would have seen more.  Since Mars was in the same general direction.... Why not.  Not really a lot going on with Mars, even in the 16 it wasnt all that and a big bag of chips.  I stopped for a bit and savored some fine Kentucky bourbon and just kind of watched the sky for a bit and got back to it.  The Ring in the 10 and a 14mm was its normal ghostly blue and i still swear i can just make out the remnants of the star in the center.  In the 16 with a 20mm, well adverted vision, you dont need that.  We bounced around looking at some clusters as most of our favorites are still below or just above the horizon.  Finally it was time for good old M13.  In the 10 with the 14mm, well thats just a good picture, move the 14mm to the 16.... yeah that was truly a oh wow moment and easily the image of the night winner.  It was our first decent night in months, but it was far from perfect.  The skies looked clear initially but there were still some stability issues going on up there.  Some place to the south it seems that they added some more lights as it definitely seemed brighter in that direction and overall the sky never really got black, it seemed like it was more a dark blue.  But i am not going to complain.  Two hours is twice the amount of time i have had for all the sessions between November and now.  It was a good night.  

On a side note.... the Stellarvue 13x80 finder scope on the 16 inch.... worth every penny.  There is nothing like basically having a frac on your reflector as a finder.

I attached a couple of pics, one is of our set up and the other shows the dew that the 10 inch collected.  You can see where the heaters stopped the dew.  This wouldn't be considered a heavy dew either.  

Nice setup you have there Mike, must make for comfortable observing. Would be good to see some results from the Stellina some time. 🙂

[Whistlin Bob]

Before posting I always read through the recent threads- it's great to see others being inspired by similar stuff. Like @Nik271 I was hooked by the Quasar target that @Johnposted about. I was using a 14" dob, and eventually found it with 8-24 Baader zoom. Hard work to get it, but really thrilled to have caught something so distant.

I then went for a little light relief with big globs- M3, M92 and the grandaddy M13. In the dob, with binoviewers, it is the most bewitching target- gorgeous detail with strings of stars looping out from the core shimmering in the summer warmth. I don't think photos do it justice. Like @Mike Q, it was my view of the night.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nice setup you have there Mike, must make for comfortable observing. Would be good to see some results from the Stellina some time. 🙂

It is a fairly decent setup.  The black pads were my wifes idea.  We are into the second year of use on them and they are definitely holding their own.  The trees take away a lot of things but to the east and south i am in good shape. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nice setup you have there Mike, must make for comfortable observing. Would be good to see some results from the Stellina some time. 🙂

Look on your in box

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Before posting I always read through the recent threads- it's great to see others being inspired by similar stuff. Like @Nik271 I was hooked by the Quasar target that @Johnposted about. I was using a 14" dob, and eventually found it with 8-24 Baader zoom. Hard work to get it, but really thrilled to have caught something so distant.

I then went for a little light relief with big globs- M3, M92 and the grandaddy M13. In the dob, with binoviewers, it is the most bewitching target- gorgeous detail with strings of stars looping out from the core shimmering in the summer warmth. I don't think photos do it justice. Like @Mike Q, it was my view of the night.

I spent all night replaying M13 in my head. The 16 inch gathers so much light and with the 14mm 2 inch eyepiece the image is stunning.  In the 10 inch it is still a good picture but you are really just seeing the flat surface of it.  With the 16 inch, and this is just how i am going to describe it, you get depth. 

[bosun21]

I viewed several of the well known globular clusters the other night and all were impressive. However my target of the night was M81 & 82. I spent a good bit of time with differing magnifications on it, drawing out more detail the longer I observed. I use a black cloth draped over me to eliminate any vestige of extraneous light.

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I viewed several of the well known globular clusters the other night and all were impressive. However my target of the night was M81 & 82. I spent a good bit of time with differing magnifications on it, drawing out more detail the longer I observed. I use a black cloth draped over me to eliminate any vestige of extraneous light.

I may have to give the blanket over the head a try at some point myself.  M81 and 82 look  pretty decent last night 

[rojay]

First session for a while for me, and I made an attempt to see some Virgo galaxies through the light pollution with the 8in Dob. I managed M49 - some nearby star patterns helped me point to the right place. Otherwise no definite detections, only hints. I still wanted  to see galaxies, and since Virgo wasn't cooperating, I went higher up and in a direction with less LP to M81/82 which were much easier, and clearly different shapes. I'd had enough of challenges, so I slewed over to Hercules for an enjoyable look at M13, using a 10mm ortho to darken the background. Then two of the ultimate easy-to-find objects for a relaxing end to the session, Mizar and Polaris.

[Blahblahman]

Wow, wow, wow! For those of us in the South Hampshire (UK), we've had an unprecedented weekend of fine viewing.

Warm, clear skies, little to no wind and a new Moon.

Sat morning 01:30-03:30, I spent some time simply scanning the sky with no great aim other than to try out my new TV eyepieces. I noted some very interesting objects in Lyra/Cygnus but wasn't able to accurately identify them, so I vowed to get out again this morning to further investigate.

I started earlier 11pm Sat night through to 01:30 this morning and I wasn't disappointed. Same great viewing conditions, Milky Way readily visible, shooting stars in Lyra, dozens of Satellites, a deer, two foxes and a very noisy May Bug.

I wanted to take time in Leo as this has alluded me for some time but managed to easily observe a dozen or more Galaxies. Some very faint and needed averted vision but nice also to see more than one in a low power eyepiece. This box ticking exercise made me want to move onto more interesting stuff so I picked up M64, the Black Eye galaxy on my way to Lyra/Cygnus.

I've mourned the loss of the planets and Orion but I've found a new love for Lyra/Cygnus. So much to see.

M57 Ring Nebula... amazing. Able to easily see why it is so named. M27 the Dumbell Nebula, likewise.

Both were so clear and well resolved in my 9mm (TV Nagler 255x) that I'm almost tempted to add a 6 or 5mm to my EP arsenal.

All in all, a terrific couple of evenings and conditions that I think will be hard to top!

Thanks for listening!