What did you see tonight?

[GasGiant]

M100 tonight on the Seestar.  

[Epick Crom]

1 hour ago, John said:

The cloud gods were vigilant tonight. They spotted my little scope and the clear holes have been small to say the least. The moon through clouds has been my staple diet so far tonight. Maybe it will get better later ? - probably not, looking at the forecast 🙄

Yeah John, the cloud gods don't miss a thing unfortunately 😞

[Ratlet]

Managed to get out with the 102 ED out the back of work with the new diagonal.  The extra weight is not helping the wobbles on the AZ5 at high power, but god enough for a quick look.

Setup in a different location from the last time and it was an experience.  Surrounded by lights so no use on anything other than the moon.  Lots of reflections of nearby light. 

That being said, I enjoyed it quite a bit and it was nice to get a little observing in.  I love the subtle differences in colour/tone on the moon and they looked great with the Morpheus 17.5mm.

I look forward to trying it out on a mount that can actually hold it.

[SwiMatt]

5 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Managed to get out with the 102 ED out the back of work with the new diagonal.  The extra weight is not helping the wobbles on the AZ5 at high power, but god enough for a quick look.

Setup in a different location from the last time and it was an experience.  Surrounded by lights so no use on anything other than the moon.  Lots of reflections of nearby light. 

That being said, I enjoyed it quite a bit and it was nice to get a little observing in.  I love the subtle differences in colour/tone on the moon and they looked great with the Morpheus 17.5mm.

I look forward to trying it out on a mount that can actually hold it.

Can I ask you, what tripod do you use with the AZ5, and how does it hold the 102 ED, in general? How heavy is the OTA? Asking because it is around the limit with the Mak 127 and I am thinking about updating the tripod (I'm still running the basic alu tripod that came with my bundle) - but unsure about how much it will help! Back in December, putting the tripod in the snow helped a lot with wobbles, but that's all the testing I've done...

[Ratlet]

49 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

Can I ask you, what tripod do you use with the AZ5, and how does it hold the 102 ED, in general? How heavy is the OTA? Asking because it is around the limit with the Mak 127 and I am thinking about updating the tripod (I'm still running the basic alu tripod that came with my bundle) - but unsure about how much it will help! Back in December, putting the tripod in the snow helped a lot with wobbles, but that's all the testing I've done...

I've got the AZ5 on the 1.75" stainless tripod.

Don't know the weight of the tube but it should be on FLO, just add 750g for the diagonal and handle.

It handles the 102ED badly to be honest.  It's okay at low power which in okay with as I've got a 10" dob for high power.  It's not the tripod in this case, it's the arm of the mount that's the issue.  The AZ5 just isn't designed for the weight (or specifically the movement arm) of a long heavy mount.

I also have a 130pds and had it and the AZ5 on a carbon fibre tripod.  I found that changing to the steel tripod did improve stability there.

At the moment I'm trying to figure out the use case for the scope to be honest.  I think it'll work well for low power and tracked views of planetary but i could do with a quick setup mount for quick views and grab and go.  Unfortunately the AZ5 isn't up to snuff.

Really what I want is a Megrez 90, but they are like hens teeth!

[jjohnson3803]

On 09/11/2021 at 00:21, Ags said:

I am just practicing for the night when there's a power cut and the night will turn from murky orange to sparkling black... one day it will happen. 

And I thought I was the only one praying for power outages.  🙃

[John]

10 minutes ago, jjohnson3803 said:

And I thought I was the only one praying for power outages.  🙃

Plus a smoky volcano in Iceland to keep the planes out of the skies.

We don't ask for much, after all ! 🙄 

Edited March 22 by John

[IB20]

Forecast had it clear for 90 mins so quickly deployed the 76mm. Spent the majority of the gloaming light seeing if Sirius would share its companion. No joy but in bluer skies it showed as a brilliant tight white orb without its signature flaring and glare.

I’m almost certain I’m looking for the wrong thing when I’m trying to spot the pup. A quick compare with Rigel showed off its dim twin, easy as pie. 

As the clouds started to build I finished off on the moon, the southern terminator showing some interesting features which I’m unfamiliar with so I’m off to cross reference them with my moon atlas. Although I never knew there was the shadow of a Scottish terrier on the moon!

