What did you see tonight?

[josefk]

Felt great to get about 8 1/2 hours observing galaxies in the Virgo, Coma Berenices and Canes Venatici regions these past two nights. A lot of humidity as each night drew on but fabulous to be out, a pleasure setting up in the evening light and appreciating the turn to relative darkness and seeing actual stars in it once again. Two nights of reports over here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/409934-venus-virgo-coma-berenices-two-nights-running/#comment-4381725

Cheers

 

[Mr Spock]

Wow - just had five minutes on the moon before it disappeared behind a tree. In all my years of observing I've never had a scope on a moon that thin. Only x106 but what a sight! Plus a really outstanding huge crater inside the limb I'm not familiar with. Maybe Neper, with Humboldt down to the south. Libration looks very favourable if it is.

[dweller25]

21st May 2022 - Mars at x380 - Takahashi FC100DZ - 22:00BST

I just had a look at the 4.9 arc second Martian “disk” and to my surprise kept glimpsing the north polar cap and a slightly easier Mare Acidalium just below and to the side of it. The equatorial region was clearly brighter than the pole regions.

The low thin crescent Moon was a great site too - very sharp and contrasty

 

[Mr Spock]

Wobbly seeing here, though transparency appears better than usual. I can make out the 'bowl' of Virgo despite it not being dark yet.

Venus looked a bit wobbly at x185, though I could see some shading on one half of it. N/S - who knows which way up it is 

[Nik271]

There is a supernova in M101 discovered two days ago which is still brightening. I just had a look with my Skymax 127 and it was easy to see, I estimate it's magnitude is 11.5. It's the brightest star southeast of the core of M101, roughly where NGC 5461 is. Take a look if you can, it's one of the brightest SN of recent years!

Edited May 22, 2023 by Nik271

[Mr Spock]

Shame I've been fiddling with the camera all night, transparency is excellent here. Even with no dark adaptation and LP I can see 4 UMi.

Anyway, here's a snap of Arcturus. I'll be experimenting on the original RAW tomorrow. Taken on a Nikon D500 and Sigma 150mm lens - 30s @ f4, ISO 400 - best I can do without the background getting light. LP is so bad here you can take a meter reading off the sky  The original goes down to mag 14.2 

Even got a satellite 

[mikeDnight]

14 hours ago, dweller25 said:

21st May 2022 - Mars at x380 - Takahashi FC100DZ - 22:00BST

I just had a look at the 4.9 arc second Martian “disk” and to my surprise kept glimpsing the north polar cap and a slightly easier Mare Acidalium just below and to the side of it. The equatorial region was clearly brighter than the pole regions.

The low thin crescent Moon was a great site too - very sharp and contrasty

 

 After a few observations of Venus using the FS128, 3.4mm Vixen HR eyepiece, and various colour filters, I turned the scope onto Mars. Although the seeing was good I wasn't expecting too much as Mars was approaching the tree line, so the seeing generally deteriorates around this point. Anyhow, the view through the scope was sharply defined with the north polar cap being immediately obvious. Acidalia was also very prominent, with the tail of the Indus trailing very obviously southward from Acidalia and linking to Margaretifer Sinus in the south. I had no idea what the meridian would be when I first turned the scope to Mars, but as soon as I saw the Indus I immediately knew where I was. It was a very impressive sight considering the small disk size. I also used the Vixen 3.4mm HR eyepiece for studying Mars which with the FS128 gave a mag of 306X. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by mikeDnight

[Stu1smartcookie]

13 hours ago, Nik271 said:

There is a supernova in M101 discovered two days ago which is still brightening. I just had a look with my Skymax 127 and it was easy to see, I estimate it's magnitude is 11.5. It's the brightest star southeast of the core of M101, roughly where NGC 5461 is. Take a look if you can, it's one of the brightest SN of recent years!

Great spot Nik ... will certainly look out for it . Apparently we are meant to have plenty of clear skies this week . 

 

[Mr Spock]

What did I see? Well, images... lots of images... 

Seriously, variable star (test) estimates were as follows:
AR Cep = 7.269
RU Cep = 8.467
V Umi = 7.450
RY Uma = 7.990
Z Uma = 7.249
T Uma = 12.8 - this was visual as it's too faint for the software to pick up.

