What did you see tonight?

[Guest]

On 18/03/2022 at 17:13, LaurenceT said:

Thought I'd do a little lunar photography with my 130pds and Altair planetary camera but walked outside to see it tangled up in the neighbours trees (the moon  I mean 😀).

Turned my back to the moon to find the Pleides and discovered what people mean by the full moon washing out the sky!

Luckily I'd earlier seen M42 with the Startravel 102t that arrived today, lovely sight and as an utter newbie I'm pleased with the optics.

Now watching Ben Fogle in Chernobyl with a glass of Scotlands finest.

Which finest?  They have so many good choices lol

[LaurenceT]

6 hours ago, Mike Q said:

Which finest?  They have so many good choices lol

The finest I can afford which usually turns out to be the cheapest single malt special offers at my local Waitrose!

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

The finest I can afford which usually turns out to be the cheapest single malt special offers at my local Waitrose!

I have a bottle of Macallan 18 Fine Oak on the bar at home right now.  It is definitely NOT my daily drinker.  More of a Balvenie fan myself

[jjohnson3803]

Clouds and snow.  ☹️  Hopefully things will change soon.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, jjohnson3803 said:

Clouds and snow.  ☹️  Hopefully things will change soon.

You must be in Ohio

[Paul Bulbeck]

I'm just starting out but tonight I got orion nebula with my phone on my binoculars 

[Stu]

Typically tonight is the best sky I’ve seen for quite a while, looking very transparent after the rain today. Even with only a few minutes dark adaptation I was seeing mag 5 stars, and the SQM was showing around mag 20.5.

I say typically because I’ve had a busy few days over Easter and five hours in the car today dropping my parents home, so am too tired to get a scope out.

I just had a quick scan around and picked up M44 and Melotte 111 with the naked eye quite easily. I saw a couple of bright, almost flaring satellites and two meteors, one fast, the other fairly slow. Both just white, single tracks.

Nice just to get a quick fix before bed.

 

[Mr Spock]

What do you see?

Nothing but the clouds....

[Pixies]

Going out for a quick session as the sky is clearing. Perhaps a bit of high haze, but I'll just be going for some doubles.

 

[SuburbanMak]

More doubles in Cancer, Bootes & Coma B. tonight with the old Clarkson 3” - such fun to pair this old brass thing with a modern computerised mount and put it through its paces. 

[Captain Scarlet]

Tonight satisfying and frustrating at the same time. Satisfying because it was a lovely clear night with the Moon not due up until 0055.

Satisfying because seeing was the best I think I've ever experienced (star-testing Polaris showed crisp perfectly stable rings both sides of focus at max mag for the scope I had: 217x with 0.48mm EP). Satisfying because it was the second darkest night I have ever measured here, in 5 years. 21.97 on my SQM-L. It was fascinating to see it get darker as countryside lights went out, and then get "brighter" as Luna started to approach Moonrise. Satisfying because the transparency was superb: the MacGillicuddy Reeks 60km distant were very sharply defined before sunset, always a good indicator. Some supposedly clear evenings you can't see them at all.

Frustrating because, lovely session though it was, I HAD THE WRONG SCOPE OUT! I'd put out my 105mm LZOS for a very short wide-field session as I had early errands next day. It turned into a longer session, damn the early start, I wasn't going to miss skies like this even with the wrong scope. I dearly wish I'd got my 12" out.

The whole session worthy of a separate report over the next day or so I think, but I had far and away the cleanest best view of Epsilon Lyrae, the Double Double, I've ever had bar none. By no means the most difficult target I know, but still a good indicator.

Cheers, Magnus

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Captain Scarlet
typos

[F15Rules]

Wow!! 21.97 sqm??

I'm betting you're in West Cork at the moment then...not Middlesex!!😂😂

Amazing sky that must have been👍..

Dave

[HarryLP]

Out again last night 2215 to 0015 BST (twice in a fortnight), things are definitely improving and according to ClearSkies tonight also looks good.

Went back to M3 for my second viewing and I could see so much more detail and many more stars than my first night. Impressive with my TMB 8mm, so swapped for the TMB 5mm. The seeing held firm. Whilst grey shades and stars twinkling in and out of my eyes I could fully grasp the globular structure with a denser centre and ghosting out much further than before.

Spent a lot of time sweeping for both M5 and M13 with no success, maybe I should try with binoculars first?

A first sighting and splitting of the double double in Lyrae  this year, although it took the TMB 5mm to get a clean split in the southern pair with an intermittent split in the northern pair. All four stars on the fuzzy side.

Polaris also split.

Neck aching from trying to look up at the zenith.

Harry

[Captain Scarlet]

12 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Wow!! 21.97 sqm??

I'm betting you're in West Cork at the moment then...not Middlesex!!😂😂

Amazing sky that must have been👍..

Dave

West Cork yes indeed! Setting up only the refractor on the ayo just outside the house took ages because I would stop and stand and gawp between trips.

Magnus

Edited April 20, 2022 by Captain Scarlet

[IB20]

19 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

 

 

Thought your clock was broken for a second…

[LaurenceT]

I arose like Lazarus from my covid sick bed 😅 at 0515, went downstairs to make a cup of tea and was greeted by a beautiful clear moon in the dawn sky. The el cheapo Startravel 102t was already on the AZ5 with the Baader zoom in place so within 30 seconds I was in the garden. It was beautiful and raised my spirits no end. Even better with the barlow in place. The colour fringing was almost non-existent, possibly because the scope may be a good copy in that respect but also due to the Neodymium filter in place.

