What did you see tonight?

[Ags]

9 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

It's my first chance to use the 4mm Nirvana. I can't believe how good it is. It looses nothing on the 4mm SLV on Jupiter and I think I prefer it on the moon.

That's high praise - I know how good the SLVs are and how much you like them! I remember my Nirvana 16 was phenomenal on the moon.

[markse68]

Super clear here in London last night (but cold!) Had a very pleasant night on the planets and moon- best yet view of Mars- looked a lot like @johnturley’s image   There is a large dust storm at the moment but I think it was round the other side.

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/27049/mars-dust-storm-in-relation-to-insight-curiosity-and-perseverance/

Strange there’s no polar ice cap visible this year. I stayed up to see Europa disappear as it started its transit but was too tired and cold to wait for it’s shadow. GRS was very well defined.

It was first light for a new ep and it was all i used all night- a Nikon MCii zoom. It’s rather good! I didn’t feel like i was missing anything anyway. 

Mark

[Felias]

8 hours ago, Astro_Dad said:

Excellent image, well done there. Can clearly see Ganymede. Unfortunately poorly youngest child here last night so no observing for me though I did spot how close Jupiter was to the Moon. Nice view through the window! 

Thanks, I hope your child is better. Mine kept stomping near the tripod, so it's a miracle I got any picture at all!

[Ags]

Last night I set aside my camera, and ventured forth with my ZS66 fitted with a 4.9mm eyepiece. Despite the small aperture and limited magnification (80x) the GRS was easy to spot and very strongly colored. Later in the evening the ZS66 took in Mars with a 3.1mm eyepiece (130x) and the phase was visible, along with some brightness on the southern edge and darkening just north of that - about what I am getting photographically with my C6 - although I'm not sure if that is a testament to the optical excellence of the ZS66, or due to my limitations as a photographer!

Edited October 10, 2022 by Ags

[IB20]

I can see a bright white/cream spot in Jupiter’s equatorial zone just above the boundary of the SEB, it’s currently fairly central. I first saw it in the 8” dob at 120x and confirmed the observation with the refractor. Not quite sure what it is, possibly a white spot or oval which would be a first for me. Hopefully one of the planetary APs get an image of it. 

Edited October 10, 2022 by IB20

[Zermelo]

A couple of the apps were predicting clear until about 23.00, and they were correct. The cloud is just moving in now.

With the moon up, I spent most of the time on Jupiter and Saturn with the Mak. Saturn wasn't great, but Jupiter was better. The NEB and SEB were showing some good detail, and there were clearly two belts further South and one in the North. The best views were given by the Morpheus 9mm and BCO 10mm - nothing to choose between them. At around 22.05 there was a nice occultation of Io, the first I've seen. Europa was hidden all evening.

[josefk]

A very bright grey night here last night in Northamptonshire - battleship grey sky all around (i think a lot of moisture in the high atmosphere) and a glowing beige/grey haze in the direction of the Moon so not promising. Nevertheless possibly the only "clear" night of the week this week so worth grabbing.

Mars and Jupiter very bright and hazy so little point trying. There were only two moons showing for Jupiter though and i'm not sure i've ever seen that before - three often but i'm not sure for two.

Pointing higher up i revisited NGC 7026 first observed last Friday - its a Planetary Nebula mistakenly catalogued in a multiple star system with BUP 9010 and there are four stars overall. I couldn't see the C and D companions and NGC 7026 was "less fat" than Friday so i think the brighter sky was diminishing what could be observed. 

A second Planetary Nebula for the night was IC 5217 in Lacerta. This was never anything other than stellar and needed careful star counting and star hopping within the FOV to be sure. It is in a kind of sideways question mark "asterism" and is the corner star. Quite dim versus the others in the arrangement but with O-III it is more prominent while its companions recede.

Then two Herschels - a slow start on October:

H VIII-75 (NGC 7243/Caldwell 16); an aesthetic open cluster in Lacerta. No real sparkle against this bright sky. 

