What did you see tonight?

[Saganite]

As I drove home this evening I had hopes, but the cloud has increased considerably, though tomorrow night looks a good possibility.  I have had a good few mini sessions in the last couple of weeks and a 2 hour session with friends ,so I will not grumble....🙂

Edited November 3, 2023 by Saganite

[JeremyS]

7 minutes ago, Saganite said:

As I drove home this evening I had hopes, but the cloud has increased considerably, though tomorrow night looks a good possibility.  I have had a good few mini sessions in the last couple of weeks and a 2 hour session with friends ,so I will not grumble....🙂

Hope no bonfires and fireworks near you 🤞🏻

[John]

12 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Hope no bonfires and fireworks near you 🤞🏻

We have a little display going off a couple of houses away 🤨

Luckily I'm in for supper at the moment. 

[globular]

The local rugby club has organised a "quiet fireworks display" in the fields out the back from here.  My cat has just questioned their definition of quiet. Good on them for trying though, I suppose.

[Saganite]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Hope no bonfires and fireworks near you 🤞🏻

No, nothing, only the massive annual display at Kimbolton Castle.  Very loud but short lived....🙂

[John]

3 hours ago, John said:

Lovely views of Saturn just now. It's 5 brightest moons are quite close into the planet. I can't quite convince myself that I'm seeing Enceladus though. It's just that little bit fainter and very close to the ring system currently. Iapetus is clear enough though.

 

Well heavy clouds came across and I thought "game over" and bought the scope in.

90 minutes later the clouds have thinned enough to make observing Jupiter worthwhile so I'm back out again, now with the Tak 100 which needs no cool down time so I can get right on with observing.

The UK weather does keep you on your toes ! 🙄

 

[globular]

8 minutes ago, John said:

I'm back out again, now with the Tak 100 which needs no cool down time so I can get right on with observing.

Is yours a DL John? Does that version in particular behave so well, or are all the Tak 100's as good in that regard?

[John]

3 minutes ago, globular said:

Is yours a DL John? Does that version in particular behave so well, or are all the Tak 100's as good in that regard?

Mine is the DL. It's the only Tak that I have ever used so I don't know how the others behave in this respect. 

[John]

16 minutes ago, John said:

Well heavy clouds came across and I thought "game over" and bought the scope in.

90 minutes later the clouds have thinned enough to make observing Jupiter worthwhile so I'm back out again, now with the Tak 100 which needs no cool down time so I can get right on with observing.

The UK weather does keep you on your toes ! 🙄

 

The 8mm-3mm zoom is proving it's worth under these conditions. The thickness of the cloud cover varies all the time. When it's thicker I can "throttle back" to 8mm / 113x and still see reasonable detail / contrast. When it thins, a couple of click stops gives 150x and more pretty much instantly to take advantage of the better clarity.

 

[Froeng]

Just inside now after a “planetary evening” with Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus in the C8.

Saturn wobbling along between neighbouring houses - will need at least another couple of years before it’s worthwhile!

Uranus a pale disk as usual.

Jupiter getting better as it was rising up higher. Best view at about 10pm, although not as good as the better sessions last year. I think we may have had the Jetstream overhead tonight. Some high clouds appeared around 22.30.

A mixed result evening, but happy to have been out!

[Littleguy80]

The Tak FC100, Docter and Baader VIP Barlow are delivering some great views of Jupiter and the GRS. Very enjoyable unexpected session 

[Space Hopper]

22 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

The Tak FC100, Docter and Baader VIP Barlow are delivering some great views of Jupiter and the GRS. Very enjoyable unexpected session 

Good to hear my old docter is still performing well 🙂

I often use a 2x Powermate with mine and they work together nicely

[Littleguy80]

22 minutes ago, Space Hopper said:

Good to hear my old docter is still performing well 🙂

I often use a 2x Powermate with mine and they work together nicely

Yep, the Docter sees plenty of use. A real favourite  @jetstream described as being like a widefield ortho which I completely agree with 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, globular said:

Is yours a DL John? Does that version in particular behave so well, or are all the Tak 100's as good in that regard?

I guess in theory the DL may be a little better as I assume the longer focal length means a slightly thinner lens. In practise, I reckon they all cool pretty swiftly; certainly my f7.4 DC is ready to go as soon as I am 👍

[Stu]

Well, I’m all packed away after what was an unexpected and very good session. Largely on Jupiter, I ended up having a couple of fairly long clear spells with stable seeing as GRS was first on the disk and then as it was transiting. Plenty detail to be seen, as good a session as I’ve had this year. I tried with the 10mm BCOs, giving x270 and it held up pretty well, but the views were much crisper and with the same detail at x135. I need to find something in between, a pair of 15mm eyepieces to give me a higher, but not too high mag.

