What did you see tonight?

[scotty1]

While out trying to pickup the Aurora (no luck this time), I saw a bright meteor in the north above the plough. It was heading from North east to South west. From about 70 degrees fading out at around 30 degrees. It was white and fading to orange and left a brief trail. Time was 01.22 , I think it was a Persied. 

The moon and Jupiter looked nice together , and the Pleiades nearby.

Edited August 8, 2023 by scotty1

[Ratlet]

Managed to get up at 0300 (normally up at 0400 for work) and set up the 130pds for Jupiter and Saturn.  Was nice to see them both again.  Seeing wasn't great, especially for Saturn which was just above the roof of the house.

Had a wratten #8 filter and moonglow instead of the cheap yellow and found the contrast was not so good.  Will try again tomorrow with the cheap yellow and also get the dob out.

[maw lod qan]

Just walked out to feed the chickens, before going to work.

It's the mid 80's°F and very humid, high thin clouds ruining the sky.

There is a conjunction of Luna and Jupiter that is only separated by less than my pinky finger tip!

The terminator pointing directly down to Jupiter, below to the right!

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

57 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

Just walked out to feed the chickens, before going to work.

It's the mid 80's°F and very humid, high thin clouds ruining the sky.

There is a conjunction of Luna and Jupiter that is only separated by less than my pinky finger tip!

The terminator pointing directly down to Jupiter, below to the right!

 

I woke up at about 2 ish this morning ... and saw the moon and jupiter quite close too .  Lovely sight 

[IB20]

Quick half an hour with a low rising Saturn. Transparency seems quite good and light pollution reduced now it’s later but the seeing is pretty honking. Highest supported mag was 136x but not a consistently stable image.

Titan and Rhea both visible; Rhea clearer with averted vision. A nice thin shadow on the planetary face underneath the ring system and a prominent darker band on the northern hemisphere. The Cassini division popping in and out but easier to see on the side pointing up towards Rhea. Certainly whetting the appetite for the season!

 

[bosun21]

Nothing but cloud and rain in Oxford unfortunately. I'm definitely going to invest in a G&G for those short sessions squeezed into the cloud gaps.

[JeremyS]

12 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Nothing but cloud and rain in Oxford unfortunately. I'm definitely going to invest in a G&G for those short sessions squeezed into the cloud gaps.

G&T also works well on these frustrating nights 😊

[RT65CB-SWL]

Before setting of for work at LHR at 03:16BST this morning, a nice conjunction of M45 [Pleiades], Moon & Jupiter in Taurus/Aries.

Just been looking a Sky Safari 6 and seen that Uranus was there too, (may be hidden within the glow from the Moon).

Quite pleased with the result and outcome of this image, even though the Moon is overexposed, and that the phone camera sensor is sensitive enough to register M45. The image was handheld, (about three seconds exposure), and taken with an iPhone 12.

Edited August 9, 2023 by RT65CB-SWL

[josefk]

6 hours ago, JeremyS said:

G&T also works well on these frustrating nights 😊

G&T works well on any night...

[johnturley]

Observed Venus at around teatime yesterday, managed to locate it despite being only 5 days before Inferior Conjunction, in addition to the very slim illuminated crescent, I was able to make out the whole of the Venusian disc, which appeared distinctly darker than the surrounding sky.

John  

Edited August 9, 2023 by johnturley

[Priesters]

Set up with the Mk1 eyeball last night as I’m away in the Lake District without any of my usual rig.  Deck chair, several  tins of neck oil and a cosy sleeping bag and I was set up in about 30 seconds although had to position myself strategically to avoid direct line of sight to campsite lights.  Once proper darkness arrived I was pleased to spot 4 decent perseids but then two mystery flashes.  One I reckon was an iridium flare and the other maybe a rocket launch separation. Anyone any way of checking whether my guesses could be right?  Overall a very relaxing evening away from the laptop and various technical challenges of imaging.  

Edited August 9, 2023 by Priesters

[globular]

3 minutes ago, Priesters said:

the other maybe a rocket launch separation. Anyone any way of checking whether my guesses could be right?

Starlink-97 (6-20) launched on Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 3:57 AM (UTC)

5 m S-SAR-02 launched on Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 10:55 PM (UTC)

[John]

Nice steady night here. I have got a lovely split of Lambda Cygni at 312x with my 130mm refractor. According to the Stelle Doppie website the split between the A and B components is .91 arc seconds with respective magnitudes of 4.73 and 6.26. The position angle is very close to 0 so the B star is pretty much due north of the A star. Simple view - just 3 points of light in the eyepiece field (there is a C component around 80 arc seconds apart from the A-B pair) but very satisfying 🙂

[John]

57 minutes ago, John said:

Nice steady night here. I have got a lovely split of Lambda Cygni at 312x with my 130mm refractor. According to the Stelle Doppie website the split between the A and B components is .91 arc seconds with respective magnitudes of 4.73 and 6.26. The position angle is very close to 0 so the B star is pretty much due north of the A star. Simple view - just 3 points of light in the eyepiece field (there is a C component around 80 arc seconds apart from the A-B pair) but very satisfying 🙂

Just added comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS to this evenings haul of targets.

