What did you see tonight?

[Epick Crom]

5 hours 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.

Well done bagging Mercury Kostas! There is something so mysterious observing elusive Mercury, knowing it's surface is baking in the intense solar heat. Wishing you clear skies.

[Mr Spock]

The sky is a lovely dark blue at the moment. That indicates great transparency. I'll be getting the 102 out later for a double session. Exciting!

[Mr Spock]

Just gone outside and... it's 100% cloudy 😭

[rojay]

I had to work late yesterday, so missed some prime clear time.  When I finally got outside, I thought the sky was unusually dark, but then realised it was just that I'd been staring at a bright screen for too long! Having set up the dob in my usual spot in the garden, I looked up to see what was around. Gemini was well placed, so I started with Castor, nicely split with the 15mm Starguider, then down to M35.  Having just upgraded to Sky Safari Plus, I tried the field of view functions to point in exactly the right place to have a chance of spotting NGC2158. And, well, I think I saw it... Averted vision and tube tapping and I I could just make out a faint speckling of stars.
Flushed with this success, I swung over to Leo to try M65/66. Given that I could barely see Theta Leonis with the naked eye through all the LP, I wasn't expecting much but I believe I saw one of them as an indistinct patch slightly brighter than the background. 
Then time for some easier objects: a quick look at Gamma Leo: an easy split, not as symmetrical as Castor, then over to the Cancer and a nice time panning around the Beehive. Overall, a good little session, even if it was more like "what did you think you saw?" 🙂
 

[Stardaze]

Tonight didn’t seem as dark as last night. The wind was a little too strong too but I enjoyed 90 minutes of observing a few easy galaxies. Haven’t been out for around 3 weeks so a relaxed short session was  very welcomed.

[tombardier]

It's been very nice to have two whole nights of good seeing and transparency!  On Thursday night, I decided to try out my fairly new to me Altair Starwave 102 f/11 (shortened for binoviewing).  I was looking at open clusters like m36, m37, m38, and m44, as well as globular clusters m3, and m13, and galaxies m81/m82.  I decided to have a go at some double star splitting too, which I've never done before.  I just went through the "Tour" section in the synscan handset on my AZ-EQ6 GT.  The stars all resolved very nicely, and were as still as I've ever seen them, I think.  I was just finding things at 35x, and then switching to 160x magnification, and managed to split everything very successfully.

I really love the refractor.  It's got a really nice construction, it gives me perfect pin-point stars, and nice contrast.  I mainly love it on the moon.  m3 and m13 just never quite resolved enough through it for my liking though.

Because thsoe globulars weren't resolving as well as I knew they would with my 10" f/4.7 reflector, that's what I used last night.  I spent a lot of time of m3 and m13.  Both very nice, but I can't wait for m13 to get higher.  I also spent a good amount of time on M51, and M81/M82, as well as doing a tour of a bunch of other DSOs using the "Tour" list on the handset again.

All in all, I had two very successful nights of viewing!

 

[mikeDnight]

It was very windy for most of the day yesterday, but as it got late the wind died down and the sky looked quite transparent.  Normally my observing site is steady but misty, so it was a treat to see the milkyway easily. So I decided to go out with sketch pad in hand and not come back in again until I had made at least one drawing. 

I'm not really that adventurous when it comes to deep sky, so I decided to look at a few lollipops, lollipops being easy dso's that are guaranteed to please. My weapon tonight was my 6" F10 refractor, and so after rolling back the roof of my observatory, I aimed the scope at lollipop number 1 which was the glorious M13. Using a 35mm Panoptic M13 appeared as a bright ball of individual stars tightly packed together and set among a starry background. There's something very satisfying about such low power views, low power in the case of the 6" being 43X, with a 2° field. Changing the 35mm Panoptic for a 17.5mm Morpheus revealed M13 as an explosion of stars with star littered tendrils extending from its tightly packed core and reaching outwards in an almost loose spiral fashion. Moving to a 9mm Morpheus and M13 was shown to have meaningful depth, almost 3D as it filled the field of view.

My next stop was in Canes Venatici and M94, another mouthwatering lollipop. M94 is a face on spiral galaxy with a bright core that easily catches the attention when it comes into the field. It's also very easy to find as its so close to the star Cor Caroli.  At first glance M94 looks like a misty disc of light with a bright core that appears a little like an out of focus star. I decided that this would be my sketch object for this evening, but to get more than just a general impression of a misty patch I'd need to spend time on this target. Again I changed from the 35mm Panoptic to the 17.5mm Morpheus so as to darken the sky background and improve contrast. Over time the initial circular haze of nebulosity revealed itself to be oval, and it hinted at being much wider spread than I drew in the accompanying sketch. Was this an illusion?  Also at times, there was a hint of a spiral arm as well as mottling, though I couldn't quite pin down the mottling. After again changing the eyepiece, this time for a 6.5mm Morpheus giving 231X and studying the galaxy using averted vision for quite some time, I noticed the core itself was mottled, but again pining such detail down to a specific point is virtually impossible with a 6". May be others with larger apertures and greater resolution would dare to have a go at catching this detail?