H VII-44 (NGC 7510); an open cluster in Cepheus. Needed a bit of magnification to create contrast (140x) but also quite pretty. Near this object is the tiny Open Cluster Markarian 50. Really really subtle. Could be identified easily enough by half a dozen stars with direct vision but only really opened up with averted vision but even then not fully. SSP has this cluster as 2' across!.

Not bad for a school night and with the big light switched on!

Edited October 11, 2022 by josefk

[allworlds]

Not great conditions, lot of thin cloud and gaps, but broke the 105 Mak out anyway. Viewed Jupiter and saw the Great Red Spot clear as you like, first time I have. Quite distinct shading on the north polar area too. But generally not as much crisp detail as I saw the other day. I didn't bother to let the scope cool properly which won't help.

Found Uranus despite not having a finder on my scope right now. Helped that it was near the Moon and there's a distinctive three-pointed asterism pointing the way.

And a bit of lunar. A crater with a distinctive line from centre to rim stood out - Petavius I believe.

[Stu]

Had a very quick session last night with the Tak FC-76Q. Just looked at Jupiter after seeing posts on GRS being visible. Nice views, GRS showing a bit of colour and some detail showing in the belts.

Full report here:

 

[ED Splitter]

Quick session last night. Testing out a recently acquired Pentax xw5mm. 
already had a vixen 5mm slv and I did ponder the purchase, would I see a good return etc. As I still need a good lower power eyepiece. 
I started with the vixen in the scope pointing at Saturn to remind myself of the slv capabilities as a baseline. Saturn looked the best I have ever seen through it, could make out Cassini division and cloud belts but the image was overall dim and you could clearly make out imperfections in the eyepiece glass. It was also frustrating to track as 45degree wide FOV isn’t forgiving on a manual mount. 
I then swapped out the slv for the xw, I was expecting an improvement in contrast and field of view but it was significantly more. No imperfections, crystal clear and what appeared to be a somewhat brighter appearance in overall presentation that had good contrast not washed out. Eye relief should be the same for both but xw felt superior I can only put this down to field of view and giving an impression of this as an improvement. It has restored my faith in the ability of the 100ED to show high mag views.  For the last few months I had limited mag to a 9mm nagler which was far superior to slv albeit smaller.  
I then switched to Jupiter and could make out Io outside the planet disc and it’s shadow clearly on the planet disc. Seeing wasn’t great, previously I needed a filter to make out a shadow transit at 9mm which always felt a bit of cheat and artificial in presentation.  I went back to Saturn for 10mins of wonderful viewing and finished splitting the double double in Lyra something I couldn’t do with the SLV. Overall a fantastic outing considering poor conditions and being limited to one focal length of eyepiece. 
 

clear skies. 

[MalcolmM]

Not so much last night but early this morning between my coffee and my toast! The real meaning of grab 'n' go! FOA60Q on Gitzo traveller with Manfrotto fluid head; thumb and forefinger grab 'n' go! Got a couple of minutes on Mars. First time ever seeing obvious detail on the surface. Suspicion of a polar cap and a triangular dark patch roughly a quarter the size of the slightly non-circular disk. 

Malcolm

[Astro_Dad]

Fairly cloudy last night at times and intermittently poor seeing, but popped outside half way through Question Time to see what I could see through the six incher. Spent some quality time on Jupiter - a surprising amount of detail on offer including a little later the GRS. Belts and zones distinctive and sharp through the 10mm Nirvana (so only 75x power) which is quickly proving to be an excellent item to have in my arsenal. Another delightful moon arrangement with all 4 positioned off to the West. 
A brief look at Saturn but a tree obscured mostly and I didn’t return as was distracted by an incredibly loud and vocal  family of frogs around the pond - unusual for this time of year but that’s for another thread…

[MalcolmM]

15 minutes ago, Astro_Dad said:

popped outside half way through Question Time

What? You skipped out of Question Time with the brilliant Fiona Bruce to look at Jupiter! That's dedication!

