What did you see tonight?

[ONIKKINEN]

First time out with the 8'' for almost 4 months, goal was to do some Jupiter and Saturn observing/imaging. Drove a bit out of the city to a decent location where i am on a small hill overlooking some fields and forest, so outside the urban seeing. Forecast for the night was fully clear with no clouds anywhere, of course we all know where this is heading now.

As soon as i had set up and roughly polar aligned i saw clouds on the northern horizon, making their way towards me. Quickly managed to have a look at Jupiter and Saturn, but the views were terrible as the big gun had not cooled down yet, not even close really. Boiling surface and hard to tell if the scope was in focus or not so quickly threw in the imaging train in place of the eyepiece to try and get something out of the night before the clouds ruined it, but i just went through the videos and they too are junk (not surprising). I did manage to confirm that i had not broken my mount over the summer when i rebuilt it, so its not all a waste at least.

An average session really 😬.

[Zermelo]

21 hours ago, Gfamily said:

the local Brit was trying out his recently purchased SynScan wifi module next door, so I wonder if he had connected to my mount's wifi network by accident.

I've had that before with doorbells, but if you get it with 'scopes, you must be in an exclusive neighbourhood 😊

[Astro_Dad]

30th July 2022 - second night of holiday and reasonably clear ! - Isle of Arran Scotland, 55 degrees North, geologists paradise and pretty good for amateur astronomer too! A full degree more northerly latitude than home and a theoretical one point difference on the Bortle scale at Bortle 3. 
Set up with Heritage 150p at around 23.50. 
 

 

Some cloud but as the night progressed it became clearer and clearer with some truly spectacular naked eye views, and the best view of the Milky Way running through the Summer Triangle I’ve ever had. 

Used a combination of manual star hopping and GOTO using the SynScan system with a good enough 2-star brightest star alignment. observed mainly old favourites with a couple of new targets too- in an eclectic and not particularly planned list. 

Albireo to start- an easy target as very obvious with naked eye, then another look at the “Cooling tower” cluster  M29. 

Jupiter was on show - had a look early in the session but the seeing  wasn’t ideal and prevented a really sharp view, so moved onto deep sky for the remainder of the night. 

M13 the great globular exemplified the old adage that to see more you need a darker sky - not necessarily more aperture. It looked superb, bright and pretty well resolved - impressive I thought in a six incher.  Nice view of nearby globular M92 also. 

M57 looked particularly good using a 15mm eyepiece in combination with a UHC filter - hinting at a greyish green hue.   

M71 next, first viewing of this globular -  loose, almost open cluster like as descriptions generally suggest.   

Then  moved to my second new target - open cluster NGC6823. 

I finished off with a look a three galaxies I haven’t observed since the Winter - Galaxy pair M81 and M82 and finally the great M31. 

There was more to do but packed up at 2am and inevitably woke the kids up …

Hoping for more clear skies over the coming days 😀
 

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Astro_Dad

[PaulM]

First light for my 200p on EQ5 mount

Not had a telescope for over 12 months now and had 8", 12" and 14" dobs previously

Good to be back under the stars after having a heart attack in January and a few more till I had a triple bypass op in March, followed by recovery and rehab and the thought of getting another telescope helped me through this big time and decided on the 200p and EQ5 mount combo and got a good deal from a seller on eBay

So tonight was about getting familiar with the mount and setting the red dot finder and finder scope up

Once setup quickly located M53 then zoomed in with the barlow, then headed over to view M57 and again  zoomed in with the barlow, ended with viewing M81 and M82, by then i was getting tired and experiencing some pain so stopped there, really enjoyed the viewing and getting used to the mount, was also nice to know I still know my way around the night sky

Definitely heading into north wales once the nights get longer as this setup is much easier to carry and move than my last 14" dob

[Pixies]

Just a quick tour of the usual suspects in the 10x50 binos, tonight: M31, double-cluster, Dumbbell, M13, Albeireo, Coathanger, Wild Duck cluster, M52.  Ended with the gas giants.

Forecasts all said cloudy, so happy to grab a few things. This week looks to be a bit better than recent ones - fingers crossed.

[Gfamily]

Third evening at Astrofarm France, and another session that lasted from early evening until well past 1am

Before travelling out I'd found an unused A4 sheet of Baader film, so this afternoon I made a solar filter to fit the 127mm Mak. This gave very clear views of today's Sunspots  -  two medium size ones and a scattering of tiny ones between them. 

