What did you see tonight?

[Davesellars]

Yeah, abysmal transparency here as well.  Clear at least (as in no clouds), but the sky just kind of looks dirty/polluted.  Hopefully, it'll clear up later...

[John]

I've been out with my 11x70 binoculars and had quite nice views of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas. I could see the tail extending for around 3 degrees. Looked better tonight than it did a couple of nights back.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 19:19 by John

[ED Splitter]

Clear night here to begin with before a haze came in. Picked the comet up in binoculars, looked ok but more in an averted vision sort of way. 
Thought I would struggle with scope, finder wasn’t much use but found it straight away with the main eyepiece. Used a 26nagler to begin with, view was washed out a little with light pollution mostly from the racecourse ground, Wrexham are home. Switched to a baader contrast filter which improved the core. Wife and kids got to see comet in their pjs which was a nice moment. I then tried a 31 nagler which massively improved the view, the extent of the tale became much more apparent, I did try the contrast filter again but it clipped the brightness too much. A positive night. Comet is noticeably dimming, would be good to get a burst from it as it heads out, we can only dream. 

[scotty1]

Found the Comet A3 again with binoculars. Moon hadn't risen , but as others have said very humid and poor visibility. The Starlink train was hard to see this evening.

Early hours this morning Tuesday I had a look again for Orionids, starting at 04.30-05.15 I saw two Orionids, one heading east, later another travelling west. Jupiter looking yellow as it rose in the east. 

 

 

[woldsman]

Not bad tonight in the Cotswolds 7-8pm although seeing imperfect.  New location just outside Milton under Wychwood. As usual, the away from home equipment comprises a pair of Kenko VC Smart IS 14x30 binos. After focusing on M45, found C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinan-Atlas) in Ophichus. Bright core and enormous tail - strong definition.  The surrounding area generally excellent: M11, M27, coat hanger cluster, M39  all enjoyable. The great square of Pegasus wonderfully positioned - M15 distinct even in the small binos. Picked off M31, M34 & the Perseus double cluster. M33 a fail. The region of the Plough had the poorest seeing.  Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus all available - the latter not too hard to find after checking position with an app. Finally the overhead Milky Way impressive naked eye as is so often the case in this part of the world. Ended the session again envious of those with observatories in this part of the UK. 

Edited Tuesday at 22:22 by woldsman

[Whistlin Bob]

Started the night with great seeing but poor transparency, but this improved as the night went on, and it turned into a wonderful night. Lots of targets, but three highlights stand out:

Saturn gave one of the best views I've ever had- so crisp and sharp, with detail on the disk.

My first view of Jupiter this season- it was low over the rooftops, so slightly marred by red/blue separation, but still good enough to give up lots of detail in the Equatorial belts. 

M33. I looked at this right at the end when transparency was best. At 50x in 14" dob I could see the outline quite clearly, and also got a lovely view at 200x of ngc604 blinking in and out of view like a planetary nebula. 

I also reacquainted myself with Almach. Blue & white gold- so vivid!!!

[Ags]

Had a few seconds looking at the Moon. 

[Littleguy80]

Early evening I enjoyed more views of the comet in the 10x50 bins and then the 100mm Tak. Really loving seeing a comet with a brilliant bright tail. Admittedly less so now but still fab. Followed that up with great views of Jupiter and Saturn just after midnight with the air cool and still. Love this time of night when it’s still mild and the skies are clear

[AlcorAlly]

A calm and quiet night here in Cambridge. Spent an hour on Jupiter, sketching and trying to glimpse details in moments of good seeing. Unusually shaped clouds floated by under the moonlight.

 

[SwiMatt]

I woke up earlier than I needed to today, it was cloudy but with lots of visible sky and Jupiter showing well, no twinkle at all. By the time I set up on the balcony it had clouded over. I took a shower and got my day started, 30 minutes later it was still clouded over. I decided to take out the dog and the sky opened up offering me the best naked eye view, with the Moon in Gemini, Mars transforming the twins in triplets, Jupiter not far away. I am going to work now, and OF COURSE the Moon is shining now. 

[Stu1smartcookie]

My first clear night in Southern Russia .. alas with no optics apart from my eyes … but to see stars was a welcoming site … scheduled to be clear here for the next couple of nights so I will try to get to a darker site ( plenty around here… this place is huge ) . I didn’t get to see the comet , but loved all of those photos I’ve seen on here. 
 

Edited Wednesday at 05:54 by Stu1smartcookie

[josefk]

In a fairly grotty night in Sth Lincs last night with the 185mm cassegrain i didn't see: NGC 7335 my target next to NGC 7331 and i didn't see NGC 7317 through 20 (Stephan's Quintet). I also didn't see my Herschel October target galaxies NGC 891, 7448 and 7479. I did detect an extremely marginal NGC 772.

I had resolved Pi Aquila in the 85mm refractor the other night (surprisingly well for what was a wobbly night then too) but last night i didn't even detect it as a double star.

Shrugging and turning to Jupiter i didn't see any meaningful or steady detail so didn't get the pencils out for him. Second session in a row where the seeing was prohibitive to even trying a real observation.

Turning to the moon in "end of session resignation" i did see it was at the bottom of a swimming pool AND for good measure the secondary on my CC HAD dewed up!

I need some "grot proof" target lists and a breezier drier site! 😂

[seven_legs]

Managed to see Venus in the twilight though my bedroom window.