Below is my sketch of spiral galaxy Messier 94 using a 6" F10 refractor, magnification X231, Seeing ll Antoniadi, Transparency 3, (mirror diagonal view). You can zoom in on the core to see the impression the core gave in the eyepiece. 

 

[Franklin]

10 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Below is my sketch of spiral galaxy Messier 94 using a 6" F10 refractor, magnification X231, Seeing ll Antoniadi, Transparency 3, (mirror diagonal view). You can zoom in on the core to see the impression the core gave in the eyepiece. 

Your sketches are amazing, very skilled.

If there's ever a remake of The Messier Album, they should get you to do the artwork.

[Mr Spock]

This has to be some kind of sick joke.

Same as yesterday. Clear blue sky, so put the scope out to cool. Just gone outside and it's clouded over 😡😡😡

[mikeDnight]

2 hours ago, Franklin said:

Your sketches are amazing, very skilled.

If there's ever a remake of The Messier Album, they should get you to do the artwork.

You're very kind. Thanks! 

 

[Franklin]

24 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Clear blue sky, so put the scope out to cool. Just gone outside and it's clouded over 😡😡😡

Same here, clear all day and hazy cloud blowing in after sunset.

[Epick Crom]

10 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

This has to be some kind of sick joke.

Same as yesterday. Clear blue sky, so put the scope out to cool. Just gone outside and it's clouded over 😡😡😡

I feel your pain mate, I just HATE when that happens!

[Stu1smartcookie]

Just now, Epick Crom said:

I feel your pain mate, I just HATE when that happens!

Me too … how many times are we eagerly looking at the sky during the day , whilst at work only to find a cloud mass in the evening ! Fortunately tonight I will ( supposedly) have a clear sky . 

[Epick Crom]

47 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Me too … how many times are we eagerly looking at the sky during the day , whilst at work only to find a cloud mass in the evening ! Fortunately tonight I will ( supposedly) have a clear sky . 

I hope your clear skies transpire 🤞

[mikeDnight]

There's always the Sun, and Venus if youre brave enough, that can satisfy our astro lust during the day. ☀️  I found by marking my drawtube while the scope is focused at infinity using a low power eyepiece, I can easily find Venus in daylight when using the same eyepiece. It's safer when the planet is following the Sun, but as long as you remain aware you stand the risk of poaching your eyeball if the Sun drifts into the field, you should be safe. 

[Astro_Dad]

I commented just the other day that the ease of use of the Heritage 150p can sometimes mean the 10 inch Dob doesn’t get a fair look in - but then why would it given the recent cloudy conditions and the formers ability to be quickly deployed and taken back inside on a whim …. ? but Saturday looked promising so the Skywatcher Classic 250 was out early to cool ready for a late session.  Collimation needing a quick fine tune and Rigel Quickfinder abd AE finder needing alignment. I wish the Astro Essentials RACI finderscope had more controllable adjusting screws- alignment is easy enough but there is always insufficient “grip“  on my example, such that they slip and alignment is very easy to knock out by a simple touch of the finderscope. 
That all done though, I was able to follow up on Thursdays view of M3 but with greater detail - starting out with the 2” ES 28mm as I generally do with this ‘scope and following with experimentation with different magnifications using the Baader Zoom. I perhaps expected more, but found I could resolve a reasonable number of stars across the glob particularly using averted vision. Again a good example recognising and appreciating what you are seeing here, with perhaps 500,000 stars at least 8 billion years old in our galactic halo, some 34,000 light years away.  I also found M53, my first view of this one which was a good find though not as easy to discern detail. 
I’d intended to spend much of the evening on Markarian’s chain but really struggled here. I was scanning the area between Vindemiatrix and Denebola carefully, and even used the digital inclinometer to help with the alt but couldn’t seem to find the brightest targets M84, 86… following the details on starting from M90 I’d researched in TLaO earlier didn’t seem to help either - maybe I was getting tired or just couldn’t get my eye in - though I did find a couple of faint blobs that were likely candidates I couldn’t be sure.  Will try these again at the next opportunity. 
Aiming to finishing on a high I swung round to M81 and M82  - now easy finds for me and both provided a pleasing clear and bright view in the 28mm.  I pushed to try and see some structure in the Cigar but not this time.  
Finished at around 1.30 - would probably have started earlier had I not got zoned in to the Manic Street Preachers recent performance  in Cardiff being shown on BBC2! Nice to have some clear skies at the weekend again, let’s see what is possible during the upcoming bank hol!