Things have clouded over now for the moment, and the Moon is in an area of poorer seeing so it’s bedtime for me.

On the subject of Docter’s, I used mine tonight on Saturn and it showed the Moons quite clearly, more so than at higher power.

Good to hear that a few of you got out too

[SuburbanMak]

Enjoyed an hour of fine Jupiter viewing this evening with Tak 100 DC & Pentax 5mm (148x).  
Lots of texture in the main bands and the GRS showing well, although not especially red right now.   
Eventually the cloud intervened so switched to the Moon for a while - roaming around the Apennine Mountain region and the bewildering south polar area.   Clouded out now but some super views. 

[scarp15]

Just come in after a spectacular Jupiter session. Perhaps following the storm, the air was clean and the seeing steady then the lingering patchy clouds dispersed. Surface details were dynamic with the GRS emerging, several barges within the belt regions, Temperate belts and the Polar Regions also sharply defined. Much later the southern region was an incredibly mottled grey shade. It was great to be able to follow the passage of the GRS and then much later still the start and early stage following the Europa shadow transit. The imposing black dot imprinted clearly along the Southern region. Just an awesome and enriching night to be outside with the telescope and with Jupiter at opposition, still buzzing and its 02.10 am. Eyepiece of the night again was the 7mm DeLite (171x), for its outstanding image consistency.   

 

[wesdon1]

18 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Gone cloudy here with showers. Same old... 

@Mr Spock In relation to the UK weather these last few months...PLEEEASE don't get me started!! GRRRR!!

( Hahaha! We have to laugh otherwise we'd go nuts here in the UK of late! LOL )

"clear" skies...lol

[wesdon1]

17 hours ago, IB20 said:

Have just seen a string of 20 odd satellites in a row, which I’m assuming were Starlink? They weren’t particularly close together and from end to end took about 30° of sky, the biggest constellation I’ve ever seen. They were all as bright as Deneb (+1.3) until they faded into our shadow. 

I used to think they were pretty cool but seeing them like that has actually made me quite concerned.

@IB20 Apparently Starlink are planning on eventually having 10's of K's of sats carpeting the entire world night skies/skies? If true, astrophotography will be a LOT harder in years hence? We will probably be able to use some special editing software to remove all the sat trails from subs? Hope so...😕

Wes.

Edited November 4, 2023 by wesdon1
missed a bit

[JeremyS]

12 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Yep, the Docter sees plenty of use. 

Surprised you can get an appointment, Neil 🤔

😊

[John]

It's currently looking clear-ish again here this evening 🙂

[John]

1 hour ago, John said:

It's currently looking clear-ish again here this evening 🙂

That didn't last too long 🤨

Thanks though to the wonders of the alt-az mounted 4 inch frac, some lovely views of Saturn at 180x and 225x plus Almach were had in the brief clear spell.

My turn to cook tonight so perhaps the cloud cover is a good thing, for a while at least 😏

[Captain Scarlet]

Just in (0205) from a nice session on Jupiter, with the LZOS 105, mainly at 217x and 260x with the DeLite 3 and TOE 2.5. I’d say my second best ever view, no big features on display but good detail within the Equatorial Bands, North especially, white spots and edge detail plus other belts too. A bit of Uranus and the Moon, plus to finish the Orion Nebula with the Nagler 31: 4 trapezium stars just about separated at only 21x!

Magnus

Edited November 5, 2023 by Captain Scarlet
217x not 317x

[Nigella Bryant]

Managed a challenging solar imaging and observation this afternoon. Cloud's whipping by. Just before complete cloud cover at 2.40pm there was a very bright flare from AR3480 that began at 2.32UT and continued up to cloud cover. Also flaring on the upper North West limb with spray prom. A lovely long segmented filaprom in the North East quadrant associated with a prom.

[Astro_Dad]

Having sadly missed the aurora tonight, clearly  visible from local gardens and of course Lime Tree it seems , I was nevertheless inspired to view Jupiter on what is a very clear Bonfire night here. Lovely views of the disc and Galilean moons through my 8” with 150x power using the Baader Zoom. It’s been a while but good to be back out. 👍