What did you see tonight?

[johnturley]

On 26/08/2022 at 17:24, johnturley said:

Had my best views of Saturn and Jupiter of the year so far last night, Cassini's Division was clearly visible in Saturn's rings, plus the satellites Titan, Rhea, and Iapetus. 

Quite a lot of detail was visible in the Jovian cloud belts, but unfortunately the Great Red Spot was not on show, it should be tonight, but the forecast is cloudy.

Finally turned the telescopes towards Mars, a hint of markings were visible on the tiny 9 arc second disc, plus suspected both the South Polar Cap, and the North Polar Hood.

Also obtained the best images I've taken so far through my Esprit 150, using a ZWO ASI 462 planetary camera, a 2.5x Tele Vue Powermate, and stacked and processed in Registax, I might be able to improve the images further in Lightroom, but not had time to do that so far. I also had a Baader Neodymium filter in the light path, not sure whether this helped.

 

These are virtually the same images, but captured at 800 x 600, instead of 1936 x 1096, and additionally processed in Lightroom, two of the Galilean satellites show up quite nicely. 

Edited August 28, 2022 by johnturley

[RobertI]

On 25/08/2022 at 10:01, Stu said:

I know I can be a bit of a grumpy old man about this, but I would love to see more of these posts as individual reports in the observing section. I find myself skimming through the thread, with some really great observations and it would be good to comment on them rather than just like. One good idea which I think PeterC65 does is to post in the observing forum (or whichever is appropriate), then link to a short summary post here. That works well 👍

That’s a great idea, think I might do that next time I have a decent session to report on in detail. 

[Double Kick Drum]

I used to observe and report very regularly on SGL (between 2009 and 2013) but then became a parent (twice) and so I have only added a half dozen reports over the past decade. It also means my DSO finding mojo is missing in action (or the lack of) - it is surprising how easy navigation is with practice but so disappointing when you come back to it after a long hiatus only to find some relatively easy objects far more difficult to find than before.

Tonight was my first session since March and TBH the sky was not great (VLM less than 5.0 with the odd cumulus drifting by). I spent some time with M57 - the hole in the ring was detectable with the 8mm lens. I also viewed M11 in Scutum and M71 in Sagitta before giving up on M27 (the Dumbbell nebula).

Now the kids are a bit older (eight and six), I should be able to get out a bit more. My oldest has already viewed the moon and Jupiter and is definitely interested. Hopefully there will be opportunities as the nights draw in.

 

[Mr Spock]

There's a fair bit of high cloud around, but the 102 is out ready for some clear patches.

[Mr Spock]

There may be cloud but seeing is perfect - rock steady.

I've just had a look at Albireo to check out my new 2.5x Powermate. 32mm Plössl gives x56, 9mm ortho x99, 9mm orthos x198. At x198 I have textbook airy discs. Two lovely discs, orange and blue. I feel like with the Baader diagonal, Powermate and orthos, I'm getting every last ounce of performance out of the 102.

[Mr Spock]

Took advantage of the seeing to take a look at Saturn. At x198 it's a bit dim, but very sharp. I can see Cassini and some nice belts. A much better view than the 12" a couple of days ago.
If I'd known the seeing was going to be like this I would have gotten the 12" out 

[Mr Spock]

I couldn't resist... just got the 12" out. No cool down time so quite bad tube currents. Still, a nice view of Cassini and the image is much brighter and easier to view. Plus, Jupiter has just come into view from behind the house. Amazing belt detail - far more than the 102, good as it is.

I'm going to wait a while for the scope to cool down. Not much sleep tonight I guess 

[markse68]

Pretty good seeing here in SE London too. I had a much needed relaxing session on the planets which were beautifully sharp, then going through the double star category in the Starsense app. It’s nice to be able to find them so quickly but it does take away a lot of the fun of actually finding them for yourself. It’s a funny list mixing some wide easy doubles with some pretty tricky ones! Then I had a tour of some favourites- Pleiades looked great in the Tal-150p wide field of view with a 32mm. The double cluster was nice but wasn’t amazing with the light pollution and i still can’t see a hint of Caroline’s Rose. But Albireo and Almach were pretty as ever. Then i spent some time trying to split some really tricky doubles in Hyades- I think the seeing in that part of the sky must have been a bit iffy as Delta3 Tau and 80 Tau should be doable (1.8” and 1.5”)  but i only got hints of their b components at 300x but not steady enough to claim a split. Finished on Mars which was steady by then with hints of dark markings but no ice cap visible. And a quick tour round Orion which had risen by then (I had to stay up late as i had a long imaging sequence running) Very nourishing session, Starsense is great but not as good as finding them yourself from a map, Skywatcher 8x50 raci is really awesome and so is my new Tal-150p

Mark

[Stu]

On 20/08/2022 at 12:48, Nyctimene said:

Was out yesterday evening under mostly cloudy or at least hazy skies with the Skywatcher Heritage 130 P Flextube. Good seeing conditions; so I was able to split once more Pi Aquilae (1.4"!) with mag 183x and better with 225x, with a clear dark gap in moments of stable air. When observing M 57, the 13 mag star close by to the East  (GAIA 2090....) was flashing up several times. A mighty little scope; best grab-and-go scope I ever had.

