What did you see tonight?

[John]

Well that was a surprise - 40 minutes of clear sky !

So a whistle stop session with my 100mm refractor included "the best of" in Orion, a handful of targets in Gemini including the magnificent M35, some Auriga open clusters, the Crab Nebula and a few other familiar winter treasures. And then the cloud came back

Short but especially sweet following so little observing lately

 

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by John

[sebn]

Thankfully we had a few hours of clear skies here in Dorset this evening, there was a band of cloud that passed over around 21:00 but it soon went.  I was trying astroberry for the first time controlling my image capturing session (dslr). After working out a few bits I managed to get about an hour and a half of M31.

Had the 8" dob out while the imaging was happening and had a good look at the Orion nebulas and the beautiful Pleiades.

Edited January 2, 2022 by sebn

[Ags]

A clear patch! Stars!! I rushed out with my 12x60 bins and cruised around the Pleiades, Hyades and Orion.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Ags

[Kon]

Some clear skies here as well after a long long time; a quick look at Orion and Pleiades before the clouds rolled in. Rest of the week is looking promising!

[JDF]

I've been itching to try out a UHC-S filter that arrived last week, got a 15 min break in clouds at 11pm so quick set up with mak and it does make a difference with Orion Neb, much better nebulosity on view. Had a chance to try my new BST 18mm that was a Christmas present and it gave a lovely view of Orion too, nicely resolving the trapezium with nebulosity on view without filter. 

[Franklin]

Same here, clear most of the day so had the solar wedge out viewing sunspots disappearing around the preceeding solar limb. As usual the clouds rolled in around dusk.

There was a break in the clouds for about 1/2hr around 10.30pm. Managed to get a quick look at M42 which was amazing as always. M41, a star cluster in Canis Major was visible but not very impressive which goes to show how the skies have deteriorated here over the years as I remember seeing this cluster as a kid when I first started observing and I recall it being much more prominent. A couple of doubles, Mintaka (delta orionis) and gamma leporis. Clouds again.

[tombardier]

It was really clear when I went out at around 9, but there were threatening clouds looming, on the horizon so I decided not to set my telescope up, but grab my 10x50 binoculars!  I've got them on a cheap photographic tripod, which doesn't make for relaxing viewing, but it's better than hand holding them! 

I've really only started using them recently, after mounting them to the tripod, so it's only recently I've started really trying to map out the night sky a bit more.  Similarly, I've been trying to really get lunar features nailed over the last few months too. 

Anyway, I was of course having a look at M42, and kept going back to it.  In all honesty, I'm not sure what I was looking at.  There were a bunch of faint fuzzies to the East of M45, near zenith.  Some very nice star clustery things to the left of Cassiopeia too.

[Stu]

11 minutes ago, tombardier said:

There were a bunch of faint fuzzies to the East of M45

Nice report. These might have been the Auriga clusters M36, 37 and 38 amongst others?

[JDF]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Nice report. These might have been the Auriga clusters M36, 37 and 38 amongst others?

I did a binocular tour with my wife of M45, Haydes and M42 last night but didn't know about these! Noted for next time.

Thanks

[Stu]

I wasn’t expecting any clear skies, so was surprised to see Orion flying high when I went out just before midnight. Orion always used to seem low down from my old house, but with my better southern horizon it appears to be really high up! No opportunity for a scope, so I just had a little naked eye roam around. I spotted Leo just clearing the neighbouring houses and The plough plus M81/82 are moving into a better place to observe not which is great.

One positive is that the shielding of a lamp post put in place by the council has had a marked impact, reducing the glare in the garden significantly.

[tombardier]

3 minutes ago, Stu said:

These might have been the Auriga clusters M36, 37 and 38 amongst others?

I think you're right, yes, thank you.  I've been poring over Kstars trying to figure it out!  I find it difficult trying to reconcile the celestial dome view you get in planetarium software, with what I could see outside!  I'll get there! 

I'll be spending significantly more time with the binoculars once I've built my parallelogram mount, which I started today!

[John]

Another clear half hour here. Despite the blustery wind and the scudding cloud patches, the seeing is really quite steady and the transparency not at all bad.

