What did you see tonight?

[mikeDnight]

Just now, John said:

Your rough ones are around 10x better than my finished works Mike 👍

I'm sure you're doing yourself an injustice John! 🙂

[paulastro]

I had an hour or two clear weather forecast between eight and ten earlier this evening and it turnedout to be correct!

I took advantage to take a pic of the Rosette Nebula with the Seestar S50.  It was nice to have a comparatively dark sky with no moonlight - the best for some time.

[Ags]

Although the Sun was in the sky, it was technically night as I had a blackout hood draped over my head. My DayStar Solar Scout emerged from its winter abode today. It didn’t see its shadow so I predict clear skies until Autumn. It took a while to find the right tuning but I eventually settled on +4 and 43 mm aperture. Several spots were visible as well as a detached filament and an intense loop on the western limb of the Sun. It was first light for my SLV 25 mm, which I bought specifically for this scope, as well as my Astro Essentials amici prism, which seemed to perform excellently although the Moon and higher magnifications will be a more exacting test. The SLV 25 is a keeper.

Edited March 2 by Ags

[jjohnson3803]

Skies cleared sometime during the night, so I had a short session with my 72ED viewing the moon this morning.  Quite a wavy image, but I was able to observe three new to me craters between Archimedes and Timocharis:  Bancroft, Feuillee, and Beer.  Dare I say I have discovered Beer on the moon?  

I also noticed a rather faint, but quite striking star NW of the lunar terminator.  SkySafari shows was 42 Librae. 

Observed several old favorites as well, but the moon was moving behind the trees and dawn was coming on quickly, so I called it a night.

[Froeng]

I wanted to see Io's transit tonight, with the shadow close to the GRS. Unfortunately it cleared too late, so by the time the scope was ready, Jupiter was quite low and an absolute mushy mess! I checked some higher up stars and the seeing must have been the worst I have had for a long time. P/12 Pons Brooks was nice though, despite the terrible light pollution under my Bortle 6 skies. Very bright in the C8 at 50x.

Also had a look at M42, which was washed out and then NGC 2392, which was surprisingly contrasty at higher magnification (335x).

Called it a night after an hour - tomorrow evening is supposed to be clear...

[Captain Scarlet]

Too tired after a busy day to drag a scope out despite a clear although freezing and windy, I donned a dryrobe and 15x56 bins and sat outside for a while after midnight. I briefly toured M101, M51 and M81/82 before a sheen of cloud came across. Naked eye were Coma cluster and M44 plus Alcor as clear as I’ve ever seen it. Perhaps my eyesight is getting better with age!

Magnus

[Nik271]

Last evening I had a very nice session with my 127 Skymax. I dug out my first 'proper' eyepieces 20mm and 9mm Svbony redlines from the case. They work remarkably well in the Mak, 9mm is great for double stars and planets with magnification of x170 and 20mm is good for DSOs with a moderate x75.

The night was a bit misty but the transparency at the zenith and west was very good. I had no trouble seeing M1 (the Crab), M97 (the Owl), M35 with its neighbour NGC 2158, The Eskimo NCG 2392. They showed a bit of detail, noticeably more than with my 100mm refractor, so I think it's a case where aperture wins.

I saw a very dim star making a triangle with the Eskimo and the nearby HD59087, when I looked it up in Stellarium it gave its magnitude as 12.7. I'm pleased with my little 120mm Mak, the mirrors must be in very good condition after 5 years of regular use.

On double stars I used the 9mm Ep for a tour of my spring favourites: Theta Aur, Delta Gem (Wasat), Castor, Algieba and Iota Leo low down in the east. The seeing was good and all displayed perfect airy discst except Iota Leo which was sufferring from some turbulence.

