What did you see tonight?

[GrumpiusMaximus]

2 hours ago, lunator said:

My Lab likes to lie down near the scope fortunately she is golden so I can usually spot where she lying before I trip over her 😀

Mine is half Lab, half Golden Retriever.  Looks like a black Golden Retriever.  Two supposedly intelligent breeds seem to have mostly cancelled each other out in that department... 

[Stu]

11 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

My lab has discovered that eyepiece caps are a delight to chew. This helps me in being “organised” and encourages me not  to drop any on the ground 😀

Been there, done that 🤪🤣

 

[Mr Spock]

Moon is looking lovely at the moment. It's still a bit light but Theophilus is really standing out.

[GordonD]

Just had a lovely hour out with the moon in the 120ED. Spent some time teasing out detail in Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catherina. Then picking out the Apollo 11 landing site. Crater Armstrong easy but struggled to pick up Collins and Aldrin . Then on to the area of the Apollo 17 site. 
Also spent a while enjoying spotting emerging mountain peaks/tops just on the dark side of the terminator. I love how they change over a period of minutes. Nice to get out, even if only for a while. 

[Mr Spock]

Those peaks on Palus Putredinis are quite spectacular.

[Mr Spock]

16 minutes ago, GordonD said:

Crater Armstrong easy but struggled to pick up Collins and Aldrin

I can see Armstrong quite easily. Confirmed Collins in moments of steady seeing - Aldrin is a no show. Collins becomes easier when you realise it's at the bottom of a light streak which sort of points to it.

FC-100 at x264 (x2.5 Powermate and 7mm ortho).

Lunar is over for tonight. It's just gone behind a neighbour's tree. It's only a small tree, but just in the wrong place 😡

[Mr Spock]

Taking in quite a few doubles in the Serpens area. Very easy, clean split of OΣ303 at 1.4"and x148. WDS says mag 7.7 and 8.1 but secondary looks a little fainter than that.

[Mr Spock]

All done. There's a thin layer of high cloud come across spoiling things. It's also very cold for June. Just 4.4°!

15 doubles in total and only one miss - Σ2022. At 6.5 and 10.0, 2.2" the magnitude difference probably makes it too tough for the scope.

[lunator]

I did pop out for a few doubles last night. It was a joy to be able to walk out plug the mount in and start observing 🙂.

Only stayed out for 30 mins as I had been up since 5am, but still enjoyed the view. 

Michael STF2022 should be doable in your scope but it is right on the limit based on my general formula. Let us know how you get on if you give it another try 

Cheers

Ian

[Mr Spock]

51 minutes ago, lunator said:

Michael STF2022 should be doable in your scope but it is right on the limit based on my general formula. Let us know how you get on if you give it another try

Seeing wasn't quite perfect last night, so maybe it's worth another try. Plus around 10.0 is close to my limit here anyway due to light pollution. I did grab a couple around 10.1 last night but they aren't easy.

[paulastro]

Went out to observe the Moon from 9.20pm - 10.40pm with the StellaMira 125 ED my Morpheus 17.5 and 12.5, a x2 and x3 barlow and the SVB 3- 8 zoom.The Moon went from 31 to 18 degree altitude, good seeing early on, less so by the end, some haze later.

Some excellent views of the Catharina trio, Montes Haeumus between Mare Vaporum and Mare Serenitatus. Also stunning terminator detail around Aristoteles, Eudoxus and especially Alexander.

Plenty of wow moments and useful mags up to x300 in better moments.

 

[SwiMatt]

The Moon is behind the tree line another night of no observation for me...

[lunator]

I saw a glimpse of the Moon through cloud.....

Hopefully get some observing soon. 

[Stu1smartcookie]

I've adapted a celestron  70mm starsense refractor to go on my carbon fibre tripod and video head ...it works a treat and because of the long focal length I saw no false colour on the moon ... It's actually clearer here now but I'm sure there's more clouds on the way , still nice to see the moon ... Actually nice to see anything ! 

[Gonariu]

Yesterday and yesterday I tried to observe the moon, the seeing was not exciting on both days. Yesterday I used a Maksutov 90/1250 mainly at 208X, I observed the Alphonsus crater. The Rima Alphonsus could not be seen, it is probably beyond the possibilities of the optics (I had read that it was very difficult with a Vixen 102 M), perhaps (but very perhaps) I saw the crater Alphonsus GA, it also seemed to perceive who knows what other details at the limit of perception inside the crater. I will try again on another occasion using the C8 or the Vixen 102 M, obviously hoping for good seeing. I was a little surprised to see the Rima Bradley in the Mare Imbrium, I don't know if I managed to see it with the C8 a few months ago.

