What did you see tonight?

[John]

I'm drawing my interesting session tonight with the Vixen ED102SS to a close with some galaxies and planetary nebulae.

The transparency is not the best and the scope just a 4 incher but what the heck 🙂

I got a few galaxies in Leo. I often find NGC 2903 near the Lion's muzzle a good one with the smaller apertures. Quite easy to find as well. The Leo triplet was visible with the Hamburger (NGC 3628) being the hardest to pick out, as usual with a small scope.

I picked up the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini then the Cats Eye Nebula in Draco.

Moving to Ursa Major, finding the well known galactic pair of M51 and NGC 5195 looking like two dim eyes looking back at me, I then moved to Merak, popped in an O-III filter and saw the Owl Nebula (M97) looking quite bright as it was practically overhead. Removing the filter I was pleased to find that I could still see the Owl Neb but also, faintly, M108, the Surfboard Galaxy in the same field of view. 

It's been a good session with my old Vixen (24 years old I reckon). A very versatile scope as it proves itself to be time and time again 😀

 

[Epick Crom]

13 hours ago, Stu said:

Another nice session for me, two in a row now! Main highlights were drinking in the view of the Double Cluster in the 31mm Nagler, that never gets old, and also seeing some of the Markarian’s Chain Galaxies from my garden. This is something I could only dream of when back near London so I must learn to appreciate and make the most of my skies.

 

Nice one Stu. Drinking up the Double Cluster with a 31mm Nagler sure sounds like fun. I hope to see this sight one day..

[Stu]

Having had Geoffrey out looking at the Sun during the day, he stayed out and I switched to astro mode for a quick session this evening. I successfully used the StarSense again, making finding objects a breeze.

Was just having a trawl round a few favourites, and as mentioned elsewhere, seeing if I could split Tegmine in a 4”. Answer was resolved and suspected/possible/maybe if you squint split. To be continued…..

[lunator]

I had another short but enjoyable session. Saw Pons-brook in the 15x70's. Clearly fuzzy (if that is not an oxymoron 😀 ). 

Had an hour or so looking at more doubles in Hydra. 

Tried to see a couple of galaxies but Leo hadn't come round enough to clear some trees. 

Cheers

Ian

[PeterC65]

I’ve managed two EAA sessions over the last two nights, concentrating on smaller galaxies and PNs with the Explorer 200 fitted with a x1.7 Barlow. Since the AZ-EQ5 will carry two scopes I usually have a second for the widefield view, and on Tuesday that was the Explorer 150. The two reflectors together made for an impressive sight!

The highlights of the evenings were NGC2403, a small galaxy but surprisingly beautiful, and seeing detail in the Eskimo Nebula (NGC2392).

NGC2403 …

NGC2393 …

I also did a comparison test of darks and flats, which do seem to have their uses, even for EAA.

There’s a full report here.

 

[SwiMatt]

I'm already inside since I'm working tomorrow, but I was on my balcony for 1h30 tonight to continue my exploration of the observing list of "Stargazing Under Suburban Skies". 

Tonight it was all about open clusters, starting with binoculars to take a look at M45, the double cluster, Melotte 20 (the cluster around Alpha Persei) and glimpsing Stock 2 high up in the sky.

With the Mak, I started from a re-observation of NGC 752 in Andromeda, which I had seen two days ago. I'm sure I got it in the eyepiece, but it doesn't seem to pop as much as some suggest under very polluted skies (also with transparency not the best and a lot of glare from street lights). I look forward to checking out this one under darker skies. I went on to observe for the first time NGC 457 (the Owl Cluster): it took me a bit to detect the shape, but once I saw it it was quite obvious and fun to look at. Next I saw again M103, which is turning out to be one of my favorite clusters: at 60x it looks like nothing, but it really pops at higher magnifications. The arrow-head shape is quite obvious and it's neat to see that all stars are inside the triangle. Finally, I looked (also for the first time) at M34, very nice cluster which seems almost like a cluster of double stars! 

I also sketched NGC 457, M103 and M34 (sketches linked below), and I'm quite happy with the result! 

 

[SuburbanMak]

Haven’t been out for a while so it felt great  to sneak in an hour and half out there with the baby-Tak, FS60 in CB mode with the two zooms -  Baader 8-24mm and SV Bony 3-8mm.  

Transparency really quite poor and magnifying the local LP but still managed some rewarding views of clusters and easy doubles.

Meandered around Orion, messy split of Rigel, nice view of the Trapezium (4) amidst slightly washed-out nebulosity, but even under these conditions still one of the best views in the sky. 

Pleiades, Beehive and Double Cluster never fail to delight.