Back to bed happier.......

[F15Rules]

A timely "pick me up"!

Get well soon😊👍

Dave

[wookie1965]

Supposed to be clear here tonight but somehow I have torn my groin I can hardly walk need a stick just in the house, painful is a understatement getting up and downstairs is a nightmare.  Just my luck I am sure I have been cursed or put a hex on.😀

[Stu1smartcookie]

3 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

I arose like Lazarus from my covid sick bed 😅 at 0515, went downstairs to make a cup of tea and was greeted by a beautiful clear moon in the dawn sky. The el cheapo Startravel 102t was already on the AZ5 with the Baader zoom in place so within 30 seconds I was in the garden. It was beautiful and raised my spirits no end. Even better with the barlow in place. The colour fringing was almost non-existent, possibly because the scope may be a good copy in that respect but also due to the Neodymium filter in place.

Back to bed happier.......

Nice One , Laurence ... i was on my usual morning walk and the moon looked wonderful . Last night for me , however , was spoilt by a thin blanket of grey cloud that persisted all evening zzzz, but , hopefully tonight i will be out . The ST102 is a much underated scope , Which displays little CA when using sensibly powered EP's

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Stu1smartcookie

[HarryLP]

Out again last night, two nights in a row, cannot remember the last time this happened. Has done some prep for this session.

Started of with M3 again just to get comfortable that I could locate it (practice makes perfect and all that). Then moved on to try again for M13 this time using an imaginary line between Vega and the mid star Alphecca in Corona Borealis.  After a few attempts using the SW 25mm planetary wide I found it, just the familiar faint smudge which tells me something is there.

Swapped up to the TMB 8, then the 5 and finally the 4 revealing more and more detail with each increase in mag. As it moved across my fov it reminded me of the shadow vessel from Babylon 5.

Tried again for M5. Eventually after many attempts with going back and forth to M13 and M5 I finally got it. I think on previous attempts I was too early in the evening and not low enough down. Time will tell.

 

[Kon]

I just finished observing Mercury for the first time through my telescope! Awful seeing but so satisfying to bag it. Between the disco ball colours and wind, i managed to make some of its phase, looked like 3/4 full, give or take with the seeing. I have now managed to see all planets in our solar system! Super excited. I managed some imaging so i will see if can pull anything out of them.

[Captain Scarlet]

1 hour ago, Kon said:

I just finished observing Mercury for the first time through my telescope! Awful seeing but so satisfying to bag it. Between the disco ball colours and wind, i managed to make some of its phase, looked like 3/4 full, give or take with the seeing. I have now managed to see all planets in our solar system! Super excited. I managed some imaging so i will see if can pull anything out of them.

Mercury! Thanks for the reminder. It's higher now for us at 51 degrees N than it has been for some time, until end April.

M

[Astro_Dad]

Just managed my first glob of 2022. A favourite class of target for me - was able to briefly view M3 this evening taking advantage of the “fair” conditions. The Heritage 150 Dob proved its worth again - the highest aperture to ease of deployment ratio of any ‘scope I’ve owned - enabled a relatively straight forward find of M3 in Canes Venatici roughly equidistant between Cor Caroli and Arcturus. Was hoping to delve deeper than the 25mm Plossl allowed to see what I could resolve on a less than perfect night, but the clouds predictably rolled in by the time I’d switched to the 15mm Starguider! Sometimes the odd 20 minute session or so has to suffice…

[SuburbanMak]

Out with the 10” Dob tonight to road test new sack trolley, works superbly. Also proved collimation held well after a trip in the car & practised adjusting in the field. 
Sky was dark and reasonably transparent, good overhead.  And then I realised I’d not transferred the finders from the Mak’s backpack! 

After a bit of swearing and rolling around sighting along the tube I managed a great view of M13 which was standing Mag up to 156x, the 8mm end of the Baader zoom which was the most I had with me tonight. Many stars resolved and wispy tendrils spiralling outward. Long look.
 Had a go at finding a few other things without much joy, there’s a lot of space out there without finders. 
Managed a lovely view of M94 however, really bright core and good extent of surrounding nebulosity. 
Decided to chalk it up as a practice session & retired for a sensible amount of sleep… 

[Zermelo]

The hopeful forecasts proved accurate here, in fact it was clear at dusk. With no moon about, I put out the 6" reflector for a smorgasbord of a list. It didn't look great to start with, the twilight doubles affected by quite a bit of jumpiness, and I started to doubt the collimation. At around 11 it started to settle, but then a minor hurricane blew up, and the tube was being buffeted around so much that I almost gave up and went in.

I decided to sit it out, fortunately as it happens, because it disappeared as soon as it had arrived, and it turned into one of the better nights I've had. The seeing improved and I managed mag 5 with the naked eye (probably nearer 6 for younger eyes). New doubles included STF1639 and STF1633 in Coma Berenices and STF1520 in UMa, and big globs M3 and M13 were better resolved this evening than I've seen before. I spent most time on galaxies, which I think were also showing better than previously, possibly because I managed my dark adaptation better. M81 was bright, and I saw some light/dark differentiation in M82 for the first time. M101 was just a faint blob, but M51 was hinting at arms around the very obvious core, and for the first time I could detect two or three sharp, bright spots in the disc. I also managed first-time viewings of NGC 2841 and NGC 3077 in UMa, both at the limits of my vision, but the former showing a distinct core.

Finished at 01.30, happy not to have been put off by the wind!