This was a test of my old Svbony eyepieces, which I don't use very much now. I have moved to Hyperions and even one Morpheus, but in honesty for a Mak the budget Svbony is pretty good. And they are very small and light. If I have to fly with hand luggage to  a dark location guess which ones I will take 😉

 

Edited March 3 by Nik271
typos corrected

[PeterC65]

I missed the Forest of Dean Astronomy Group meet last night as we had visitors, but the sky was clear and they were keen to see what I get up to so we did an EAA session with the Photoline 72 and the Explorer 200.

We stuck with more impressive objects, M42, The Running Man and Horsehead Nebulae in Orion, just before they dipped down below next doors roof, then M35 followed by a bunch of galaxies, M81 & M82, the Leo Triplet, and M51. Then for something different I showed them NGC4216 with its now fading but still clearly visible supernova.

I didn't capture darks and flats this time, and spent less time tweaking the histogram than usual, but the sky seemed very clear and we had some excellent views of these objects. Because we were talking about the objects we spent longer on each one than usual and it was a really nice shared experience. On the back of it I may have sold another S50!

The Running Man Nebula was the best I've ever seen it. Here it is with the Explorer 200 ...

 

[Froeng]

Another session on Jupiter tonight. Again, clouds were rolling through. Seeing was much improved over yesterday, but not excellent. I missed Europa merging with the planet's disk, as a bank of clouds just came through at that time. The GRS was on show, and was only faintly visible due to the high frequency oscillations of the atmosphere. There were few moments of steady air in between and this meant some glimpses of swirling in the equatorial belts momentarily appeared... The air was also much drier than last night, which meant that not everything was dripping from dew. Now back inside - work tomorrow! Hope some of you had better luck with the seeing and the clouds!

[dweller25]

8 minutes ago, Froeng said:

Another session on Jupiter tonight. Again, clouds were rolling through. Seeing was much improved over yesterday, but not excellent. I missed Europa merging with the planet's disk, as a bank of clouds just came through at that time. The GRS was on show, and was only faintly visible due to the high frequency oscillations of the atmosphere. There were few moments of steady air in between and this meant some glimpses of swirling in the equatorial belts momentarily appeared... The air was also much drier than last night, which meant that not everything was dripping from dew. Now back inside - work tomorrow! Hope some of you had better luck with the seeing and the clouds!

Snap, except I saw Europa merging with the planet, but my seeing was poor - I could see a stream of air moving across the planet !

[ONIKKINEN]

Bright Aurora here in southern Finland. These were pretty strong, i wonder if UK observers got a chance to see some as well?

Its cloudy now though, but was good while it lasted.

[Ratlet]

10 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Bright Aurora here in southern Finland. These were pretty strong, i wonder if UK observers got a chance to see some as well?

Its cloudy now though, but was good while it lasted.

We're clouded out but a guy on the Astronomy Scotland group had his all sky cam showing the view.  Pretty impressive when I tuned in.  Quite a lot of red.

[ONIKKINEN]

14 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

We're clouded out but a guy on the Astronomy Scotland group had his all sky cam showing the view.  Pretty impressive when I tuned in.  Quite a lot of red.

Naked eye was just green here, some photographic red but not much and not for long.

[mcrowle]

Caught aurora on camera here in Cornwall between 8:30 and 9pm this evening, but not visible to the eye, sadly. Just going out for another look.

Regards, Mike.

[Captain Scarlet]

I got the Aurora alert but so far it’s just a bit too cloudy. Still going on apparently (2130) so fingers crossed

M

[John]

After an early look at Orion with my ED120 refractor, the sky went cloudy and has only just cleared again !

I'm currently having a look at the Hickson 44 galaxy group in Leo's "neck" region also known as the Leo Quartet. I've spotted two of the members of the group, NGC 3190 and NGC 3193 and a 3rd, NGC 3185 might be possible if I keep at it. These objects are 90-100 million light years distant.

I'll have a go at the Leo Triplet later as well.