Dim views of M67, M35 through M38 - not the best but nice to know they’re out there…

Looked at Algieba, Castor, Cor Caroli, Iota Cancri, Tegmine (as a double only, of course with a 60mm at 118x) and, the view I will think about as I nod off later, Beta Monoceros, a tiny but cleanly split triple system. 

[SwiMatt]

Just came back from my observation spot in the woods where I had a session of a  couple of hours with tons of objects of all sorts. Transparency was bad, only Alpha and Beta Ursae Minori were visible.

Started by trying out to see Sirius' pup... impossible task, but Sirius looked like a twinkling caleidoscope, which was fun! So, seeing wasn't great either! I spent some time on Orion: beautiful M42 with trapezium with only 4 stars at 100-150x; then NGC 1981 and Collinder 69 (around Lambda Orionis). Sigma Orionis is a beautiful triple easy to split, and with averted vision I could split in 3 components also Struve 761 in the same FOV. Great great view.

Next area was Gemini and Auriga, I looked at the clusters M35, M36, M37 and M38, all beautiful. I had a tougher time to find M37, since I keep forgetting how much dimmer than M36 it is! M38 is my fav of the four with its cross pattern. Turn towards Perseus and the double cluster just fits the FOV at 60x.

Finally I swung around to find some fuzzies: M3 was underwhelming, but that's also the worse side of the sky in terms of sky pollution. M94 in Canes Venaticii looks almost stellar at 60x and shows some fuzziness at higher magnification (by comparison with the only star in the field of view, which came into focus easily even at 150x). I finally looked at a couple of double stars, namely Cor Caroli and Algieba.

I finished the night with a look at some fun objects in the 10x50 binoculars: Beehive, Pleiades, Kemble's cascade, double cluster, Stock 2 (barely visible) and the funny Cheshire Cat in Auriga. Fun fact, tonight I split Mizar for the first time without visual aid.

It was a fun (and cold) night! And realized that the best astronomy buy of 2024 was the string to hold my glasses around my neck... it makes me 40 years wiser

Edited March 8 by SwiMatt

[Stu]

3 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

Just came back from my observation spot in the woods where I had a session of a  couple of hours with tons of objects of all sorts. Transparency was bad, only Alpha and Beta Ursaa Minori were visible.

Started by trying out to see Sirius' pup... impossible task, but Sirius looked like a twinkling caleidoscope, which was fun! So, seeing wasn't great either! I spent some time on Orion: beautiful M42 with trapezium with only 4 stars at 100-150x; then NGC 1981 and Collinder 69 (around Lambda Orionis). Sigma Orionis is a beautiful triple easy to split, and with averted vision I could split in 3 components also Struve 761 in the same FOV. Great great view.

Next area was Gemini and Auriga, I looked at the clusters M35, M36, M37 and M38, all beautiful. I had a tougher time to find M37, since I keep forgetting how much dimmer than M36 it is! M38 is my fav of the four with its cross pattern. Turn towards Perseus and the double cluster just fits the FOV at 60x.

Finally I swung around to find some fuzzies: M3 was underwhelming, but that's also the worse side of the sky in terms of sky pollution. M94 in Canes Venaticii looks almost stellar at 60x and shows some fuzziness at higher magnification (by comparison with the only star in the field of view, which came into focus easily even at 150x). I finally looked at a couple of double stars, namely Cor Caroli and Algieba.

I finished the night with a look at some fun objects in the 10x50 binoculars: Beehive, Pleiades, Kemble's cascade, double cluster, Stock 2 (barely visible) and the funny Cheshire Cat in Auriga. Fun fact, tonight I split Mizar for the first time without visual aid.

It was a fun (and cold) night! And realized that the best astronomy buy of 2024 was the string to hold my glasses around my neck... it makes me 40 years wiser

Nice report SwiMatt. Sigma Orionis is actually a quadruple with a faint fourth component, well worth trying to pick out.

[SwiMatt]

7 hours ago, Stu said:

Nice report SwiMatt. Sigma Orionis is actually a quadruple with a faint fourth component, well worth trying to pick out.

Right! It was quite turbulent yesterday, but I count on trying again soon thanks for the tip!

[Ratlet]

9 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

Just came back from my observation spot in the woods where I had a session of a  couple of hours with tons of objects of all sorts. Transparency was bad, only Alpha and Beta Ursae Minori were visible.

Started by trying out to see Sirius' pup... impossible task, but Sirius looked like a twinkling caleidoscope, which was fun! So, seeing wasn't great either! I spent some time on Orion: beautiful M42 with trapezium with only 4 stars at 100-150x; then NGC 1981 and Collinder 69 (around Lambda Orionis). Sigma Orionis is a beautiful triple easy to split, and with averted vision I could split in 3 components also Struve 761 in the same FOV. Great great view.