Then, after dinner, I could remove the filter and got a stunning view of the Moon at 10% illumination - the edge of the Mare Crisium was spectacular. 

A bit of a scare when a leg gave way on the tripod, and the scope crashed to the ground - but there was no damage (other than a loosened bolt) so all was well. 

I then spent quite a while exploring some of the Messier and other objects around Scorpius and Sagittarius - including M7, which is too low to be visible from home - even here, I had to wait until it cleared a couple of distant trees.

Before finishing, I helped a fellow guest get started with the Dobsonian - it's not been used for a couple of years, and the finder scope wouldn't let me align it properly. 

Once I swapped in my spare finder, we were able to get decent views of Saturn at about 130x and M13 at 40x and then 130 again. 

Lovely to have shirtsleeve observing until the early hours. 

Off to Rochechouart to visit the Meteor Impact Museum in the morning. 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by Gfamily

[Gfamily]

8 hours ago, PaulM said:

Good to be back under the stars after having a heart attack in January and a few more till I had a triple bypass op in March, followed by recovery and rehab ...

Oh, scary - but good to know you're back on the mend.

8 hours ago, PaulM said:

Definitely heading into north wales once the nights get longer as this setup is much easier to carry and move than my last 14" dob

Are you familiar with Arwen Reservoir?  It's about 10-15 minutes north west of Corwen - and there's a carpark beside the dam where you can set up to get views over the water.  Very dark skies and a popular site for astro people.

One of the chipshops in Corwen will take telephone orders, so you can stop by, pick them up, and take them up there to eat.  They sometimes close at 8pm though, so don't be too late ordering. 

[PaulM]

54 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

Oh, scary - but good to know you're back on the mend.

Are you familiar with Arwen Reservoir?  It's about 10-15 minutes north west of Corwen - and there's a carpark beside the dam where you can set up to get views over the water.  Very dark skies and a popular site for astro people.

One of the chipshops in Corwen will take telephone orders, so you can stop by, pick them up, and take them up there to eat.  They sometimes close at 8pm though, so don't be too late ordering. 

Thanks for the heads up about Alwen Reservoir, I had found a location close by via google maps at Llyn Brenig but will certainly do some research into Alwen Reservoir

Edited August 1, 2022 by PaulM

[ED Splitter]

9 hours ago, PaulM said:

First light for my 200p on EQ5 mount

Not had a telescope for over 12 months now and had 8", 12" and 14" dobs previously

Good to be back under the stars after having a heart attack in January and a few more till I had a triple bypass op in March, followed by recovery and rehab and the thought of getting another telescope helped me through this big time and decided on the 200p and EQ5 mount combo and got a good deal from a seller on eBay

So tonight was about getting familiar with the mount and setting the red dot finder and finder scope up

Once setup quickly located M53 then zoomed in with the barlow, then headed over to view M57 and again  zoomed in with the barlow, ended with viewing M81 and M82, by then i was getting tired and experiencing some pain so stopped there, really enjoyed the viewing and getting used to the mount, was also nice to know I still know my way around the night sky

Definitely heading into north wales once the nights get longer as this setup is much easier to carry and move than my last 14" dob

Wonderful to hear you are on the mend. Lovely set up to come back to. 
 

18 minutes ago, PaulM said:

Thanks for the heads up about Alwen Reservoir, I had found a location close by via google maps at Llyn Brenig but will certainly do some research in Alwen Reservoir

I’m in north Wales around 30mins from said location if anyone ever wants to have a group observe meet. 

[Gfamily]

1 hour ago, PaulM said:

Thanks for the heads up about Alwen Reservoir, I had found a location close by via google maps at Llyn Brenig but will certainly do some research into Alwen Reservoir

Typical of me to get the name wrong. Holiday brain!

[PaulM]

8 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

Typical of me to get the name wrong. Holiday brain!

Thanks, I did plan to get in touch that group with at some point as my new telescope\mount now fits into my car now - my old large dob didn't

[Astro_Dad]

July 31st 23.50 

Another inviting night in terms of low cloud cover on the Isle of Arran. Much cooler than previous night interestingly and more dew  on the ground - grass much wetter and the air generally felt more humid. Still preferring the Heritage on a low sturdy table rather than picnic bench so lots of kneeling down tonight as no chair at the right height! 

