What did you see tonight?

[Davesellars]

Just come in from viewing the Moon.  Like John, Petavius was one of the highlights of the session.   Also easily managed to see the Hadley Rille.  Seeing was at times excellent but was quite sporadic.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Davesellars

[cajen2]

4 hours ago, JDF said:

Had a go at splitting some doubles in orion after the obligatory bins tour. Rigel gave me no chance at all but managed to split Mintaka and  Delta Orionis C quite easily, tried Alnitak but no joy there either. Only 3 of the trapezium stars were clear to see so maybe it's seeing conditions tonight rather than my eyesight causing the difficulty I'm having.

Haydes is very quickly becoming my favourite view through the 10x50's, beautiful tonight.

Interesting. I too could only see three stars in the Trap, except briefly at first and after I threw some serious mag (for my scope!😄) at it, when I saw four. Strange, as four is usual for me. On the other hand, Alnitak split readily. I think there was some patchy high haze tonight, at least in my area.

[JDF]

14 hours ago, cajen2 said:

Interesting. I too could only see three stars in the Trap, except briefly at first and after I threw some serious mag (for my scope!😄) at it, when I saw four. Strange, as four is usual for me. On the other hand, Alnitak split readily. I think there was some patchy high haze tonight, at least in my area.

Yeah, it was weird, last week 4 could be clearly seen with a 32mm plossl in the mak, last night couldn't do it with a 10mm at 150x. Doubles are definitely a work in progress for me 🙂

[Captain Scarlet]

Getting the skymax 180 ready rather earlier than usual in case tonight’s forecast is correct 🙄.

[cajen2]

1 minute ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Getting the skymax 180 ready rather earlier than usual in case tonight’s forecast is correct 🙄.

I've done the same with the dob.

[Zermelo]

Yes, it's looking promising, the Skymax is out ready.
With any luck the seeing will have improved a bit, too:

[Stu]

22 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Getting the skymax 180 ready rather earlier than usual in case tonight’s forecast is correct 🙄.

Looks good Magnus. Did you wrap the scope? Might be worth trying something a bit thicker. I think @chiltonstar has done this successfully with foil back foam, radiator reflector type stuff.

[Davesellars]

It's "clear" but wow absolutely terrible transparency (I can barely see Orion's sword) - it seemed that was going to be case late afternoon with a white haze hanging in the sky.  Perhaps the moon will be better if the seeing is actually good.  I'm pretty wiped out after last night's session though so may just have a quick look with the 120ST (as the 80D is currently out of service due to a dodgy focuser).

[Captain Scarlet]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Looks good Magnus. Did you wrap the scope? Might be worth trying something a bit thicker. I think @chiltonstar has done this successfully with foil back foam, radiator reflector type stuff.

I did. It’s simply a single layer of emergency blanket cannibalized from a first aid kit, and applied using electrical tape for easy reversibility. It does seem to allow reasonable viewing not long after getting it out though I probably shall go the whole hog and use the radiator stuff.

Quick viewing report before dinner: Jupiter now too low I think for even early evening sessions: lots of CA mostly from atmos but prob some from uncooled scope. Bring on next season when it’ll be even higher!

I did a quick pre-dinner tour of doubles Rigel (easy), Meissa, Castor, Alnitak all resolved but scope by no means yet steady. Briefly lovely and dark with MW on view, but all about to get washed away by Luna, which I’ll be viewing later tonight, dew permitting.

[John]

Good seeing again tonight. Got my 12 inch dob out - first target is 7 Tauri the close pair of which is a .77 arc second split. Got them at 338x. Nice

Transparency is not that good as others have said. Should have some fun all the same

Edited January 20, 2022 by John

[JDF]

Rubbish here tonight, clouds as thick as a bulls lug.

[Kon]

Excellent seeing tonight. Moon looked really sharp. I did not really bother with any DSOs, apart from M42 and Pleiades very quickly, since they are completely washed out. It's really freezing as well. Let's hope to same or better conditions when we have the new moon. I miss  observing some nebulas.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Kon

[Stu]

Looks great out there, very clear although a bit of twinkle to the stars. No observing for me tonight, have had 15 sessions day and night this year so far which must be some kind of record! Just had a quick look at Orion in my 10x50 widefield binos. The whole belt fits in easily and I had a look at the S asterism between Mintaka and Alnilam, very nice. Similarly wide view of the Sword, and a quick squiz at M45 and that was me done.

[Captain Scarlet]

1 hour ago, JDF said:

Rubbish here tonight, clouds as thick as a bulls lug.