Next area was Gemini and Auriga, I looked at the clusters M35, M36, M37 and M38, all beautiful. I had a tougher time to find M37, since I keep forgetting how much dimmer than M36 it is! M38 is my fav of the four with its cross pattern. Turn towards Perseus and the double cluster just fits the FOV at 60x.

Finally I swung around to find some fuzzies: M3 was underwhelming, but that's also the worse side of the sky in terms of sky pollution. M94 in Canes Venaticii looks almost stellar at 60x and shows some fuzziness at higher magnification (by comparison with the only star in the field of view, which came into focus easily even at 150x). I finally looked at a couple of double stars, namely Cor Caroli and Algieba.

I finished the night with a look at some fun objects in the 10x50 binoculars: Beehive, Pleiades, Kemble's cascade, double cluster, Stock 2 (barely visible) and the funny Cheshire Cat in Auriga. Fun fact, tonight I split Mizar for the first time without visual aid.

It was a fun (and cold) night! And realized that the best astronomy buy of 2024 was the string to hold my glasses around my neck... it makes me 40 years wiser

I love my glasses string.  I wear a fishing vest when I'm out and if my glasses go in one of those pockets they're effectively gone forever.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

My last half-decent session was on the 4th of February.  The weather here in East Kent has been absolutely shocking and there have only been a couple of nights when it would have been possible to observe and then for no more than a couple of hours.

On Wednesday though, I managed to get half an hour whilst the seeing was reasonable.  No particular targets in mind, I just ended up scanning the Mliky Way around Cassiopeia.  Just doing that and seeing the star field density suddenly rise is somewhat rewarding and it certainly helped slow my brain down - which has been in overdrive for several weeks.

[SwiMatt]

1 hour ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

My last half-decent session was on the 4th of February.  The weather here in East Kent has been absolutely shocking and there have only been a couple of nights when it would have been possible to observe and then for no more than a couple of hours.

On Wednesday though, I managed to get half an hour whilst the seeing was reasonable.  No particular targets in mind, I just ended up scanning the Mliky Way around Cassiopeia.  Just doing that and seeing the star field density suddenly rise is somewhat rewarding and it certainly helped slow my brain down - which has been in overdrive for several weeks.

Oh man I thought it was only here. It was an abysmal February. Happy to hear you got a break on Wednesday, and I hope our current good weather will reach you eventually. Hang on!

[Mr_Cat]

Apart from wednesday night the weather since my c925 arrived has been poor to say the least. The forecast for last night looked patchy but I really wanted to get the new ota out so I figured it was worth a punt. OTA outside at 3pm to cool down. Hauled it back in at 640 just before it rained...
However an hour later there were some gaps - not enough to align the mount but enough to release the clutches, point at some stars  and check the collimation etc so I went for it. 
I literally had maybe 2 mins on Jupiter - enough to check the alignment of the RDF and the OTA and enough to check the collimation which was pretty good considering it had been in the post.
Hopefully this week will bring some decent gaps !
 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

3 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

Oh man I thought it was only here. It was an abysmal February. Happy to hear you got a break on Wednesday, and I hope our current good weather will reach you eventually. Hang on!

There's a flood warning across much of my area.  Not because of the threat of rivers bursting their banks but because of the incredibly high groundwater after several months of rain.  A couple of weeks ago, one of the local water treatment plants had to shut down for a couple of days because of muddy groundwater contamination with the mud getting into the filters, etc.

It's absolutely ridiculous.  Even by the standards of the UK.

Edited March 10 by GrumpiusMaximus

[Second Time Around]

Yep, we had reduced water pressure and had bottled water delivered.  We didn't have to use it though.  Others a few miles away weren't so lucky and had no water at all.

Thankfully the situation isn't as bad as 2000 when levels were even higher, and many properties a few villages away were flooded by groundwater rather than rivers.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

16 minutes ago, Second Time Around said:

Yep, we had reduced water pressure and had bottled water delivered.  We didn't have to use it though.  Others a few miles away weren't so lucky and had no water at all.

Thankfully the situation isn't as bad as 2000 when levels were even higher, and many properties a few villages away were flooded by groundwater rather than rivers.

We got away with it here and our pressure was fine - but we're only a couple of miles from the affected treatment plant and about 200 Yards from one of the big reservoirs.  Water tankers hanging around for several days.  It was quite impressive.

[Captain Scarlet]

I optimistically put out my SV140 this evening on the off-chance of enough cloud gaps. In the event it was actually clear, the first night for weeks, and almost no wind. But Capella twinkling high up to the west didn’t bode well for the seeing. But beggars … etc.

Tegmine was first. I’ve never failed to split this before, perhaps because I may have only ever observed it through my 12”. No split at 134x with the DeLite 7, at 208x with the Delos 4.5 or even at 268x with the Delos 3.5. Not even close.

