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What did you see tonight?


Ags

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It's been a terrible 6 weeks with constant clouds and rain. As per the script, it cleared last night close to full moon! Managed a 1 hr session taking in M11 in Scutum, double star Xi Scorpii, NGC 6818, the moon itself and Saturn. Saturn was impressive, it looked etched. Titan was in conjunction with the star HD 205926, creating a "double star" with 25" seperation! It felt so good to observe after so many weeks.

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Tonight was mostly learning for me.  Did some playing around with NINA for a couple of hours but gave up in the end as I managed to connect the computer to a different wifi and lost remote desktop.  All good though as I managed to get everything working and talking.  Now it's just a case of figure out how to work the bloody thing.  Fortunately since I had a goto mount setup I swapped out the imaging rig for the 130 Newt and had a quick look at Andromeda and M13.  I tried out the SVBONY 8-24mm zoom again and it worked beautifully.  Its a fun little eyepiece.  Very much recommend it.  I swung over to Albireo and the colour rendition was beautiful.  But it was getting cold by this point and I decided to call it a night.

That being said as I headed in I spotted a VERY bright star.  Turned out, it wasn't a star but Jupiter.  Got lined up and dropped in the 8mm BST for x80 and nearly blew the back of my head clean off.  I had no idea it would be so bright!  It was almost dazzling.   I could easily make out 4 of the moons and with a bit of perseverance could discern some banding in the clouds.  I tried the 2x  barlow but it was almost to bright?  I went back to the 8mm and just watched and practiced tracking and called it a night again.

Only I spotted another suspiciously bright star...  I didn't even bother checking this time and pointed the scope at Saturn.  MARVELOUS.  The wings were fantastic (couldn't see the Cassini division) and again went for the barlow.  This was much better.  Tracking was a lot easier here since it was nipping across horizontally.  Titan was following close behind along with a star which gave the appearance of a second moon.  The first time I've looked at Saturn in 20 years and it's much the same effect.  You can really feel the distance in your bones.

I'll have to dig out the Mak for tomorrow night and leave it cooling.

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Just had 3 hrs wandering through Lyra with the 12". Nice, clean, split of A260 at 0.8" with plenty of dark space between.

Ring not too bad despite my LP and the moon adding to it.

Saturn - not much to say. It's in the fuzzy lower regions for me so not as spectacular as it could be.

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Photo not doing justice but lovely naked eye and binocular view of the almost full moon and Saturn making a nice pairing on my last night of holiday. Jupiter just rising up towards the East. 

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Edited by Astro_Dad
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Had a quick session with my visiting daughter. My granddaughter was tiktokking however, and couldn't be interrupted in her important work. 😀

We started with the ET cluster which got a gasp when the pattern came into focus. The Double Cluster was next and it seemed to make less impression, although the red stars scattered through the cluster did earn a Like.

We moved down to Almach, but the C6 was too close to the grape-clad pergola - the finders could see over the leaves but the main scope was just too low. I picked up the whole setup and moved it back two meters. Almach was still dead center in the RDF. My astronomy-fu is stronger than anyones! 

Finally up to M31/32, but it was a bit underwhelming, the audience preferred the rendition of this DSO in the Zenithstar 66 last night.

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with a full moon or nearly full moon it was always going to be about the planets and doubles last night.

In the event like @Davesellars i didn't find the seeing really supported the planets; Saturn spoilt by the nearby glaring moon, Jupiter shimmering and with quite bright ADC and Mars also a very bright ADC dominated swimming target. 

I'm still not very organised with doubles so just attempted a few named star types (for practise as much as anything in separation estimation, position angle estimation, and capturing them in a drawing) and selected them based on them being in the North (i.e with my back to the moon).

Achird, Mizar (AB and Alcor), Shedar and Sigma Cassiopeiae all split. Sigma Cassiopeia being a fine but definite 3" separation.

Navi and Caph not split but not having done my homework i'm not sure if they even should be (possible).

Caroline's Rose [NGC 7789] and The Owl Cluster [NGC 457] observed while in the area. I drew the Owl cluster which i assumed to be an upside down "owl" last night. Nice.

Some other nearby globs were not flattered by the very light sky so i didn't "waste them" last night.

The seeing didn't support splitting the double double at 02:00 (my regular sky quality check) even though the elongation was clear. 

Very warm. T-shirt till nearly the end of the session at 02:30 ish.

Cheers

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Another night where I got some good unaided observations of an array of error messages on Remote Desktop Connection.  Good visibility, but not very impressed.  Fortunately that was mostly before we got some good darkness.

Constellations - I'm possibly enjoying this as much as looking through the scope right now.  It's like learning a language only easier. 

M31 & M13 - Could be my imagination, but I think even with the full moon being in a different part of the sky it wasn't as good as the other night.  Found it a lot quicker though.

Lyra - I could just about make out Lyra last night naked eye.  The moon is a pest when you're not looking at it.  Tried to split the double double but I'm not even sure I found it.  I should really plan these things better.

Jupiter - I broke out the Mak 127 for this.  You weren't kidding when you said maks are great on planets.  Much, much better than the newt.  Both the 32mm and the 8mm gave excellent views.  Very clear banding visible.  The 8mm BST was very satisfying.

Saturn - This was the standout for me.  Very clean and crisp.  Beautiful straw colour.  Fairly nips accross the sky.  I tried to barlow up for this, but it was moving too fast and by the time I got the barlow in, I'd lost it.

The Moon - Popped up beside my house so decided to have a look.  Must have left the polarising fitler in the house though but had a gander.  Not my greatest decision as 127mm of aperture rendered it a 'bit' bright.

 

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My third attempt at EEVA ... now with added plate solving ... from the night before last actually ...