 

 

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

So , last night I bagged Mercury ( I think ) it was low down , about 6 degrees up in the northwest. I couldn’t definitely make out a phase as the sky was still quite bright , maybe just over half ? If anyone else could confirm then I will be happy . 
I wasn’t too happy with the rest of my evening though as a light that would double as another sun ☀️ shines right into my garden and inconveniently washed out a lot of the sky . And , although I have previously images M81 & M82 I couldn’t even find them last night !!! Judging by Astro Dads success ( above post) I reckon he stole them for viewing all for himself 😂😂😂

[Ags]

Looking at Stellarium it looks like you got the phase right.

[Stu1smartcookie]

1 hour ago, Ags said:

Looking at Stellarium it looks like you got the phase right.

Yaaaay , 🙂 Thanks Ags 

I was more than surprised as i really do not have mush of a clear horizon , er, any direction . Brilliant to see the little planet though . 

[rojay]

Just a short session for me last night, starting with an attempt to see NGC 2403, which Sky Safari says is one of the best for small telescopes. No luck: I got to the right place, but couldn't pick it out. So back to more familiar territory, with another look at M81/82, which I found without problem using the inclinometer and az circle. A quick peek at Polaris and its faint companion, and time was up.

[cajen2]

Just had one of those nights. The surrounding street lights, 'security' lights and three houses adjoining where they leave bathroom lights on all night severely restrict what I can target but tonight I thought "I fancy some open clusters". So I turned the Heritage 150 to Castor, first, just to get warmed up. I was quite happy to split it (A and C) at only 60x mag using my new favourite EP, a Morpheus 12.5mil. Fired with success, I slewed to Auriga, hoping to catch M36, 37 and/or 38 - I haven't seen them before. I was just navigating between Theta Aurigae and Elnath when suddenly everything went dim. Yes, a huge cloud had appeared and covered Auriga. I waited patiently but more came over so I've come in for a warm. This is the second time this has happened on the same targets and I'm getting more than slightly peeved!

[Zermelo]

Just come in because there's some quite extensive mid-range cloud come over.

It was a poor start to the evening when I realized that I'd inadvertantly "upgraded" my version of Synscan with the one on Google Play (which is actually much older). Nothing would connect, so I had to retreat indoors to download, re-install and re-configure the latest version.

After that, I did get to see a few things. In Leo, M65/M66/Hamburger/M95/M96/NGC3384/M105 but I failed to see Leo I. NGC2683 in Lynx was a new one for me, clearly edge-on.  M13 was looking good, M5 dimmer but showing some nice structure. And some doubles, including Rasalgethi, 39 Bootis and Arrakis. 

[Stu1smartcookie]

9 hours ago, cajen2 said:

Just had one of those nights. The surrounding street lights, 'security' lights and three houses adjoining where they leave bathroom lights on all night severely restrict what I can target but tonight I thought "I fancy some open clusters". So I turned the Heritage 150 to Castor, first, just to get warmed up. I was quite happy to split it (A and C) at only 60x mag using my new favourite EP, a Morpheus 12.5mil. Fired with success, I slewed to Auriga, hoping to catch M36, 37 and/or 38 - I haven't seen them before. I was just navigating between Theta Aurigae and Elnath when suddenly everything went dim. Yes, a huge cloud had appeared and covered Auriga. I waited patiently but more came over so I've come in for a warm. This is the second time this has happened on the same targets and I'm getting more than slightly peeved!

Your situation mirrors mine , i am really struggling to see galaxy targets due to LP , Auriga is a good target for me though . It doesnt help that i do not use a goto system with my main scope . I managed Mercury again last night , and just to the upper right , the Plaides were in view against a dark blue sky , which cheered me up a bit . It still looks good even though its getting rather low now . I too split Castor last night , but when i swung the scope to Leo the frustration set in a little . Still it was nice to be able to get out two nights in a row .

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Stu1smartcookie

[cajen2]

4 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Your situation mirrors mine , i am really struggling to see galaxy targets due to LP , Auriga is a good target for me though . It doesnt help that i do not use a goto system with my main scope . 

Ah, yes, similar. People can actually point out a target from my garden, but I can't catch it with the finder, never mind about the EP! My partner knows better than to send me to find anything.....🙄

[Captain Scarlet]

Just saw Mercury first time this year. 60x with the Kowa 88 spotting scope. Very definite 45% phase going on…

Hopefully more to come later for First Light with my finished 8”:

Magnus