What did you see tonight?

[PeterStudz]

Had a little session last night (28/04/23 - 29/94/23) in my back garden that went on for much longer than intended. Skywatcher 200p Dob, Southampton, Bortle 7.

Several targets (more than I usually do), some more successful than others, but the highlight was an afterthought towards the end. Noticing Vega getting to a decent hight I thought of the Ring Nebula (M97). First time I’ve seen it this year and it was a nice sight, surprisingly bright in my urban sky. Played around with some relatively recent secondhand SGL purchased Astronomik UHC & OIII filters. Both made an obvious difference and improvement. The UHC darkening the background & stars but making the ring brighter and giving more of a glow to the interior. The OIII  made the background and stars even darker, brightens up the nebula (but not as much as the UHC) but really increases the contrast of the ring. However, not any noticeable glow to the interior. 

By this time it was getting very early/late, the moon about to make an appearance, so called it a night. Still, well worth the effort. Early night tonight.

[Stu1smartcookie]

Just in after a very lovely evening .Just sitting outside looking at stars through BigRed 2 and then onto my favourite glob M3 which at first looked just like a gray fuzzy patch but as the sky darkened the outer stars started to resolve . Using a 10mm baader EP the cluster looked magnificent . No moisture in the air tonight. The only issue is having  to get up early during the week as I would have loved to stay out much later but I got my fix.

Edited April 30 by Stu1smartcookie

[Epick Crom]

23 hours ago, John said:

Still very nice here but I'm a bit tired so I've packed in now. Finished my very pleasant session with a 3rd planetary nebula, NGC 6826, the "Blinking" planetary in Cygnus. It wasn't blinking this evening so the transparency must be quite good. Central star nicely seen.

Still got a touch of aperture fever though - it would be a good Virgo / Coma galaxy night here with 10/12 inches of aperture 🙄

Hi John. I recall that you had a 12 inch dobsonian. Have you sold it?

 

Joe

[Captain Scarlet]

1 hour ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Just in after a very lovely evening .Just sitting outside looking at stars through BigRed 2 and then onto my favourite glob M3 which at first looked just like a gray fuslzzy patch but as the sky darkened the outer stars started to resolve . Using a 10mm baader EP the cluster looked magnificent . No moisture in the air tonight. The only issue is having g to get up early during the week as I would have loved to stay out much later but I got my fix.

How much does your big red 2 weigh? I’m curious as I see it on your skytee2, and my own skytee2 seems to cope with my SV140 fine, and it’s a heavy 140: 14kg without any accessories.

Cheers, Magnus

[John]

13 minutes ago, Epick Crom said:

Hi John. I recall that you had a 12 inch dobsonian. Have you sold it?

 

Joe

Hi Joe,

Yes, back in spring last year. It was a great scope and I had a lot of fun with it for over a decade but now having grandchildren running around the place, the big old dob was likely to prove too tempting for little hands to explore. It's easier to keep my refractors out of harms way so I decided to let the dob go to a new home.

I may well get some larger aperture again in due course. If we start to get some nice clear, dark nights again the urge will grow !

  

[Littleguy80]

Lovely transparent night in Norfolk. Despite enjoying some solar views with the Tak earlier in the day, I decided it was a dob night. Started out with Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). Small but bright in Virgo. Looking forward to seeing this develop over the coming months. M51 followed by M13. I wanted to catch the propellor which I did after increasing magnification with the Docter and Baader VIP. This was my primary eyepiece setup for most of the observations this time evening. Also picked up NGC6207 nearby. After this it was mostly a planetary nebula spree. The Green Turtle and White Eyed pea in Hercules. The Ring in Lyra plus a split of the double double. The blinking planetary nebula in Cygnus and finally the emerald nebula in Ophiuchus, which was every bit as green as its name suggests. Lovely mild night with very little moisture in the air. Just a little taster of the summer evenings to come. 

[Stu1smartcookie]

8 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

How much does your big red 2 weigh? I’m curious as I see it on your skytee2, and my own skytee2 seems to cope with my SV140 fine, and it’s a heavy 140: 14kg without any accessories.

Cheers, Magnus

Hi Magnus , it's around 9kgs although I have not weighed it and I think it might go a bit more   .. the biggest issue is the fact that it's very front heavy so I moved the rings further forward to accommodate this . TBH once a 2" diagonal and EP is in place it's easy to balance .I laugh When people complain about the SkyTee being a bit sticky in initial movement because once a decent size scope is mounted the movement becomes light and very smooth. .