 

Edited March 22 by IB20

[SwiMatt]

Bit of a different evening on the balcony tonight, getting down with the shameful act of astrophotography  with my camera+kit lens standing on a table. As you can imagine, not a set up that makes me want to take more than a couple of minutes of integration. Still, it's enough to easily capture the Pleiades and the Hyades, which is fun. For the rest, too much light pollution and Moon pollution, with Jupiter behind a tree and the actual Moon still behind the building where I live, so I didn't feel like getting disappointed by visual astronomy tonight... 

[John]

A late decision to stick a little 70mm refractor out has rewarded me with some lovely lunar views and some nice binaries 😀

This is the 2nd time in a few days that my ultra-portable 70mm has delivered astro enjoyment when the motivation to set up something larger was lacking 👍

 

 

Edited March 22 by John

[Captain Scarlet]

Finally got to see Mercury this apparition, through 10x50 bins and _just about_ naked eye. Then a wodge of black cloud appeared in just the wrong spot. Hopefully I’ll have another opportunity in the next few days, but at least the box has been ticked this year.

M

[John]

Just finished off my short session with a small scope with nice splits of Iota Cass, Izar and Epsilon Lyrae at 120x. Nice work for the 70mm aperture.

[SuburbanMak]

Some quality time on the moon, assorted clusters & doubles and moonwashed views of M3, M13 & M94. 

Nice to be out after all this cloud! 

[Mr_Cat]

2 gigs today so only had a short break between them but got out onto the terrace with the 925. 
It was pretty windy but between the gusts is seemed ok so I put some magnification into the moon (8/22 zoom)  and realised the seeing wasn't great so swapped the eyepiece out, put the reducer and the camera  on and headed over to M42. Nice little EEA session on that but no captures as the wind had picked up limiting exposure time to a couple of secs.
slewed back to the and with the focal reducer in the view was much better so grabbed a short section of vid / quick stack while breaking down..


 

[GasGiant]

I set up the Seestar on a 6ft post and this is now its permanent spot. I don't know if it makes any diff but it seems more natural to have it higher up than on the tripod? 

Anyway, moon was out messing things up and a house few doors down has the most obnoxious security light popping on and off so I didnt get much ! 

 

 

[Froeng]

I had a short session with the C8 last night. The evening was surprisingly chilly due to the slight cold breeze. It felt like winter again 😮 The “cold moon light” didn’t help either! The air was quite dry though (~60%RH) so no need for a dew heater.

Had a look at Jupiter in the binoviewer, but could only get to 135x and the view was boiling. I did see the GRS though, which was nice!

I also saw Mercury, first naked eye, then in the C8. A tiny wobbling, yellow-orangy “half-moon”. The red and blue fringes from looking through the low atmosphere were very pronounced. However, I think this was the first time I saw it in the C8, so a good result!

Next I tried for Sirius B but no luck. 

12P Pons Brooks was bright and fuzzy in the C8 and had a slightly elongated coma. The centre looked brighter and concentrated.

The moon was reasonably steady, so I had a look around the terminator which was nice. I always think the almost full phase really emphasises the 3d appearance as the craters along the terminator are seen at really steep angles. I spent some time with it.

Then I tried for some DSO, which - as expected - did not yield much detail due to LP and the moon being up. M3, M81/82, M94 all visible as faint smudges in this light. I could not see M97, the owl.

All in all it was nice to be out after having endured cloud cover so long! Packed up around 9pm, the equipment being almost completely dried out in 30mins…

 

 

[lunator]

I had a reasonable view of Mercury walking the dog yesterday evening. It appeared out of the dusk glow around 7pm. I had taken my spotting scope with me so had a look through that as well. Mercury was clearly a disc and seemed to have a yellow tint. 

After the walk I set up the Dob and had a look at some doubles and clusters in Auriga.

Cheers 

Ian

[groberts]

After more than 10-years away from observing, I recently decided to get a mid-range refractor to mostly dedicate to observing again: (a) for something to do whilst imaging (b) for the occasional gaps in the clouds that might permit observing but not long or clear enough for imaging (c) to take to dark sites and (d) to share views with my family, in particular my grandchildren.  After looking around and with the help of others on this forum I purchased a Starfield 102 ED f7 and after the ineviable wait for clear skies last night was First Light for the Starfield and I wasn't disappointed.

This scope is a step-up in quality from what I'd used before and the impact was obvious with my views of the Moon, which was crystal sharp; it's easy to take the moon for granted, or the enemy when imaging, but last night it was a real joy to view.  In the time available I then went on to a few popular winter stars that ares still about with equally good results: Sirius, Betleguese, Alderbaran and Procyon. Finally moved back to Orion and had an excellent view of M42 and some of it's components.

