What did you see tonight?

[wulfrun]

I spent best part of three hours looking (mostly) at Saturn and Jupiter, I got the best views so far this year. I had the 150PL out.

Started on Saturn since it was further south, higher and nearest towards disappearing behind the neighbour's roof. I used a 9mm to start with, in which I could just make out Cassini and what looked like the ring-shadow or banding, not sure which. Titan was easy and at least 4 other moons were visible, either directly or with averted vision and at least some of the time. I upped the mag with a 6mm planetary EP, which pretty much lost me the smaller moons but made the Cassini division a doddle, if a little wobbly, though it took the power pretty well (x200).

Moved on to Jupiter and went back to the 9mm, which just got me all 4 of the galilean moons in the FOV with some spare framing. Banding was obvious but no sharp detail and no GRS around, sadly.I did try the 6mm but the view got worse so I stuck to the 9mm. I noticed one moon getting (visually) closer to the planet, assumed it was Io but nope, checked later and it was Europa. Carried on watching and eventually was rewarded by what I thought was a black dot on Jupiter, the moon's shadow, around 12.30am. By 1.30am it was unmistakable, maybe 1/3 of the way across and Europa was about to be swallowed by Jupiter's glare.

Getting a bit late so I thought of packing up but then realised Mars was well over the rooftops so I had to look. Sadly it was still in the "mush" zone so not really anything to see beyond a red blob. I fancied the colour wasn't even north/south but that might well just be atmospheric effects. I consoled myself with a quick look at the Pleiades and Hyades, above and below Mars and then packed up.

Edited August 31, 2022 by wulfrun
typo

[Stu1smartcookie]

2 hours ago, wulfrun said:

Moved on to Jupiter and went back to the 9mm, which just got me all 4 of the galilean moons in the FOV with some spare framing. Banding was obvious but no sharp detail and no GRS around, sadly.I did try the 6mm but the view got worse so I stuck to the 9mm.

This mirrored my views of Jupiter , i've yet to see the GRS .

[Mandy D]

On 01/08/2022 at 00:35, 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

Looks like you are in AZ mode, there. How does it handle that scope? I might try my 200P like that if I can find some tube rings for it. Is yours the 1000 mm focal length version?

Good luck with your recovery.

[Astro_Dad]

Looking to be a mixed night cloud wise but travelling optimistically… feels like it’s been a while! Cooling the Dob…

 

[paulastro]

7 minutes ago, Astro_Dad said:

Looking to be a mixed night cloud wise but travelling optimistically… feels like it’s been a while! Cooling the Dob…

 

Have a great night, cloudy here.

[Pixies]

My dob is out cooling too.  Will be spending some time around Cygnus, I think.

If it stays clear, there's a shadow transit from around 3am this morning (Io) - I might set an early alarm.

[Captain Scarlet]

Unexpectedly clear, I umm-ed and ahh-ed and roused myself to whisk out the LZOS 105 and ayo2 to see if I could finally get the whole Veil in one field (I did!), and to look for the North America and Pelican Nebula for the very first time. Both with my Baader 2” Oiii.

Both successes, using the Nagler 31 for 21x and nearly 4 degree field, but neither terribly impressive, there was a milky sheen to everything such that the MW, so impressive two nights ago, was rather washed out.

I popped in the Ethos 4.7 for quick looks at Jupiter and Saturn at 138x and that was it. Two “ticks” but to be revisited on a more transparent night. The Veil-in-one-field was good though.

And there were 2-3 serious flashes from over the hill towards SSE, which I looked up were some heavy thunderstorms just off the coast of Brest.

Magnus

 

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Captain Scarlet

[RobertI]

Had a brief session to see how wide a view I could get with my Zenithstar 66 and binoviewers. The result was a respectable 1.7 degrees at 39x. Stars were beautiful pinpoints and I had some nice views of the clusters in Cassiopeia and Cygnus and some doubles. Jupiter and Saturn looked good even at this low magnification - low power views of Jupiter really highlight the Jovian system with its satellites.   

[Astro_Dad]

It turned out to be a battle against the clouds for me, so didn't make a serious dent in my ambitious list of late Summer targets, but managed part of my planetary nebula hunt part 2...

Using the StarSense 10" with 32mm GSO Plossl eyepiece, 7-21mm zoom (SvBony) along with Baader O-III filter.

NGC6781 Snowglobe nebula in Aquila - very faint fuzzy object, couldn't see any structure, but it was there with averted vision!

NGC6751 Glowing Eye nebula , blue hued dot as appeared though the O-III, closer inspection revealed a ring but not as clear or sharp as the Ring nebula.

NGC6826 Blinking nebula - tricky to locate even with StarSense as so close to the zenith , but I'm fairly sure I clocked it - it was certainly a blinking object using the averted vision trick.

