What did you see tonight?

[Ibbo!]

From here

 

 

[magnahrl]

Yesterdaynight I was out on my balcony again. This time with my GSO 8"Classic Cassegrain I bought second hand last april. Have not used it since early may when I also made a slight collimation of the sec mirror. I was so happy the collimation has not changed at all. Still perfect. Seeing was good ca 6-7/10. I looked at the same objects as the other night with my vintage C8. 72 Peg, 36 And, 10 aries and Saturn. 72 and 36 looked very much the same in similar mag. 10 was a tiny bit harder to split in CC8 but Saturn a tiny bit more well defined in CC8; I could actually notice  something that could be bands and darker zones in the CC8. Which I did not in the C8. Seeing? Saturn was a real joy to observe at 250X-300X in the 2021 version CC8. Stars at 480X-540X were very clean with a distinct airydisc and uniform bright but not al that bright first diff ring. Mostly C8 seems surrounded by "trash light" at the same mag. But that could be a seeingissue? 

I hope I soon will see how this scope works at my dark site. No Corrector plate to dewup. It will be exciting. I use this on my Vixen GP+Celestron tripod with 2" steellegs. 2 sec time to settle down after a hit on the ota at 540X

Oops this became more a minirewiev rather than an observing report. Sorry, I just felt I wanted to write about my thoughts🙄And this far I am very pleased with my Classic Cassegrain 8" f/12.

 

Magnus A.

[paulastro]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Hardly any stars visible tonight due to the smoke up there.

However, as a result, there is a stunning orange Moon rising which is well worth a look.

 

That's exactly all I could see as well Stu, apart from the very occassional dim star.  I would have taken a pic with the Seestar, that I had taken out to image a couple of targets I had in mind if I'd kown what caused it.  The Met forecast it to be clear here.

Edited August 18 by paulastro

[lunator]

It was very Milky last night due to the smoke. I could just about make out Albireo naked eye. I managed to view a few doubles one tight pair at 0.9" as the seeing wasn't too bad. The Moon looked very impressive almost sepia in colour. I did have a look Alpha Herc as a final treat and the colours were impressive as always.

Earlier in the day I had used my ST80 on an old EQ1 I have been re-united with to view the Sun. 

Hopefully the murk will lift soon....

Cheers 

Ian

[Stu]

18 hours ago, Stu said:

Hardly any stars visible tonight due to the smoke up there.

However, as a result, there is a stunning orange Moon rising which is well worth a look.

 

Interestingly enough (well I thought so…) I checked the exposure settings for this image vs some similarly phased ones from the past with no ‘smoke’. This exposure was 1/15s vs anywhere over 1/200 up to 1/600s, so the brightness was obviously cut down a heck of a lot last night.

[bosun21]

So this is why I had to dramatically increase exposure times when imaging Saturn. I thought i was losing the plot as I've never had such a slow frame rate. I did notice the sepia coloured moon though but didn't twig🙄.

[Bivanus]

Yaaay ! I managed to not fall asleep tonight AND the weather was fine 😅 Happens every blue moon or so....

“They dined on mince, and slices of quince
          Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
                        And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
                                          They danced by the light of the moon.”

Edited August 19 by Bivanus
Poetry

[Bivanus]

And here's the sad state of light pollution in my neighborhood...Really blue &  yellow and I'm not talking about the Moon 😐 

[SwiMatt]

Just came in after a nice binocular session with 10x50 mounted on a photo tripod. I'm currently back where I was born, in Switzerland, with decent Bortle 4 skies (although with some street lights well visible from my garden). 

I went through the "staples", with Albireo, M39, a glimpse of M3, M29 and M103, and a possible glimpse of M81 and M10 (I had the right FOVs but I can only tentatively say that I saw something). I also saw one perseid through the binoculars! The session got "interrupted" by the glow behind the mountain that announced the rise of the Moon, which was breathtaking.

I managed a snapshot through the binoculars (and touched a bit contrast, color curves, etc - but only badly). Here it is!

[Bivanus]

Bortle 4....I am drooling🤤

[scotty1]

It's lucky the wildfire smoke wasn't as thick when the Perseids and Aurora were around.

Caught a glimpse of the moon in a gap between clouds. It is more silver tonight, perhaps that low pressure has altered the track of the wildfire smoke. 

Summer triangle briefly in view, looks clearer in western areas ot UK now.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19 by scotty1

[Nik271]

The sky is clearing currently in Oxford and forecast to stay like that all night 😀  I'm setting my alarm clock for 4am: the Moon will occult Saturn at about 4:20am visible from the UK.  Wish you all clear sky and good seeing!

[Bivanus]

 

 

Well folks , back to normal tonight 

[Mr Spock]

Well, it is dark here. That's only because it's been raining though 

[Ags]

I'm telling myself the raindrops are little stars made of water.

[Mr Spock]

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are 

[John]

55 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

...... how I wonder where you are 

....... up above the clouds so thick,

just as if we are taking the mick ! 

[RobertI]

Quick session tonight, this time with the 102ED and binoviewer giving 57x mag. What better objects to observe under a bright moon than some lovely doubles, assisted by Starsense. Mu Bootes was a lovely triple as was 17 Draconis - both with the fainter companions a few seconds of arc apart - well worth tracking down. Plenty of other glorious doubles in area of Hercules, Draco and Corona Borealis, including Mu Draconis (Arrakis for those of you into Science Fiction), Zeta Corona Borealis, Delta Herculis (Sarin) and Rho Herculis. The highlight was Alpha Herculis (Rasalgethi) with a bright orange primary and much fainter secondary a few seconds of arc away. The binoviewer worked superbly, encouraging me to linger and soak up the beauty of these heavenly delights. 

[Paz]

I've been out briefly checking my maksutov is set up for the Saturn/moon occultation later. Fingers crossed!

[globular]

Threatening rain here so I can’t set up ready for Saturn/Moon but I have set my alarm for later and will keep everything crossed that the rain stops and the clouds clear and that someone will have chopped the neighbours tree down that will otherwise block it.

[Saganite]

Morning all,

Well it is clear outside with high thin cloud so that's a start.

 

Edited August 21 by Saganite

[scotty1]

This is more of a visual rather than photographic event, unless you can zoom right into the edge of the moon. 

I tried to get a photo with a normal DSLR and zoom, the huge difference in magnitude between Jupiter and moon made it very difficult to get a photo. 

Holding my phone through some 10x50s I got this?👌, certainly reminiscent of the Hubble telescope. 

 

 

Edited August 21 by scotty1

[Paz]

Thin cloud coming and going but right now can see Saturn

[scotty1]

6 minutes ago, Paz said:

Thin cloud coming and going but right now can see Saturn

Good capture

What setup is that? 

Edited August 21 by scotty1

[Space Hopper]

Nice and clear here, and watched a lovely Lunar occultation of Saturn. Hopefully catch its reappearance too.

Used my 15x50 Canons. My eyes are well and truly dazzle !!

And looking the other way a very nice Mars / Jupiter conjunction, still close together and comfortably in the binocs 4.5º field.

Well worth the early alarm call 😀