What did you see tonight?

[Astro_Dad]

19/11

Stump Cross Caverns (Yorkshire Dales) Dark Skies Event

Something a bit different tonight - a Dark Skies event at nearby Stump Cross Caverns, combining astronomy with geology - another interest of mine.

Astronomers Chris Higgins and Martin Whipp, from the Lime Tree Observatory gave a presentation overlooking the splendid North Yorkshire Dales (in December 2020, we were designated an International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark-Sky Association).

Sadly no clear skies tonight though - quite the opposite with thick fog descending, but still (in the spirit of this thread) did see and get hands on with some interesting astronomy related objects. Notably a fascinating collection of meteorite fragments. The most interesting was undoubtedly a piece of the Allende meteorite, which broke up in the atmosphere at Chihuahua, Mexico near the village of Pueblito de Allende, in 1969. The main interest here is that inclusions in Allende (and other carbonaceous chondrites) are thought to be the earliest-formed solids in the solar nebula. The experts were keen to point out for example the c7 billion year old nanodiamonds within the material - these have been well studied and form a remarkable story. 

The evening concluded with an exploration of the cave system - which I’ve visited before, but this was the first time I’ve experienced it illuminated with a UV torch only, highlighting quite spectacularly the features in the limestone and calcite structures. So an interesting and unusual Saturday night despite the very unclear skies!

[paulastro]

Excellent description of what sounds like a great evening Andrew.

 

[scotty1]

Visited Stump Cross Caverns in the late 80s, remember it being on a high area plateau. Would like to see how dark it is, it's bortle 4.5-5 hereabouts on a good night.

Also did White scar caverns, and Ingleton waterfall trail. 

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by scotty1

[Stu1smartcookie]

Hmmm not convinced, we will see, hopefully  

Edited November 20, 2022 by Stu1smartcookie

[Ratlet]

2 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Hmmm not convinced, we will see, hopefully  

Think tonight is going to be clear for a lot of the country.  Going to be WILD in here tomorrow lol.

Hoping some more folk will post some sketches lol.

[Knighty2112]

5 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Think tonight is going to be clear for a lot of the country.  Going to be WILD in here tomorrow lol.

Hoping some more folk will post some sketches lol.

Fingers crossed! 😀

[Astro_Dad]

The situation looks to be improving…

[Stu1smartcookie]

3 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Think tonight is going to be clear for a lot of the country.  Going to be WILD in here tomorrow lol.

Hoping some more folk will post some sketches lol.

And ….. yes yes yes , very clear although a bit nippy , but I have gone outside with shorts on !!! Viewing through some 15x70 Celestron Binos tonight , the plaides , double cluster look great … but tonight the best view so far is Andromeda  , definitely my best view yet .

[Ratlet]

What did I see tonight?  Fog mostly.

Between getting home and getting the kids to bed the clouds descended.  Not ideal.

Not a complete bust though just before it got cloudy I went to set my kit up in the shed and it was incredible.  You could clearly see the milky way from Cas to Cygnus.  

I did setup briefly but Jupiter was the only target and even that was through fog.  I did come testing with my kit and put my telescope through an old t-shirt so I could use the shirt as a hood of sorts and cover the eyepiece when I walked away.  It worked very well and is probably going to live on the scope.  I might get the missus to make something purpose built.

I also tried sitting down on a chair and observing.  As the Mandalorian would say "it is the way".  Even on a camping chair it was great and it was a bit low.  Going to have to investigate building an observing chair.

Speaking of low, I had to collapse my tripod legs to get it to work.  This eliminated the wobbles my 130pds has experienced since I got it.  Looks like I'll need to get a new tripod.  Oh well, at least it'll be cheaper than a dob.

[allworlds]

Nice and clear early evening in Birmingham.

Started things off with an ISS pass. Fairly low and this was a "fade out" pass. The ISS went impressively red as it passed into Earth's shadow before fading to invisibility. I was spotting satellites through the whole observing session - naked eye, in the finder, and even one or two zipping through the eyepiece view.

Then time for a spot of DSO hunting with the ETX 105. Found Albireo more by luck than judgement and that was my "anchor point" for viewing in Cygnus and Lyra. M57 was easy with direct vision and upping the power to 75x made the ring shape evident. M56 was more difficult before I had a "there it is!" moment while moving the scope a bit. Invisible with direct vision and merely suspected with averted, it was moving the scope that really seemed to make it stand out. It was next to a faint star which if I'm checking Stellarium right might actually have been a cluster member?

