What did you see tonight?

[Mr Spock]

Sadly I'm out of action for a week following my (successful) angioplasty. I can't drive for 7 days and I'm absolutely not to pick anything up - including mounts and scopes 🤕

Clear skies too 😭😡

[laudropb]

Sorry to hear that Michael. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

[Saganite]

The seeing tonight was, I reckon,  Pickering7 , excellent, but the Moon washed out just about everything.  I am  not complaining because I love Lunar first and foremost, but I had another agenda. The latest Firmware update from Rowan Astronomy allowed me another session controlling the Az from my mobile phone and I am very happy with it, it is so simple to use and very accurate. I was using the Vixen ED103 only with my 7.7mm to 15.4mm zoom and a Celestron Ultima 2x barlow. This gave  circa 220x max  and the result with Izar was two perfect little orbs of deep blue and golden yellow, each with one/ two diffraction rings, just beautiful. Equally good splits of Algieba, Porrima, Albireo, Epsilon Lyrae, Mizar, and Polaris. I had attempted  Zeta Herculis the previous night with the 6", but the seeing was not as good. At 400x on 29th May though I did split it with the 6".   Apart from M13  and M92  which I could see moderately well, I could not extract any of the six or seven Messier object I tried  from the bright sky, including M101, M81 , M82, and M51, other than with averted vision, in some cases, but really last evening was about selecting objects to GOTO with my AZ100 system and it worked flawlessly and accurately.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Saganite

[PeterStudz]

Just come in after a session with the 200p Dob on the Sun  (white light) and Venus. Seeing was excellent. Best views of Venus that I’ve had.  Could get up to x375 and it was still sharp with only a slight occasional wobble. First time that I’m anywhere near sure that I could see some subtle variations in the clouds. And it is subtle, like a mottling. My daughter (I never mentioned anything) said that see could see it too. Although her eyes are definitely better than mine! If you have the time tonight I’d take a look. 

[SuburbanMak]

23 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Sadly I'm out of action for a week following my (successful) angioplasty. I can't drive for 7 days and I'm absolutely not to pick anything up - including mounts and scopes 🤕

Clear skies too 😭😡

Get well soon sir!

[Ratlet]

23 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Sadly I'm out of action for a week following my (successful) angioplasty. I can't drive for 7 days and I'm absolutely not to pick anything up - including mounts and scopes 🤕

Clear skies too 😭😡

Major surgery should come with a FLO-like sticker "Warning, may contain clear skies".  Hope you are feeling better soon (and follow the Dr's guidelines on waiting!).  Looking forward to the resumption of your reports!

Edited June 5, 2023 by Ratlet

[Ags]

On 04/06/2023 at 11:00, Mr Spock said:

Sadly I'm out of action for a week following my (successful) angioplasty.

Congrats on the successful surgery! 

[Zermelo]

I had a couple of hours out with the Mak last night.  Seeing was still good, as it has been for a while, with the jet stream pushed up north over Iceland. The moon is only just past full, but rising late and staying low.
I split four new doubles over in the east: HD164984, HR7199, HD210432, HR8101. The best of the evening was possibly θ Sagittae, with a large magnitude difference (+6.5, +8.9, 11.6”), and sitting in a busy starfield.

[John]

Venus was nice earlier using my 130mm refractor. I've just managed a split of Lambda Cygni with the same scope at 300x. The separation is currently .91 arc seconds with the component stars of uneven magnitude - 4.73 and 6.26 according to the Stella Doppie database.

 

[John]

1 hour ago, John said:

Venus was nice earlier using my 130mm refractor. I've just managed a split of Lambda Cygni with the same scope at 300x. The separation is currently .91 arc seconds with the component stars of uneven magnitude - 4.73 and 6.26 according to the Stella Doppie database.

 

I've just finished the session with the 130mm by observing 2 very different globular clusters. Messier 4 way down close to my southern horizon in Scorpio (next to Antares) which is I believe the closest globular cluster to our solar system at around 7,000 light years distance and then NGC 6229 in Hercules which is close to the zenith tonight and one of the more distant globular clusters at 100,000 light years - more than half way to the Megellanic Clouds.

I could not split Antares this evening though due to rather scintillating seeing that close to the horizon. 

[Paz]

On 04/06/2023 at 10:00, Mr Spock said:

Sadly I'm out of action for a week following my (successful) angioplasty. I can't drive for 7 days and I'm absolutely not to pick anything up - including mounts and scopes 🤕

Clear skies too 😭😡

Glad to hear the operation went ok,  hope you are back out observing soon.

[Zermelo]

Another very decent evening here, and the moon not rising until 00.30.
The seeing was generally good, with the odd wobbly spell. Transparency also good.

