What did you see tonight?

[bosun21]

35 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Just come inside as the clouds have come over, but managed to get in over 2 hours (the forecasts said don't bother, but then they were wrong last night too).

Still trying out the SV503, this time under properly dark skies (21.28). The milky way was about the best I've seen it, plenty of structure. The seeing was excellent.
First up, Izar was split comfortably, even while cooling down, then 95 Her, HR 6758 and Miram.  HD 166480 wasn't quite split, but then it is only 1.2". I tried this with the Svbony planetary zoom at 4mm plus a x2 telecentric, probably around x350, and I was impressed how well the zoom image held up when Barlowed.
Saturn was very pleasant, looking almost artificially sharp in the Morpheus 6.5mm, like a painting. The planetary zoom showed some obvious darker areas North and South, and I could just make out the rings against the disc. Titan, Rhea and Tethys were visible, but Enceladus was too close to the planet. I've been looking out for false colour in the SV503 (it's FPL51) - there was a little violet around the disc, but hardly visible.
The globs were much better tonight than the last time out (in moonlight) - M13 and M92 in Hercules both showed a fair few stars. M22 was almost as good, which was pleasing, being barely above the horizon. M2, also low down, showed a graininess, but no stars.
M31 was the only galaxy tomight, but it was impressive in the 24mm UFF, with the faintest, outer luminosity in the plane seeming to extend to the edges of the field (2.2°). The best I've seen it.
OCs M34 and NGC 1528 were pleasant, but the double cluster was superb in the UFF, with masses of sharp stars.

Well worth setting up. Don't trust those forecasts.

Nice report and I'm pleased you had a decent nights seeing. The SV503 seems like a keeper.

[Captain Scarlet]

A second consecutive clear night, but after last night’s 2:30 am I was too tired to get a scope out. So I just went out back (NE to S view) with my 18x70s for 90 minutes and sat in a garden chair. Five or six meteors, one long and bright leaving a trail. Dust lanes in M31. My first look this cycle at the Lambda Orionis Cluster, containing Meissa aka the head of Orion (I call it the “Luger”). Kemble’s Cascade, stumbled across by accident. Otherwise just random quick glances at anything. A quick sweep of Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars before I headed in.

[SwiMatt]

A night with decent seeing and good transparency (for being in a heavily light polluted suburb). One of those night when I only used two eyepieces, 26mm (58x) and 9mm (166x).

I went for a short relaxing session starting on Alcor and Mizar, which I always enjoy as a first target of the evening - to check the allignment of the RDF. Below, no trace of M51, so I swung the scope elsewhere. M57 showed a nice ring in averted vision - I don't think I often saw it so well defined from my balcony. Epsilon Lyrae got split with some work needed for Epsilon 1, but eventually it was a great sight, and even better was the always nice Albireo. Finally, after 5 minutes with my eye deep in the 9mm, M13 started to resolve even with direct vision, to prove how good conditions are tonight.

No time to stay out longer, unfortunately, but I'm loving the Fall so far!

[Ratlet]

It was clear on the drive home and we're into that special time of year after the summer where they doesn't change.  The getting darker earlier is about the same rate as we move from the summer constellations to winter.  Makes Vega and friends feel like they are here for ages.

Unfortunately I'm working this week so that's as much observing as Ill get.  Hope there are lots of reports from everyone else.

I also observed that someone snuck a T2 to m48 adapter into my bits box.  No idea where it came from.  Unfortunately I observed this in my bits box the day after I ordered one for my flattener...

[Jim L]

A rare night and morning of good seeing in the neighborhood.

Saturn looked great and the separation between the rings and planet and color variation were easily visible for the first time this year. Very happy about that.

Jupiter also looked great and the Great Peach Pit was easily picked out in the southern belt, likewise first time this year.

Mars wasn’t nearly as interesting and an orange-red blob was about all I could see. Still quite a ways from opposition so plenty of room for improvement.

The Double Cluster was a bit more beautiful than usual because the stars were sharper but upper atmospheric smoke muted the contrast a bit. Still nice.

The Orion Nebula and the Trapezium, being out of the smoke to the east, were spectacular. The Nebula extended further than is normally visible and looked like a giant bird with extended wings.

All observations were through a 102mm f/6.5 achro with magnifications of up to 220X

[Whistlin Bob]

First time out for a little while, and I've got M33 in the ep. Really quite clear on a changeable evening. I can even see ngc604. I've had a pretty irksome day, but this is just turning into a wonderful moment. 

[Stu1smartcookie]

A non event for me tonight as I am still recovering from a burn on my arm ( never pass your arm across a boiling kettle ) .. may get out tomorrow though which is also forecast to be clear . Happy to just see stars as I sit outside for a few minutes .   

[IB20]

Although clear I could only muster the will to take the 12x36 bins out.

First up, Saturn’s two spokes along with the tiny speck of Titan are always a pleasure to see. Next, spent a while tracking Neptune. Using 20, 24 & 27 Psc to hone in, Neptune is just next door to orange coloured HD224037, which is appears about a similar mag. Appears more convincingly blue next to its orange neighbour.