All very encouraging, and, just a little bit exciting. Lens is too long (150mm) for these (except T UMa) so I'm switching to a 90mm for my next round of tests.

[IB20]

A lovely young slender moon sitting alongside a blazing Venus. 

 

[Nik271]

Last night I checked the supernova in M101 again, this time with my 102mm F/7 refractor. The 24mm Hyperion EP gave me a 3.4mm exit pupil and a 2.2 degree field of view. I didn't even use a finderscope, just sighted along the tube at Mizar and star hopped from there. At midnight the sky was as dark as it gets, I got a glimpse of M101 itself as a very faint smudge. I estimate the supernova is now mag 11, I had no trouble making it out with direct vision. The rate of brightening has slowed down, it seems that it will stabilize at the mid 10 visual magnitude in the coming days. Type II are expected to slowly fade over weeks and months, so plenty of time to observe it.

Before packing up I checked some favourites: Izar at x180 with 4mm Nirvana was an overkill but I didnt have any mid power  EP with me. M13 was high in the sky and looking glorious even in my modest 4 inch.

[paulastro]

On the night of 21st to 22nd I had a good session with a couple of surprises, which I'll get to in a bit.

Generally the sky wasn't very steady, and there were frequent hazy patches - luckily the 8inch Starsense Dob can punch through it to some degree, and the SS locating system meant I didn't need to use the finder - just as well with the absence of fainter stars.

Set up by midnight and then observed some objects less affected by any haze and had nice views of M13, M92, M57, M81 and M82 ( these two brighter galaxies where higher up so less affected by haze than most I looked at). I tried for M101 at this time to look for the supernova, but the conditions made it very difficult to make out.

I looked at M27, but it looked tather ghostly so I added my ancient Orion Skyglow Ultrablock (made in Japan) 1.25 filter to the Morpheus 12.5mm.  What a difference, it was a huge improvement, in the extent and detail of M27 itself and the increased contrast of the background sky - beautiful.  I must admit I don't use this filter as often perhaps as I should.

However, encouraged by this I turned to the Owl Nebula, with a similiar impressive performance compared with the unfiltered view.  Just for fun I used it on M81/M82, but as I expected I preferred the view without the filter, after all its not really designed for use on galaxies.

Undeterred I turned back to M101 with the filter on, more in hope than expectation, and there it was!  It was also visible without the filter so the conditions must have improved since my previous attempt.  I then took the filter off to look for the supernova, but I had only been looking  for a few seconds when a bright satellite rushed through the field (mag 5 or 6 I guess but it looked bright in the 8 inch) from right to left above M101.  Then for about thirty seconds perhaps, M101 was mobbed by a squadron of at least six more same mag satellites on parallel paths passing either through, above or below the galaxy!  I looked away from the eyepiece but couldn't see any with the naked eye.  The time was 1.30am (plus or minus a couple of mts) on 22nd.  I presume they were part of some commercial satellite launch.  Did anyone else see this, or know which satellites they were?  I then realised I wasn't sure of the exact location of the SN, so I've no idea if I saw it or not!

With still iffy skies, I looked at some more globulars for a while, M3, M53, M5, M10, M12 and M14. Itslways nice seeing and comparing a group of GCs, they all have their own personalities when you get to know them.

I then started to look to the SE to see what more southerly objects I could find.  There were few stars visible with the naked eye in that direction, but no problems finding objects with Starsense.  I looked at M23, a nice open cluster and then two of my favourite objects, M11 the Wild Duck Cluster, the Eagle Nebula  M16 then the  Omega/Swan Nebula along with the open cluster M17. Then M18 near the Sagittarius star cloud.  It wasn't the best views I've had of these objects but they all looked better than I expected in the conditions.  My best views had been getting on for 28 years ago when I spent three weeks in Crete with a C5!

The best was yet to come, when at 2.45am, I picked up M22.  This great globular shines at mag 5.2 and is 32' across (the same diam as the Moon). It contains half a million stars and is the third largest globular after Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae.  At only just 11 degrees altitude it was rather subdued through the layers of haze, but very impressive by its size non the less.  If you can get a good view of it , it is almost beyond words. I left it at 2.58, still visible despite the haze and a brightening sky.

