What did you see tonight?

[Gonariu]

A few years ago I bought a vintage 60/900 Bresser refractor (complete telescope); the reason for this purchase is that I wanted an old-fashioned classic 60mm; I bought it when I was 16 in 1983, then 14 years ago I gave it as a gift. Yesterday I put it on the terrace taking advantage of the good weather and the very mild temperature of this umpteenth "winter without a winter", my intention was to see some abseils, even narrow ones. So I tried to split Rigel: nothing, I try with ζ Orionis: worse still, Mintaka and σ Orionis "save" me a bit (all three components are visible at X41) and M42 doesn't mind either, at the Trapeze is small. What really surprised me, however, was the 6X30 finder which has adjustable focus by moving the eyepiece back and forth: a sea of stars that made the vision poetic, I couldn't have imagined it at all! I must say that, being short-sighted and lacking 5 diopters, to use the finders now supplied with telescopes, I have to wear glasses and this is deeply uncomfortable for me, but yesterday the music was totally different!

[jjohnson3803]

1 hour ago, Gonariu said:

What really surprised me, however, was the 6X30 finder which has adjustable focus by moving the eyepiece back and forth: a sea of stars that made the vision poetic, I couldn't have imagined it at all! 

🙂  I'm sometimes surprised at how nice the view can be in my 6x30 finders.  I have a converted 50mm finder that I use for super grab-n-go and I like it so much that I might get a 60mm RACI.

[Gonariu]

Good idea, my first ever optic was a Russian-made 10X30 monocle of excellent workmanship, given to me at 14 years old way back at Christmas 1981.

[maw lod qan]

After working out the gremlins in my mount I went back out right at twilight. 

The view of Jupiter was good, though it was extremely brilliant. The MEB's showing along with its 4 large moons.

The terminator on Luna was a little past the Apollo site. All along the terminator the definition between the light and shadows amazing.

One large crater hidden in the shadow was only showing as 4 or 5 bright spots from several of the peaks in its rim.

Only bad thing was the mosquitoes were so bad. Now I have hearing aides I could actually hear them they were so thick!

[SwiMatt]

Woke up early to enjoy possibly the only good night of February. All in all, limited by what is visible from my balcony, I had a very nice session! I saw a couple of doubles, M3 and possibly M94, more in my report:

 

[Stu]

Very short and mixed session for me. I popped the Tak out for a quick look at the Moon, then realised that it was very close to the Pleiades. With a 31mm Nag I got both in the same field of view, but it was much better in the binoculars.

Had a quick look at Orion’s sword in widefield, then, having made some modifications to my scope truck, I wheeled the big dob out. I’ve shaved some wood off the bottom and epoxied the wheel in place now and the steering is much better.

As posted elsewhere, I spent ten minutes trying to find the Moon before realising that the cover was still on the mirror 🤪; with the shroud on it’s no obvious, and you still get a fair amount of light through the eyepiece with it on, that’s my excuse anyway. Had some decent views of the Moon and then packed away as I had broken my TelRad so finding anything else proved very challenging.

[SuburbanMak]

Spent a nice hour out with the little Tak FS60 from midnight & just two zooms, Baader 8-24mm & SVBony 3-8mm. 
Aligned goto and hopped between whatever was popping out between cloud bands. 

Some lovely views of the Beehive, M35, Cor Caroli, Algieba, Mizar, Coma Cluster and an amazingly rewarding view of the Double Cluster given how far into the light extinction from neighbouring properties  it had slipped. M3 was great with a hint of sparkle at 4mm (89x) in the SV Bony, 

Also enjoyed some dimmer views of M67, M36 and M94 - always nice to bag a galaxy from the garden even if there’s little detail available. 

A nice session then with the FS60 in f5.9 CB mode on a Manfrotto 55, being truly “grab and go”. 

[SwiMatt]

Too tired for a full session, but the sky looks splendid, so I went out on the balcony for a little bit with binoculars. 

Despite the Moon high in the sky, I spotted easily M45, M42 (both fuzzily visible by the naked eye) and the Double Cluster. While searching for the latter, I spotted something that looked a lot like an open cluster but couldn't say exactly what it was. I was around where NGC 457 is supposed to be (according to star charts), so maybe I got that one. I also glimpsed M103 in Cassiopeia, knowing what I was looking for it was easy enough - but quite small. A final look at the Moon, and now I'm back in for bed!

Edited February 17 by SwiMatt

[Saganite]

The sky last evening was clear when I got home at about 8.30pm.  It was not what was forecast but a treat all the same.  

Having my telescopes permanently set in an Obsy is a great bonus so I was observing within minutes.   Rigel, Mintaka, the Trapezium and Sigma Orionis quickly revealed that the seeing was pretty fair, though F was intermittent.  The main course for me though was Lunar, so a quick change to the bino and Powerswitch and a pair of 20mm WO eyepieces and I was in business moving all over the surface with mags of 84x ...rock steady,  120x ...also rock steady, and 150x...slight undulations but very good, certainly good enough for me to count the sink pits along Rima Hyginus.  Since I discovered some years ago that what I thought were ' weird straight lines of craters ' were in fact sink pits formed by volcanic action, it is a favourite area which I always spend time on.

It is wonderfully relaxing to spend the best part of an hour, dare I say, gazing at the surface, but soaking in  the details in and around the Craters; very cathartic.

Feeling now very refreshed, I removed the binoviewer and put in the 30mm UFF before swinging the APM 152 onto the Double Cluster in Perseus.  I really love this eyepiece for deep sky views , and particularly star clusters. You really can fill it with stars edge to edge and they remain sharp and focused.  This pair of clusters are a magnificent sight , as we all know.  My recently acquired APM 20mm XWA was then put into the focuser and I got what I had hoped for, the same view but at 60x rather than 40x, so the gorgeous diamond stars were set in a darker background.  This was very pleasing and  so too is the prospect of doing the same again, in a little while, when Lunar is not lighting up the sky.