I saw some great detail on Jupiter but packed it in before the GRS came into view.

I was using a 7.5 LE in the FOA 60Q and thought the detail was astounding. I then attached the Binoviewers with two 15mm Plossl's and saw even more!

A great advertisement for Binoviewers! 

Malcolm

[Kon]

I had the best 15 min with my 7 year old son who wanted to see the planets and a nebula before bed time. I was cooling the Dob for some planetary imaging so it was good to go. Saturn and Jupiter were on display. He was excited to see the colour bands in Jupiter and the Saturn rings. I then moved the telescope to M57 and he was amazed to see it. I mentioned to him about the Wizard nebula before and he is into his Harry Potter books but I explained him it is near impossible to see it. He wants to see the Owl  and Orion, when winter comes, as they were his first nebulas to see last year. I think I have converted him to observing nebulas from a young age.

[cajen2]

"What did I see.....?" Simple answer: not much!

My partner came home about 8.30 and said, "Did you know the sky's clear?" I didn't - it had been cloudy an hour before but it was....got the 8" SL dob out to cool. Half an hour later, I went out - still clear. I'd decided I wanted to view a couple of DSOs around Ursa Major (M51 and 101) but when I was just on M51, it disappeared. Cloud. Sigh. The East was still clear so I went for Jupiter while waiting but the seeing was terrible and I couldn't work out why. Elementary mistake: from my point of view, it was fine if a bit close to the roof, but from the scope's view it was on the edge. Sigh. Looked at UM and it showed clear again, but the area round the galaxies was fuzzy with high cloud. Resorted to viewing Mizar and its companions and they were great - got three stars in the FOV of the Morph 6.5. Then they disappeared too. Sigh. A quick check and the whole sky was hazy. So I've come in with the vain hope it'll clear later.

Ever had a session when everything is a problem? 😥

Edit: just went back out and the sky was clear again. Huzzah! But the scope, finder and EPs were all covered in dew. Sigh.....

Edited October 14, 2022 by cajen2

[UKDiver]

Just a couple of minutes of Jupiter tonight, dodging the cloud. A great night though, first time a friend has seen Jupiter with their own eyes. A happy bunny. Hopefully next time will be even better as Saturn was completely obscured and even the moon barely worth a look. 

[Paul M]

Having recently pimped my Celestron 127Mak (SLT mount) with a new diagonal and moved it to our dark sky(ish) getaway in Cumbria, I had my first proper visual session in years tonight.

Not sure how successful it was though! Looking at the zenith with this lickle Mak puts the eyepiece at crouching height. I need a stool! 

Anyway, First off was Saturn, just in time to see it run for cover behind a tree. I thought I set up far enough back to keep Saturn in view but obviously not! I did get to positively identify Titan before losing the view.

Jupiter was just Jupiter. Nothing exciting happening with moons and shadows tonight!

By now the Moon was rising and it washed out the Milkyway and fainter stuff. So I decided to look up an object I've imaged a number of times though not recently, Nova V1405 Cas. That nova that just wouldn't die in Cassiopeia. It's mag 11 something now I think but I'm fairly confident I got it. The highlight was actually M52. My first visual sighting of this object. Looked very nice in the little mak.

 

[Epick Crom]

2 hours ago, Kon said:

I had the best 15 min with my 7 year old son who wanted to see the planets and a nebula before bed time. I was cooling the Dob for some planetary imaging so it was good to go. Saturn and Jupiter were on display. He was excited to see the colour bands in Jupiter and the Saturn rings. I then moved the telescope to M57 and he was amazed to see it. I mentioned to him about the Wizard nebula before and he is into his Harry Potter books but I explained him it is near impossible to see it. He wants to see the Owl  and Orion, when winter comes, as they were his first nebulas to see last year. I think I have converted him to observing nebulas from a young age.

Good work Kostas. Gotta convert them from a young age! My son is a similar age to yours ( he is 9). He loves Jupiter the most 😄

[Epick Crom]

1 hour ago, cajen2 said:

"What did I see.....?" Simple answer: not much!