First time seeing the comet atlas with 10x50 bins. Transparency was not great 7pm, but still impressive. Hoping to get a view through my 6" F5.9 refractor asap if the neighbours house is not in the way.

And finally saw the starlink for the first time which was interesting, but me think in 10 to 20 years the night sky going to be so full of that stuff.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:10 by seven_legs

[lunator]

Got out last night and tonight to see the comet. There has been some high cloud on both nights but the comet does seem to be fading slightly. 

Took a quick photo using my now ancient Nikon D3100 and also helped my Stepson get a pic on his much newer canon camera. 

Had a quick check on T Crb and took a photo of Crb. Still nothing.... 😀

Cheers

Ian

[Saganite]

The seeing is good tonight, but transparency not , however,Saturn is superb and steady at 267x in the Vixen ED115S......what a scope !!.................

[John]

Just a quick look at the comet again with the 11x70's for me tonight. Not as nice as last night but a little higher in the sky.

 

[Saganite]

The transparency has improved somewhat. Both Albireo and Almach giving perfect diffraction patterns at 333x, very steady indeed, Pickering  7-8 for sure.

If my neighbour turns off her garden searchlight I might stay out for a long session.

Jupiter and moons are looking very good already , 190x, even though it is low over a house roof.  Should be very good later.

Edited Wednesday at 21:28 by Saganite

[Ags]

I see no clouds. I am on leave. The forecast is 0% cloud till dawn. Gonna pull an all-nighter!

trying some spectroscopy with my color camera. It may not be mono, but it is pretty.

[scotty1]

Quite a mucky sky with cirrus, and haze. 

Tried a few more photos of the comet, saw starlink again, and on my photos there are some blue streaks. I read somewhere about a satellite that appears blue. 

Next favourable weather might be early November. Obviously now it's daylight the sky is free of clouds. 

Just seen the Moon Phase game on Google's search.

Got to level 5 so far.

Edited yesterday at 11:42 by scotty1

[SuburbanMak]

Dodged the clouds for a play with the AstroShader iPhone app through the Tak FS60Q & a Baader Hyperion 24mm.  Lots of fun and easy to use - here’s a first effort on M42 (iPhone 13, 128 x 7s subs at ISO 2000, ineptly processed with the phone’s controls). 

 

[PeterStudz]

1 hour ago, SuburbanMak said:

Dodged the clouds for a play with the AstroShader iPhone app through the Tak FS60Q & a Baader Hyperion 24mm.  Lots of fun and easy to use - here’s a first effort on M42 (iPhone 13, 128 x 7s subs at ISO 2000, ineptly processed with the phone’s controls). 

 

Yes, I’ve been using it for 18 months now. It’s great! Some of the results in the mobile imaging section of this site.

[Johnny81]

With my 127mm Mak back from repairs I spent 3.5 hours outside last night. The biggest battle was poor transparency but the seeing looked pretty good to my eyes. Lots of doubles in Draco and Pisces (very murky). Alpha Psc is quite interesting, not quite split but elongated, almost as if half of the star is detaching itself (difficult to describe) but again, the sky quality and light pollution were so poor. DL Dra and STF138 were the highlights. 

Up at 6am this morning so a quick naked eye look around from the garden and the sky looked really nice. Half Moon, Jupiter and Mars on show.

[RobertI]

Walking to the station while still dark this morning, beautiful clear sky with Castor, Pollux, Mars and Luna making a pretty quartet high in the sky. Jupiter not too far away to the west.  
 

[Mr Spock]

Repost from the other night using Facebook. Hopefully, even with Facebook's compression, it's a better image.

I quite pleased with it despite me not being an imager - I have no processing skills really.

Edit: Processing details etc. Taken with a Nikon D500 through a Takahashi FC100. Exposure 8s @ ISO 3200. Processed in DxO Photolab 7.
EQ5 was very badly adjusted for polar alignment - since sorted but too late for this one.

[Nyctimene]

Just came in from the third session with my newest member of the Dob family - an Orion 4 12" f/4 StarBlast, that I bought used for 120€ from ebay. Arrived Tuesday in excellent condition, almost new and rarely used. Was very impressed by the "snap" focus it delivers, and started immediately with the double Pi Aquilae (1.4"), that could be split with a clear dark gap at the magnification of 337x (Svbony Zoom 3 mmf + Baader Turret Barlow 2.25x) in moments of good seeing (which was good anyway this evening). M 31 showed itself magnificent in the 3.56° field of the 26/62° ES LER, along with both companions 32 and 110. M 33 remained dim, without inner structure, but I was able to make out repeatedly the H II region NGC 604 as a fleeting spot with AV (an 11 mag star TYC 2293..... just SE came in the way). No trace of gx 891 and 404. M 34; M 45; Gamma And showed it's beautiful colour contrast. Saturn, with Titan and 10.1 mag Rhea, showed some banding on it's disc, and even the Cassini division could be glimpsed several times in the ansae. Repeated some of the observations yesterday with similar results, all under sub-average skies with NELM of 4.8 mag. Very pleased with the newcomer, which will service as another grab-and-go,or outreach scope (replaces on the sturdy mount a very mediocre 4 12" spherical mirror Newton).

Tested this evening my pupil diameters with the "drill bit method", and assessed a width of 6 mm for both eyes - quite good at age of 72.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Edited yesterday at 20:31 by Nyctimene
Picture added