Rather small and diffuse comet in Cygnus tonight between Deneb and the small triangle of stars in Cepheus. The Heavens Above website has this one at magnitude 8.8 but it looks somewhat fainter than that frankly. It's relatively close to Earth currently, around .391 AU from us. 

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by John

[Stu]

Very nice @John 👍

It didn’t look great here earlier on, so I chose to do some work on my car….rewarding, but possibly not the right choice as the skies here look beautiful tonight 🤪.

All I managed was a ten minute relax in my hammock, looking up at Cygnus with the Milky Way very clear, along with the Cygnus rift. I sometimes forget that the skies here are so much better than where we were before. Being able to see the Milky Way from my back garden was always a dream of mine, but now it’s a reality. Nice  

[RobertI]

Beautiful clear skies here tonight, so I had a tour around the globulars and doubles of Hercules with the 102ED. Couldn’t resist getting out the C8 with binoviewers at 170x for some high res close ups of M13 and M92 - I wasn’t disappointed - views were spectacular. Also checked out M57 which looked huge with the C8+BV combo - amazing. Finished up with the rising Saturn - wobbly but plenty of detail - looking forward to the autumn. 🙂

[Mr Spock]

Almost... Up early (3am) and it looked nice and clear. Moon and Jupiter looked well placed. Looked out 15mins later and there was just a hint of cloud on the horizon, so I thought nah, not worth putting the scope out. I was right. Half an hour later there was a veil of cloud over the moon. 

It's cleared up again now but the sun is up.

[Stu1smartcookie]

On 09/08/2023 at 05:30, RT65CB-SWL said:

Before setting of for work at LHR at 03:16BST this morning, a nice conjunction of M45 [Pleiades], Moon & Jupiter in Taurus/Aries.

Just been looking a Sky Safari 6 and seen that Uranus was there too, (may be hidden within the glow from the Moon).

Quite pleased with the result and outcome of this image, even though the Moon is overexposed, and that the phone camera sensor is sensitive enough to register M45. The image was handheld, (about three seconds exposure), and taken with an iPhone 12.

lovely ... i think youve also got Hyades too

[Stu1smartcookie]

Set up , nice and early ... for one of the last sessions with "Big Red " i had a very nice eveining . M39 , Coat Hanger , Double cluster ( which looked absolutely superb) , M57 , and finally Saturn , grazing a nearby roof as it was rising . The seeing was exceptional . 

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

1 hour ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

lovely ... i think youve also got Hyades too

Thank you @Stu1smartcookie

Looking at the original image on my iPad 2, I can see the Hyades too!

[Mr Spock]

CO says cloudy. All I see at the moment is blue sky. If it stays like this I'll get the big lad out for a few tight doubles and maybe M13/92 etc.

[John]

3 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

CO says cloudy. All I see at the moment is blue sky. If it stays like this I'll get the big lad out for a few tight doubles and maybe M13/92 etc.

CO says cloudy here as well ...... and it is 😌

It's thinnish stuff though so you never know, it might clear away.

I hope your skies stay clear 🤞

Edited August 10, 2023 by John

[Mr Spock]

No, it's clouded over 😡

[rojay]

Hi all, I had quite a decent session yesterday, the highlights for me were the Double Cluster, Wild Duck cluster (M11), quite far down in the murk, and the carbon star V Aql. For the first time, I tried the trick of looking at a bright light to undo dark adaptation: it dud seem to help pick out the red colour.

[Ags]

Had my first visual session in a long while. The main motivator was to try out my Askar FMA135 as a finder scope. The main scope was my Zenithstar 66. Started off with Achird in Cassiopeia, and the FMA135 was duly of assistance, but I would say the FOV is only 60% of what I want. To achieve focus with an SLV25 eyepiece the little scope is barlowed out to a focal length of about 350mm. Changing from a mirror to a prism diagonal would reduce the barlowing, and of course switching to a 30mm plossl would also help. I'm doubtful I have enough path for an amici prism however.

I hopped over to the Double Cluster, and it was a pretty sight and easy to make out in the finder. It was gorgeous as ever in the Zenithstar. The eyepiece in the Zenithstar was a Svbony 3-8 zoom and I'm finding it does great work as a DSO eyepiece , giving over a degree FOV at the 8mm setting with the option of zooming in on any doubles that come along.

I took a first look this season at M31, and there it was - a grey thumbprint with faint "wings".

Then down to Almach. No color at all in this double tonight. How peculiar!