Always visit the double cluster now, the stabilisation is brilliant on this target, see so much. Then over to Andromeda, a big bright smudge. 

Finished off with the Pleiades, that time already! I’ve never seen so many stars, just stunning. 

Mid way through saw a short sporadic meteor, so all in all not a bad session for a “lazy” attempt.

[woldsman]

Out for about an hour (10.20 - 11.20pm) with the Kenko VC Smart IS Binos, 14 x 30. In the Cotswolds, a few miles outside of Charlbury. Focus first tested on M45. Then star clusters alpha Persei, Perseus double cluster & M39. Milky way arch very prominent as a naked eye object. Hercules quite low now but the M13 & M92 globular clusters still available. No nova action in Corona Borealis. M27 distinct in Sagitta, with a quick look at the coat hanger.  Stop off at Albeiro. Saturn well placed but aperture too small to spot the nearly edge on rings. Jupiter spherical and bright - just above the trees. Quick look at the Hyades. Then a few galaxies. M31 core very clear. Pleased to detect M33. M81 also faint and small with these binos but detectable.  A lot of gazing as well with the naked eye. Summer Triangle, Capella, Aldebaran, great square of Pegasus, Perseus & Cassiopeia all very beautiful. 

 

Edited Wednesday at 22:38 by woldsman

[Nik271]

Foolishly tried to split Pi Cephei with my Skymax 127. Spent  almost an hour on this double star and not quite sure if I spotted it for real. Seeing very good, used x250 and there seems to be some thickening of the diffraction ring northwest of primary. Came inside, checked stelledopie: close but no cigar, secondary is north. Oh well. 

Saturn did look good at more reasonable x120. Five moons visible. Going to bed now and hoping to do some comet hunting just before sunrise.

[Johnny81]

I couldn't stay up for the clearer skies above Northants so I decided to cloud dodge from 8-9.30pm with my 120mm Refractor. The North East was clear for a good spell so hopped from Gamma Persei into Camelopardalis. The constellation has lots of doubles but time was limited, those pesky clouds were on the move... The main star to start observing from was CS Cam (couldn't split at x133) and there's a lot of dim stuff here but the highlight was STF 389 (2.6'' separation). Could see Saturn briefly to the south with the naked eye before it got swamped with cloud. Wasn't long before I was back inside. 

[Whistlin Bob]

Really good night last night. Seeing was wobbly, but excellent transparency after 10pm and no moon. Not many nights like that. I started off just having fun with the bright stuff, but before bed tried a few trickier targets. M33 was a wonder. M110 was clearer than I've seen for a while. I had some fun with Mirach's Ghost. I then had had my first sight of some of the Deer Lick galaxies around NGC7331. Definitely saw 3 of them. Very happy with that. 

[Nik271]

Comet: 0, airplane contrails: 15 

 

PS: It was not total waste, as I had nice views of Jupiter with Europa shadow transit and tiny Mars with Syrtis Major before I took the binoculars to a nearby field.

Edited Thursday at 08:26 by Nik271

[IB20]

Just had a few hours with the 125mm Stellamira. Had my best ever views of Neptune but wasn’t able to pin Triton. An 11.5 mag nearby field star was showing very clearly though, so there’s hope.

Saturn was just breathtaking at 195-240x, CD clearly observable in pockets of good seeing. Amazing 3D depth and shading at the polar hood. Lots of NH banding on show. Titan in a southerly position, Dione, Rhea and Tethys all clearly on show too. No Enceladus however, despite favourable position.

Managed to get my push-to working so found an old favourite in the Blue Snowball, been a few years since I last saw it but still as blue and magnificent as ever.

Had a few goes at M33 but the LP in that direction is just too overpowering so the wait goes on.

M45, Caldwell 28, double cluster, melotte 20 and M31/32 were all looking absolutely splendid though. 😊
 
Bring on the earlier dark nights! 

[Ags]

Did my first visual night session for months (the tripod was claimed by the solar telescopes). I was using my ZS66. I just caught Io emerging from Jupiter with my new SLV 4 eyepiece. The eyepiece is a keeper… maybe I need the 2.5????  The Pleiades looked uncommonly pretty in my 20 mm eyepiece, and M37 was tantalizing but a little faint in the 6.7 mm EP. I tried Gamma Arietis with the SLV 4, and it gave a very sharp view. I tried Polaris - with my light pollution the ZS66 fails to resolve the pole star’s companion, but I was starting to hope the SLV 4 would succeed where lesser eyepieces stumbled. And … success!

In The background my imaging contraption is shooting NGC 185. I have got just shy of 3 hours in color, and now I am grabbing some data in IR 850. This galaxy is bright in all IR wavelengths, maybe I will get an interesting picture.

EDIT: I had a look at Mars when packing up the imaging contraption. Far too small for the ZS66, but it showed a gibbous phase and was whitish at one end so I imagine the polar cap was prominent.