I won't be parting with the 30mm UFF though.  Both eyepieces have their merit .

Edited February 18 by Saganite

[Mr Spock]

East is cloudy, west is clear. I have the Tak out.

Jupiter - wow - it's all kicking off. GRS is dead centre and a lovely pale salmon colour. There's a transit shadow off to the left (refractor view) and oodles of detail in the belts with a couple of festoons.

Why do people keep saying the Jupiter season is over? Looks pretty lively to me!

[John]

6 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

East is cloudy, west is clear. I have the Tak out.

Jupiter - wow - it's all kicking off. GRS is dead centre and a lovely pale salmon colour. There's a transit shadow off to the left (refractor view) and oodles of detail in the belts with a couple of festoons.

Why do people keep saying the Jupiter season is over? Looks pretty lively to me!

Great stuff !!!

Fog-bound here after an otherwise fine day 🤨

Moon just about visible shining dimly though the murk. 

[PeterStudz]

Clear here in Southampton too. Setup and just letting the Dob cool. 

Edited February 18 by PeterStudz

[Mr Spock]

Moon is splendid. Tyco and Clavius look majestic.

[Froeng]

Was capturing snaps of Pons/Brooks. Now clouded over. Will have a look at Jupiter after dinner if the weather allows…

[Mr Spock]

Quick single shot with a D500 and x4 Powermate.

[Saganite]

That is a superb shot !

Cloudy here unfortunately.

[Mr Spock]

That might be it here - it's clouded over. I'll give it half an hour or so to see if it clears before bringing everything in.

It's been a great night though. I don't know what's wrong with me lately, I'm like a kid in a sweet shop!

[F15Rules]

On 17/02/2024 at 08:08, Stu said:

I popped the Tak out for a quick look at the Moon

Hi Stu,

By the above, did you mean "The Tak", as in Phyllis, the FS128, or 'the tak', as in anything else "Tak-ish"?🤔🤭😁

Dave

[Stu1smartcookie]

Finally clear in Cambridgeshire.. but I got the scope out a bit late . The moon looks fantastic though . Stars not so as the scope is not properly cooled . Having said that , Uranus is about 11 o’clock from Jupiter .. about half way to the plaides , and is showing its distinctive colour . Just good to get outside after what seems like weeks of cloud and rain . 

[PeterC65]

My first visual session in a while, with the Skymax 127 for the Moon and Jupiter and the Photoline 72 / 30mm UFF for widefield.

Jupiter is still looking good. More stable than I’ve seen it for a while and with three of the Galilean moons quite close to the planet. I just missed the GRS unfortunately (still not seen it visually).

Uranus was also clear, definitely a disc and with a blue tint.

The Moon looked particularly magnificent tonight with the binoviewer. I can observe it for ages when I’m using both eyes. I was particularly taken by the mountain range along the edge of Mare Imbrium which the Sun seemed to be catching just right.

Unfortunately the moonlight rather washed out the view with the Photoline 72 / UFF 30mm, but Hyades, M44 and M45 looked good. I think the UFF 30mm really benefits from a dark sky as the magnification is so low. I could see all three of the Orion Belt stars though, and the S-shape of stars between Alnilam and Mintaka, and the Skymax 127 gave me a good view of the Trapezium which is hard to see via EAA (it gets over exposed).

I finished off with a quick check of Betelgeuse. It’s still there.

 

[Froeng]

I was lucky and had a big “cloud hole” around 8-9pm! Jupiter was good, but not the best I have seen. Some high frequency scintillation visible, even at 135x in the C8. There were some still moments, which showed quite a bit of detail in the NEB and SEB. The GRS had just disappeared while I had been inside.

Uranus was a very clean steady disk tonight, showing its pale greenish blue hue. Very nice!

I got to get up early tomorrow, so called it a night. It was worth it though after what felt like “years” of clouds…

Edited February 18 by Froeng

[jjohnson3803]

I finally was able to take out my new AZ-GTi and went ripping through a bunch of objects last night and this morning to test out the go-to and tracking. 

M41, NGC 2345, CR32, CR140, CR135, NGC 2451 / c Pup, M93, M47, M50 last night.  Omicron Cyg, Omega Cyg, NGC 6871, Chi Cyg, Albireo, the Coat Hangar, and U Sge this morning.

Still have to do some more fiddling with it and then I'll go back to observing objects instead of ticking off a list.

[bosun21]

On 17/02/2024 at 08:08, Stu said:

As posted elsewhere, I spent ten minutes trying to find the Moon before realising that the cover was still on the mirror 🤪;

I've done this twice in the few short months of buying my new 10" Flextube dobsonian. Having the shroud on it seems to escape my mind that the main mirror cover is still in place 🙄.

[SuburbanMak]

A short session early evening last night as I had to pack and prepare for a business trip today. 
Had the FC100 & FSQ side by side and a nice look at Jupiter showing tight detail and the GRS. 
Pleaides, Hyades, M44, M42 (still a bit low down) Castor, Alnitak - then a band of cloud rolled in.  
A nice “top-up” of views to remember in my week away. 
I also learned that it’s possible to thread the objective on the FS60 on back to front - views not recommended! 

Edited February 19 by SuburbanMak

[Stu]

Had the FS-128 out last night, though it probably wasn’t worth it! Some early views of M42 were nice enough, but later I was just observing the Moon through varying degrees of cloud. Even when clear, the seeing wasn’t very good! Svbony zoom worked well though I still think the BGOs offer a smidge more sharpness even if they are a lot less comfortable to look through.