What did you see tonight?

[PeterStudz]

15 hours ago, Stu said:

Crazy how the seeing can be so different even not that far away. Perhaps because I’m looking over the town it is worse here, not sure. Might need to head south of Crewkerne for some better views.

I was observing last night from my garden in Southampton. Transparency was good but seeing poor. Low magnification on the moon was good but up the power and there was a wobble that spoilt the view.

I also wanted to do a star test and I could really notice it there - virtually impossible to do. It improved slightly later on but it was like watching an episode of Roobarb and Custard (showing my age there!).

[jock1958]

8 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Hi Iain,

Thanks for that..I should have mentioned, I used a moon filter too, and that definitely helped!

Oh, and its upper right through your Tak if you're using a normal diagonal or prism...image is right way up but East and West are reversed..😉

Good luck!!

Dave

Thanks Dave, I’ve probably compounded my own problems by looking in the wrong place thanks for putting me right 👍
Will try my moon filter as well!

Edited February 11, 2022 by jock1958

[Ags]

I did a microsession with my C6, using a 20mm eyepiece throughout.  First up was the moon, it was painfully bright so I tried a deep red Wratten 29 filter as an experiment and it certainly helped although it was a bit too dark. I really should buy a neutral moon filter.

Orion next, first unfiltered, then with a UHC filter and back to unfiltered because the UHC did not improve things at all. Then Castor, which was a lovely sight. I tried to split Sirius using the UHC to dim it a bit, but no luck. Mizar and Polaris too. Mizar is always wonderful.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Ags

[Stu]

On 11/02/2022 at 10:37, Zermelo said:

Yes, that is a bit odd.

Of course, it could be down to my having many fewer observing years!

To be a bit more descriptive, what I was seeing were mostly stars having clear discs and an unbroken first diffraction ring, even some of the fainter ones (e.g. three out of the four in Sigma Orionis). I map that onto Pickering 8 or 9. But what I did sometimes see last night was a kind of "wobble" superimposed onto the view. I didn't interpret this as a seeing artefact because the star discs and diffraction rings didn't alter intrinsically, they just moved about a bit. On other nights, when I've had bad seeing the discs and arcs themselves have been unstable (or invisible, in really bad cases) and the motion has been much faster. I could deal with the "wobble" last night because is wasn't so fast that I couldn't follow the star with my eye and still see faint companions. When I've seen this effect in the past, I've put it down either to a bit of a breeze becoming noticeable at high magnifications, or else some imperfection in the mount's tracking (it's not an expensive one). But I suppose it could be atmospheric, perhaps a larger-scale cell movement.

As for the effects of houses, I certainly do notice that at times, with targets that are just above rooftops. Some of the objects last night were away from my closest neighbours, but I think your southern view is probably better than mine for that.

I did look at Metcheck before I went out and it was quite optimistic, despite a strong jetstream:

 

 

No, I’m sure you are right and that our conditions were different for whatever reason. I was getting nothing like you are describing, stars were a bit of a mess so clearly something different was happening. Maybe I’m just in a poor seeing area which would be annoying, I do know conditions can vary quite a lot even over short distances.

[Kon]

On 11/02/2022 at 22:15, Ags said:

. I really should buy a neutral moon filter.

You may want to look into a variable polarising one.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/moon-neutral-density-filters/astro-essentials-variable-polarising-moon-filter.html

[Mr Spock]

No chance here due to frequent showers. Watched a documentary about Nessie instead 😜

Seeing can be very variable, even over short distances. A while ago everyone was having a good night while here I had visible waves of blurryness moving across from west to east. But on another night it was steady as a rock.

[Zermelo]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

No, I’m sure you are right and that our conditions were different for whatever reason. I was getting nothing like you are describing, stars were a bit of a mess so clearly something different was happening. Maybe I’m just in a poor seeing area which would be annoying, I do know conditions can vary quite a lot even over short distances.

I don't think you're cursed.

There was a night a few weeks back when my seeing had been very poor, I gave up and when I got back inside I saw you'd had a great session.

[Stu]

8 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

I don't think you're cursed.

There was a night a few weeks back when my seeing had been very poor, I gave up and when I got back inside I saw you'd had a great session.

Fingers crossed! I have had some good sessions here so hopefully you are right 🤞👍

[jjohnson3803]

A very quick look at open cluster M41 with my new 100mm ED.  Can't fairly call it first light as I was looking through my living room window - it was well below 0*C and I wasn't inclined to go out since clouds were rolling in anyway.