First target the Veil nebula NGC6992. First observation of this target for me. Just about visible with averted vision without filter. Seen as a very faint but large patch of light, (Eastern) naturally more prominent with the UHC filter, and I wouldn’t have spotted it so easily without the filter to help reveal it in the first place!

Spent longer on planetary nebulae M57 and M27 this time. The ring appearing quite sharply defined again at 50x power + UHC. The dumbbell obvious and with some careful close scrutiny revealed it’s dual lobed form. 

Returned to a few familiar favourites and then turned to the planets. Jupiter was prominent as usual but still not able to get sharp views of any surface detail. 

I realised Neptune was close by, to the NW of Jupiter so enjoyed a clear sharp view of the tiny blue disc. Then finished on Mars, my first view of the year and nice to see again, though no detail seen using the kit I had immediately to hand. 

Made the most of two clear nights - not looking good at all today! 

Edited August 2, 2022 by Astro_Dad
Typo

[Astro_Dad]

1st/2nd August around 12-1am 

10x50 binocular. 

Intermittent rain and cloud cover prevented me taking the ‘scope out last night, but there were very clear skies intermittently so an opportunity for some binocular viewing following Steve Tonkins monthly tour. 

The targets were in and around Cassiopeia and Cepheus. 

The target first located was “The Queens Kite” close to Ruchbah and centered on Chi Cassiopeiae. A clear pentagon of stars with a tail extending out towards the South. 

Next yellow hypergiant, Rho Cassiopeiae - an unmistakable bright distinctly yellow star that stood out prominently close to Caph, the most Westerly of the “W” asterism of stars. 

I failed consistently to find “The Queens aeroplane” !  There were so many stars on view it reminded me of one of those magic eye puzzles that were popular a few years ago - but I just couldn’t pick out the apparent plane shape amongst the crowded star field. 

Finishing this brief session marked by constant moving in and outside again was the impressive orange supergiant “Herschel’s Garnet Star”. A very fine deep garnet colour indeed, and a stunning way to close for the night as rain and cloud took over. 

[PaulM]

First light for my Baader Hyperion Mark 4 8-24mm Zoom Eyepiece and 2.25X Barlow

Earlier in the day I collimated the 200p i bought recently on eBay on a EQ5 mount

Had bad cloud coverage but wanted to test the zoom eyepiece function and then barlow so decided to observe the double double in Lyra as that part of the sky being high was my best option

Without the barlow and at 24mm I positioned things so they were in the middle then zoomed through each click to 8mm, had to refocus a bit each time I zoomed in but was a nice experience to easily zoom in and out, couldnt split the double double at 8mm so zoomed out to 24mm again and fitted the 2.25x barlow

It was obvious with the barlow fitted the FOV was smaller, zoomed in refocusing as I did to 8mm again and I could split the doubles clearly, focusing has to be very subtle at this stage

Also loosened the dovetail rings to rotate the tube and reposition the eyepiece into a more comfortable position, not sure if this is how to use this setup

Thats it for this session was too cloudy to bother with other targets, but very happy with the zoom eyepiece and barlow, think it will make my observing easy, enjoyable and productive

Edited August 3, 2022 by PaulM

[Stu1smartcookie]

Just getting used to our new house , and trying to put things away ( repeat to fade) ... just before i went to bed , around 11;30 i looked out on our "new" skies in Witchford nr Ely , Cambs 

OMG ! I now know there are definitely more stars than just the brightest favourites . In fact , staring at Cygnus i am sure i saw some faint misty patches to the  left of Deneb , and considering the sky was clear i was mighty impressed by the sheer number of stars which were visible . It all bodes well for some lovely nights sweeping the sky with binos or indeed taking some shots through my little 60mm Horizon . Really exciting . 

 

[goddasgirl2021]

Sounds interesting 

[Mr Spock]

Moon looks good at the moment in the. Sky is a bit light still.

The reduced contrast gave me an opportunity to compare a few eyepieces - the 4mm SLV, the 4mm ortho, and Barlowed 9mm ortho. The Barlowed 9mm easily picked out the most detail. Slightly less magnification at x167 v x179 in the other, but that shouldn't matter. The Barlowed 7mm ortho at x215 looked sharp too. Hmmm...

[Astro_Dad]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

Moon looks good at the moment in the. Sky is a bit light still.