Alll together it was a good return to observing and bodes well for more ambitious objects in the future.

Graham

    

[engstrom]

Finally! Apart from a 10 minute period the sky was cloudless for me last night (flippin’ bright moon though). I managed to get the ed80 out and set up before nightfall and amazingly the Astroberry seemed to behave itself after some initial weirdness. PA said it within limits and I synced to an object ok but then it slewed off to the wrong part of the sky when I went searching for something. Finally got it working and had enough time to do a few test sequences including M13 and M101 to see if I knew what I was doing. Obviously the results weren’t amazing but I’m happy I got something. I processed them in Affinity 2 and bear in mind I’m a complete novice in that too. I used the scripts created by….um…I can’t remember his name but it seems he’s the goto guy….you know the one. Edit: James Ritson!

🙂

20x90s lights, 20 flats, 15 darks

60x90s lights, 20 flats, 15 darks
 

SW80ED - .85 reducer - asi 585 - Astroberry was pretty much all I used. Next time I shall chuck the 1.25 adapter on and try with the IR cut and LP filters I bought a while ago but not used.

Edited March 23 by engstrom

[Knighty2112]

17 hours ago, IB20 said:

Forecast had it clear for 90 mins so quickly deployed the 76mm. Spent the majority of the gloaming light seeing if Sirius would share its companion. No joy but in bluer skies it showed as a brilliant tight white orb without its signature flaring and glare.

I’m almost certain I’m looking for the wrong thing when I’m trying to spot the pup. A quick compare with Rigel showed off its dim twin, easy as pie. 

As the clouds started to build I finished off on the moon, the southern terminator showing some interesting features which I’m unfamiliar with so I’m off to cross reference them with my moon atlas. Although I never knew there was the shadow of a Scottish terrier on the moon!

 

Yeah, I saw this scotty dog too last night when using a new Zoom EP I got yesterday. From research in my lunar books I think it is the area around Cabeus. Trying to work out what the bright dome that appears to the right of this area is further.

[Naughty Neal]

As per usual which  has been the format for this year, most nights that  I work  my night shift  the skies decide to be nice and hospitable for viewing.  Can be annoying as I set off at 19.30hrs to see no or little cloud .  This morning I returned as per normal around 03.40 hrs to some  still nice clear skies albeit 8c outside the little wind chill feeling a damn lot colder.  

Managed an hour and a half before dawn brigthened up the   LP skies here too much, around here one doesn't see too many stars bar the brighter usual ones but at least the F11 102ed brings the night sky alive with the mutitudes of stars the LP disguises.  At least  the ever  growing bright moon was to the west and obscured for the most part by trees and lower on the horizon. Had the new to me SLV 12mm to give first light to and some more light time for the SV215 zoom, UMA,  Boo  & Dra at this time of the morning and year are  all  overhead at or near zenith so were  ideal subjects to spend the  time on.  320x on some targets with the zoom  were  excellant and resulted in  beautiful clean defractionless pin point stars.  Though not very hard I do like time on Mizar & Alcor, here though Alcor isn't visible to my naked eye.

  

Edited March 23 by Naughty Neal

[Knighty2112]

36 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Yeah, I saw this scotty dog too last night when using a new Zoom EP I got yesterday. From research in my lunar books I think it is the area around Cabeus. Trying to work out what the bright dome that appears to the right of this area is further.

Looks like the dome feature;

 

is known unofficial as Malapert mountain, which lies to the rear of crater Malapert itself.

 

 

Edited March 23 by Knighty2112

[Knighty2112]

6 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Looks like the dome feature;

 

is known unofficial as Malapert mountain, which lies to the rear of crater Malapert itself.

 

 

Actually, I believe that Malapert is not shown here as it is not a favourable libration for it to be seen and is out of view. On revision I believe this dome feature lies between Casatus and Moretus further to the south, and is part of the central rim in the crater Newton which seems to be in view here.

Edited March 23 by Knighty2112

[Mr Spock]

Out doing some solar with the 120mm. First this month... It's clouding over now 😡

One large, spread out and impressive, sunspot. Plus three other 'normal' sized spots. Seeing isn't good enough to get above x125 though.

[Mr Spock]

I don't want to jinx it but the sky is clear. I've just had half an hour on Jupiter. It's a lot smaller than I remember from January!

Nice opportunity to try out the Svbony 3-8 (@4mm) v the TOE 4mm and Nirvana 4mm. Detail in the belts is easier to see in the TOE compared to the others. It's early days though.