Just as I packed up, one of our local Tawnies was calling, and a hedgehog startled me as it rattled a neighbours metal gate as it squeezed underneath it. A lovely ending to a fine night.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by paulastro
Typo

[RT65CB-SWL]

On 22/05/2023 at 22:36, IB20 said:

A lovely young slender moon sitting alongside a blazing Venus. 

 

Here’s my attempt from an hour ago…

[paulastro]

Nice shot, it was lovely, nice through my 130 Newt.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Thank you @paulastro 

Got two of four my ‘scopes setup, then realised that I had left one of four 1.25” star diagonals indoors.

As I live near a main road, it was not worth the risk of leaving the kit outside for a few minutes to grab one, as it was easily visible to anyone passing by.

Edited May 24, 2023 by RT65CB-SWL

[Stu]

16 hours ago, paulastro said:

On the night of 21st to 22nd I had a good session with a couple of surprises, which I'll get to in a bit.

Generally the sky wasn't very steady, and there were frequent hazy patches - luckily the 8inch Starsense Dob can punch through it to some degree, and the SS locating system meant I didn't need to use the finder - just as well with the absence of fainter stars.

Set up by midnight and then observed some objects less affected by any haze and had nice views of M13, M92, M57, M81 and M82 ( these two brighter galaxies where higher up so less affected by haze than most I looked at). I tried for M101 at this time to look for the supernova, but the conditions made it very difficult to make out.

I looked at M27, but it looked tather ghostly so I added my ancient Orion Skyglow Ultrablock (made in Japan) 1.25 filter to the Morpheus 12.5mm.  What a difference, it was a huge improvement, in the extent and detail of M27 itself and the increased contrast of the background sky - beautiful.  I must admit I don't use this filter as often perhaps as I should.

However, encouraged by this I turned to the Owl Nebula, with a similiar impressive performance compared with the unfiltered view.  Just for fun I used it on M81/M82, but as I expected I preferred the view without the filter, after all its not really designed for use on galaxies.

Undeterred I turned back to M101 with the filter on, more in hope than expectation, and there it was!  It was also visible without the filter so the conditions must have improved since my previous attempt.  I then took the filter off to look for the supernova, but I had only been looking  for a few seconds when a bright satellite rushed through the field (mag 5 or 6 I guess but it looked bright in the 8 inch) from right to left above M101.  Then for about thirty seconds perhaps, M101 was mobbed by a squadron of at least six more same mag satellites on parallel paths passing either through, above or below the galaxy!  I looked away from the eyepiece but couldn't see any with the naked eye.  The time was 1.30am (plus or minus a couple of mts) on 22nd.  I presume they were part of some commercial satellite launch.  Did anyone else see this, or know which satellites they were?  I then realised I wasn't sure of the exact location of the SN, so I've no idea if I saw it or not!

With still iffy skies, I looked at some more globulars for a while, M3, M53, M5, M10, M12 and M14. Itslways nice seeing and comparing a group of GCs, they all have their own personalities when you get to know them.

I then started to look to the SE to see what more southerly objects I could find.  There were few stars visible with the naked eye in that direction, but no problems finding objects with Starsense.  I looked at M23, a nice open cluster and then two of my favourite objects, M11 the Wild Duck Cluster, the Eagle Nebula  M16 then the  Omega/Swan Nebula along with the open cluster M17. Then M18 near the Sagittarius star cloud.  It wasn't the best views I've had of these objects but they all looked better than I expected in the conditions.  My best views had been getting on for 28 years ago when I spent three weeks in Crete with a C5!

The best was yet to come, when at 2.45am, I picked up M22.  This great globular shines at mag 5.2 and is 32' across (the same diam as the Moon). It contains half a million stars and is the third largest globular after Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae.  At only just 11 degrees altitude it was rather subdued through the layers of haze, but very impressive by its size non the less.  If you can get a good view of it , it is almost beyond words. I left it at 2.58, still visible despite the haze and a brightening sky.

