What did you see tonight?

[scotty1]

Another phone pic from Yesterday 3rd March 

 

[SwiMatt]

I just had the most surreal astronomical session ever.

The sky was clear for the first time in weeks so I went out to my spot in the middle of the forest and set up. Two or three helicopters were in the air, it was quite noisy. 

I sat down, started looking towards Orion already half hidden by the horizon, and mostly drowning in light pollution. After maybe 5 minutes, I saw the lights of a car coming on the nearby access road. The car stopped a bit away from me, and after a couple of minutes I had two torches pointing at me. The police. 

Basically, the helicopters in the air spotted me sitting in the woods alone and thought it was suspicious activities related to gang criminality in the city.

"What are you doing sir?" - "...Astronomy!". That's literally how long it took them to understand that I wasn't doing anything criminal, and they were very nice after the first moments of tension. They asked if they could look at anything, but I hadn't had the time to point at anything interesting. It would have been a good outreach moment!

The event shook me enough to ruin my session. After that I looked around Auriga for maybe 30 minutes and couldn't even find M36, 37 or 38. Also, the whole sky was very hazy and transparancy was abysmal - but still: tonight I just never got in the zone. I only dedicated a few blissful moments to Algieba, always lovely and easy to find.

At least I got a story to tell I guess 🤣

 

[John]

I got suckered out by seeing a clear sky with lots of stars showing. Scope went out. 20 minutes later, clouds rolled back over again. I had just enough time at the eyepiece to see that the seeing was really unsteady, which is a little consolation at least. 

I've now got my 11x70 binoculars on standby in case there is a sudden clearance again 🙄

 

Edited April 6 by John

[Mr Spock]

Same old here. I see nothing but cloud and rain. Will this never end?

[SwiMatt]

35 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Same old here. I see nothing but cloud and rain. Will this never end?

One of my biggest fears right now is that while central Europe is getting terrible heatwaves due to global warming, we are getting this weather - and it will be the same year after year 😭

[Stu1smartcookie]

16 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

One of my biggest fears right now is that while central Europe is getting terrible heatwaves due to global warming, we are getting this weather - and it will be the same year after year 😭

I think you are right ..and it's ruining the hobby for ALL of us . There are  only so many YT videos one can keep watching about astronomy  . I hope that we will get some settled weather soon but of course that will coincide with lighter evenings 

[woldsman]

The U.K. is an island located between weather fronts. It has always been one of the cloudiest places on Earth. About 2/3rds of the planet is covered by cloud at any one time and the odds that clouds will be overhead if you live in the U.K. are high.  The chances that the whole of the U.K. is covered range from 33% to 13% and the odds that some part is covered are much higher. Climate change is likely to affect the type of cloud cover and potentially in ways that worsen global warning. For example, proportionately less low cloud reflecting sunlight and proportionately more high cloud trapping heat. Astronomers want cloudless skies around a New Moon and/or when the nights are longest. Add these parameters and you worsen the chances further. The only real solution is to plan a relocation to continental Europe. If you do this though be prepared for some very hot weather because global warming is going to be more potent. The one aspect of climate change that is clearly detrimental to star gazing in the U.K. is light pollution and the encroachment on remaining dark sky sites.

Edited April 7 by woldsman
New Moon!

[Whistlin Bob]

2 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

One of my biggest fears

Same here...

1 hour ago, woldsman said:

The U.K. is an island located between weather fronts

Can't argue with any of that either...

BUT

The question for me is whether the hobby is still viable in this country, and that's still a strong YES for me. I do both imaging and observing , keep notes of what I do, and have done since 2018. On average, during that time, I manage some astro activity around 4 times a month, with around half of those being really good. For the last six months, that's fallen to around twice a month, so it's been a poor year, and obvs we're all feeling it. But I've still had fun, I've seen and imaged new stuff and I've made new friends through the hobby. I've just had to be a bit more patient than usual; I try and comfort myself with the probability that the next 12 months will be better then the last. 

That being said, to pull it back to the topic of the thread, the answer is lots of clouds!!!

[SwiMatt]

2 hours ago, Whistlin Bob said:

The question for me is whether the hobby is still viable in this country, and that's still a strong YES for me.

THIS! I started astronomy a year ago (almost to the day since the first entry in my logbook) and despite the bad weather I am not looking back at all. 🙌🏻

[Zermelo]

5 hours ago, woldsman said:

around a Full Moon

I think you may have meant "new moon"? That would be my preference, at least. 😊

[woldsman]

4 hours ago, Zermelo said:

I think you may have meant "new moon"? That would be my preference, at least. 😊

Touché! Edited.

[jjohnson3803]

On 06/04/2024 at 17:08, John said:

I've now got my 11x70 binoculars on standby in case there is a sudden clearance again 🙄

In addition to 8x42 binos, I keep a 50mm converted finder with an EP in it on a lightweight tripod close to my back door.  Not ideal, but I have gotten some observing in through sucker holes.  Better than nothing.