By the time I reached the double double half my aperture was blocked by a building, as betrayed by the shape of a very out-of-focus star image. At 200x the southern member was elongated but not a proper split and the northern not split. Mirror shift was a right so-and-so too.

Finished with M29. Not many members visible, but even though it's in a busy patch of the Milky Way it's sort of set aside a bit, the little square of stars did stand out and a check on my phone confirmed it was the cluster.

I didn't feel like looking at Jupiter, and Mars wasn't high enough up yet.

I'm getting the hang of the scope. Turn Left at Orion, along with practicing my star hopping in Stellarium, is working well and even though the finder is tiny (8x25) it does OK. The initial pointing is still troublesome though with the finder being right-angled. I might try and knock up a peep sight, all it would need to do is get a target star in the finder FOV.

[Pixies]

Just setting up now.  What's the seeing like tonight? I haven't had a good session with Mars at all this year!

[Astro_Dad]

Good opportunity to observe Mars tonight - the forecasts were correct, clear enough to get some god observing in, a stark contrast to last nights dense fog. 

I had a brief, enjoyable session with my Heritage 150p Virtuoso GTi. Using a simple 2- star alignment and GOTO to speed things up I quickly swept up the usual suspects M81, M82, M31, M45. I revisited the attractive open cluster NGC 1664 (in Auriga) - it’s kite like form distinctive and as good as I recalled from my first visit here with my 8”. Also tried another recommendation from @paulastro -  NGC 6871, a very nice open cluster in Cygnus. I’ll be returning here. 

Then a quick look at Jupiter which was appearing impressively sharp in my SvBony 7-21 zoom eyepiece before finishing on Mars. It was Mars that really stole the show for me tonight - the clearest view I’ve had by far with impressive albedo features showing more clearly than I’ve seen previously, sticking to 150x power using the zoom. 

Quite a contrast to last nights foggy trip to the caves looking at meteorite samples with the local astronomers! Tonight’s session rounded off a great weekend of Astronomy for me. 
 

[Epick Crom]

A clear night last night here in Perth. Had an ok view on M31 and M32, still can't see M110. Moved over to Cetus and split Kaffaldijhma (Gamma Ceti). It a charming double with close white and yellow components. Took in M77 which is always a sentimental favourite for me as it was the first ever galaxy I saw through a telescope 🔭. After that it was time to head off indoors for the opening game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup ⚽

[Paul M]

Serious imaging session tonight. Not...

Working a night-shift and the clouds parted. Still hazy and awful sky glow from Blackpool. 

So here is a snap from my phone camera. Mars innit!

Edited November 21, 2022 by Paul M

[Stu1smartcookie]

5 hours ago, Paul M said:

Serious imaging session tonight. Not...

Working a night-shift and the clouds parted. Still hazy and awful sky glow from Blackpool. 

So here is a snap from my phone camera. Mars innit!

Loving the Plaides , Alderberan and Orion ... A great part of the sky at this time of year

 

[starhiker]

I finally got about 1-2 hours clear skies last night for probably 2 weeks. I decided to check around some DSO in Lyra and Cygnus before they are gone from the easy accessible sky of my garden.

While I was checking Lyra, a light dot moving pretty quick from Lyra ascending in about NW direction. It probably has a magnitude between 3-4 as I can easily track it in my finder under the Bortle 6 sky, but not quite in the naked eyes. It takes about 5-10 seconds to move about 2.5 degree (half of the FOV of my finder). Not sure what it is, I suspect it is a satellite. I couldn't tell from a 40x eyepiece, and I was not able to change eyepiece while hand tracking a fast object like this.

Lyra: Ring nebula found, but failed to identify m56. I am sure my dob should be able to resolve m56, but I couldn't tell if I am looking at it.

Cygnus: m29, NGC6871, NGC6910. Tried to identify veil nebula, but I couldn't distinct them visually. When I am trying to find others, clouds are back!

 

[josefk]

Fantastic "grab 'n' go" in Burghley Park last night starting with a couple of discreet Struve star pairs just inside or on the edge of the Open Cluster IC 348 near 40 Per (Struve 437 and 439) and culminating in a view of Mars where i could actually observe it as something other than a glaring orange blob. Using a small refractor even at very low magnification (70x) was infinitely more satisfying than it has been to date this year using my Cassegrain. No glaring diffraction "beams" to ruin the illusion, no atmospheric shimmer and a small (ish) exit pupil for a manageable (not too bright) image. The darkness of Syrtis Major was almost creating a "donut" like effect so very definite and very pleasing.

In the middle of the session I  also had a lovely "right way up and right way round" (erect image) walk up Orion from NGC 1980 (and the doubles there) through M45 and M43 to NGC 1981. Everything bright and lovely though i didn't see obvious nebulosity in the NGC 1975 segment at this aperture (95mm) or i didn't note it properly if i did.

