What did you see tonight?

[John]

A friend at Bristol AS (Chris) has pointed out that the feature known as "Thor's Hammer" is nicely on display as well tonight. And he is right !

Worth a look while enjoying the mare Imbrium, it is near Mount Piton (not my photo):

 

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by John

[Stardaze]

I can’t believe it’s been clear all night, when the forecast was for 100% cloud. Only managed some lunar with the binos but kinda wish I’d have made more of an effort. 

[Mr Spock]

Managed to get the crater chain in between waves of mushy seeing. I've pulled everything inside now, it's too bad to continue.

Had a brief look at Rigel - eek! What a jumbled mess! 

[John]

Still wonderful seeing here

I've just had one of the best views of 52 Orionis that I can recall from the ED120 refractor. I'm getting a clear but very fine dark line between the two airy disks about 80% of the time. According to Stella Doppie the separation is currently .99 of an arc second so close to the limit for the aperture.

The moon is just so sharp as well.

[Mr Spock]

Don't know what's happened. We are well clear of the jetstream.

[Kon]

First time to pay attention and see Rupes recta, it appeared as a thin grey line.

 

[Kon]

4 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Don't know what's happened. We are well clear of the jetstream.

I agree it is very stable; i managed to use my 6.7mm with a 2x barlow and the moon was still no boiling. Let's hope for more of  these conditions.

[cajen2]

I could see only the moon tonight and a brief glimpse of what I think was Rigel. There was thin but extensive high cloud obscuring all the stars.

I really wanted to do a star test after a radical adjustment of my secondary mirror, but no luck. The moon was cutting through the cloud enough for me to get good detail, so I'm hoping the adjustment was successful. I managed 250x mag with still sharp views.

 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Seeing is good here. Although tonight I decided to try the binoculars and Chrimbo pressie trigger grip attached to my Monfrotto Art 134 monopod.

A peaceful hour spent outside. Orion, despite moonlight and light pollution the wings of M42 clearly visible with the 15x70s. Onto Hyades, a general sweep around and then the moon. My initial look at Lunar made my eyes water but plenty of familiar geography apparent once the tears subsided!

😁

Edited January 12, 2022 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Saganite]

The turn of the  12" OO Dob and the seeing is  very good, absolutely stable at 160x on the Moon, and it is difficult to tear myself away and look at something else.  Trapezium stars E&F were solid and very visible.  The forecast is clear until 3 am.

Edited January 12, 2022 by Saganite

[Saganite]

Just had a look at Thor's Hammer John. I have never been aware of this or seen it, but one to look out for in future sessions.  Thanks.

[John]

I'm getting a bit cold out there so I'm drawing things to a close tonight with Sirius (and the Pup glimpsed a few times) and Tegmine / Zeta Cancri the close pair of which the 120mm split with a little more ease than my 100mm did last night. The seeing is still very good - even a rather stupid 450x gave decently defined views of these 3 pale yellow stars. The split between the close pair is 1.1 arc seconds so quite tight.

 

 

[Dave scutt]

2 hours ago, John said:

A friend at Bristol AS (Chris) has pointed out that the feature known as "Thor's Hammer" is nicely on display as well tonight. And he is right !

Worth a look while enjoying the mare Imbrium, it is near Mount Piton (not my photo):

 

 

Thanks for letting me know about Thor's Hammer I didn't know I captured it in my photo yesterday. 

Dave 

[vineyard]

Packing up now.  A lovely night - v stable & good seeing.  Set up w an STF7" f10 & the Moon was stupendous in BVs.  First time seeing the Rimae Hippalus - they're like claw marks across the surface.  Kept the BV in to look at M36,37 & 38.  M36 is becoming a go-to cluster for me.  A quick gander at M81 - blurry patch (this is Bortle 8 territory & lights everywhere in neighbourhood so forget about dark adaptation sadly).  Could happily just have stayed on the moon but lots to do tomorrow.  Enjoy the rest of the night whoever is still staying out!

[Stu]

I had some fun tonight. I thought the seeing would be good with the Jetstream out of the way, and hazy cloud around and so it turned out. Mainly just focused on the Moon using my 130mm LZOS. Beautiful views, and I gave my new XWs a good workout too, very happy with them.

Aside from that, E & F in the trap were very clear tonight both in the frac and the 8” f8 which I popped out later on. Some Plato craterlets (3 or 4) and hints of the Alpine Rille. Packed up now. Chilly out there! 🥶🥶

[Saganite]

The Moon is still very stable at 230x , amazing tonight !

[Zermelo]

Just packed up after a weird sort of evening with the Skymax 127. Wisps of thin cloud were appearing all over the sky, sometimes clearing away in large parts to give some reasonable views. Then later on, more of a widespread, milky mist that even came down to ground level a couple of times. Frost was forming on bags and dew shields from the outset and yet I had no problems with the scope throughout.

The moon was still good, even through the light stuff. The 10mm BCO at 150x outperformed everything else, giving some superb detail and good contrast. The walls of Copernicus were special, and I got up to 25 craters in Clavius before losing count. My new Nirvana 4mm had its first outing, but I'll reserve judgement as I'm not sure the Mak at 375x is a fair test on a night like this.