Stephan

Nice one Stephan! The 130p is a great little scope, I too have split Pi Aquilae with it, really pleasing to do with such a supposedly entry level scope 👍

[rojay]

First time out for a while. I saw Albireo, Dumbbell nebula, M71, Jupiter with Europa peeping out over the pole, and Saturn.

Fun!

[Astro_Dad]

A busy family focused weekend has resulted in less time behind the eyepiece, but last night I was able to capitalise on fleeting clarity within a cloud dominated night using the Heritage 150p for a very brief stint on Saturn. Always a good way to end a day… 

[Captain Scarlet]

Set up early and ready for the first session, once again, in what seems like AGES.  My neighbours expressed an interest so I’ll be giving a tour of the greatest hits, with the LZOS at 21x and the 12” at 150x-ish.

Cheers, Magnus 

 

[Ags]

1 hour ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Set up early and ready for the first session, once again, in what seems like AGES.  My neighbours expressed an interest so I’ll be giving a tour of the greatest hits, with the LZOS at 21x and the 12” at 150x-ish.

Cheers, Magnus 

Beautiful!

[Epick Crom]

Last night I continued tracking the progress of comet C/2017 K2PANSTARRS. It was in conjunction with Dschubba (Delta Scorpii 42' away). Adding to the scene was a 10th mag star very close to PANSTARRS coma. God I love this hobby!

Edited August 30, 2022 by Epick Crom

[cajen2]

I've just spent an hour solely on Jupiter (sorry nothing more exotic - the street light just outside my garden means I can't even see stars in Pisces). I was trying out different EPs and filters on my 8" SL dob with interesting results, as the seeing was much better than usual.

The relatively wide FOV with my Morpheus 12.5, 9 and 6.5mm was ideal for reducing the number of nudges needed to keep the planet in view. My two Pentax XWs were significantly worse in this respect. Both makes of EP showed excellent detail - three to four bands were obvious and the four major moons showing clear discs, all strung out to the right of the planet (dob view).

I also experimented with my two filters: a Baader Neodymium, which is supposed to reduce LP and enhance planet views and as a shot in the dark (sorry!) my Astronomik UHC, just to see what it would do. Predictably, the Baader had a subtle but marked effect, reducing Jupiter's glare slightly and enhancing the bands. The UHC is of course a deep-sky filter and it gave a distinctly green glow to the planet. It did improve surface detail, though.

An enjoyable and educational hour on a favourite target.

[Davesellars]

Started out with Jupiter close to midnight with the 102ED as the sky started to clear nicely.  After a couple of hours it was spectacularly transparent with some nice structure in the Milky Way so switched to viewing some DSOs.

[josefk]

10 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Set up early and ready for the first session, once again, in what seems like AGES.  My neighbours expressed an interest so I’ll be giving a tour of the greatest hits, with the LZOS at 21x and the 12” at 150x-ish.

Cheers, Magnus 

 

That just looks idyllic. What a great set-up. 

[Stu1smartcookie]

Sorry to put a downer on this but its what i didnt see last night ... I set up with my evolution mount and placed my little ed60 on it but celestron sky align was a complete disaster as clouds rolled in , the most annoying thing is , this morning was lovely and clear ... The manual alignment procedure failed three times . Not worth even trying the Starsense camera .  Tonights weather looks promising .... IF i want to stay up until 2am !!!! lol 🤣

Edited August 30, 2022 by Stu1smartcookie

[Stu1smartcookie]

13 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Set up early and ready for the first session, once again, in what seems like AGES.  My neighbours expressed an interest so I’ll be giving a tour of the greatest hits, with the LZOS at 21x and the 12” at 150x-ish.

Cheers, Magnus 

 

What a lovely scene ...  nice open surroundings , idealic. 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

The Vixen SLV 5mm received today coincided with intermittent cloud so I managed to observe Saturn and Jupiter. 