The Moon looked no better through the astro camera than through an eyepiece, and I was actually craving a switch to the binoviewer, but today after some post processing I got this image ...

2022_08_10_1.thumb.png.a1138163d5748d045cfc472a078cfcd0.png

Still no better than the binoviewer in my opinion, but much better than I was seeing on the laptop ... but the need for post processing means its not exactly 'close to live view'!

Saturn was a similar story. It may be better if I can wind up the magnification with a Barlow or by using the Mak instead. Must try that with both Saturn and Jupiter.

I manged to see M110 and M33 which I find close to impossible visually. I have seen both visually, but only on rare occasions and only as faint smudges. With EEVA, M110 remained a faint smudge but I could clearly see the spiral structure in M33 (with live stacking, so a 'close to live view'). I produced a better image of M33 today with post processing, but that's not my objective. With an almost full Moon I would not normally have been able to see much of M31 let alone M33, so EEVA will be handy on clear nights with a full Moon when I want to observe DSO targets.

Finally ... plate solving is just amazing! The mount alignment was a bit off (I was using the alignment from a few nights previously) and Altair was 2.5 degrees outside the FoV. I did a plate solve which resynced the mount then did a GOTO, and there was Altair, bang in the middle of the FoV! All the other targets were pretty much bang on after the plate solve too!

 

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Not such a long session tonight. These consecutive late nights are starting to tire me.

Managed 7 doubles in Cygnus, including A 269 at 0.6". I was going to move further up Cygnus to try A 368 at 0.5" but the seeing started wobbling.

Despite the now increasingly wobbly seeing (better than fuzzy seeing though) had some good views of Saturn. In the 12", the 18mm Ortho and Barlow at x178 is remarkably sharp. In the moments when the image wasn't dancing, the sharpness was there, along with crisp contrast bringing out banding really well. Not forgetting an inky black Cassini 👍

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Back in after a couple of hours with Saturn, Luna and Jove, all looking magnificent through the Vixen SD81s (so impressed with this little scope). Though M31 was just a faint smudge in the strong moonlight. The seeing here was quite steady for a change, especially considering the excessive heat we've had throughout the day. Looking forward to observing Jupiter over the rest of the year, as its increased elevation is already showing signs of improvement in the view, over the last couple of seasons.

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This was my 4th night in succession and it was the 8” dobsonians turn and see how the starsense performed with a full moon blowing up the sky. I was pleased that it seemed to perform just fine, apart from a couple of longer than usual pauses while it finds it’s position when very close to the moon. Albireo, Almach, Mizar were found in short order without issue. I then went to a few Messier targets, namely M81/82, M57, M13. I then done a star test on Vega which I was happy to see was virtually perfect to my eye. ( love my new Hotech). Saturn was a bit hazy compared to the previous nights with good seeing. I finished on the Jovian giant with the disc suffering from the same poor seeing as Saturn. I had intended to stay up and view Mars once it had risen higher in the sky, but four nights in a row said otherwise. I’m off to bed now. Goodnight all 💤 .

 

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Observed the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars with the 8'' newtonian. Full moon and low in the sky at 13 degrees, so not a lot of interesting detail to be seen, but some goodies around the shadow side of the limb could be seen. Saturn was not great, too low in the sky for more than fleeting moments of clarity with maybe a glimpse of the cassini division, but that might go into the averted imagination category for this night. Blink and you miss it, quite literally. Jupiter was a treat, as always. GRS staring me in the eye and great detail in the bands to be seen, i am quite liking Jupiter when it gets to 25 degrees and above, quite excited to see if it keeps improving further in the year when it can be seen higher in the sky.

Mars, with a Celestron Mars filter, showed me some kind of dark band horizontally in the east-west direction across the disk, not much more than that but still its something. Still surprised that Mars can be observed at its current tiny size of less than 9 arc seconds.

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Same as previous entries - couldn't resist getting up for the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn - 8SE Cat plus Focal Reducer was in the astroshed, ready for action.  Tracking was very helpful.

Nothing special, the usual Jovian moons and belts; Titan close to Saturn.  The Moon (a day past full) was good when tamed with the polarising filter!

Doug.

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Back home from a couple of weeks holiday - the day started with me being asked if I’d seen the noctilucent clouds and aurora borealis the preceding night! Clearly I hadn’t but apparently the images on a local group in Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway) showed a fine Northern lights display in the wee hours (about 3.40am).  Should be a thread called what I didn’t see last night ☹️

But back on track and despite being fairly tired last night took the 102mm Mak out for a quick look at Jupiter and the full moon. No Perseids spotted, but as always the Maksutov was able to cut through the seeing to provide some excellent banding detail and colour on Jupiter. Looking forward to turning the 10” inch to the planets soon. 

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Was out late/early last night/this morning. The moon, Saturn and Jupiter, although seeing was poor & the moon very bright so I called it a night. However, the best part of the night was when packing up - a very bright and orange Perseid passed just to the left of the moon and even with the bright moonlight it lit up the sky for a brief moment. 

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Had a good look at Jupiter - with an 11mm plossi and 2*barlow got a lovely view - but gosh how quickly it moves through the FOV at that magnification!

Found M13 but it never really resolved  much beyond a distinctive smudge of light - was using about 75x power for best effect. Similar situation with M92.

However was not at my usual spot and there was a lot more light pollution but worth an hour or so in the pleasant warmth of the evening.

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12 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

 

Managed 7 doubles in Cygnus, including A 269 at 0.6". 

 

Although it's a faint pair (border of Cyg/Vul), quite well matched, and seen with 12" of aperture, that's some achievement.  Well done!  (I've yet to get below 0.9".)

Doug.

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