Yup similar so far at the other end of the landmass! I set up early when it was nice and clear but now the scope’s cooled properly (and still dry!) the cloud cover has come in with a vengeance. Not giving up yet, it’s all still out there.

[JDF]

4 minutes ago, Stu said:

Looks great out there, very clear although a bit of twinkle to the stars. No observing for me tonight, have had 15 sessions day and night this year so far which must be some kind of record! Just had a quick look at Orion in my 10x50 widefield binos. The whole belt fits in easily and I had a look at the S asterism between Mintaka and Alnilam, very nice. Similarly wide view of the Sword, and a quick squiz at M45 and that was me done.

I could happily pass an hour  every night between M45, Hyades and Orion with the 10x50s.

[SuburbanMak]

Seeing not great here in Winchester, and transparency mixed with swathes of thin high mist - sweet spot for me in the Mak 127 around 100x tonight. 
Some leisurely doubles then: 

Mesarthim - Gamma Arietis, 1 Arietis, 30 Arietis, Miriam in Perseus & Rho Orionis. 
 

+ a rather wobbly moon.  

[catburglar]

I chose to have a go at some tricky multiple stars tonight with my 10 inch SCT.

The seeing was not quite up to the standard of last Friday, but it was pretty stable with just a little high haze.

I warmed up on some of the old favourites, Castor &  Wasat in Gemini, Theta Aur, Gamma Andromeda, and Sigma Orionis and Iota Cas.

Having confirmed that the seeing was "in the right ballpark" I headed over to  my first test of the night -7 Tau.

My last attempt was spoiled by heavy dew on my corrector plate, but tonight (in spite of the haze) there was very little dew formation and I was pretty hopeful. Centring the star in an 18mm ortho (138x) I could clearly see the C component separate from the AB pair. At 250x, there was a hint of duplicity with a single elongated "airy disk". Upping the magnification with a 7mm ortho (357x), there were two airy disks with a sliver of clear black space between them, encircled by an oval first diffraction ring.

Having succeeded on the first target, I upped the ante with Dubhe. Until a couple of months ago, I didn't even know this was a double...It made it onto my "must see" list after following one of the threads here. I've had to wait because I have a poor horizon to the North with obstructions and heat plumes. I thought tonight could be the night...but I was disappointed. I wasn't even able to get a stable view at low magnification - I'm guessing because of heat plumes- the seeing was certainly worse than anything I'd seen in the East and South. It's still not quite as high as it will get, so I'll get another chance, but it's getting too late- I've got an early start in the morning.... 

 

My last target was Sirius and the pup..I posted on Friday 14th about my success at a relatively low magnification  (circa 140x) with a polarising filter to reduce some of the glare. I realise that this was a contentious observation, and as the saying goes...."extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"...I needed to try and repeat the experiment. And tonight I came up a little short. I couldn't make the split with the 18mm  ortho. The filter certainly made it easier to achieve sharp focus and reduced the atmospheric induced dispersion, but I couldn't convince myself that I got the secondary. I upped the magnification to 250x and without the filter I could see the pup on the following side of Sirius popping in and out of view with the scintillation. Some times appearing as a thickening in one of the scintillation induced spikes and sometimes as a faint pinprick in the space between them. Adding the polarising filter definitely helped the view- again reducing the appearance of the scintillation.  So the upshot is- I'm pretty sure the filter helps me because I can confidently achieve precise focus and by minimsing the appearance of scintillation my gaze is less distracted and therefore I can perceive things that are at the threshold of visibility.

All in all - another rewarding night and a good start to the year- I can't remember the last time I managed to squeeze in 4 sessions in the space of a week...Can't wait for galaxy season....

 

[mcrowle]

What did I see tonight? Not a lot, disappointingly.

I set up after work, just as it was getting dark, to find 2 periodic comets - 19P Borrelly and 104P Kowal, which are quite close together in Cetus.

Unfortunately I drew a total blank, despite having seen over 100 previous comets. The problem was a lack of time before the relevant area moved behind a neighbouring property, plus a bright house light to the south that made it difficult to actually see any stars in the relevant area. It didn't help that there are few bright stars around the comets' location to enable star-hoping.

Regarding the light, the neighbours do extinguish it late evening, so it's not a continuous nuisance. I think it has been there for a years, but until recently was shaded by another neighbour's leylandii hedge. That hedge is now gone, so I get the "full benefit" of the light. I should stick to starting sessions when everyone has gone to bed, rather than at 6:30pm!

Regards, Mike.