[Stu1smartcookie]

So, with total cloud cover I , like so many others are being amazed watching the NASA channel ... The total solar eclipse ... Amazing 

[SwiMatt]

1 minute ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

So, with total cloud cover I , like so many others are being amazed watching the NASA channel ... The total solar eclipse ... Amazing 

Same here... man, I saw every one of these coverages in different cities, and still I can't get enough. This is incredible.

[Steve Ward]

It's a shame the cameras weren't aligned the same , confusing watching the moon approach from different directions each time and seeing that prom move around the disc ... 

[Stu1smartcookie]

Coverage in Indianapolis has to be the best so far ... Absolutely amazing . 

Edited April 8 by Stu1smartcookie

[Jim L]

My wife and I observed the eclipse under clear skies from our back yard in California using a 102mm f/6.5 Celestron achro equipped with a Baader Hershel wedge.

The coverage was only about 25%, but still, it was fascinating. A large sunspot occupied the center of the solar disk with several other smaller sunspots scattered about. Granulation on the sun’s surface was also visible, which became easier to see as the eclipse neared our local maximum. What I found most interesting was that we could see mountains in profile along the perimeter of the moon that was backlit by the sun.

It was a very worthwhile couple of hours of observing.

[Naughty Neal]

17 hours ago, Jim L said:

My wife and I observed the eclipse under clear skies from our back yard in California using a 102mm f/6.5 Celestron achro equipped with a Baader Hershel wedge.

The coverage was only about 25%, but still, it was fascinating. A large sunspot occupied the center of the solar disk with several other smaller sunspots scattered about. Granulation on the sun’s surface was also visible, which became easier to see as the eclipse neared our local maximum. What I found most interesting was that we could see mountains in profile along the perimeter of the moon that was backlit by the sun.

It was a very worthwhile couple of hours of observing.

Sounds like you and  yours had a great  experience their Jim, seeing other perspectives/views with the partial eclipse and the lighting /shadows formed.

 

Edited April 9 by Naughty Neal

[Mr Spock]

The only eclipse I'm getting is from cloud and rain...

[SwiMatt]

39 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

The only eclipse I'm getting is from cloud and rain...

Funny you should say that 🤣

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/eclipse_clouds.png

[Stu]

17 hours ago, Jim L said:

What I found most interesting was that we could see mountains in profile along the perimeter of the moon that was backlit by the sun.

I saw that during a partial eclipse in the UK some years back, fascinating as it wasn’t something I expected to see.

Example picture here shows the effect although not as clear as it was visually.

[Jim L]

4 hours ago, Naughty Neal said:

Sounds like you and  yours had a great  experience their Jim, seeing other perspectives/views with the partial eclipse and the lighting /shadows formed.

 

Neal, it was very enjoyable for both my wife and I; very enjoyable indeed. Warm, sunny, comfy lounge chair to relax in, a few short steps to the fridge, and no pesky mountain lions to shoo off mid observation.

 

1 hour ago, Stu said:

I saw that during a partial eclipse in the UK some years back, fascinating as it wasn’t something I expected to see.

Example picture here shows the effect although not as clear as it was visually.

I happened upon the mountains almost by accident. I had been viewing the eclipse using a 28mm RKE eyepiece to give me a wide, relaxing view of the spectacle, but at some point decided to examine the large sunspot near the center of the solar disk.

I inserted a 15mm 62° Celestron spotting scope eyepiece (44X) I purchased from AliExpress for $12, and I was so drawn to the mountains on the moon that suddenly appeared on the backlit perimeter that I can’t recall any of the features of the sunspot, or if I even looked at it at all.

The absolutely perfectly black mountains were in stark contrast to the brightly illuminated sun behind, and even fine changes in topography could be easily observed and appreciated. One feature that really stood out was a lone tall mountain bracketed on either side by relatively low, broad, valleys. It remained me very much of the shape and aspect of the Matterhorn I’d seen in photographs, albeit in quite teenie tiny miniature. Seems I intended to observe the sun but instead I mostly observed the moon.

[jjohnson3803]

Weather forecasts were dicey, but it was clear here yesterday for the entire eclipse.  I think we got to about 98% coverage.  Not totality, but beautiful nevertheless.

I had rigged up a projection box with an old finder, but my employer gave out free glasses to anybody who came to campus, so I was able to view it directly.  Luckily, the glasses weren't the ones sold on Amazon that were recalled.  😜

The camera on my phone wasn't up to the task, but several people got some nice shots by holding their eclipse glasses in front of their phone cameras.

 

Edited April 9 by jjohnson3803

[Mr Spock]

I'm keeping my fingers (and everything else) crossed. We have a clear sky here, but, a 50mph wind. It should ease off on the next hour or so 🤞

[Mr Spock]

Yeah, it's eased off to 44... So that's a no. What a waste of a clear night 😡