With clouds rolling in and out it took over an hour to see these three - decided to pack up at around 1am (way too late for a school night) but then spotted Jupiter shining brightly overhead, so finished with a lovely brief view of the planet - easier on the eyes than these faint fuzzies!

 

[Ratlet]

Another night of figuring out how things work.  Setup the Tair to do the crescent nebula (not the ideal target for an unmodified DSLR but I wanted a fairly dense starfield for testing) and left it cooking.  Probably one of my more successsful evenings with that.  I finally got everything to work together.

M27 - as much a test of star hopping as anything.  Managed to find my way from Albireo (great place to start).  Managed to find it surprisingly easy.  Pleased to note that my observation matched sketches by other people as well.  Attempted a sketch but it was a bit guff and I wasn't really setup for it.  First Observation of M27.

M31 - meant to be another star hopping however I could see the stars either side of M31 visually so it was largely point and shoot.  Dew was becoming an issue here, so largely only saw the core and the condensation.

M13 - At this point I was getting horribly dewed out.  All my eyepieces were getting fogged up and the Starguider as basically useless.  Managed to basically just point and land on it.

Pleiades - Had basically given up at this point, but could just about make it out through the trees about 20° up so waited for it to clear a bit more and framed it up quite pleasant, but the cold and damp was getting to be a bit much.  Still worth it, this marks my first observation of the open cluster!

All in all a good night, learned a few things (I need bigger finder charts than what I've been making, the mily way is amazing from my back garden; I should get some constellation binos, dew is a killer and it will be much colder than you think lol).

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Ratlet

[Pixies]

12 hours ago, Pixies said:

My dob is out cooling too.  Will be spending some time around Cygnus, I think.

If it stays clear, there's a shadow transit from around 3am this morning (Io) - I might set an early alarm.

Clouds came over around midnight but when they cleared, the transparency improved significantly. Managed the Veil and the North American 'wall' before I hit the pit.

I set the alarm for 3am but slept through it and awoke at 7am with everything still outside and covered in dew. 🙄

[cajen2]

9 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Clouds came over around midnight but when they cleared, the transparency improved significantly. Managed the Veil and the North American 'wall' before I hit the pit.

I set the alarm for 3am but slept through it and awoke at 7am with everything still outside and covered in dew. 🙄

Sign of age, Neil. It's the sort of thing I'd do too.

[Pixies]

22 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

Sign of age, Neil. It's the sort of thing I'd do too.

Not sure about a sign of age. My teenage kids are more than capable of sleeping through their alarms!

[StevieDvd]

Another capture though not sure if it's a meteor or man made:

[Astro_Dad]

It’s gone from bad to worse … was hoping for at least an early evening session tonight…

Edited September 1, 2022 by Astro_Dad

[HollyHound]

1 hour ago, Astro_Dad said:

It’s gone from bad to worse … was hoping for at least an early evening session tonight…

Same here, was rather hoping to get even a few minutes with the new binoculars, but wall to wall cloud 😬

Ho hum 🤣

[Pixies]

Have been spending some time on the gas giants tonight.  8" dob and some LVW EPs and a Baader Neo filter.

Saturn pretty low over some nearby roofs, so seeing generally poor, with occasional flashes of clarity. Managed to spot some  of the moons: Titan and Rhea both clear, Tethys with averted vision mainly but direct occasionally, and Dione also occasionally with a.v.

Now the seeing for Jupiter was frequently great. I was getting detail in both equatorial belts with a large festoon showing from the N eq band into the equatorial zone. There was a white oval 'gap' in the N eq belt to the western side. Details in the tropical zones and the temperate belts were showing too.

I'm going back out after a beer. Pleasantly warm outside still.

[HarryLP]

Observing Date 31st Aug 2022 2230 to 0045

200p DOB

The skies were as clear as I have ever seen them before, though in my limited experience that is not an indicator of "Seeing".

Constellations, milky way, Jupiter, Saturn all visible naked eye. Started off trying out with the Omni 15mm + Omni 2* Barlow giving pin sharp views of Jupiter and Saturn. Cassini very evident plus either ring shadow or equatorial belt. Several belts visible on Jupiter, maybe a smudge (GRS ?) on the right side?

Toured around the night sky, Almach, Albireo the most vivid blue secondaries I have ever seen. M31, M32 and I think a first for me M110 a very very faint smudge. Good separation on the double double.

Strangely I was unable to pick out M71, M57 or M56.

Eyes by this time well dark adapted, back to Jupiter and Saturn using the TMB II 8mm, 5mm and even the 4mm holding a solid image. A resounding YES on my first sighting of the GRS which by now was centrally located. It looked just like on many of the familiar images we have all looked at. A slightly oval shape sitting within its belt, looks like its sitting within a 'frame' not red but rather a burnt orange. Even colour within the main belts and greyish white in the polar regions. Spent a good 45 minutes observing it.