I got a superb split of Alnitak at 225x and I may even have glimpsed the Pup star, Sirius B a couple of times. Sirius A was well defined at 257x with a tight airy disk and a nice set of diffraction rings.

Clouds thickened again so I finished off with the Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) and it's mag 10.5 central star. Nice 

Feel better for that !

[Franklin]

4 minutes ago, John said:

Sirius A was well defined at 257x with a tight airy disk and a nice set of diffraction rings.

The seeing was good here to, for the brief spell it cleared, Sirius A was very sharp in my little Vixen, it's usually a boiling mess! No sign of the pup but I did check out Procyon in Canis Minor, does the little dog count as a pup???😀

[cajen2]

14 minutes ago, Stu said:

I wasn’t expecting any clear skies, so was surprised to see Orion flying high when I went out just before midnight. Orion always used to seem low down from my old house, but with my better southern horizon it appears to be really high up! No opportunity for a scope, so I just had a little naked eye roam around. I spotted Leo just clearing the neighbouring houses and The plough plus M81/82 are moving into a better place to observe not which is great.

One positive is that the shielding of a lamp post put in place by the council has had a marked impact, reducing the glare in the garden significantly.

Not far from you, Stu. I also poked my nose out pessimistically about midnight and, amazingly, there was Sirius and Orion! I rushed back in, grabbed my scope and chair, set up without even giving the poor scope time to cool, looked up and.....it was all gone. The clouds up there are very fast moving so I gave it 10 minutes, but nothing.

Sigh...back inside....

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

The hopeful weather forecast lied, so after setting up the 4" and AVX mount for the first time in months, the kit didn't see clear sky until around 22:30...

M42 was visited by the telescope for the first time this year and I wasn't disappointed. After some experimentation with eyepieces and an OVL UHC filter the best view was with said filter and my Nirvana-ES 7mm.

M42 received approx an hour of my attention then I turned to a binary I've not observed, Wasat/Delta Gem. Easy to split at 180x with the Vixen SLV 4mm.

Then back to a firm favourite, the triple star system Beta Monoceros. For fun I decided to really up the magnification using a Baader Classic Ortho 6mm combined with a GSO 2.5x ED barlow and it worked a treat. Inky black space separating the closer pair at 297x.

Then breeze turned to a gusty wind and with cloud racing in from the Irish Sea it was time to pack up... Not much of a grand tour but I made the most of the objects I managed to observe.

Edited January 3, 2022 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Pixies]

36 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Then back to a firm favourite, the triple star system Beta Monoceros.

That's a new one, to me. I'll have to check it out next time it's clear up here.. Tomorrow's looking promising!

[Mr Spock]

It looked promising here early on. I went for an after dinner stroll and got wet...

Sky is absolutely cloudless at the moment. Sun will be up soon hehe.

[F15Rules]

To my amazement the sky here (Lincs Wolds) began to clear about 7-8pm..by 9 it was fairly clear and when I looked last thing (just after 11) it was a lovely, if breezy, night.

I daren't go out to observe as I'm still very chesty and spluttery, but the forecast is suggesting Wednesday night could be clear and cold, so fingers crossed I might get out then. I'll get prepared and we'll wrapped up as a frost is forecast that night...I must say I'm getting excited, not least from reading all your reports from last  night..thanks, guys, keep 'em coming!👏

Dave

[Alan White]

It was clear here too, did a short bingo tour, but some of the sky was very poor and I think some high cloud was lurking about, so poor seeing as well.

Nice to see stars and some familiar constellations clearly again though.

Weds forecast looks good here too, but I may be talking too soon.

[SuburbanMak]

Driving back down the unlit section of the M3 from a family theatre trip to London last night and my wife commented on Orion,  this is a rare occurrence on several levels so I was pleased to get back to Winchester and find it still clear. 
Popped the Mak 127 out to cool while I had a cuppa and then a nice hour in & around Orion.

Seeing was remarkably steady & Rigel split beautifully from 67x on up. 
Trapezium too looking crisp with 5 stars consistently visible and the 6th blinking in and out.  The fishes mouth and environs were spectacular with lots of filaments and texture. Great view. Also the nebulous regions further up the sword more in evidence. 
 