The reduced contrast gave me an opportunity to compare a few eyepieces - the 4mm SLV, the 4mm ortho, and Barlowed 9mm ortho. The Barlowed 9mm easily picked out the most detail. Slightly less magnification at x167 v x179 in the other, but that shouldn't matter. The Barlowed 7mm ortho at x215 looked sharp too. Hmmm...

@Mr Spock interesting test - were you able to conclude this experiment and convert the findings into a recommendation for SGL members or was it just for technical interest? What Barlow did you use on this assessment?  It would gave been interesting to have done this slightly earlier in the evening when the lunar X and  V were visible - did you manage to spot? Sadly too much cloud cover here in Scotland and the midges were out in force anyway!

[Whistlin Bob]

First time out in a little while. What fab conditions. Moon was too close to neighbours house for any decent observation, so I worked my way up to Izar and a lovely easy split even though the sky was not yet dark. Quick tour of summer favourites- double double, Albireo, M13, Altair etc. Still not quite dark but had a wander down and found The Wild Duck Cluster- first time this season. I love the late summer milky way.

[Mr Spock]

1 hour ago, Astro_Dad said:

were you able to conclude this experiment and convert the findings into a recommendation for SGL members or was it just for technical interest? What Barlow did you use on this assessment?

Just for interest and trying to find the best combination for lunar viewing. The Barlow is a Meade 140.

[Mr Spock]

Had a very brief double session with the 102mm in Boötes. Incoming cloud spoiled things though.

Σ1825 - a bright pale yellow primary and faint blue secondary. Very nice at x215
Izar - what can you say, a lovely bright orange primary and faint green secondary. Nice at x121; even better at x215 with the 102mm showing lovely airy discs and minimal diffraction rings.
Σ1850 - a very wide and slightly uneven pair. The primary had a hint of yellow with the secondary white.

Searched for a few more but the 9x50 finder really struggles with my LP. I could barely see below mag 7. Next time I'm dumping the finder and fitting the 42mm LVW to the 102. x17 and a 4.24° fov should make a better finder 

[Ratlet]

After consultation, it turned out the Clear Outside app was not malfunctioning and the green squares meant clear skies so I took my 130pds out for its (and my) first light.

I started off just getting my bearings which is a lot harder than you'd think.  I eventually managed to site polaris through the finder but the view through the SVBONY 8-24mm zoom was pretty dire.  Not sure what the issue was but the stars looked terrible.  I decided to try out the SVBONY 32mm plossl (x20) and it was a whole different ball game!  Beautifully sharp stars.  I have no idea what I'm doing but I was pretty confident that I could find Cassiopeia so lined up on that and dialed in on that and aligned the Rigel Quickfinder.  Took me a while to figure out how to use it (both eyes open).

M31 - I managed to line up on Micah and using the slow motion controls proceeded 'up'  I hoped the vaguely brighter stars I could see were Mu and Nu, but eventually I saw a faint fuzzy patch.  It was still not 'dark' and certainly not in that direction of the sky so I would confidently say that I could make out the core.   Whilst away from the eyepiece a meteor went past between Andromeda and Casseopia and I'm pretty sure it made a fzzz sound.  It was very bright at any rate.

Albireo - This took far longer than I would like to admit.  I spent about 20 minutes trying to navigate around Cygnus and failing miserably.  Some bands of clouds rolled over and whilst I waited for them to clear it slowly dawned on me I was completely out on the scale involved.  I was really looking at Altair instead of the wings of Cygnus.  I had no idea of the scale!  Got my bearing and then went up through Sagita and Vulpeca (bisected by another meteor) and found Alberio.  It looked amazing in the Plossl.  The Orange Primary was pronounced and the smaller secondary was a very nice shade of blue.  Almost like a blacklight or blue led.  I tried my 8mm Starfinder (x80) but there was a bit too much vibration and the 32mm gave better colour.

The Milky Way - In between finding Albireo and looking at it the sky and cleared and it had gotten a lot darker.  I had no idea you could see the milky way naked eye.  Beautiful.  Spent a fair while just taking it in.

M13 - Over to Hercules and some crude navigation.  The Rigel quickfinder is brilliant for this sort of thing as you can roughly dial yourself in.  Very pleasing through the 32mm and with some wishful thinking I could see spottyness to it with the 8mm.  Still very fuzzy though.  A Satellite went through the FOV at this point which was a bit of surprise.