[cajen2]

Cloud off and on tonight but during the clear spells, I looked at my go-to constellation, Orion.  Saw some doubles / multiples which I've seen before but then dodged the clouds for two new ones: Meissa (relatively easy) and ETA O (quite difficult).  Also picked out all four stars in Sigma O.

So that's 12 multiple systems in Orion alone in my notebook! I have great difficulty star hopping with my dob - only an RDF for finding which seems to cover half the FOV even at its lowest setting. Roll on the new scope with a RACI and Rigel! 😛

[SuburbanMak]

Lovely impromptu hour or so out there. Mostly to verify that flocking the Mak 127 hadn’t messed with collimation (it hadn’t), that the dust that made me take the front off in the first place had gone (it had) and determine if flocking made any difference (it does). 
 

Seeing fairly steady & transparency good outside of the odd cloud band, even those looked beautiful in the moonlight. 
 

Sometimes nice just to meander from target to target, without the “pressure” of the hunt for a dim galaxy or two.  
 

Enjoyed M42, the trap’ (5 / hint of 6 stars at 140x), Orion easy doubles and NGC clusters generally, Auriga Messiers (starfish looking particularly good despite the moonlight), Alpha Persei cluster in the 9x50 finder, and the highlights - the Double Cluster, looking superb despite being unfavourably positioned for local LP and the Pleiades, certain I could see the swathe of nebulosity in AV with the 24mm Baader Hyperion & Neodymium filter. 
 

Moon looked crisp too - although didn’t take the time to identify features but crisp valleys, craterlets & central mounds in abundance! 
 

Verdict on flocking the focus tube, collector baffle & main tube - a discernible improvement in contrast & decrease in scatter, well worth the effort. 

Edited February 14, 2022 by SuburbanMak

[cajen2]

Addendum to my post: while I was viewing the Trapezium, something flashed across the FOV (I was viewing at 150x on an AFOV of 70°).

At first, I thought it was a meteor but seemed too regular, so I suppose it was a satellite, but it was certainly shifting! It took less than half a second.

[Geoff Barnes]

10 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

Addendum to my post: while I was viewing the Trapezium, something flashed across the FOV (I was viewing at 150x on an AFOV of 70°).

At first, I thought it was a meteor but seemed too regular, so I suppose it was a satellite, but it was certainly shifting! It took less than half a second.

I find I see more satellites tracking through Orion than any other part of the sky, I don't think I've ever had a night when I didn't see at least one and usually several flash past the eyepiece.

[cajen2]

2 minutes ago, Geoff Barnes said:

I find I see more satellites tracking through Orion than any other part of the sky, I don't think I've ever had a night when I didn't see at least one and usually several flash past the eyepiece.

Hmmm, wonder why? I suppose it's just that at this time of year, Orion must be the most viewed constellation.

[Whistlin Bob]

A long day into London and back, watching my inbox swell with dumb emails whilst I dealt with meetings and other nonsense, then getting harassed by tramps around New Street station where I was changing trains on the way home did not leave me in a good mood.

Then a surprise session with the moon gleaming through a milky sky, and the 8" dob wound up to 300x with a 4mm nirvana ep. I really don't know the moon very well at this age. There were several highlights- Bailly looked great arcing round the terminator. There was a glinting peak near Hedin towering out of the darkness at its base. A crater called Riccioli with a deep canyon that broke through its walls.

And me- sat happy and relaxed in the dark and quiet and remembering exactly why I do this.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Whistlin Bob

[Stu]

I wasn’t expecting clear skies tonight, so was surprised to see Orion looking so good when I let the dog out at around 11pm. The seeing looked pretty stable from the lack of twinkling, but given that I want to enjoy a long and pain free life, I decided not to suggest to the lovely, and ever patient Mrs Stu that I observe on Valentine’s night. I’m brave, but not foolhardy! 🤣🤣

[Zermelo]

36 minutes ago, Stu said:

I wasn’t expecting clear skies tonight, so was surprised to see Orion looking so good when I let the dog out at around 11pm. The seeing looked pretty stable from the lack of twinkling, but given that I want to enjoy a long and pain free life, I decided not to suggest to the lovely, and ever patient Mrs Stu that I observe on Valentine’s night. I’m brave, but not foolhardy! 🤣🤣

Well I cooked a valentine meal quite early on and bought an observing session with the resulting brownie points. To be fair, Mrs. Z joined me for an hour, and conceded that looking at stars was not entirely out of keeping with the spirit of the day.

