What did you see tonight?

[Froeng]

18 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

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

Nice scope and nice shot! Looks amazing. Clouds here…

[Zermelo]

A great night here. The seeing was better than yesterday and there didn't seem to be any of that thin, higher cloud to spoil the transparency.

I had the Mak out this time, hunting doubles. I bagged ten new ones, including HD 66176 and HD 80441, both at 1.0".  I tried for a 0.9" but not quite there. I think 1.0" may well be the limit for the 127.

[Stu1smartcookie]

11 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

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

what a lovely horizon  ... Envious in the extreme   

[Stu]

Early drive in this morning, and saw the lovely crescent Moon and Venus at about 05.30 once it rose above the cloud on the horizon. Too bright to spot Jupiter unfortunately.

[Ags]

A clear night blighted by milky light pollution. Scanning about with the ZS66,  the light pollution seemed to be at an all time worst - even bright stars seemed veiled in darkness. Wait a minute... isn't the moon filter still screwed in? 🤣

I had a go at resolving the Leo Triplet - on a poor night and Bortle 9, not gonna happen!

I wanted to spot a few globs, so I  started with M53, two fifths of the way from Arcturus to Denebola. I could only locate it by matching star patterns in the finder, it didn't pop out.

M3, halfway between Arcturus and Cor Caroli was somewhat brighter.

M13 was only difficult because only one star of the Keystone was visible, but it was a bright and lovely sight in the ZS66. 

M92 was located with a single pan from M13. It seems smaller than M13 but with a brighter core.

Two doubles tonight - Algeiba, barely split at 60x, and Cor Caroli.

[Epick Crom]

I got up early this morning in freezing temperatures ( 11c, don't laugh you UK observers this is freezing for us Aussies 😜) and observed the conjunction between Venus and Neptune. My best view was had using 120x using my new Celestron Luminous 82degree eyepiece. Very serene seeing brilliant white Venus and cool blue Neptune in the same field of view! They were 5' apart at observation.

[cajen2]

6 hours ago, Epick Crom said:

I got up early this morning in freezing temperatures ( 11c, don't laugh you UK observers this is freezing for us Aussies 😜) and observed the conjunction between Venus and Neptune. My best view was had using 120x using my new Celestron Luminous 82degree eyepiece. Very serene seeing brilliant white Venus and cool blue Neptune in the same field of view! They were 5' apart at observation.

Here, 11°C is a balmy summer's night!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, cajen2 said:

Here, 11°C is a balmy summer's night!

That is almost t shirt weather here.

[Pixies]

I'm in Melbourne at the moment. It was 17°C at midnight, so it was nearly t-shirt weather, here. I had a simple binocular session to try and cover some Messier objects elusive from 55° North and also a few Southern gems. Unfortunately, I'm in a Bortle7 location, so just big bright stuff, really 

I'll do a full report when I get home, as all I have is my phone just now.

Seeing Scorpius in all its full glory, at 45° altitude, red Antares glaring down was a highlight. As was the teapot of Sagittarius, high-up and on its side.

Messiers: 4, 80, 62, 90, 6, 7, 8, 20, 21, 69, 54, 16, 17 and 9

And the all-new Southern objects:

Omega Centauri - wow! It's huge. Makes M13 look like it's tiny baby brother!

Centaurus A. 

The southern Pleiades.

All the nebulosity around Eta Carinae and surrounding clusters. The Pearl cluster. Lambda Centauri cluster.

 

Bed now, but I have the alarm set for 5am to get some planetary action later! Nighy-night!

 

[Epick Crom]

6 hours ago, Pixies said:

I'm in Melbourne at the moment. It was 17°C at midnight, so it was nearly t-shirt weather, here. I had a simple binocular session to try and cover some Messier objects elusive from 55° North and also a few Southern gems. Unfortunately, I'm in a Bortle7 location, so just big bright stuff, really 

I'll do a full report when I get home, as all I have is my phone just now.

Seeing Scorpius in all its full glory, at 45° altitude, red Antares glaring down was a highlight. As was the teapot of Sagittarius, high-up and on its side.

Messiers: 4, 80, 62, 90, 6, 7, 8, 20, 21, 69, 54, 16, 17 and 9

And the all-new Southern objects:

Omega Centauri - wow! It's huge. Makes M13 look like it's tiny baby brother!

Centaurus A. 

The southern Pleiades.

All the nebulosity around Eta Carinae and surrounding clusters. The Pearl cluster. Lambda Centauri cluster.

 

Bed now, but I have the alarm set for 5am to get some planetary action later! Nighy-night!

 

Hey Pixies, welcome to the Land Down Under! Glad you saw some of our southern sights 👍

[Stu1smartcookie]

17 hours ago, Pixies said:

I'm in Melbourne at the moment. It was 17°C at midnight, so it was nearly t-shirt weather, here. I had a simple binocular session to try and cover some Messier objects elusive from 55° North and also a few Southern gems. Unfortunately, I'm in a Bortle7 location, so just big bright stuff, really 

I'll do a full report when I get home, as all I have is my phone just now.

Seeing Scorpius in all its full glory, at 45° altitude, red Antares glaring down was a highlight. As was the teapot of Sagittarius, high-up and on its side.

Messiers: 4, 80, 62, 90, 6, 7, 8, 20, 21, 69, 54, 16, 17 and 9

And the all-new Southern objects:

Omega Centauri - wow! It's huge. Makes M13 look like it's tiny baby brother!