Before starting, the cat brought into the garden a small rat to taunt and after chasing the squeeky monster around for a bit with a torch and gravel rake, I carried on! Slightly embarrased because I'd noticed the new neighbours at the back curtain twitching... Anyway...

A decent breeze and humidity didnt help the seeing, but I managed a good hour.

I've not had the 4" ED refractor out for several months and bearing in mind it's a work night, dispensed with electromechanical wizardry, favouring Wobbly Bob aka the Skywatcher AZ5 mount. Using the Vixen SLV 4mm, 5mm and BCO 6mm, Saturn revealed the Cassini Division and atmospheric banding during fleeting moments of good seeing. Titan was the only obvious moon, with Rhea popping in and out of view.

Jupiter was still quite low to the SE and observed between houses so high powers washed out the planet, however the OVL Nirvana-ES 16mm revealed the north & south equatorial belts and fainter north & south temperate belts plus simultaneously the Galiliean moons.

Edited August 30, 2022 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Davesellars]

Despite some clouds (low/mid level) the transparency was again very good.  This time with the 120ST I bagged the North America nebula! Also a great view of the Veil nebula and also a faint nebulae in Pleiades.  M33 was showing well tonight too.

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

So, after my rather annoying cloudy session the other evening , i woke up at 10pm ( that chair is so comfy) and had a quick peak outside ... wow.. clear .

Within 10mins i had the evolution mount set up with the 8se . First thing was "why isnt my starsense camera working" ( i'll come back to this later ) .. so i decided to do a three star alignment with sky portal , which worked a treat .

Like a kid with a new toy i was all over the sky , slewing here and there , Andromeda , M81, M82 , Saturn and a very bright Jupiter , almost too bright ! The only planet i hadn't previously seen was Neptune , but , as its quite close to Jupiter, in the sky at least , i viewed it for the first time last night . Absolutely thrilled to see this giant world even though it was a very small disc . Initially using a 25mm EP , then i 2x barlowed , and then dropped down to a 6mm which is abot 338x mag . All very viewable . The only trouble i had was the wifi on the mount dropped out a few times . But it was a great impromptu session of about 90minutes . 

So, back to the starsense Camera .... firstly ,  schoolboy error , Do Not leave the lens cap on your camera !!! DOH!!

Edited August 31, 2022 by Stu1smartcookie

[StevieDvd]

32 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

So, after my rather annoying cloudy session the other evening , i woke up at 10pm ( that chair is so comfy) and had a quick peak outside ... wow.. clear .

Within 10mins i had the evolution mount set up with the 8se . First thing was "why isnt my starsense camera working" ( i'll come back to this later ) .. so i decided to do a three star alignment with sky portal , which worked a treat .

Like a kid with a new toy i was all over the sky , slewing here and there , Andromeda , M81, M82 , Saturn and a very bright Jupiter , almost too bright ! The only planet i hadn't previously seen was Neptune , but , as its quite close to Jupiter, in the sky at least , i viewed it for the first time last night . Absolutely thrilled to see this giant world even though it was a very small disc . Initially using a 25mm EP , then i 2x barlowed , and then dropped down to a 6mm which is abot 338x mag . All very viewable . The only trouble i had was the wifi on the mount dropped out a few times . But it was a great impromptu dession of about 90minutes . 

So, back to the starsense Camera .... firstly ,  schoolboy error , Do Not leave the lens cap on your camera !!! DOH!!

Before I had even finished reading the "why isnt my starsense camera working" I thought lens cap 🙃

Good to hear you got some quality viewing in.

[Stu1smartcookie]

14 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

Before I had even finished reading the "why isnt my starsense camera working" I thought lens cap 🙃

Good to hear you got some quality viewing in.

Thanks Steve , sometimes its even better when you do not expect to be able to use the scope and the clouds just melt away . Its apparently going to be clear here tonight  too 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Stu1smartcookie

[markse68]

Lovely seeing again on Jupiter last night- caught the Europa transit and was very pleased with the clarity of the black dot shadow from the meagre 6” Tal-150p. Saturn was sharp enough but a bit wobbly. Comparing the view with the Tal-100r, the 150p took more magnification maintaining sharpness but diffraction blur was evident around the disk vs the “clean” chromatic aberration of the refractor 🤣 Both gave pretty pleasing views though.

I compared a few long focal length eps on Pleiades and am coming to the conclusion that i must have astigmatism in my eyes as couldn’t get really sharp stars across the field with any ep at ~2deg fov  Been thinking of buying an expensive wide ep but now thinking i’ll be disappointed and perhaps a trip to optician is in order!

Mark