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What did you see tonight?


Ags

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I'm enjoying a short break in Flamborough on the Yorkshire coast with decent skies above (Bortle 4, SQM 21.32+). Unfortunately the street lighting is a little intrusive, the horizon is not the best and the moon is up, however last night seeing was excellent, so I managed an hour and a half with 15x70 binoculars on a monopod. Too many objects to list but I did particularly enjoy a globular tour.

The beach area has been scoped out, so I'm hoping to sneak out late one night and drive down there to get away from the street lights and enjoy an unhindered horizon. Hopefully the weather plays ball. Unfortunately tonight I'm blanketed by fluffy grey cloud. 🙄

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On 06/05/2022 at 13:40, StevieDvd said:

Had a quick viewing session with the new Evolux 62ED on the AZ-GTi (alt/az mode) - sitting on the new (to me) Behrlebach Report 112 tripod. This is the first light using the ZWO ASI178MM I bought for solar/lunar, only a short video before I packed up as could not get a decent capture on my iphone.

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Hi Steve l know its early days yet but how are you liking the Evolux 62ED as l am thinking about pressing the button on one in the next few days.

regards.

 

Steve

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2 minutes ago, steviebee said:

Hi Steve l know its early days yet but how are you liking the Evolux 62ED as l am thinking about pressing the button on one in the next few days.

regards.

 

Steve

I'm very pleased with it and expecting to get a decent ZWO Pro camera to use with it soon. It's very well built and compact. The only negative I have is that the focuser does not rotate - but this is solved if you buy the dedicated focal reducer. Visual usage was very clear & crisp, though I had only used a Svbony zoom which should mean even better with other/dearer/better quality eyepieces.

 

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19 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

I'm very pleased with it and expecting to get a decent ZWO Pro camera to use with it soon. It's very well built and compact. The only negative I have is that the focuser does not rotate - but this is solved if you buy the dedicated focal reducer. Visual usage was very clear & crisp, though I had only used a Svbony zoom which should mean even better with other/dearer/better quality eyepieces.

 

Many thanks Steve for getting back so quick.  l will also get the focal reducer as well. l was looking at the Evolux 82ED but the very few reviews that are out there show the 62 in a good light. An Australian guy on YouTube Steven Morris prefers the 62 to 82ED after reviewing them. Have you any pictures to put up are you only doing visual?

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36 minutes ago, steviebee said:

Many thanks Steve for getting back so quick.  l will also get the focal reducer as well. l was looking at the Evolux 82ED but the very few reviews that are out there show the 62 in a good light. An Australian guy on YouTube Steven Morris prefers the 62 to 82ED after reviewing them. Have you any pictures to put up are you only doing visual?

Literally the above lunar image is the first & only with that camera & scope.

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Moon is looking pretty good tonight, not as stable. I spend some time observing Rimae Hippalus (a new one for me) and Copernicus. The Golden handle showing nicely and well. Seeing is not too stable for high mags tonight. I also managed some imaging of the Rimae and Copernicus.

 

 

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Yes, seeing not too good here either, so the shorter eyepieces were struggling to hold a view.
But in the Mak, the (nearly) new Morpheus 9mm was giving x167, and with minimal light scatter it was ideal for the doubles - down to 1.8" this evening.

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After heavy rain in the afternoon the sky cleared at about 7pm to leave a cloud free night ... obviously there was quite a bit of moisture in the air and the moon , my main target , sometimes had a misty halo . The telrad had a nightmare with dew although the scope stayed pretty dew free . Took in the usual "easy " doubles and the bright stars and tested the WO 2" 45degree prism , which showed the Moon as we see it :) . Just a quick hour of scanning around . 

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Had the first session in many weeks (due to work), so just grabbed an hour with the "grab and go" FC-76DCU(Q) on the moon, as it was getting dark... things settled down and it was reasonably stable after 15mins... nothing exciting, just good to be out observing again 😀

Edited by HollyHound
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I took out my “grab and go” 6 inch reflector (tabletop Heritage 150p), for a good hour or so on the moon  last night…

I was aiming to take on this months BBC Sky at Night  lunar suggestions- the Lunar Apennines (Montes Apenninus). 

I used the moon Atlas iOS app to help orientate - starting with a very sharp view of Plato and Sinus Iridum, (25mm GSO Plössl) moving “up” to the trio of craters with prominent Archimedes and then further to the Apennines, I think I was just about able to pick out Mons Huygens -my main target — zooming in a little more with a 15 mm BST Starguider. Attempted some quick afocal shots but didn’t work out! Overall a relaxing end to a busy day at work. 