Centaurus A. 

The southern Pleiades.

All the nebulosity around Eta Carinae and surrounding clusters. The Pearl cluster. Lambda Centauri cluster.

 

Bed now, but I have the alarm set for 5am to get some planetary action later! Nighy-night!

 

🤣 "nearly T-Shirt Weather" ??? In the UK as you jolly well know , thats T-shirt weather during the daytime. Well done on the lovely views . I am envious . 

[Mr Spock]

Clear sky, so off out for a double session in Leo.

It will be bright objects only though. Transparency is poor - I can just make out μ Leo at mag 3.88  Any kind of haze at all and those vile LED streetlights wash everything out.

[Mr Spock]

It's going to be a very long session tonight. Just come in for another chart. Seeing is rock steady. The 102mm is producing text book airy discs 

[Astro_Dad]

Stunningly clear evening tonight - brilliant view of Mercury (my first) close to the Pleiades star cluster with 10 x 50 bins -taken to a friends impromptu barbecue  - higher altitude and better NW view than my own garden so  well worth taking the ultra grab and go’s! Wish I’d taken one of my scopes to see a little more detail but still an impressive binocular view with a very distinctive yellow/orange planet placed close to the star cluster, albeit the cluster was mostly obscured by light cloud cover. Have now observed all the solar system planets directly.  Back home and enjoying a lovely view of M3 in the Heritage 150p. 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Astro_Dad

[Whistlin Bob]

Club night tonight- and first time observing in company in a looooong time. I had a nice view of the Leo Triplet and of m51, but the best bit was sharing my bino viewers. For me, globs in a binoviewers are one of my favourite astro experiences, but difficult to share with others, due to eyes being different widths apart/having different focus points etc. Tonight, with 5 other club members, went through the routing of pointing at Arcturus, and getting them to focus one eye, then the other, then adjust the inter-pupillary distance until the scope was set up correctly for each individual. Then slewed round and put m13 in the field of view.  

Same thing each time: a pause, an intake of breath and then "oh wow". So gratifying!!!

[Mr Spock]

Just come in after a great night. 22 doubles in this session.

A tough one though. Great seeing conditions with the 102mm comfortable at x286, showing classic airy disks and almost no diffraction rings; spoiled though by the poor transparency. 11.3 was my faintest mag tonight, though mostly it was a mag higher than that.

[SuburbanMak]

Cracking night up on the South Downs with 10” Dob & ST80. Seeing great, transparency good to North & above, progressively worse to South & lower down - where I wanted to hunt for new Messiers… never mind, a night of classics and some best-ever views.  Only stopped as feet & fingers numb.  Report to follow. 

+ saw something very odd to NW around midnight. A glowing, perfectly circular misty patch that appeared to set quite quickly - managed a couple of snaps. Answers on a postcard? 

Edited April 30, 2022 by SuburbanMak

[Stu1smartcookie]

My early morning walk is getting earlier just to get the last throes of darkness. In fact at 4:45 this morning I actually just got a glimpse of Jupiter and Venus  low to the east .. alas no Saturn or Mars as the sky was too light . But , totally not astronomy related , I was heartened   to hear a cuckoo during the wonderful dawn chorus , the first time I’ve heard one in years The early mornings are really wonderful especially at this time of year .

[IB20]

4 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:

Cracking night up on the South Downs with 10” Dob & ST80. Seeing great, transparency good to North & above, progressively worse to South & lower down - where I wanted to hunt for new Messiers… never mind, a night of classics and some best-ever views.  Only stopped as feet & fingers numb.  Report to follow. 

+ saw something very odd to NW around midnight. A glowing, perfectly circular misty patch that appeared to set quite quickly - managed a couple of snaps. Answers on a postcard? 

Think it was a de orbit burn on the Falcon 9 rocket. I’d come in at this point so missed it! 🙄

[Orange Smartie]

My first opportunity since early April, spent mostly looking for galaxies; the Leo triplet was very distinct. I bagged 26 in total, including Markarian's Chain, which I haven't looked at before.

Highlights: M3 globular cluster in my 8mm eyepiece (just mind-blowing), and M51.

[SuburbanMak]

2 hours ago, IB20 said:

Think it was a de orbit burn on the Falcon 9 rocket. I’d come in at this point so missed it! 🙄

Wow that is so cool!  I assumed it was a weather balloon! Thank you. 

[Mr Spock]

Doubles report is now up 

Great night - I wish I was fit enough to keep going.

[IB20]

3 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:

Wow that is so cool!  I assumed it was a weather balloon! Thank you. 

Correction it was the Russian Angara rocket not the Falcon 9. Gutted I missed it!

[SuburbanMak]

3 hours ago, IB20 said:

Correction it was the Russian Angara rocket not the Falcon 9. Gutted I missed it!

Ooh- that’s quite a thing to have seen, here’s a crop from Russianspaceweb.com  and the timing is perfect - apparently what I saw was the second stage re-entering & burning up. Started re-entry at 00:05 BST, I noticed it a about 00:07 and my pictures are timed at 00:09.  

 Payload: unknown military. 

Edited April 30, 2022 by SuburbanMak

[Voyager 3]

On 21/04/2022 at 01:20, IB20 said:

Thought your clock was broken for a second…

This is an underrated comment lol!