Edited 15 hours ago by Ags

[Zermelo]

It's been a magical evening here, notwithstanding two huge cloud banks passing over early on. Following that, it's been very transparent and still, and not too cold or windy.
The SV503 split 11 doubles down to 2.4", including Iota Cas (nice triplet) and a few down in Cetus and Aquarius. 
OCs:  IC 4756, M11, NGC 1582, NGC 1528 and Stock 2 (huge and lovely); Saturn (with Titan, Rhea, Tethys, Dione), Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter (still a bit low down, but with Io just appearing on the limb). M1 was visible and slightly mottled, and M57 very obvious.
I wasn't expecting much from galaxies with just a 4 inch, but M81 and M82 were framed nicely in a Morpheus 12.5mm, and M82 was showing some structure. M33 was visible with a slightly brighter nucleus, and I could just about see M101, which surprised me. I didn't look at M31 tonight, but as I was packing up I realized it was right overhead, and I could just make it out naked eye, which I think is the first time.

[Nik271]

I just came in after a quick morning session on Mars and Jupiter with my Skymax 127. Superb seeing, I ran out of light at x250 on Jupiter and x300 on Mars. Tons of details in Jupiter's belts. Syrtis Major was dead obvious and a tiny north polar cap. I never expected to see so much detail on Mars when it's not even 8'' but happy to be proven wrong.

[josefk]

i think i may have used the wrong half of the night 💦- i was out 21:30 till 02:00 and both seeing and transparency were pretty grotty here in Sth Lincs - dew soup, even the outside of my flask sitting by the car was streaming with water in just a few minutes.

However there were moments of clarity on Saturn and Jupiter to keep it worthwhile and i enjoyed a long look at both waiting for those moments.

Great belt detail on Jupiter and a very knotty southern NEB and northern portion of the EZ (knot and festoon combinations) seen with a 130mm refractor. Definitely my best Jupiter this apparition. Inspired by the book"The Planet Jupiter" by Betrand Peek that i picked up at IAS i was trying to be extra careful with the placement of markings relative to the Meridian. An interesting exercise. 

I could not pull Enceladus out at Saturn despite trying during the whole session. This was true regardless what EP i tried and i tried a lot and at many different moments during the night. I was getting good steady views of (dim) Tethys and Dione to the West though and I'm confident i got a good reliable view of the blue C-ring quite consistently above the rings on the planet face. Titan was striking and very nice arcing around the Southern limb starting at more or less exactly South (6-o'clock clock face) at about 22:00 and moving to SW (8-o'clock clock face) by about 01:30 and i guess at just about 10" from the southern limb the whole time - very nice.

They're not brill but a couple of sketches over here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/426234-saturn-with-a-lovely-titan-but-no-enceladus-4th-october-24/

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/426232-jupiter-festoons-in-the-ez-knots-in-the-neb-4th-october-24/

 

Edited 13 hours ago by josefk
added links

[Johnny81]

A great evening last night from 19:40-23:05.

The Mak is in for an MOT so it is fun with the 120mm refractor. As soon as darkness came I begun trying to finish a list of doubles in Aquila (STF 2628 is rather nice) - but a large swathe of cloud hit so I turned my attention north-east again where it was clear (almost a repeat of the previous night). Back into Camelopardalis (or as I like to call the middle of bloody nowhere)…. Managed a nice haul of Struve targets especially a couple of 9/10th mag wider pairs but this was pushing a barlowed 9mm. Highlight was STF 638 which I noted as a superb pair, relatively close (5'') and PA approx. 200^o. 

The scope was getting pretty wet from the dew but finished the evening looking at Saturn. There was a great deal of purple chromatic aberration from the scope but I ignored this and simply marvelled at the planet - noting 3 moons. At x133 the frac blew away the views of Saturn I seen a week ago in my 127mm mak. 

Edited 16 hours ago by Johnny81

[paulastro]

Postcards from Kelling using the Seestar, taken Oct 3/4.  Two good nights in a row with another forecast tomorrow. 

A little enhancement using the phone's camera software.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Fantastic photos Paul. You have really cracked it with the See star S50.

[paulastro]

1 hour ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Fantastic photos Paul. You have really cracked it with the See star S50.

Many thanks Mark, that's very kind of you.

[Nik271]

Hazy sky but good seeing. I took out the 102 ED refractor tonight, hoping for wide views but it was not to be - the sky is too bright. However the scope can do doubles too: I am very pleased to split 23 Aquilae. Saturn looked good even in the haze but the fainter moons Dione and Tethys were lost in the glow. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Nik271

[Nyctimene]

Just coming in from a short Impromptu session with the 16x70 binos. M 31 with 32 and 110, M 33 easy, oc 457,663, 7789. M57 as a defocused star. Finished with the Eastern Veil, that could be hold almost constantly with AV - without any filters! (If you know, where, and how, to look). Clouds rolled in, but rewarding 30 minutes.

No aurora.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Nyctimene

[Johnny81]

Hazy sky and colder than last night. Contending with increasing dew and next door's search light! The optics were really fogged on my finder and I packed up at 22.15. Got a small haul of doubles in Cam, but didn't get to finish my list but better than nothing.