 

[AstroNebulee]

Aurora was visible on cameras down here in North Cornwall around 8pm. Set up my dslr to create a timelapse. So I took out my smartphone for a few dodgy handheld shots, so not the best but was able to capture a meteor in shot. Huwaei p30 lite 3200iso 10 sec exposure. The best of the show was around 9pm. 

Aurora was still faint on cameras when I packed up around 10.30pm covered in dew and frozen toes. 

Looking forward to seeing what the dslr got.

Lee 

Edited March 3 by AstroNebulee

[mikeDnight]

 I had another chance at observing Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks this evening, this time with the 100mm Tak instead of the 72ED.  It was bright despite being relatively low in the north west. I first swept the sky using a 30mm UFF which was pleasurable in itself, but then when the comet came into the field, it really gave me a momentary thrill.  After making a rough sketch of the field as seen in the 30mm I increased the power, darkening the sky background and increasing the contrast, by swapping to a 17.5mm Morpheus. Again I made a sketch of the comet which showed a hint of a stellar nucleus using averted vision, and a large coma with short fan tail. There was a star close to the comet which may have been responsible for causing a contrast effect that led me to believe there was a hard edge to edge of the fan tail, causing the tail to look longer and straight on one side.  The third sketch I made of the comet this evening was with a SvBony 3-8 zoom and 4mm Tak TOE. The Zoom at every focal length gave a more pleasing view, most likely because of it's wider true field throughout its range, so the TOE was retired for the night. at every fl the zoom gave a pleasing view, although the observation was mainly done using it at 8mm =100X.  

 

[John]

I keep forgetting to look for Comet Pons-Brooks 🙄

By the time I remember that it's worth a look, usually by reading an excellent report such as @mikeDnight's above, the dratted thing has dropped below my horizon in that direction !

I must make a note to myself to look for it early in a session 😉

[mikeDnight]

17 minutes ago, John said:

I keep forgetting to look for Comet Pons-Brooks 🙄

By the time I remember that it's worth a look, usually by reading an excellent report such as @mikeDnight's above, the dratted thing has dropped below my horizon in that direction !

I must make a note to myself to look for it early in a session 😉

If you're anything like me John, making notes won't help.  I can never remember all the various password s we all need these days, so for a long time I'd rely on one of my son's to remember them. Getting fed up of me continually asking for this or that password, they decided to buy me a book to keep them in. Now I'm continually asking "Have you any idea where I've put my book"? 

[scotty1]

Trying to pickup Aurora and just seen a decent meteor traveling from the NE at about 40°. It started in the N and tracked down towards the NW through Cassiopeia lasted about 2 seconds. Magnitude about -2 ish there was a slight covering of cirrus clouds.

 

Edited March 4 by scotty1

[Mr_Cat]

One of those nights...
Slow start as decided to let the mount decide my alignment stars. Capella as the 3rd ?? Really ??
Right now I'm laughing but the tube was vertical and I couldn't get my eye onto the  finderscope, kept on trying though before eventually  swearing a lot, giving up, restarting alignment and picking my own dam stars...
Once aligned I slewed to my first target of the night - Jupiter. Looked lovely and clear so decided to do some imaging, Laptop out, camera on, in focus and then the screen went dark.
Clouds..
I stuck with it for 30 mins hoping for a gap but every time the clouds parted there was something affecting the viewing so I'd get a clear image for maybe half a second, then the image would soften before going back to clear.. 
Thought I'd pause for a bit, so packed the camera up and left it tracking for 30 mins while getting a cuppa.. Came back out to total cloud cover so called it a night. Packed up, got everything back in and you all know what happened next... yep, it cleared up !
Still a good evening though





 

[Saganite]

Unable  to get out until 11pm last night I missed the best of Orion thanks to a neighbours tree so started with the lovely pair of Galaxies M81 & 82 both showing very prominently in the ED152.  The nearby NGC3077  is normally visible in the the same FOV but was not, so my initial thoughts on the sky transparency were borne out.  The Owl Neb M97 and M108 were not visible either, but M51 The Whirlpool was, just. With averted vision I could see a little detail, and certainly the bright nuclei of both elements.

