What did you see tonight?

[bosun21]

Out again last night only this time with the 10" dobsonian. Once again I gave it several hours to acclimatise while it attempted to get dark. I say attempted due to the sky being illuminated for hours with the heavenly display that was on show. Call me slow, but I had totally forgot about the aurora despite reading post after post on the forum that day indicating that the likelihood of aurora was extremely high. Here i was wondering how it wasn't as dark as the previous night. High cloud cover and moon more or less the same as last night and yet it wasn't as dark. My brain froze to the point that I was running around looking for sources of extraneous light. It was while I was sat at the eyepiece I actually saw the sky brighten in real time that the penny inevitably dropped like an anchor. How could I be so slow to catch on? I obviously blamed it on last nights late session depriving me of sleep. I abandoned the telescope and sat back in a chair with my phone taking it all in for several hours. Ah that's the joy of getting older i suppose.

 

[lunator]

Back out observing the Moon. Hopefully the Aurora will be visible later.

Cheers

Ian

[Mr Spock]

Someone in my local fb group has posted some pictures of the moon from last night. How? It was 100% cloudy here!!!

[PeterStudz]

18 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Out again last night only this time with the 10" dobsonian. Once again I gave it several hours to acclimatise while it attempted to get dark. I say attempted due to the sky being illuminated for hours with the heavenly display that was on show. Call me slow, but I had totally forgot about the aurora despite reading post after post on the forum that day indicating that the likelihood of aurora was extremely high. Here i was wondering how it wasn't as dark as the previous night. High cloud cover and moon more or less the same as last night and yet it wasn't as dark. My brain froze to the point that I was running around looking for sources of extraneous light. It was while I was sat at the eyepiece I actually saw the sky brighten in real time that the penny inevitably dropped like an anchor. How could I be so slow to catch on? I obviously blamed it on last nights late session depriving me of sleep. I abandoned the telescope and sat back in a chair with my phone taking it all in for several hours. Ah that's the joy of getting older i suppose.

 

After the excitement of the initial light show I settled back to my Dob. After all, there were “darker” interludes through the night, it was actually one of the few clear nights of the year and the moon was out of the way. Then there’s the fast approaching lack of Astro dark. I also had a OIII filter (where did that come from 🤔) and a UHC that I wanted to play with. This, together with being on a mission to see the Dumbbell Nebula, which I hadn’t seen for an entire year. For me there’s a short window when the Dumbbell is high enough to get a good view and dawn. However, I did look up more and even though I was facing south-ish most of the time I could sometimes see fingers of light dancing overhead. All in all I enjoyed staying up all night doing astronomy even though it’s now going to take me a week to recover. 

[bosun21]

8 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

After the excitement of the initial light show I settled back to my Dob. After all, there were “darker” interludes through the night, it was actually one of the few clear nights of the year and the moon was out of the way. Then there’s the fast approaching lack of Astro dark. I also had a OIII filter (where did that come from 🤔) and a UHC that I wanted to play with. This, together with being on a mission to see the Dumbbell Nebula, which I hadn’t seen for an entire year. For me there’s a short window when the Dumbbell is high enough to get a good view and dawn. However, I did look up more and even though I was facing south-ish most of the time I could sometimes see fingers of light dancing overhead. All in all I enjoyed staying up all night doing astronomy even though it’s now going to take me a week to recover. 

Sounds as though you had a very enjoyable night. I am also a fan of M27 and  as well as observing through the eyepiece i am also looking forward to doing some EAA on both it and M57. I was up till the small hours the night previously so I was wasn't running on a full tank so to speak.

[jjohnson3803]

I was fortunate enough to be able to stay at a darker site this weekend in north central Indiana.  Along with several open clusters and a few other globs, I bagged M4 and M56 with my ST80 travel scope this morning, both of which are invisible at home. 

The main achievement though was NGC 6231, a bright, compact open cluster in Scorpius at −41° 48′.  There's no way I'm ever going to see that or Zeta Sco in the muck at home, so I was quite happy.  ☺️

 

[SwiMatt]

Had a double combo Sun-Moon today, I might post two sketches later (although I'm not too satisfied with them...)