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The Moon (what else in early evening at this time of the year?). Seeing is poor, only used x100 with SW 127 Mak. Gassendi looked great, the rimae on the floor were showing in moments of stability. The nearby Mersenne was on the terminator. There seems to be a chain of craterlets on its floor. Will check the maps tomorrow'.  Had another try at Rima Sharp but no luck. Seeing got worse and around 9:30 high cloud arrived. Fine with me, need sleep tonight.

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2 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

The Moon (what else in early evening at this time of the year?). Seeing is poor, only used x100 with SW 127 Mak. Gassendi looked great, the rimae on the floor were showing in moments of stability. The nearby Mersenne was on the terminator. There seems to be a chain of craterlets on its floor. Will check the maps tomorrow'.  Had another try at Rima Sharp but no luck. Seeing got worse and around 9:30 high cloud arrived. Fine with me, need sleep tonight.

I was out observing the Gassendi and its rimae as well, including the Rimae Mersenius. I remember from a previous observation that the small cratelets inside Mersenne are better light the following day.

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Was looking at Gassendi too although I could not make out the rimae with 66  mm aperture. I tried pushing up the magnification to 130x by using an extension ring on the Speers-WALER 4.9 mm, but I think the extension ring is going in junk box - lots of lateral chromatic aberration and no sharpness off axis. On axis the view was good. Looking at a Nagler 3.5mm on FLO and thinking. There's got to be a cheaper option surely?

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Enjoyed a clear(ish) Friday night with 10” GSO Dob & Towa 339 80mm f15. 
The Moon with the Dob is jaw dropping - even impressed my 17 yo son and his mate returning late from a party.  Despite the moonlight gave great views of M13 & M57. 
Meanwhile the f15 delivered on some moonlit doubles in Lyra & Bootes.

Had thought I’d wait for a look at Saturn but cloud has eventually intervened. 

3E02C251-A5D2-4592-A78D-14BBA08DBAE9.jpeg

Edited by SuburbanMak
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9.00pm - quite light - Moon low SE, waxing gibbous - 10" Dob - impact crater SCHICKARD near terminator - I tried various mags/FOVs but it looked best in the 100deg 20mm Myriad, with x64 / 1.57deg True Field - framing lovely, view very sharp and stable (soon got wobbly as mag increased), several pits of various sizes in the floor - also, at that time, the Moon was not too bright.  (See pic for size of Myriad against the Meade 15mm Plossl). 

Going east from Arcturus, IZAR came into view, orange in the EP.  The faint (bluish) sec could just be made out against the glare at x127 - needed good focus and moments of stability.  Not an easy split.

Further east along the Arcturus-Izar line lay THIBA (Delta Boo) - a superwide double (105 arcsec) - very easy of course at x42, sec a lot fainter, with a few other even fainter stars in the field.

A very enjoyable 90 minutes!

Doug.

 

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5 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:

Enjoyed a clear(ish) Friday night with 10” GSO Dob & Towa 339 80mm f15. 
The Moon with the Dob is jaw dropping - even impressed my 17 yo son and his mate returning late from a party.  Despite the moonlight gave great views of M13 & M57. 
Meanwhile the f15 delivered on some moonlit doubles in Lyra & Bootes.

Had thought I’d wait for a look at Saturn but cloud has eventually intervened. 

3E02C251-A5D2-4592-A78D-14BBA08DBAE9.jpeg

Thats the same menu as me for last night. Took the Skymax 127 out, M13 faintly resolved outer stars but quite dim, M57 a good ring, Epsilon Lyrae a half split, Albireo say no more, and tried for M92 but couldn't find it. High cloud rolled in and that was that. Moon also looked very good indeed through the steady seeing. 

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16 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Tessa’s night tonight (I hope)

DB6A52A9-F160-4C3F-9693-24CF4CA2CE34.thumb.jpeg.cf5774056ea73ab7a8cf360b39b903d9.jpeg

Funny how your 120 looks about the same size as my 102, I guess the 102 may be a bit oversized for its aperture. It sure seems like it weighs as much as a 120, awful heavy for a 102, its my only gripe about Sarah.

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image.png.d7d7541d041fe3d9c2bf27fea610e1c2.png

 

 

 

Friday May 13: the evening sky was hazy, the moonlight was intense, thin clouds.

Only the main stars of the Big Dipper, those of the Leo were well visible from my yard.

And the Moon at four degrees above (blue) Spica.

Reminding the color of Spica triggered the rest of the observation session.

I took a chair, my 8x30mm binoculars and turning toward North-East I started looking for star colors.

There are many colorful stars in the Spring sky.