CO and the BBC were forecasting clear, Meteoblue and Metcheck were not, and apart from a few, low, fast moving clouds, it was pretty good. Obviously with the big, bright thing in the way, I was double hunting with the Mak again.

The seeing was quite variable through the evening, I'd say ranging from Pickering 5 to 8. There was a breeze for the first couple of hours that was buffeting even the short Mak, but it settled down and so did the views, especially away from rooftops.

It wasn't quite as good as the last time I was out, but I got down as far as 1.2" (HR1902), and split a fair few new ones, including Propus in Gemini. HR1669 in Auriga, HD36646 in Orion and Pi & Epsilon Arietis.

[Kon]

I did a quick moon session last night. Seeing was not very stable despite the clear skies. I spent some time observing Grimaldi/Hevelius and Wargentin/Schickard craters. I was intrigued by the Wargentin and Phocylides craters with their apparent flatness and the way they are next to each other.

[badhex]

Managed to get out for three hours on Saturday for the first clear skies in ages. 

First time seeing component E in the trapezium which was pleasing, as well as Sigma Ori, Struve 761 and Delta Ori. Zeta Ori eluded me, but I'll be back for more before it disappears. 

I also managed an astonishingly crisp 400x on the moon with my TS 102ED F7! 

Rather than clog up this thread with a lengthy report, it's here if anyone wants to read, along with a phone snap of the moon:

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by badhex

[Nik271]

The Moon with 127 SW Mak. I installed flocking on the primary baffle and despite the wind and clouds managed to get some views last evening to test. Happy to say the flocking certainly helps with full Moon. The baffle does have ridges but they are dull grey and still reflect strong light when the Moon is just outside the field. The velvet flocking paper completely removed any stray light 🙂

As a bonus I saw Humboldt (the crater). It's quite a large crater on the eastern limb with a central mountain which was showing reasonably well in the Mak despite the atrocious seeing.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Nik271

[SuburbanMak]

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

The Moon with 127 SW Mak. I installed flocking on the primary baffle and despite the wind and clouds managed to get some views last evening to test. Happy to say the flocking certainly helps with full Moon. The baffle does have ridges but they are dull grey and still reflect strong light when the Moon is just outside the field. The velvet flocking paper completely removed any stray light 🙂

As a bonus I saw Humboldt (the crater). It's quite a large crater on the eastern limb with a central mountain which was showing reasonably well in the Mak despite the atrocious seeing.

Excellent stuff - sky looked very clear last night between scudding clouds but family stuff prevented me sneaking a peek. Glad some got to take the opportunity. 
Flocking the Mak does make a subtle but pleasing difference in my view - well worth the easy but slightly fiddly effort for any owner I’d say. 

[Nik271]

I was surprised that flocking made such a noticeable difference, since Maks are considered to be well baffled to start with. Just shows there is no scope that does not need extra improvement 🙂

Edited February 17, 2022 by Nik271

[Mr Spock]

The sky is clear tonight!

Sadly, the patio is still flooded. So, can't put the dob out 😭

[SuburbanMak]

Friday night - post storm it was still breezy but great transparency here.  Went out with ST80 & Mak 127 to try some eyepiece swaps. I bought the 31mm Hyperion Aspehric for use in the ST80 (2inch focus converted)  and it does give a huge field - but there is quite a bit of astigmatism.

In the Mak however this EP is great & sharp to the edge. 

Meanwhile the Hyperion 24mm 68 degree in 2inch mode gives a much flatter field in the ST80 and a lovely sharp 4 degree field. 
 

Enjoyed testing all this out on the Beehive, Pleiades, Alpha Perseus cluster, Double Cluster and M3 + crisp whole disc moon views. 

 

[F15Rules]

On 14/02/2022 at 23:24, Whistlin Bob said:

A long day into London and back, watching my inbox swell with dumb emails whilst I dealt with meetings and other nonsense, then getting harassed by tramps around New Street station where I was changing trains on the way home did not leave me in a good mood.

I used to share this view in the last year of my working life..travelling by train and tube to London Moorgate HQ from Lincolnshire, to have a meeting with a 26 year old post graduate who spoke to me as though I was 6 (I was actually 62 then and a Sales Director in my previous role), convinced me that it was time to get off the work rollercoaster and put my metaphorical feet up..👍

Dave