Very happy for the time under the Moon, I hadn't seen any since mid-April! Crater Gutenberg looked stunning.

[AlcorAlly]

Stayed up until 1 a.m. last night waiting for the aurora! Unfortunately, it never came, but I looked at some nice doubles under decent seeing conditions, including Rho Herculis, Mu Draconis, Delta Cygni, and Xi Bootis.
The highlight for me was Delta Cygnus. A very beautiful pair, reminding me of Izar but calmer and a lot less colorful.

[John]

24 minutes ago, AlcorAlly said:

Stayed up until 1 a.m. last night waiting for the aurora! Unfortunately, it never came, but I looked at some nice doubles under decent seeing conditions, including Rho Herculis, Mu Draconis, Delta Cygni, and Xi Bootis.
The highlight for me was Delta Cygnus. A very beautiful pair, reminding me of Izar but calmer and a lot less colorful.

I looked at Delta Cygni as well last night. It's one of my favourites in that part of the sky 🙂

No aurora here either last night. Still recovering from the previous night though so won't forget that in a hurry !

 

[Paz]

I was out last night with the SM125 firstly testing 8mm BSTs with the binoviewer, making for 317x, which was far too much for the conditions but they tested out fine. I then backed up to 85x with 30mm NPLs and was observing Vallis Rheita, supposedly caused by secondaty impacts from Mare Nectaris, a nice target with lots to see.

It's nice to be able to observe in civilised temperatures!

[scotty1]

Yin/Yan moonset 

Plough 

Hint of Aurora compared to Friday 

 

Edited May 13 by scotty1

[PeterStudz]

On 12/05/2024 at 12:58, bosun21 said:

Sounds as though you had a very enjoyable night. I am also a fan of M27 and  as well as observing through the eyepiece i am also looking forward to doing some EAA on both it and M57. I was up till the small hours the night previously so I was wasn't running on a full tank so to speak.

In my rather light polluted back garden M27 is really improved with a filter. The difference is significant. Without I can just about make out an ill defined fuzz with direct vision. On a poor night I’ll need averted vision and it’s easy to miss. With a decent UHC it comes alive and I can even make out its wings. An OIII isn’t quite as bright (wings just there), but details in the interior are better than the UHC. Really looking forwards to messing around with M27 this year. 

[SwiMatt]

49 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

In my rather light polluted back garden M27 is really improved with a filter. The difference is significant. Without I can just about make out an ill defined fuzz with direct vision. On a poor night I’ll need averted vision and it’s easy to miss. With a decent UHC it comes alive and I can even make out its wings. An OIII isn’t quite as bright (wings just there), but details in the interior are better than the UHC. Really looking forwards to messing around with M27 this year. 

What aperture do you have, @PeterStudz? Your description of M27 without filter resonates with my experience with 5 inches in my Bortle 7-8 skies, and I'm wondering whether I should add a UHC to the buying list.

[PeterStudz]

58 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

What aperture do you have, @PeterStudz? Your description of M27 without filter resonates with my experience with 5 inches in my Bortle 7-8 skies, and I'm wondering whether I should add a UHC to the buying list.

This is in my 8” Dob. I also have a 4.5 inch reflector which needs a good night for me to see M27 at all. But even with the small telescope a UHC makes a big difference. So I’d say definitely get one. I have a secondhand  Astronomik UHC and a much cheaper Svbony UHC which was recently given to me. The Astronmik is better but for the price the Svbony is surprisingly decent. 

[John]

M27's nebulosity responds well to a good quality UHC filter 🙂

If you want to see it's central star though, the filter needs to be left off.

 

[John]

Nice moon this evening. Many lovely features. The Rupes Altai escarpment is looking very nicely defined as are the crater pair Messier and Messier A in the Mare Fecunditatis. Much more to see as well 🙂 

[SwiMatt]

49 minutes ago, John said:

Nice moon this evening. Many lovely features. The Rupes Altai escarpment is looking very nicely defined as are the crater pair Messier and Messier A in the Mare Fecunditatis. Much more to see as well 🙂 

I spent some time looking at Aristoteles, although seeing wasn't great. Had to limit magnification at 120x, but it was beautiful! I love this time of the month

[Epick Crom]

I spent last night loitering in the constellation of Lupus the wolf with my 10 inch dob. The standout were:

NGC 5822: A fine, large and fairly rich open star cluster. It is unusual in that it contains many chains of stars with empty spaces between the chains. I like to call it the "tattered cluster"

NGC 5882: A fine, high surface brightness planetary nebula. The seeing was good so I jacked up the magnification to 686x and enjoyed the sight of a bright, slightly greenish glowing cloud of gas. No central star visible.