My partner came home about 8.30 and said, "Did you know the sky's clear?" I didn't - it had been cloudy an hour before but it was....got the 8" SL dob out to cool. Half an hour later, I went out - still clear. I'd decided I wanted to view a couple of DSOs around Ursa Major (M51 and 101) but when I was just on M51, it disappeared. Cloud. Sigh. The East was still clear so I went for Jupiter while waiting but the seeing was terrible and I couldn't work out why. Elementary mistake: from my point of view, it was fine if a bit close to the roof, but from the scope's view it was on the edge. Sigh. Looked at UM and it showed clear again, but the area round the galaxies was fuzzy with high cloud. Resorted to viewing Mizar and its companions and they were great - got three stars in the FOV of the Morph 6.5. Then they disappeared too. Sigh. A quick check and the whole sky was hazy. So I've come in with the vain hope it'll clear later.

Ever had a session when everything is a problem? 😥

Edit: just went back out and the sky was clear again. Huzzah! But the scope, finder and EPs were all covered in dew. Sigh.....

I think we have all had some sessions were everything went wrong. I have had quite a few of those 😢

[Guest]

3 hours ago, cajen2 said:

"What did I see.....?" Simple answer: not much!

My partner came home about 8.30 and said, "Did you know the sky's clear?" I didn't - it had been cloudy an hour before but it was....got the 8" SL dob out to cool. Half an hour later, I went out - still clear. I'd decided I wanted to view a couple of DSOs around Ursa Major (M51 and 101) but when I was just on M51, it disappeared. Cloud. Sigh. The East was still clear so I went for Jupiter while waiting but the seeing was terrible and I couldn't work out why. Elementary mistake: from my point of view, it was fine if a bit close to the roof, but from the scope's view it was on the edge. Sigh. Looked at UM and it showed clear again, but the area round the galaxies was fuzzy with high cloud. Resorted to viewing Mizar and its companions and they were great - got three stars in the FOV of the Morph 6.5. Then they disappeared too. Sigh. A quick check and the whole sky was hazy. So I've come in with the vain hope it'll clear later.

Ever had a session when everything is a problem? 😥

Edit: just went back out and the sky was clear again. Huzzah! But the scope, finder and EPs were all covered in dew. Sigh.....

Had nights like that.  Its like why did I even bother 

[scarp15]

A late start pursuing Jupiter as it edged south. In the vicinity and quite easy to locate is Neptune, lovely to observe as it glides across a wide field eyepiece. Jupiter was accepting high power; South Temperate Belt region prominent, as was the hazy North Polar Region. The Great Red Spot revealed just before taking back inside the 8" F6 dob. 

[Astro_Dad]

What did I see this morning at about 11am? - the waning Moon! And a great way to entertain my three year old who was quite fascinated to see it through a telescope. Short session such are attention spans (and cloud drifting over) but still, at least I’ve done some observing today already! 😂

Edited October 15, 2022 by Astro_Dad

[Guest]

Woke up early this morning with full intent to drag the 10 inch out.  Looked outside..... 100% cloud cover.  Oh well at least the coffee is good. 

[Whistlin Bob]

Today is an outreach day. Just the one star- and about 40 seen it so far 😀😀😀

[HollyHound]

Very brief (25 mins only), again due to lots of cloud... but a sudden clear area popped up, just as I was taking the dog out before bed, so grabbed the Canon IS 50x50 and had a quick look...

Jupiter - Beautiful with four moons strung out (two per side)

Mars - This is getting brighter each time I see it now, so can't wait for opposition (FOA-60Q and Mewlon I think)

Pleaides - These binoculars are absolutely the perfect tool to view these - It frames them nicely and I've never seen so much detail in binoculars before

Moon (of course) - Had a good 10 mins on this exploring - Again, I've never seen to much detail in (hand held) binoculars before, really cool to view without mounts, tripods etc!

As I said, it was only quick, but well proves the value of these binoculars for quick looks 😁