Edited January 21, 2022 by mcrowle

[cajen2]

After my usual low mag tour of the Pleiades and M42, I was pleased to find all four Trap stars again (only three last night), so I was encouraged to try a couple of double splits. I'm a complete newbie at these, so don't sneer! 😄 I'd done Alnitak before so I checked that first to make sure it wasn't a fluke / my imagination first time and sure enough, there it was, nice and clear at 150x. I'd never tried Rigel before so gave that a go. I thought I'd failed at first before I noticed a faint but clear spot right next to the primary. Checked several times to make sure it wasn't my imagination and there it was.

So that's two whole splits I've done! 😁

[Stu]

3 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

After my usual low mag tour of the Pleiades and M42, I was pleased to find all four Trap stars again (only three last night), so I was encouraged to try a couple of double splits. I'm a complete newbie at these, so don't sneer! 😄 I'd done Alnitak before so I checked that first to make sure it wasn't a fluke / my imagination first time and sure enough, there it was, nice and clear at 150x. I'd never tried Rigel before so gave that a go. I thought I'd failed at first before I noticed a faint but clear spot right next to the primary. Checked several times to make sure it wasn't my imagination and there it was.

So that's two whole splits I've done! 😁

Nice one (or should I say two?)! We don’t do sneering on SGL 👍👍

[Pixies]

Cold and clear here. The seeing was pretty reasonable but not as great as everyone else seems to have had recently!

Started with Rigel - easy split at 8mm (x150) in zoom. Backing off, I could still see down to 18mm (x66).

Then on to M42. The poor transparency and moonlight meant the nebulosity wasn't up to its usual standard. The 4 main stars of the Trapezium were steady but no sign of E or F. I watched and waited for a while, with varying magnifications, but nothing. 

Iota Ori (Nair al Saif) was an easy split at x50

Sigma Orionis was fantastic. The seeing was improving (and the temperature rising slightly). All 4 components visible and stable at x60, with the dimmer 'C' star a faint but distinct pin-prick.

After that success, I went for Sirius B. No luck! Lower down and to the east, it was still over houses and suffering from the rising thermals.

7 Tauri? I gave it a go, but just a possible slight elongation.

 

Back in to warm up a bit. I'll head back out shortly for some moonage daydream.

[Zermelo]

Just thawing out after a five hour session. Mostly doubles again, some favourites and plenty of new ones. 21 in all, I think.
The seeing was very good again here. Transparency was variable, with some early, thicker cloud clearing away and leaving patches of mistiness about.
Highlights for me were 52 Orionis cleanly split again, four stars in sigma Orionis, splitting the AB pair in Tegmine for the first time, and discovering 12 Lyncis, a lovely triple with close AB pair and a greyish C component further off.
I had another look at 7 Tauri (it seems to have been popular tonight) and it was clearly notched at x375.
Finished with a quick look at the moon, which was also holding up under some big magnification.

[John]

I've just been out again, with my 100mm refractor this time, just because the moon looked so tempting

Messier and Messier A were very close to the terminator and the pair looked rather different in that oblique illumination, inky black within each crater and they cast a weird shadow extending towards the darkened portion of the surface that resembled a pair of pointed horns or ears. I've not seen them looking like that before !. Lots more lovely detail around the terminator of course.

Then finally a quick look at my old friend, the golden double star Algieba in Leo - the first double star that I ever observed with a telescope 

 

[Pixies]

Spent a little time on the moon. There were thermals rising from the roof that affected the view, but the further seeing was good. I could get up to x300 magnification quite easily, but with a manual dob that meant a lot of nudging. x150 and the 8mm Vixen LVW was the best view, to my inexperienced eyes.

I spent some time observing the terminator around Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fertility). The side-lit Messier and Messier A craters with 2 sharply pointed shadows directly opposite the pale rays were striking. I found an image that appeared similar (taken from a photo by Chen Sir on Cloudy Nights)

Also, the side-lit craters Isidorus and Capella (with the Vallis Capella cutting through it) looked like Yin & Yang:

[Pixies]

12 minutes ago, John said:

I've just been out again, with my 100mm refractor this time, just because the moon looked so tempting

Messier and Messier A were very close to the terminator and the pair looked rather different in that oblique illumination, inky black within each crater and they cast a weird shadow extending towards the darkened portion of the surface that resembled a pair of pointed horns or ears. I've not seen them looking like that before !. Lots more lovely detail around the terminator of course.

Then finally a quick look at my old friend, the golden double star Algieba in Leo - the first double star that I ever observed with a telescope 

 

Ooer! Snap - I was typing out my comments on the same thing as you typed yours!