From the straw yellow Arcturus, to deep yellow Izar, golden yellow Algieba and Alpha UMa. 

Next was what we may  call ''The Gang of the Spring Oranges'':  Eltanin/ Gamma Dra - Kochab/ Beta UMi- Rasalgheti/ Alpha Her, gang led by Delta Lyrae.

(The blue hue of Spica was washed by the strong moonlight but in a moonless night one can admire the blue cast of this star against the pasteled white of Vega , with Regulus somewhere between them.)

 

At this point I observed with the 8x30mm binocular Delta Lyr, Epsilon 1-2 Lyr, Alcor- Mizar, Nu Dra, 16-17 Dra  as double stars and counted 18 stars in Mel 111.

I did not met yet an instrument not capable of resolving Nu Dra. I had a 2.5x Galilean spyglass, even that resolved it.

 

Next I took my three inch ''Optus'' Newtonian and observed some double stars :

-Algieba - OMG how beautiful golden yellow Airy disks and bright, perfect difraction rings.

-Alcor-Mizar , an image worth to be put in a photo album. 

-Alula Australis/ Xi UMa, resolved-split at 117x.

-This time I gazed to only Nu Dra+ Arrakis/ Mu Dra+16-17 Dra. Of course, Nu Dra was already resolved by the 6x30mm finder but also the other two stars were split at 117x with 16-17 Dra seen as a beautiful triple star.

I said ''only'' because if we look at the head of the Dragon we will notice these stars make a ''necklace'' with 39 Dra and Omicron Dra.

I use to call these chain of double stars, made up by (16-17 Dra + Mu Dra+ Nu Dra+ 39 Dra+ Omicron Dra) as ''Sigil Smaug'' or ''The Necklace of Smaug'' to honor the writings of JRR Tolkien that I like so much.

(I must admit, beside my strange night habits (noticed by some of my neighbours), I'm also a LOTR fan, I have all his books which were translated in my mother tongue.)

-Psi Dra and Zeta Lyr , Rasalgheti, Albireo, Epsilon 1-2 Lyr resolved at 70x and split at 117x

-M13, M92, Steph 1 as a cluster of eight stars 

At the end I searched the double star 16 Cyg , more because is a beacon to planetary nebula NGC 6826.

At 70x, the planetary nebula was more a hazy star. At 117x, a small, hazy, minute hazy patch become visible.

 

Saturday, May 14 : the sky was even worse. I used my SW Classic 250 P Dobsonian to see some double stars.

-While adjusting the finders ( RACI 8x50mm and Radiant 1x) on Zeta UMa, I noticed the star Sidus Ludoviciana to have a companion.

Did somebody know that star had any role in the story of the ''exo-planet'' of 1722 of Johann Liebknecht ?

-I split at 150x/ Mark III zoom eyepiece the double stars  STF 1495, STF 1544.

- At 480x , I observed and made a drawing of STT 235 which have a separation of 0.97''.

- 36 UMa or LDS 2863 is a very wide double star with a separation of about three minutes.

-I failed again at resolving Dubhe/ Alpha UMa or Bu 1077 AB. I saw again just AC, a binocular double.

-I recovered some motivation by reobserving Zeta Her at 300x/ Lacerta UWA 4mm+ Skyglow filter and Delta Cyg.

- The last object observed was the central star of NGC 6826 at 300x. 

Below is my drawing of STT 235 + ABT 8 AB/C , with some details. 

 

Clear sky, Mircea

 

image.png.a4d4c153eed6bfee1de0a08e522eb456.png

 

 

 

Edited by Mircea
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Great report @Mircea, and fine sketches.  Always good to see a double with <1 arcsec of separation.

Doug.

Incidentally - that old pic of my Dob:  the elastic band holding the Rigel in place has been removed, since I screwed the thing onto the tube!

Edited by cloudsweeper
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Currently off work for health reasons but it does have its advantages: three late night sessions in 5 days (and hopefully a fourth tonight)!

View was limited as I've only been observing from my north-east facing balcony, so have spent time mainly in and around Cassiopeia hunting doubles, clusters and the like. I even managed to catch ISS and track for around 15 seconds by hand! 

Full wordy report to come later.

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11 minutes ago, badhex said:

Currently off work for health reasons but it does have its advantages: three late night sessions in 5 days (and hopefully a fourth tonight)!

View was limited as I've only been observing from my north-east facing balcony, so have spent time mainly in and around Cassiopeia hunting doubles, clusters and the like. I even managed to catch ISS and track for around 15 seconds by hand! 

Full wordy report to come later.

Hope you are back on an even keel soon, but enjoy the skies in the meantime 

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