Could see nebulosity around Alnitak I haven’t noticed before. 

Enjoyed doubles in NGC 1980/1981 and a great view of Sigma Orionis as a triple and it’s Struve neighbour. Looking forward to spending time with the charts today working out what I found here. 

Sirius was looking uncharacteristically steady with nice rings &, as has been the case on a couple of occasions this season, I may have glimpsed something only for it to dematerialise into the glare as I try to confirm. One day it will give me the view I need to be sure…

Great to get out and even briefly enjoy a such rich constellation  on a dark, steady night! 

 

 

 

 

[Stu]

40 minutes ago, Alan White said:

short bingo tour

Did you win anything Alan?

[Stu]

21 minutes ago, SuburbanMak said:

Driving back down the unlit section of the M3 from a family theatre trip to London last night and my wife commented on Orion,  this is a rare occurrence on several levels so I was pleased to get back to Winchester and find it still clear. 
Popped the Mak 127 out to cool while I had a cuppa and then a nice hour in & around Orion.

Seeing was remarkably steady & Rigel split beautifully from 67x on up. 
Trapezium too looking crisp with 5 stars consistently visible and the 6th blinking in and out.  The fishes mouth and environs were spectacular with lots of filaments and texture. Great view. Also the nebulous regions further up the sword more in evidence. 
 

Could see nebulosity around Alnitak I haven’t noticed before. 

Enjoyed doubles in NGC 1980/1981 and a great view of Sigma Orionis as a triple and it’s Struve neighbour. Looking forward to spending time with the charts today working out what I found here. 

Sirius was looking uncharacteristically steady with nice rings &, as has been the case on a couple of occasions this season, I may have glimpsed something only for it to dematerialise into the glare as I try to confirm. One day it will give me the view I need to be sure…

Great to get out and even briefly enjoy a such rich constellation  on a dark, steady night! 

 

 

 

 

Sounds great. I must say the seeing did look good last night even with the naked eye; very little twinkle to the stars. Should have put a scope out but too tired having had a five hour drive home from visiting relatives.

[Geoff Barnes]

Good grief, I know it's been a year since I last had a look at Orion but I didn't expect to be quite so rusty! 

Last night, determined to start by splitting Rigel I  duly sent the 12 inch Dob up to around 45 degrees and tried to focus but with poorish seeing and a slightly mushy image I could not achieve the split no matter which eyepiece I tried. 

Thought it best to check the collimation, so before dark today I duly got everything spot on and got the scope into position on the lawn ready for darkness. 

Up to  45 degrees again as soon as Rigel cleared the tree tops and... drat, still no split. I  was finding this odd as I have never had any trouble splitting Rigel before. 

Step back,  away from the scope, bend down slightly behind the finder and look up. Oh dear oh dear oh dear,  that's not Rigel it's pointing at,  it's Beta Eridani just to the left. What a plonker!  😳

You can guess the rest, slight adjustment and there it was,  a clear easy split. 

Just to do a lap of honour I moved slightly over to the Trapezium and rejoiced in spotting E and F. 

All is well with the world again!    😀

[GordonD]

Managed to get in over an hour of observing between 10 and 11 yesterday evening as well. The first chance for weeks. Just did some of the winter highlights - the usual suspects in a surprisingly dark and steady sky. E and F in the trapezium were steady and clear.  M42 brilliant as ever. Tried for the Pup as the skies were steady but  no luck. I have never been able to see it yet - but will keep trying! M35 was very impressive and the 12" shows the nearby NGC2158 as quite a bright patch with some resolution across the face.
Spent a little while just sitting back and enjoying the view with Mk 1 eyeballs - felt good just to be back out there again. Wasn't even too cold!

[John]

21 minutes ago, GordonD said:

...M35 was very impressive and the 12" shows the nearby NGC2158 as quite a bright patch with some resolution across the face...
 

It's nice getting those "2 for 1" DSO pairings

NGC2158 looked like a faint patch of light in the outskirts of M35 with my 100mm scope last night but it would have been much more obvious with your 12 inch