Edited April 30 by Stu1smartcookie

[LondonNeil]

I managed to get out let night.  My little home made cart worked great to ferry my kit to the my observing site at the end of the street.  Very pleased with that!

Less pleased with the gtix which seemed to point further and further off of targets and by the end when I sent it to 'home' it was pointing almost due south!   Consequently I spent most of my time manually slewing.  That's not a bad thing as I really need practice finding targets and star hopping... I'm hopeless still at that!

Combined with some high haze I struggled,  but did manage to split one double,  Algieba,  splitting at 92 x in moments of better seeing,  Clearly split at 133x.

I really need to work on star hopping though!  And work out what was up with the gtix!

[AlcorAlly]

Nice long session last night with my 4 inch refractor. 

It was very windy and the seeing wasn’t great. Still, really enjoyed the doubles in Bootes, with highlights being Izar and Mu Bootis. First time I’ve seen Mu - I thought it had a playful feel to it, with the two smaller companions balancing a widely separated bright primary. 

M13 looked very sparkly - the view in 4 inch refractor was noticeably more impressive than my smaller refractor, perhaps more similar to the 6 inch reflector than the smaller refractor. 

Finished by looking at Epsilon Bootis which was riding in the east. Even in poor seeing it looked tranquil as always - this double is always so enjoyable and interesting to watch, perhaps due to the relative angles and balance of the components.

Notes and sketches of the doubles here: 

 

[Mr Spock]

Just doing some solar with the 120. Nice group of sunspots but the seeing is awful.

[scotty1]

Clear until midnight, took Arcturus with pixel 4a 23.40

 

[LukeTheNuke]

I forgot about observing tonight, then remembered after midnight. I popped out with my GSO 10 inch dob and got my first view in, of M81 and M82, then the clouds started rolling in. Oh, why hadn't I remembered and got out sooner! I'd blown it! Oh well, I might as well stay on M81 and 82, and they're worth popping out for anyway. I stayed with M81 and M82 for a while, as the clouds swallowed up more of the sky. Then the pesky clouds took a hike, and I was able to take in a few more targets! M13 was fabulous, especially after I got the 12 mm Delos out to replace my lazy 21 mm Ethos eyepiece. It was hard to take my eye off of M13.

Try as I might, I couldn't find the other fancy globular in Hercules! I gave up after about 15 mins.  Time to get a Celestron StarSense to replace the GSO and my navigation skills?

And I had a good look at the Ring Nebula - it's been a while, and I narrowly missed out on seeing it the previous session. Then I finished up on M51, which to my surprise I found quickly, despite it being high up. Note to self: buy a right angle finder!

Hmm. Another nice session with my GSO dob that I keep threatening to replace. It didn't seem too shabby on M13...

Edited May 1 by LukeTheNuke

[AstroNebulee]

EDITED TO ADD TIMELAPSE OF METEORS/DEBRIS... Whilst out in the vain hope of capturing the milky-way this morning I saw this on the back of my dslr at around 3.10am. I didn't catch it by eye as I was looking at the great rift at the time. Not seen 3 meteors before and definitely not satellites or planes. Maybe some space debris. They are travelling from the north to south above scorpio. 

I did also see a further 2 single meteors during my session to the east. Along with the ISS at 3.37am. The milky-way session was plagued by some stubborn high clouds. 

A good session and nice to be out under the stars with along with the owls out hunting and hearing their calls. 

Clear skies 

Lee 

 

Edited May 1 by AstroNebulee

[josefk]

With the RH forecast to be so high last night i reverted to light and manageable GnG kit even though i was GnG'ing out of the back of the Landy. 

Just a lazy waltz around the brighter Messier in and around UMa and including a good long look at M101. What  a tantalising galaxy this is - even with minimal aperture it rewards just sitting and waiting (for it to reveal itself). No spiral arms for me (nowhere near) but a definite "unevenness" and a couple of brighter "bits" that didn't ought to be stars but i also can't imagine they were any of the NGC HII star forming regions either.

Dripping wet through kit and dewed finder and main EP by 00:30 even while a little 5V dew band had kept my main objective clear.

