What did you see tonight?

[Ed in UK]

21 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Put this link on your Taskbar and you'll never miss a Jovian moon event again!

Jupiter's Moons (skyandtelescope.org)

Wow that's a handy little link.

Thanks for posting.

[Mr Spock]

I use that site too. And this one for the GRS https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/interactive-sky-watching-tools/transit-times-of-jupiters-great-red-spot/

[Ags]

Svbony 3-8 zoom and 90 mm refractor out tonight looking at some easy targets. I started with Jupiter, very stable and clear and no GRS as usual for me! I tried star-hopping to 21 Lutetia but my finder chart needs to show stars half a magnitude fainter to be usable. I also might pick up an Amici diagonal for this kind of detailed star hopping.

I tried the zoom on Castor - it fun zooming in and seeing the split widen and the diffraction rings come into view.

The zoom gave a nice view of M37 at 8 mm. I tried using a dark hood to help my night vision, but it had the opposite effect - the hood ws nice and dark but the longer I looked the fainter the cluster became. The hood was trapping my breath and fogging the eyepiece! 

[Ags]

13 hours ago, Ags said:

The hood was trapping my breath and fogging the eyepiece! 

I should get an astrosnorkel to go with my astrohood?

[Nigella Bryant]

Finally a little clear early this evening. Had a couple of hours looking at Saturn and Jupiter. Saturn was difficult being low down just above my hedge. Could see cassini devision and the equatorial band. Jupiter had some amazing detail at times. Could see at least five festoons from the NEB, two yellow looking lighter areas from the NEB into the equatorial zone. The SEB was rather bland until the GRS came into view. SEB had a large disturbance where the proceeding GRS began. 

Saw Io go into eclipse from the upper west. Much better seeing than the previous session several days ago. 

[Stu]

Typical. It’s been heaving down with rain all day, and most of the evening. After finishing our evening’s TV watching, I stepped outside to the most stunning sky I’ve seen since I’ve been here I think. Very transparent and, unusually at the same time, very steady too judging by the lack of twinkling.

Too late for a scope, I just gawped up naked eye most of the time, waiting for my eyes to adapt a bit. The DC was naked eye, Andromeda too. Orion looked fab, plenty of fainter stars to be seen beyond the main ones. I do enjoy being able to see the little double Theta 1 and 2 Tauri, much better with my new specs, same as Mizar and Alcor, much easier.

I popped in for the Canon 15x50IS bins, and had a quick spin round the DC and the lovely string of stars down to Stock 2. Andromeda, NGC457, M81/82, M36,38 and 38, plus 35 in Gemini. Orion’s sword fitted in the field of view perfectly, plenty to see there. I could just detect Sigma Orionis as a double, with the other triangle of stars as another double. Mintaka split easily, and I also had a look at the swirling S running between Mintaka and Alnilam.

So much to see, so frustrating at not having set a scope up.

Handheld shot take with my smartphone just for a record.

Enjoy anyone who’s out there 👍

[Captain Scarlet]

43 minutes ago, Stu said:

... the most stunning sky I’ve seen since I’ve been here I think. Very transparent and, unusually at the same time, very steady too judging by the lack of twinkling.

Too late for a scope, I just gawped up naked eye most of the time ...

So much to see, so frustrating at not having set a scope up ...

Like you having lately moved to a dark but more weather-prone site, I find the biggest visual difference to be the naked eye views: they are the ones that blow me away, even now three years later. If I can get even a brief naked-eye view of the myriad of stars and MW that were impossible from SW London, like I did tonight in 30-40mph winds, I'm not too unhappy at not having the opportuntiy to get a scpe out.

Just as well, as we (and you) are due a very stormy week ahead...

M

[Stu1smartcookie]

A quick SeeStars session on the moon this morning … Two photos , one showing the lovely crescent phase and the second showing a bit of earthshine 

[Stu]

Lovely views of Venus and the crescent Moon this morning.

[Ouroboros]

Nice capture. I glimpsed out between the curtains at about 5:30 and saw the same lovely sight. Went back to bed though.  

[Mr Spock]

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

[SwiMatt]

3 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Wish you a good recovery @Mr Spock! Looking forward to seeing your post in the postman thread later

I am back in my usual city skies, and with the snow on the ground and the neighborhood Christmas' trees up, light pollution is looking even worse. Also, it will be cloudy for the whole week to come... I already miss the very cold sessions up North

[Nigella Bryant]

35 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Hope your recovery is swift, live long and prosper Mr Spock.

[badhex]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Lovely views of Venus and the crescent Moon this morning.

I too got a nice glimpse of the moon and Venus this morning, albeit from less beautiful surroundings! 

[badhex]

56 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Wishing you a speedy recovery @Mr Spock - LLAP 🖖

[johnturley]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Wishing you a speedy recovery too.

John

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Get well soon Michael. May you have a speedy and full recovery 🤞.

[Franklin]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Lovely views of Venus and the crescent Moon this morning.

I noticed some good earthshine showing this morning and if clear tomorrow morning (9/12) the Moon, Venus and Spica should all be very close together, a conjunction?

[SuburbanMak]

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Get well soon Mr Spock! 

[Ed in UK]

7 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Here's to a speedy recovery for you. Hope you feel better soon.

[Froeng]

8 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Hope you get better soon!

[jjohnson3803]

Took out the 72ED for a little moon time this morning.  Earthshine was quite pronounced.  Then a bit of a glitch.

There was a moderate south wind blowing and a gust blew one of my lightcurtain stancions right off my deck rail.  I lost about 10 minutes of observing while I retrieved it from the rose bushes and set it back up.

Finished up by splitting Porrima with a 4mm EP.  With the wind, the seeing was not that great - the stars would split and then merge.

 

[Paz]

I got half an hour on Jupiter just now and the Io shadow transit. I went out as soon as I could once my domestic duties were finished.  The conditions were not great and the wind was annoying but it was great to get out and sit in the dark in peace for a bit, even though I then sat watching the cloud roll in and thicken from the moment I started observing!

I could not clearly make out the GRS that was nearing the leading limb and could not see Io itself.

When Jupiter disappeared in the clouds I thought about going for doubles in Andromeda and Pegasus where there were still gaps but decided against it and packed up.

This turned out to be a good choice because the gaps closed up quickly and once I brought in my scope I went back out for my usual check to make sure I didn't leave anything outside and it was raining!

A good session as odd as it may seem, with rarely experienced good timing of when to go out and when to come in.

[Franklin]

The rain of the day cleared and left a cloudless early evening sky, very wet and soggy garden but out for the Io shadow transit and the seeing was very good. Jupiter looking crisp at x153 with the SLV6mm in the ED102 F9.

[Stu]

Popped Basil out for a look at Jupiter this evening as GRS was visible as well as an Io shadow transit. Seeing wasn’t great, but I had reasonable views of both.

The 8” f8 is quite tall and spindly (like his namesake), which makes it a little wobbly when panning to track targets at high power. I have an EQ platform which I haven’t used yet (having sold my previous one as I ended up with two as part of a purchase) so decided to set it up tonight.

I needed to do a bit of maintenance on it as the drive motor was loose, and for some reason it seemed to track when set to S rather than N, but eventually I got it sorted and it was tracking nicely by the time the cloud came over 🤪.