What did you see tonight?

[Ratlet]

Got the dob out for a bit of a comparison from the other night.  Not sure you can really call either view superior, they're just different.

Will say that the gem28 goto is better than the starsense app on android.  The app is pretty pants is all.  Finding works well, but not if you open safari, when it just loses the will to live, which is bad because the starsense app is just dire and it's easier to search on skysafari.

I might try the skysafari integration on my daughter's apple phone see how that goes.

On the plus side I did get to see Messier 11.  That's a spectacular little cluster.  Almost like a glob there are so many stars.  Well worth swinging the scope at.

[Captain Scarlet]

Just out for a few minutes before early start tomorrow  (why are the clear nights always before early starts?!). No instruments just my eyes, rewarded with a couple of Delta Aquariids, one with an obliging ionization “smoke” trail. Happy with that.

Magnus

[scotty1]

A bit murky and a few clouds and 17C at 03.20.

The moon and friends were out above a haystack. 

( Jupiter Mars Taurus Pleiades) 

Took a shot with my phone 

 

Edited Wednesday at 03:24 by scotty1

[Les Ewan]

My main targets were the Dumbell Nebula ,61 Cygni,Epsilon 1 and 2 Lyrae and later Saturn. The sky is getting darker now and the Milky Way through Cygnus was visible for the first time since  April and with Pegasus riding high theres a feeling that Autumn is just around the corner.

Edited Wednesday at 03:52 by Les Ewan

[RobertI]

Super little session tonight with the 102ED, 17.5mm Morpheus and filters, guided by Starsense.

A quick view to the southern horizon saw M16 Swan Nebula and M17 Eagle Nebula, nicely revealed through the OIII filter, the Swan being particularly bright. A little way up Milky Way was M11 the fan shaped and densely packed Wild Duck cluster.  Over to some old favourites in Cygnus the Dumbell and the Veil, both again wonderful with the OIII. The Coathanger asterism fitted perfectly in the FOV. Swinging over to Cepheus revealed M52 with another cluster right next door making it look like the double cluster - need to consult Interstellarum to find out what the other cluster is. Lots of little clusters visible when sweeping around. The highlight was stumbling accross Delta Cephei, a beautiful Yellow and White double (I think this might be a line of sight double, not a genuine binary system). 
 

Edited yesterday at 00:24 by RobertI

[scotty1]

Whilst watching distant lightning, I turned my phone to the early morning planets again. 

Think I just picked up the Aurora too, but it was misty and looking through town lights. 

Edited 23 hours ago by scotty1

[John]

Just the one target for my short session this evening with my Tak FC100 and that was Nova Vulpeculae 2024.

As reported here, I think I got it 🙂

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/424357-nova-vulpeculae-2024/?do=findComment&comment=4502952

 

[davidc135]

I too was out with my Tak FC100 looking first at Epsilon Lyrae and comparing full aperture with the scope stopped down to 50mm where I split Eps 2 successfully at x100, although I'm not sure about Eps 1. Fine seeing.

Later I pointed it at Saturn at x200. Crisp view showing the shadow of the rings against the planet but I needed the 8.5'' f7.5 Dob to reveal the fine sliver of darkness that was the inner gap. No sign of Cassini's division, not surprisingly.

David

[paulastro]

I had a great night last night - from before midnight to 4.30am - first  night with the return of astronomical darkness up here.  Using my Celestron Starsense Explorer 8 inch Dob.  Sky not great, so mostly observed brighter or familiar objects. 

Started off with using the Morpheus 17.5 but soon changed to the Baader Zoom to accommodate the varying size of the objects observed.  Particularly useful as it gives me x150 for getting in close and personal with objects like M13, M27 and M57 which show so many different aspects  at higher powers.

I observed Saturn with my binoviewer and Orth eyepieces. Spectacular views in one period with lovely views of the now approaching edge on rings.  They looked mostly blue along the edges to me with some variations and seemed to shimmer at times. Several times I saw what looked like variations in the width of the rings, as if I was seeing a satellite along the ring plane - though I think this explanation is unlikely.

I spent some time with my Baader Aspheric 36mm 72deg eyepiece scanning the Milky down from Cygnus to Aquila.  I also used it for some wide field objects including M31/32/110, Double Cluster, the Pleiades, the Coat Hanger.  Its a nice light eyepiece for its size with long eyer elief, x33/2.2deg with the Dob.

As Mars and Jupiter climbed into view in the early hours, I observed them with the 17.5 Morpheus, and also combined with both the x2 and x3 ES focal extenders. Nice to see them, but the seeing was pretty bad at the low altitude.  For the time I observed Jupiter, 3.45 to 4.20, it only appeared to have one satellite!  The nights entertainment was finished off by a very thin crescent Moon, following the path of the two planets.

While observing, I had the Seestar running in the background taking a few pics. Three of them are below. 

For a time, whilst observing M81/82,  the pic of them was being enhanced by the Seestar and was on my phone in the Starsense cradle on the scope. It seemed rather a strange thing and made me smile.

A very enjoyable night - and the return of astronomical darkness too! 🤩.

PS The pics wouldn't load, I'll try to add them later.  I kept on getting an error image for some reason.

It's worked!

 

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by paulastro
Pics added.