I left a door open on the Landy all evening and it was running with water (like a shower screen) by the end. Swampy!

 

[Saganite]

Hi Joe,

I had the same problem.  I was at our Society Observatory looking through a 30" Dob, 10pm until midnight, quite an experience, and saw colour in M57 for the first time in my life. I had left my 12" dob cooling in the garden and when I returned to it at about 12.30 am I thought it must have been hit by a shower of rain it was so wet.  The sky stayed clear until about 2.30 am so I had a good long  but very  damp  overdue session.......

[josefk]

9 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Hi Joe,

I had the same problem.  I was at our Society Observatory looking through a 30" Dob, 10pm until midnight, quite an experience, and saw colour in M57 for the first time in my life. I had left my 12" dob cooling in the garden and when I returned to it at about 12.30 am I thought it must have been hit by a shower of rain it was so wet.  The sky stayed clear until about 2.30 am so I had a good long  but very  damp  overdue session.......

you remember Steve i hate hate HATE dew - it just feels so wrong getting astro optics wet! A birding scope i would use in the rain but unsealed/unpurged lenses - ouch.

It was a bonus to be out though - it's "nip and tuck" for clear spells isn't it! .. and M57 'in colour' sounds fantastic!

Edited May 1 by josefk

[Saganite]

1 hour ago, josefk said:

you remember Steve i hate hate HATE dew - it just feels so wrong getting astro optics wet! A birding scope i would use in the rain but unsealed/unpurged lenses - ouch.

It was a bonus to be out though - it's "nip and tuck" for clear spells isn't it! .. and M57 'in colour' sounds fantastic!

It was superb Joe, and I feel the same way about telescopes and wet water ...🤣

I

[SwiMatt]

It was an incredible summer day here today, and I hoped until now to be able to catch a couple of hours of night observation... high clouds appeared at around 21 and will not leave for hours or days. This might be it for the season, except lunar and solar. Won't have many days available to get out past 11pm for the next two weeks, and the season of no astronomical twilight is starting soon 😭

I vote to have longer nights in summer and viceversa 

[Captain Scarlet]

Having just set up my 12” I noticed I could no longer see Arcturus, cloud had seeped in from the east. As consolation I picked up my 15x56s to look West at the top half of Orion in the twilight and a meteor entered the field and burnt up just next to Betelgeuse! Somewhat made up for the abandonment of session.

M

Edited May 1 by Captain Scarlet

[LondonNeil]

On 30/04/2024 at 11:57, LondonNeil said:

I managed to get out let night.  My little home made cart worked great to ferry my kit to the my observing site at the end of the street.  Very pleased with that!

Less pleased with the gtix which seemed to point further and further off of targets and by the end when I sent it to 'home' it was pointing almost due south!   Consequently I spent most of my time manually slewing.  That's not a bad thing as I really need practice finding targets and star hopping... I'm hopeless still at that!

Combined with some high haze I struggled,  but did manage to split one double,  Algieba,  splitting at 92 x in moments of better seeing,  Clearly split at 133x.

I really need to work on star hopping though!  And work out what was up with the gtix!

Aha!  After watching a skywatcher YouTube and looking at the synscan app....I may just have had the app set to 'prompt mode' what ever that is.... hopefully it'll work a LOT better now I've set it to 'use AZ'    if not I may be getting a little upset 😂

[Ags]

I saw a bright star turn a very small part of the sky blue. Mizar through fairly thick cloud.

[Mr Spock]

Forgot about this. iPhone snap through the FC100 and 3.5mm LVW.

Hand held so not well framed or focused.

[Ouroboros]

2 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Forgot about this. iPhone snap through the FC100 and 3.5mm LVW.

Hand held so not well framed or focused.

I think that’s pretty good. Captures what it is - a real view through a telescope eyepiece. 

[lunator]

I haven't had much chance to observe recently but I did pop out briefly last night with the Bimos to check on R Vir. It is still brightening. There was some high cloud around but to me it looked very similar to HD109417 which is mag 6.75. 

The other thing I noticed was the number of satellites visible....

Cheers

Ian

[John]

A few rogue clouds around but generally clear here tonight. I've just been looking at Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in Virgo. It's a small faint elongated patch of light with the ED120 refractor at 64x. Could be taken for a galaxy in this region of the sky.

Glad to see it though 🙂