Algieba was of course easily split but not very pretty, a wobbling orange pair.

The Galactic Wanderer far-off globular NGC 2419 was fairly easily seen though, a dim smudge at the end of a trail of 3 brightish stars.

NGC 4565 Needle Galaxy in Coma was obvious, as was NGC 2903 a mag 9 galaxy just off Leo’s nose.

Izar was split but to confirm the poor seeing I went to eps lyrae and for the first time ever was unable to split either pair.

I was still very happy to get out after so long, and those two galaxies were firsts for me. SQM-L 21.66 as I packed up.

Magnus

Edited March 11 by Captain Scarlet

[jjohnson3803]

Quick look around Sco with my 80mm this morning:

M4 as usual was not discernable - too low in the LP filth.  No surprise as it's difficult with my ST102.

But another globular in Sco, M80, was easy to see.  Relatively small and best with averted vision.

Rho Oph - striking three star triangular asterism. All three are doubles / multiples if I read SkySafari correctly.  Have to revisit that one.

Omega 1 & 2 Sco - nice pair.

[DirkSteele]

Forecast was not promising last night (other than the BBC and given I take an umbrella if the rain probability is 10% and always seem to need it!, so it would be foolish to plan based on that) I just took the baby Tak to the Baker Street Star party. Caught a glimpse of the moon through thin cloud and Jupiter and otherwise just played with a rather wide field of view. Balance was a bit of an issue!

 

Edited March 14 by DirkSteele
Typo

[Mr Spock]

4 hours ago, DirkSteele said:

Forecast was not promising last night (other than the BBC and given I take an umbrella if the rain probability is 10% and always seem to need it!, so it would be foolish to plan based on that) I just took the baby Tak to the Baker Street Star party. Caught a glimpse of the moon through thin cloud and Jupiter and otherwise just played with a rather wide field of view. Balance was a bit of an issue!

I'll admit that's a bit more unbalanced than mine 

8° is a bit fun though.

[Highburymark]

On 07/03/2024 at 21:28, SwiMatt said:

I'm already inside since I'm working tomorrow, but I was on my balcony for 1h30 tonight to continue my exploration of the observing list of "Stargazing Under Suburban Skies". 

Tonight it was all about open clusters, starting with binoculars to take a look at M45, the double cluster, Melotte 20 (the cluster around Alpha Persei) and glimpsing Stock 2 high up in the sky.

With the Mak, I started from a re-observation of NGC 752 in Andromeda, which I had seen two days ago. I'm sure I got it in the eyepiece, but it doesn't seem to pop as much as some suggest under very polluted skies (also with transparency not the best and a lot of glare from street lights). I look forward to checking out this one under darker skies. I went on to observe for the first time NGC 457 (the Owl Cluster): it took me a bit to detect the shape, but once I saw it it was quite obvious and fun to look at. Next I saw again M103, which is turning out to be one of my favorite clusters: at 60x it looks like nothing, but it really pops at higher magnifications. The arrow-head shape is quite obvious and it's neat to see that all stars are inside the triangle. Finally, I looked (also for the first time) at M34, very nice cluster which seems almost like a cluster of double stars! 

I also sketched NGC 457, M103 and M34 (sketches linked below), and I'm quite happy with the result! 

 

I’ve really enjoyed the same book. It’s by far the best of the Springer observing guides that I’ve read. Full of useful information and pretty well written - a bonus for those of us who enjoy reading astronomy books! 

[Jim L]

The bright waxing crescent moon was in the Pleiades tonight over clear Northern California skies, and the spectacle was gorgeous. It looked much like this through my AT72EDII with a 28mm RKE eyepiece:

It was entirely by accident I came across the fortuitous conjunction. I was looking for the moon through the scope and found it in a field of stars as it moved into view within the eyepiece. The Pleiades weren’t visible to the naked eye, being lost in the glow of the moon and the light of urban skies, but they shone beautifully through the telescope.

I briefly viewed Jupiter and the Orion Nebula, but the Moon in the Pleiades kept pulling me back for more.

 

Edit: Whoops, wrong thread. If a moderator sees this would you please move it to the, What Did You See Tonight, thread? Thanks

 

Edited March 15 by Jim L

[Captain Scarlet]

A lovely Spring clear day so I set out my LZOS 105 hoping to catch Mercury. Sadly a stubborn patch of cloud remained just where Mercury was. I consoled myself with some surprisingly good but very brief views of Jupiter and all four moons flung far out from the planet. As soon as I switched from 93x to 217x, same cloud started to dim the view. Scope remains out, though.

[Mr Spock]

Still cloudy here, like it has been all March. Forecast is the same