[Whistlin Bob]

Sunspots. Along with lots of other folks! Attended the Market Bosworth festival with some friends from my club,. The day was 40% sunny and so I was able to share white light views of the sun in my dual rig. If you've never tried this sort of thing then I really recommend it. I was counting the number of people who looked through my scope today, but lost count around lunchtime at the fifty mark. I had the pleasure of dozens of excellent conversations with interested strangers, smart kids and other thoughtful types. Such a fun thing to do, and the sun put quite a show on for us. Little shout out for the GTI-X that tracked the sun nicely throughout the day. 

 

[John]

First time out for what seems like forever 🙄

Tak FC100-DL waits on the Ercole mount for the moon to rise. Some nice binary star viewing later as well perhaps ?

I'm also trying to picture what a Mewlon 180c would look like on the other arm of the Ercole 😁

 

[JeremyS]

2 hours ago, John said:

I'm also trying to picture what a Mewlon 180c would look like on the other arm of the Ercole 😁

 

Stunning and composed, I should think 👍🏻

[Littleguy80]

Spica looks quite striking next to the Moon this evening 

[Littleguy80]

Nice through the Tak too!

[John]

The seeing on the moon was hampered a little by thin cloud bands but some nice views were still available 🙂 I couldn't quite see the pit in the top of the Keis Pi dome but the bulge of the dome itself was showing nicely. 

Clearer now, as the sky darkens. Tight double stars showing well at silly magnifications - Svbony zoom + Parks GS 2x barlow for 500x (probably a bit more in reality) and a well split Zeta Herculis the highlight thus far 😁

The Tak shows absolutely gorgeous star images even at these silly magnifications. Very fine diffraction ring around the brighter of the Zeta Herculis pair with the secondary star a pale blue dot just on the inside of that thread-like ring - almost, but not quite, touching the airy disk of the primary star but with that all important sliver of black sky between the two. 

Just so nice to be at an eyepiece under a decent sky again 👍

Edited Sunday at 21:59 by John

[Captain Scarlet]

2:15 am, just in from a nice session where I was strong on the shall I/shan’t I internal debate. I thought I was tired but once out and set up, it seemed I wasn’t. Moon behind a tree and getting low, so I chose a few doubles and open clusters. SV140 on AZ-EQ6.

Izar a split but a bit fuzzy as the scope was yet cooling, Albireo lovely colours, delta Cygni with the scope better acclimatized, zeta Lyrae, epsilon Lyrae really sharp, La Superba and Mu Cephei (Herschel’s Garnet Star) lovely red, NGC 1502 exquisite and Trumpier 1 to finish off.  Seeing rather good tonight. Possibly full report tomorrow.

Now I’m tired 🥱 

Magnus 

[JeremyS]

On 16/06/2024 at 20:16, John said:

I'm also trying to picture what a Mewlon 180c would look like on the other arm of the Ercole 😁

I can’t get this picture out of my mind: John in evening dress at a Grand Ball, coming into the room accompanied my the Mewlon on one arm and the refractor on his other arm 🤔

Edited 5 hours ago by JeremyS

[Stu1smartcookie]

At this time of year i , like most of us who work , are limited to about an hour at best in the summer (lol) evenings ... but the one saving grace is the moon . So , my AZ Pro got its first introduction to a Witchford sky . In my haste i didnt properly level the tripod ( schoolboy error ) but in the event the scope slewed to target . With the mount there is a sync command enabling the correction of slewing errors anyway . 

Viewing the moon at 24mm ( 85x mag ) the seeing was ok , and despite some whispy passing cloud the views in the C8 didn't disapoint . But this really was a test of the mount . Happy with it but i need a user manual to get the most from it . 

Anyway , a nice early evening view of the Moon . 

EDIT :

The user manual is 45 pages !! Now Printed and ready to read 

Edited yesterday at 10:12 by Stu1smartcookie

[Gonariu]

18 hours ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Sunspots. Along with lots of other folks! Attended the Market Bosworth festival with some friends from my club,. The day was 40% sunny and so I was able to share white light views of the sun in my dual rig. If you've never tried this sort of thing then I really recommend it. I was counting the number of people who looked through my scope today, but lost count around lunchtime at the fifty mark. I had the pleasure of dozens of excellent conversations with interested strangers, smart kids and other thoughtful types. Such a fun thing to do, and the sun put quite a show on for us. Little shout out for the GTI-X that tracked the sun nicely throughout the day. 

 

In this period the sun is putting on a show, a beautiful event. I showed the sun by projection to my fifth grade classes who are graduating this year, even by projection with a small achromatic 80/400 the students were interested (my glass solar filter is starting to ruin).