I was a bit disappointed as this was the first dark sky session since the Moon was out of the way.  Moving to Leo I went straight for the triplet and could see M65 and M66 well, but not The Hamburger Galaxy NGC 3628. I settled down to averted vision, wanting to 'get' the triplet when the sky was obliterated !

My otherside neighbour recently acquired a small dog and when it goes out the 1,000,000 candela searchlight comes on and bathes everywhere in light. The large Birch tree in the garden behind me, which until now had been a ghostly silhouette just to the side of my FOV now stood out in stark relief.  My  unintended expletive of Oh ****  I hope was not heard ,but the light stayed on for half an hour after the pooch must have been back in its bed.  To be fair my neighbour is aware of my interest in the night sky and does try to accommodate. 

There was no point in continuing in the Southern sky so I swung the scope to the West and enjoyed the star clusters in Auriga. When the light went out it was like that moment early on in the Close encounters film when the alien craft switches of its beam as it flies over Richard Dreyfuss....... a thunderous silence !

I returned to Leo and in the darkness , was rewarded with a very prominent pair in M65 and M66 and now, NGC3628,  The Leo Triplet.  I forgave my neighbour !

As well as the ED 152 I have the recently acquired Lyra Optic 102mm f11 mounted on the AZ100, both aligned and balanced and so with a zoom set to 7.7mm in the 152 ( 156x )and 7.2mm zoom in the f11 (156x) I compared images of Algieba  (Gamma Leonis).  Both scopes rendered a beautiful split with tight Airy disc and diffraction ring, but I found the F11 image was neater , tighter, just that bit nicer .

Apart from the obvious benefit of a Pulsar dome, it does shield you from unwanted light intrusion, so it is possible to preserve night vision much more easily.

 

 Again with averted vision I could just make out M95 and M96, but should have been able to see them well from my garden , as I have so many times in the past, but the transparency had not improved , in fact, I think it had worsened. I saw little point in looking for the Virgo galaxies, so I had a look at the Globular Clusters M3 in Canes Venatici and M53 in Coma Berenices, as I moved to Bootes. Here the target was of course Izar a beautiful binary  star which at high power ( 300 x using the Svbony zoom ) gave such text book images, a tight white star with a vivid blue companion. 

Two more Globular Cllusters M13 and M92 rounded of the session at 1.45 am.

 

Edited March 15 by Saganite

[Stu]

A nice session for me on a mix of objects. Most varied session I’ve had for a while. Sky was pretty decent, though typically not as transparent as the previous night when I couldn’t observe!

 

[Ratlet]

Clocked Jupiter in the twilight and through a crafty asking if the bairn wanted to look managed to get out for 10-15 minutes.

Seeing was excellent, with some very light high altitude clouds providing a bit of a glow but not much interference, and I quickly ramped the power up on the 3-8mm zoom in the star field 102.  There was intermittent moments where the 3mm gave some good views but 4-5mm was better. The wee man did well and correctly counted the number of moons again and unlike dad did not think that callisto was a field star...

The AZ5 did pretty well at the high powers.  Very much a 'dont touch anything' setup but the vibrations dampen down quickly and I'm getting the hang of using the slow mo with the refractor and letting the planet drift through the fov.

One of the nice things compared to the dob is that I know the collimation is good.  It's always a niggling doubt with the dob (In fact it's only since having the 102ed to compare to that I've been able to say my collimation is good).

I'm currently rocking a 1.25" amici prism diagonal and the svbony bottoms out on it so I've ordered a 2" from svbony (their click lock variant) to see how that performs.  Also so I can use some honking large wide field eyepieces which is the main reason I bought the scope.

It's a real boon having a grab and go ready to go.  I can get the dob setup pretty quick but I don't think I would if I was out for less than an hour, but the 102 is bringing the magic of a cheeky 10 minutes back.