NGC 5986: A rather bright, dense globular cluster. I resolved three brighter stars in this globular while the rest of it was mottled at 343x. 

 

Clear Skies 

Joe

[SuburbanMak]

Have been out of the game for a while so it was great to get in an hour tonight before the cloud rolled in. FS60Q, Baader & SVBony zooms and a 32mm plossl. 

Super detail and most of the time on the moon plus a few favourites - Alberio, nice split of the Double Double, a dim M57 showing as a ring in averted vision tonight. 
Seeing was good for 45 minutes or so then deteriorated rapidly ahead of the incoming cloud bank so I’ve packed up. 
Very good to be back out there though… 

[Captain Scarlet]

Just in from a session that was both frustrating and pleasing. I FINALLY have seen the rille down the middle of the Lunar Alpine Valley. Despite perhaps twenty attempts over several years. Tonight, using my Delos 4.5 for 208x, there it was, quite clear. The conditions permitted much more magnification but sadly clouds came.

Noticing a clear sky I’d put out the AZ-EQ6 and SV140. I aligned on Arcturus and before getting there randomly alighted on a nearby lovely double which I can’t yet identify, but which told me that seeing tonight was very good indeed. But cloud was coming.

Switching up magnifications had been a race against the encroaching cloud and with 208x I got maybe 30 seconds of good view in a bright gap before there were no more gaps: full cloud cover and that was it.

Still, over the Moon after less than 5 minutes actual observing time.

Magnus

 

Edited May 16 by Captain Scarlet

[John]

I had a short session lunar observing with my 130mm refractor earlier. Then cloud. Then a clear patch for 20 minutes so a few double stars. Then more cloud, a short clear break, more cloud, and repeat with more cloud added for fun.

I've had better sessions although the seeing was good, when there was any !

I don't use it anywhere near as much as I would like but what really surprises me each time I do use the 130 (LZOS objective) is how composed the image stays with stupidly high magnifications. It seems to be barely coasting along at 200x. At 250x - 300x it's getting into it's stride and at 343x tonight double stars such as Porrima, Izar, Zeta Herculis and Delta Cygni were just so clearly defined. I could have probably pushed up to 400x plus if I'd had clear sky for longer 🙄

Still, much better than no observing at all 🙂

 

 

[davidc135]

Congratulations Magnus on seeing the Alpine valley rille.

I tried with my f7.5 81/2'' Dob but once again failed. Good seeing in the half light and had an extensive view of the Triesnecker rille network and was pleased to just spot the craterlet on the Albategnius central peak. Also Collins and Aldrin. As dusk turned to night the seeing worsened so I packed it in.

David

[Nik271]

It was another evening of Moon watching for me, mostly rimae. The seeing was very good in early evening and with my Skymax 127 I observed rimae Hyginus, Airadaeus, Triesnecker, Reaumur and Oppolzer. They were all near to the terminator in an area running north-south from Mare Vaporim to Hipparchus, in almost ideal illumination. Rimae Triesnecker was showing extensive network stretching almost all the way to Hyginus A and B. 

[lunator]

Same for me last night, mostly observing  the Moon. 

I did watch the Sunset and could see a few sunspots in WL.

I switched to the Moon and spent some time working my way along the terminator.

I was only using x67 as the ST80 was on a photo tripod. Te beat view was of Albategnius. You could see the top of the central peak being illuminated at first and then the shadow it was casting across the crater was clearly visible. 

The cloud rolled about 9.45 so had to call it a night.

Cheers

Ian

[RT65CB-SWL]

ISS flypast from T4/LHR…

The light paths are from the glare of the lights of the forecourt canopy.