From there i hopped up to Sigma Orionis to sketch it for the AL-DS programme but failed - all clear and easy i thought but when checking this morning i have realised i missed "C"! It didn't ought to have been missed at Mag. 8.8 ish but i think i was too distracted by the brighter "three" stars in the system and there's a lot going off in the FOV here in general.

Absolutely freezing though by 22:30 ish. 🥶

[johnturley]

Last night was the first clear night for me for a week, and not likely to get many, if any, during the coming week so took the opportunity to image Mars.

Conditions were not ideal with quite a bit of unsteadiness, a heavy dew coming down, and the best view was through the Esprit 150. The image below was from a 3-minute exposure with my ZWO ASI 462 Planetary camera using a 2.5 x Powermate, 28,000 frames, average frame rate 156 fps, capture area 296 x 296, processed in AutoStakkert and Registax.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by johnturley

[jjohnson3803]

Looked for R Leonis before dawn today with my quick-look 50mm refractor.  I wasn't sure where it was in its cycle, but I figured it would be a win if I could at least identify the field.

I was able to identify the field but I'm in heavy light pollution so a lot of comparison stars were invisible.  And sure enough, R is down there - AAVSO lightcurve lists the latest observation as magnitude +9.6, which is a stretch for me at home with even my larger fracs.

But I still consider it a successful, though brief, session

 

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by jjohnson3803

[markse68]

The seeing is exquisite tonight here in London- if you’ve got clear skies take a look. Jupiter so much detail at high mag and the best view of Mars so far this time round- fantastic

Just back from Greenwich Royal Obsy where we had a look at them through the 28” Great equatorial. I prefer my 6” view of Jupiter but Mars was a bit low- reckon it could take a lot more mag than I can throw at it. 

Mark

[PeterStudz]

Just popped in after observing Mars in the 200p Dob in Southampton. Some high clouds occasionally passing through. Seeing OK but I’ve had better recently. Can get to 200x before things go fuzzy. Even so Syrtis Major is certainly visible as well as the north polar hood. 

[rojay]

What did I see? Four planets (Jupiter, Neptune, Mars, Uranus) , a PN (Blue Snowball), a carbon star (TX Psc, found by accident) and the Pleiades! 

Very chuffed, and back inside in the warm before 11 🙂

[paulastro]

NOV 22Th  MARS AND JUPITER

I rushed outside just before 10pm and set up the 8inch StarSense Dob. I wanted to observe Mars and Jupiter (where the four satellites were strung out to one side of the planet in order of distance from it).

A good job I was quick, as almost as soon as I was outside fog started to rise up the surrounding hills - we are at an altitude of over 800 feet. In total I only had half an hour before I was completely engulfed

I first looked at Jupiter (it was closer to the encroaching fog).  The satellites strung out in a line in order of actual distance looked fabulous.  Also had some nice views of Mars.  The two screen grabs are from SkySafari Pro and Mars Mapper - the latter showing just a tad more than I could see through the telescope 😅. Note, it doesn't show the N Polar Hood.

 

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by paulastro

[woldsman]

Mostly clear in the Cotswolds. First opportunity to do anything in over 3 weeks. Binocular session with Kenko 14x30 IS binos: NGC 752, M31, NGC 7789 (v faint), M103, M52 (faint), NGC 2169 Collinder 69 & 70, M35, M42 (fabulous), M36, 37 & 38, M34, alpha Persei cluster, Perseus double cluster, M45, Hyades, Mars, Jupiter, & a fair number of shooting stars. It was cold outside & I fell through a chair that collapsed mid-session. 

[josefk]

Cracking couple of hours in Burghley Park again last night - my 'birding scope' is getting more sky time than the bigger kit. Very cold at the end again. 

39 Ori, 34 Ori, 48 Ori (& Struve 761), 43 Ori and 44 Ori observed ad sketched in the doubles set before just enjoying M42 and the surrounding area.

Lambda Orionis (39 Ori) at 4.4" quite difficult - seeing wasn't perfect and the primary was twinkling over quite a big space. 

Sigma Orionis (48 Ori) observed for the second time in three days - this time "camping out" to observe the fourth component "C". It was much harder than i expected at 8.8 Mag. Is much much dimmer than i expected so i assume washed out by the (AaAbB) group at a separation of 11" - very easily missed at the 70x mag i am using. 

M42 (and then Mars again to finish) just fabulous.

Dodgy sketch of M42 and neighbours attached 🙂