Polaris - I couldn't see anything other than the primary with the 32mm.  I took out the 8mm skyguider and being careful could make out a much fainter secondary.  The split was about half that of Albireo and the difference in magnitude far greater sitting about 8 o'clock in the FOV.  Both stars appeared white.

By this point I had ran out of tea and all my gear was soaking wet with dew and I called it a night.  I'm going to try hanging some weight of my tripod as the shaking at x80 is a bit much.  Once I got my head around the scale of the constellations it was a lot of fun.  Need to do a bit more planning next time as this largely consisted of me trying to remember names from Actual Astronomy Podcast and looking them up in stellarium.  Was very impressed with the SVBONY plossl.  Not so much with the zoom.

[Captain Scarlet]

In the last 2-3 months tonight was my third time setting up but only the first time actually putting an eyepiece in, and what a night. Milky Way so bright and so many stars! SQM-L measured 21.5. I’d almost forgotten how magical it is. I’d set up my OO-Helmerichs 8”, and my main target was the Veil, using both 2” and 1.25” Oiii filters, the 2” for the first time. What a treat. I’ll write it up as a separate report seeing as it was my first observing since May, but so relieved to get out at last!

Cheers Magnus

Edited August 5, 2022 by Captain Scarlet

[MercianDabbler]

I managed my first observing session for ages this evening. I should admit to being the latest custodian of the Vixen FL102 formerly in the custody of @Franklin and it has now taken up residence on my SP mount. I did have a quick look at the Moon through it on the evening after I bought it but since then clouds and general hecticness have combined to prevent any more playing.

After initial promise last night followed by cloud before I could get the scope out, tonight I was out around 9PM to look again at the Moon. Things started out a bit hazy due to high cloud but it did not intrude too much. Until now I've tended to treat the Moon as a last resort but I'm definitely a fan of the view through the FL102 - it seems much more involving than the achromat view. The edge of the Moon looked like it was boiling away so clearly the seeing was not perfect. Armed with a set of images on the tablet (the 8 1/2 day one seemed about right), I managed to identify Mt Pico as looking rather striking with a long shadow reaching into the terminator. On t'other hemisphere there were plenty of craters to admire. The straight wall seemed the most noteworthy feature.

On switching to the 5mm Starguider EP the view became rubbish. At first I blamed the EP (which I often find makes the view too 'thin') but then I looked at the moon and saw that the cloud was much thicker. I adjourned the session in favour of pruning back some holly and yew that was starting to intrude into my telescope space.

I'm thinking now that I need to get slicker with my setup and packing up of the whole 102 setup when I'm in purely visual mode. Tonight I just eyeballed North and level and got on with more actual looking. I also shifted the whole rig (after removing the OTA) to different places in the garden a couple of times. There is still scope for improvement - I need to think about replacing the Allen screws that attach the tripod legs so that I can avoid the need to fetch the Allen key out to tighten them and then loosen them again when packing up or moving.

After the Moon was heading for the nearby houses with no improvement in the clouds I shifted the whole rig to try for a view of Albeiro. Stars were still hard to pick out with the naked eye so I initially started at Deneb and star hopped as far as Sadr before deciding that it was a bad idea and that I really could see Albeiro if I tried a bit harder. As a bonus, the EP was at the right height for me to use while sitting in a garden chair. The colours of the two stars were very obvious... although I felt that the longer I looked at them the less obvious the colours became... or maybe it was the high hazy cloud messing things up.

By now Stellarium was telling me that Saturn was up. Wandering around the garden I found that I needed to shift the rig again. Having done that I had some nice views of Saturn. The 9mm DeLite and 15mm SLV seemed best. With the SLV the image was smaller but I think I could intermittently glimpse Titan as well which is a new one for me but  I couldn't see it in the DeLite.

I'd been hoping to have a look at Jupiter too but it hadn't popped up when I decided to pack up. Naturally as I was heading indoors with the gear it just peeped over the top of the nearby houses.

[Ags]

I was looking at M31 and M32 tonight. I could make out traces of the big galaxy's disk, but couldn't find M110. 

Also spent some time on Polaris with my Speers WALER 4.9 mm, rotating the eyepiece to see if it was miscollimated but tonight it was giving concentric diffraction rings consistently...

ET Cluster and Double Cluster too.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Ags