When I'd had enough of the moon and the sky was misting over, I switched to doubles. Sigma Orionis showed three components quite easily in the BCO, and 55 Eridani was comfortable. Rigel yielded to the BCO and Nirvana, in spite of some cloud. 32 Orionis was too tight for the BCO but the Nirvana managed it, though it seemed a bit crisper in a 5mm Starguider. Similar story with n1 Orionis, the BST seems to give a little less scatter. Alnitak was quite obvious in both the 4mm and 5mm.

Orion seemed a little brighter now so I had a stab at 52 Orionis, which was inconclusive for me a few nights ago. This time there was no doubt - in the Nirvana, two similar components just separated and at the correct PA. The 5mm BST at 300x could only manage to notch it, but the 10mm BCO with a Celestron barlow got the split, as did an 8mm BST with the same barlow, though with a bit more scatter. The BCO wasn't as good with a Baader barlow, oddly, but I've seen that before. This was a new record for me, at 1.0", and I then equalled it with i Orionis in the 4mm. By midnight, it was getting very cold and the mist seemed to be spreading, so I headed inside.

[Nik271]

I spent most of the evenig on the Moon with my Skymax 180, the seeing started OK-ish and steadily improved, by 11pm it was fantastic. I spent ages trying to spot the central rille in the Alpine valley but can't say I got a conclusive observation, just hints of something on the valley floor. Part of the problem is that there are also shadows from the rim of the valley which confuse the eye. I was using x300 but maybe 7 inch aperture is not enough for this or the illumination was not favourable. By contrast the 4 large craterlets on Plato were 'easy'. Rima Hadley looked great, I could trace the north part which the curves towards one of the outcrops of Mons Hadley. 

By 11pm I was freezing but remembered Sirius, so had 30 mins looking at it. The lower elevation was a big difference, x300 was too much and I switched to x220. Sirius looked good at this magnification with well defined airy rings. The Pup was showing intermittently, if I didn't know where to look I would not have spotted it .

Let's hope the fog stays away for the next few days as we finally have a good calm high pressure air system overhead!

[Saganite]

Nice report Nik.

I too found the seeing improve later, it being between 12.30 and 1 am when I returned to Lunar and found it stable at a much higher mag.  I also failed to get a really strong sighting of the central rille in the Alpine Valley with my 12" Dob.  Surprising really but perhaps there is an optimum time to view this feature.  I also failed to get the Pup.  Apart from that it was a good night....

[John]

In the past I've seen that central rille in the Vallis Alpes with my 12 inch dobsonian. I seem to recall that the Pentax XW 5mm was a "goldilocks" eyepiece for that task. Higher or lower magnifications seemed to make it more elusive. The same scope and eyepiece showed me 11 Plato craterlets on one memorable night, best I've ever done

Not sure that I've seen it for sure with any of my other scopes

I probably should have had the 12 inch out last night but initially the conditions looked a bit dodgy so I stuck out the refractor.

 

[Saganite]

3 minutes ago, John said:

In the past I've seen that central rille in the Vallis Alpes with my 12 inch dobsonian. I seem to recall that the Pentax XW 5mm was a "goldilocks" eyepiece for that task. Higher or lower magnifications seemed to make it more elusive. The same scope and eyepiece showed me 11 Plato craterlets on one memorable night, best I've ever done

Not sure that I've seen it for sure with any of my other scopes

I probably should have had the 12 inch out last night but initially the conditions looked a bit dodgy so I stuck out the refractor.

 

That explains it I think  John , as the 5mm would give you 318x and I could not get more than 230x without it going soft.

I wished that I had my  5" refractor set up as well last night, as stars were a bit 'podgy ' in the 12", but I will have both out tonight, in fact the Dob is out now cooling.

[Whistlin Bob]

Was trying to focus on imaging last night, but it was one of those nights when nothing works properly and in frustration I walked away and got the 8 inch dob out.

Sirius was clearly dancing too much so I didn't spend long failing to split that. I spotted that m93 should be in a gap between the houses and managed the hop to it. It's right in a light dome for me, and there's only about a 30 minute window where I can see it, so I was really pleased to tick it off, even if the background sky did look like chicken soup! Got distracted on the way by HR2910- a pretty little double.

Then I turned to the moon for a very happy hour. Seeing was rock steady, and at 300x it felt like I could reach out and touch it. So much was well displayed. The highlights for me were Montes Ripheus (where I could see separation between the ridges), the way Montes Jura was picked out on one edge and then fading, and the 'foothills' leading up to Copernicus. Wonderful stuff!!

[Kon]

A question for the more experienced observers than me, what moon features are worth trying to look tonight ( i have 8" Dob) if the skies stay clear and stable as last night? I was thinking that Sinus Iridum and Schiller should have some nice features.

[Nik271]

Gruithuisen domes should be near the terminator. They look like a pair of white mushrooms 🙂 But you don't need great seeing to spot them. 

The rilles of Gassendi could be worth a look too in good seeing.

Edited January 13, 2022 by Nik271

[Mr Spock]

It's clear again. Putting the scope out shortly 👍