I had a look at some globs, M3/M10/M12/M14, though they're not at their best in the nautical twilight.
Large open clusters NGC 6633 and IC 4756 were both very pleasant in the Morpheus 17.5 and UFF 24mm.
One planetary seen, NGC 6572, showing just a faint hint of colour.
And then the doubles. The Alkalurops Ba/Bb pair (2.2") split nicely in the Morpheus 6.5mm. Izar was also excellent in the Morph. 16 Vulpeculae (+5.3, +5.2, 0.8") was elongated in the Svbony zoom at 3mm, but just split in the Morpheus 6.5mm with a x2 telecentric - unsteady, and only glimpsed very occasionally. HD 201670 was a nice, unequal white and grey pair.
The highlights were two pairs that look very similar - Albireo and 24 Com, both with brighter yellow and dimmer blue components.

[josefk]

On 04/06/2023 at 10:00, Mr Spock said:

Sadly I'm out of action for a week following my (successful) angioplasty. I can't drive for 7 days and I'm absolutely not to pick anything up - including mounts and scopes 🤕

Clear skies too 😭😡

get well soon Mr Spock.

[Epick Crom]

On 04/06/2023 at 17:00, Mr Spock said:

Sadly I'm out of action for a week following my (successful) angioplasty. I can't drive for 7 days and I'm absolutely not to pick anything up - including mounts and scopes 🤕

Clear skies too 😭😡

Wishing you a speedy recovery Mr Spock👍

[Saganite]

Tonight is looking good so far, very stable split of Izar , slightly better than last night I would say. 

[John]

7 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Tonight is looking good so far, very stable split of Izar , slightly better than last night I would say. 

Yep - I've just be doing just that with my little Vixen 4 inch 🙂

 

[Saganite]

I read your post last night John regarding the split of  Lambda Cygni, and thought I would have a crack at that, but when I got outside it had clouded over. It happened very swiftly and was complete cloud cover at 12.40am.  I will give it a go tonight.

[Whistlin Bob]

Got the 14" all set up by ten and sat around waiting. By ten thirty I could see enough to point at Epsilon Lyra and Izar both of which split nicely against the deep blue. Gave up for a while, came back out at eleven thirty, much more promising 😃.  Started with the ring nebula: showing really nicely, with a little bit of texture. Next up to m51- could only see cores at 50x, but jumping up to 235x gave me enough of the arms to see which was the big one and which was the small one.

Then it all went dark: yep, clouds! The previously clear forecast suddenly has 3 hours of clouds in the middle! Deep breath, count to ten 😭. At least I had a nice twenty minutes there!

[Space Hopper]

Same story for me over at our EMS darksite in Wymeswold.

But despite the short session it was nice to get out with the scope.

The Epsilon Lyrae double double was a highlight for me. Beautifully split at 150x

[Whistlin Bob]

8 hours ago, Space Hopper said:

Same story for me over at our EMS darksite in Wymeswold

Not very far away- I bet it was the same flippin cloud!!! 

[Guest]

Last night i set up both the 10 inch and 16 inch.  There would be no moon for a while so i figured i had a chance.  I thought the sky looked good but there was definitely a haze/smoke thing going on.  I still gave it a try.  An hour and a half after i set up I called it quits and tore everything down.  One night i will catch decent skies, but last night wasn't it

[PeterStudz]

Got up at 3am just to take a look at Saturn. Nice rising crescent moon too but behind trees. Skywatcher 200p Dob in Southampton. 

Despite Saturn still being relatively low it was easy to make out shading and subtle banding to the north and thin but prominent ring shadow. The rings are much more side on compared to the last time I saw Saturn in the winter. I couldn’t make out the Cassini Division but it’s going to need decent seeing this year. And two moons (I assume Titan & Rhea) were easy to see even at 4am as it was getting light. 

Packed up to the dawn chorus. Back to bed for a couple of hours. Definitely worth the effort!

Edited June 13, 2023 by PeterStudz

[Epick Crom]

I just finished viewing the conjunction between Venus and M44 this evening using my 10x50mm binos. Cloudy but caught then in a big sucker hole.  

Absolutely gorgeous view, with the beehive 57' above and to the right of Venus.

[cloudsweeper]

Couple of familiars - just nice to be out with the 10" Dob!

10.35pm Tuesday - warm and clear, so out came the Dob, more for simple enjoyment than likelihood of elusive or exciting, new targets!

First job was to drape a big old curtain along the washing line to block out the large blaze of light from the neighbour's living room a few metres away.  😒😒

Vega > Epsilon Lyrae, the bright and beautifully balanced Double Double - x35, 73, 127, 159 just split, 190 nice and clear.  ('Scope wobbling a bit by then.)

Sadr (Cygnus) > Messier 29, the Cooling Tower open cluster - x35 7 or 8 stars, x73 more contrast, stars clearer, x127 8 stars plus a fainter one.  

First session for a few weeks - very enjoyable.

Doug.

[IB20]

Venus is looking splendid now it is showing less than 50% phase. Strikingly beautiful, for the first time I have seen some irregular shaped contrast around the terminator which is a thrill. 

Again using the Tak 76Q as it seems to handle Venus with such ease.

 

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by IB20