Just as I packed up, one of our local Tawnies was calling, and a hedgehog startled me as it rattled a neighbours metal gate as it squeezed underneath it. A lovely ending to a fine night.

 

 

 

 

Lovely report Paul, another one which would be well worth posting separately to get some more notice and discussion.

[paulastro]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Lovely report Paul, another one which would be well worth posting separately to get some more notice and discussion.

Many thanks Stu, thats very kind of you.  I had actually thought this myself before I posted it on this thread.  I did think it may be of interest in a couple of other places, but thought this may be a bit presumptious of me.

I must admit, though lots of interesting posts go onto this thread, I have had mixed feelings about it for a while.  I feel that the individual observing forums (and probably others) no longer have as many contributions as they used to because the 'what did you see tonight' forum is used as a catch all for any type of observation.

Before it was started I would browse  the different observing threads for things of interest, but they seem to be used much less often than they used to be.  This means I have to follow this thread, but I don't have time to read all of the contributions so therefore probably miss  a lot I would be interested in.

Just my own opinion of course, and it may not be an issue for anyone else. Also, having thought about it many times, I have no idea if, could or should anything be done about it.  Probably not 🤔 🙂.

Thanks again Stu.

 

 

[Mr Spock]

This thread is intended for just brief reports of what you are looking at now. Full reports need to go in their own thread in the right section 

I didn't see anything last night. Stuff was out but there was a lot of high cloud.

[Stu]

12 minutes ago, paulastro said:

Many thanks Stu, thats very kind of you.  I had actually thought this myself before I posted it on this thread.  I did think it may be of interest in a couple of other places, but thought this may be a bit presumptious of me.

I must admit, though lots of interesting posts go onto this thread, I have had mixed feelings about it for a while.  I feel that the individual observing forums (and probably others) no longer have as many contributions as they used to because the 'what did you see tonight' forum is used as a catch all for any type of observation.

Before it was started I would browse  the different observing threads for things of interest, but they seem to be used much less often than they used to be.  This means I have to follow this thread, but I don't have time to read all of the contributions so therefore probably miss  a lot I would be interested in.

Just my own opinion of course, and it may not be an issue for anyone else. Also, having thought about it many times, I have no idea if, could or should anything be done about it.  Probably not 🤔 🙂.

Thanks again Stu.

 

 

Thanks Paul, I completely agree with you! I think this thread should just be for quick updates on what you’ve seen, and I would encourage people to post full reports in the reports section. Reports just get lost in here, people cannot comment on them or ask questions and they are not as easily found in searches. I still go back and find individual reports I’ve done over the years and posted up if I want to check what I saw, and I feel we are losing something.

Please do lead the way @paulastro and others. It doesn’t cost anything to start a thread, you aren’t limited on how many you can start 🤣, so please, get those observing reports into the right section and do please also comment on those you read, don’t just opt for a like and move on. It only takes a moment to comment and it means alot to the OP.

[Stu]

One more thing, something that does work well is to post a full report in the relevant observing section and then pop a link with a short description here. Best of both worlds then, so the more people that start doing that, I think the richer the forum will become.

[paulastro]

4 hours ago, Stu said:

One more thing, something that does work well is to post a full report in the relevant observing section and then pop a link with a short description here. Best of both worlds then, so the more people that start doing that, I think the richer the forum will become.

Thank again Stu, some good suggestions there, I'll take them on board.

[Ratlet]

Finally got to try out the Morpheus 17.5mm.

On the sun.  With my 130pds. Actually frames the big ball of light really well.  Lots of activity.

Strapped the moveshootmove phone holder to it as well.

[Ratlet]

Quick look about whilst I put the big lad out to cool.  Moon is looking really nice, despite the seeing not being great.

Got another look at Venus through the clothesline and a tree.  Looked all right considering I was using a Douglas fir as a filter, no detail but could easily see the disk.

[Mr Spock]

After a clear blue sky all day we have 100% cloud cover here 🤬

[scotty1]

22.40

Moon, Mars , Venus, Castor and Pollox

 

Also saw a  moderately bright meteor through The Plough heading North-West. Possibly a Camelopardalis 

Edited May 25, 2023 by scotty1