Just before packing up Mars just clearing the rooftops behind in the mush zone. But with a lower mag 15mm was able to firm up the disk and a hint of dark in the middle.

The forecast for the next night 1st Sept was to be excellent...it was a cloudy wash out, so I will have to wait a while yet to see if I can repeat my GRS success.

[Ratlet]

There were rumours of cloud last night, but looking at the satellite imaging it looked to be tracking right over the glens and missing us completely.

M32 - I was actually wanting to try the 8mm BST on M31 but as my eyes got dialed in I could swear there was some fuzzyness around the stars.  Decided to attempt a sketch of it as I wasn't sure.  Checked in the morning and the sketch matched up for M32.  Pretty chuffed with that.  First observation of M32.

M103 - practice at star hopping again.  I really need to do the charts more zoomed in or try and figure out a decent magnitude range.  Wasn't sure what I was supposed to see and since I didn't want to blow my dark adaptation so I just sketched the tight little triangle of stars and some of the surrounding area.  Turns out it was M103!  Nice wee cluster.  First observation of m103

M33 - I tried to observe it but I'm not sure I did.  I probably should have sketched the area...  Nothing distinct.  Just a faint brightening in an area.  Possibly.

Sketching is awesome.  They don't have to be fancy, but I know with absolute certainty that I'm nailing some of these objects because of my sketches.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Ratlet

[Pixies]

21 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

There were rumours of cloud last night, but looking at the satellite imaging it looked to be tracking right over the glens and missing us completely.

M32 - I was actually wanting to try the 8mm BST on M31 but as my eyes got dialed in I could swear there was some fuzzyness around the stars.  Decided to attempt a sketch of it as I wasn't sure.  Checked in the morning and the sketch matched up for M32.  Pretty chuffed with that.  First observation of M32.

M103 - practice at star hopping again.  I really need to do the charts more zoomed in or try and figure out a decent magnitude range.  Wasn't sure what I was supposed to see and since I didn't want to blow my dark adaptation so I just sketched the tight little triangle of stars and some of the surrounding area.  Turns out it was M103!  Nice wee cluster.  First observation of m103

M33 - I tried to observe it but I'm not sure I did.  I probably should have sketched the area...  Nothing distinct.  Just a faint brightening in an area.  Possibly.

Sketching is awesome.  They don't have to be fancy, but I know with absolute certainty that I'm nailing some of these objects because of my sketches.

- are we not going to see the sketches?

[Ratlet]

1 hour ago, Pixies said:

- are we not going to see the sketches?

You can see on M32 I got very excited after watching refreshing views and used my blending stump.

North is marked incorrectly on M27 as well.  Good job it's in pencil

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Ratlet

[Pixies]

6 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

You can see on M32 I got very excited after watching refreshing views and used my blending stump.

North is marked incorrectly on M27 as well.  Good job it's in pencil

 

Yep - that looks like M32.

In a low-power, wide-field, it's easy to mistake it as a star.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Jupiter's Io shadow transit observed between 2150 and 2225 when cloud cover stopped play. A humid night with poor seeing and transparency. The planet low and observed between houses. Observing the moon proved very difficult however the Vixen SLV 5mm showed the transit shadow well, following the southern equatorial belt 

Unfortunately I finally succumbed to that pig sick feeling some of you have experienced, when I decided to complacently lower my tripod legs and leave the scope locked on the mount... Well you guessed it I forgot to duck, stood from bending, hit the dew shield with my back and the whole lot crashed over.

The focuser end hit the paved area and the rest on the grass. Luckily the 9x50 finder seems to have taken the brunt, the finder shoe and screws ripped out and the finder eyepiece snapped off landing several feet away. 🙄

I carried on observing after checking everything over and besides the above, everything else seems OK including collimation. A quick peek at Saturn before the clouds covered that too, revealed Cassini.

Super glue should fix it. ☹️

[ONIKKINEN]

Finally time for a true first light with the 90mm Long Perng on an AZ5 under dark skies. Have looked at M31, M33 which was surprisingly easy to spot (no detail of course), Cruising around Cygnus with a 24mm and a 3+ degree FOV in search of the veil but no cigar on that one, Dumbell, Ring nebula, Double cluster, Pleiades and some open clusters in Auriga and of course Jupiter which was pretty good just now.

Very low effort setup to use while the astrophotography does its own thing. Not having go-to takes some getting used to but its not too difficult to find things with the wide FOV so overall a pleasant experience.

Edited September 2, 2022 by ONIKKINEN

[ONIKKINEN]

Aurora! Quite obvious too. Saw this naked eye even with the lights right there. Has there been a flare or something? This is not commom even at 60N.

Edit: Shows over already. Lasted just a few minutes. Very odd😲.

Edited September 2, 2022 by ONIKKINEN