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What did you see tonight?


Ags

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Had the 103 out cooling from 5.00pm-6.00pm and very cold it got too! Saturn getting very low but could see Cassini Division and shadow on the rings. Jupiter much better, belt detail looked etched with the 5mm SSW at x159. Moons tiny disks showing well when upping power to x227 with 3.5mm SSW. Image holding up well so seeing must be pretty decent. Tried the 2mm HR at x397 but too much. Moon and Mars were rising from the east, had a quick look at Luna and nearly blinded myself. Mars was fantastic with the 3.5mm SSW, not the largest disk I've seen but the colour is just amazing, deep rusty red with definite signs of darker areas though not sure what these areas are. Work night for me but may get up an hour earlier than usual to see the occultation with my bins. Stay warm!

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Well after having my scope for over a year and promising to let my daughter look at the planets this evening especially as her two girls of 6 and 3 where with her I took the opportunity to get the scope out as it was perfectly clear.

Looked at Saturn first and they where blown away especially my 6 year old granddaughter who had recently had a discussion at school about the planets. We then moved on to Jupiter clearly showing the 4 Galilean moons. And again everyone was in awe. My daughter was moved to tears as she was so amazed at what she had seen.

Finally the moon had risen to an altitude where we could have a look at it but being almost full it was extremely bright. My daughter was in awe of the detail she coul see and again was moved to tears 

I think they'll be all asking again for a look through the scope.

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Just had an hour before the clouds rolled in… Dual mounted the FC-100DZ and FOA-60Q  on the AZ75 and got it setup quite quickly, proving the value of the AZ75👍

Got some good views of Jupiter and moons. Mars was ok, lovely colour, some dark areas, but not too much detail visible (seeing🤔). Almost full Moon was bright, but some interesting craters around the edge.

Interesting to compare the view between the two scopes… the FOA-60Q held its own against the DZ, particularly for contrast, although there was more detail with the later of course. The FOA-60Q does seem to excel at giving “steadier” views as the seeing fluctuates. 

Talking of occultations… I popped the HR 2.0 in the DZ for some closer examination of the edge and spotted a faint star just close to the edge, and observed it as it disappeared behind the moon… for some reason, I’ve never observed this before 😮

Hopefully some more clear nights soon, as I’d like to give Mars a go with the Mewlon, armed with the new binoviewers 🤞

Edited by HollyHound
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Another excellent Dark Skies event tonight at Stump Cross Caverns, local cave attraction here in N Yorkshire and within the designated dark sky reserve area. Crystal clear skies and very good seeing conditions made up for last months event here where thick fog prevented any telescope viewing. 

Tonight’s session was hosted by astronomer Richard Darn and made for a superb evening for new and experienced stargazers alike. Presentations were combined with a laser guided observing session. 

The highlight was probably Jupiter - the excellent seeing conditions enabled some razor sharp, steady views full of surface detail. I found the view through a Celestron 80mm ED refractor particularly impressive up to 100x power, whilst the view through the Skymax 127 was also impressive at 150x. 
Saturn also nice to view again - and always good to see the reaction of first time observers of this planet during an outreach session. 
The Moon looked splendid, particularly through the refractor, and provided some fun for beginners in taking some phone shots through the ‘scopes. 
Mars was good of course, but possibly underwhelmed some. 

I took my binos along and also tried some phone shots of the Moon and Mars in the same field, rehearsing for the occultation later…

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I’ve had some more good views of Jupiter here. Decent detail visible for such a small aperture. Moon was good as well, but I confess I could see much detail on Mars. The disk was nice and sharp, with hints of brightness at the pole and subtle markings but they really were quite indistinct.

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4 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Amazing! Mars occultation. Best ever view of mars too. Orion/Helmerichs 200 newt. Disappeared about 10 minutes ago, I await the reappearance!

0F266E07-57D7-4516-91C8-5AD1FA3FE963.thumb.jpeg.781e27ad042945d6cad3682b9e0bb804.jpeg

I have reappearance worked out at around 5:53 for me, what time do you have for your location? 

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Brilliant!

Had the 65mm refractor set to go by the front door last night but come the moment it looked a bit small for the occasion so assembled the 8" Newt 15 mins before the occultation. Glad I did...plenty of detail visible on Mars right up to the occultation itself in spite of frosty poor seeing next to the devil's searchlight . Could have made a better eyepiece choice; the ES 5.5mm was starting to fog up through lack of eye relief. A quick swap before the egress.. 

I never cease to be amazed by the timing accuracy for these things...don't know why; it's only trigonometry and A level physics but there is something deeply impressive about the clockwork precision of the solar system.

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4 minutes ago, Stu said:

Excellent views here! Wasn’t planning on getting the reappearance but may do. Quick snaps beforehand.

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Likewise Stu, going out for reappearance shortly, too cold to wait outside, -3 deg C.  Frost all over telescope.

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Took this at 5:45 this morning I am assuming thr moon is still chewing on Mars , and will spit it out soon , although I may have missed it already , in which case mars has been eaten for good ! 

Taken on my Sony iv Xperia 

Edit 

Just seen the re-emergence of mars but couldn't get the photo as I'm pushed for time, I really hate work sometimes lol

20221208_054154.JPG

Edited by Stu1smartcookie
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… and the re-emergence. I missed the actual moment this time as it was a bit further round than I was looking at 170x, but I saw it just after it’d lifted clear. The seeing much worse than the for occultation an hour prior. Back to bed now.

Magnus

 

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Edited by Captain Scarlet
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Well I dragged myself out of bed for the reappearance. Glad I did, was great. More surface detail visible on Mars, and it appeared exactly where SkySafari suggested at just before 6am.

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229417A1-1138-479D-B006-7DA8CE8E4A64.jpeg.a8e1342612eff8d6076327f04cdcfada.jpegJust saw the re-appearance! Amazing! Very frosty conditions. My 26mm Plössl had ice on them. I changed to the 9mm LVs in the binoviewer and what a sight! Now warming up and drying the equipment…88864582-6D18-465F-A750-EB1396E1A8A3.jpeg.e81fe681852209bbe4921093b351d4f3.jpeg

Edited by Froeng
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1 hour ago, rl said:

@Stu

Lovely shot there..

I bottled the photography option for fear of missing the whole thing faffing about with computers...

Thank you 👍.

I did focus on observing for the actual events, and these were just very quick handheld smartphone shots so as not to get distracted too much. Amazing how quickly it went from first contact to completely disappearing or separating from the planet.

We were very lucky with the weather this time! 

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19 minutes ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

Got this of Mars and the moon, 25 frames 10's apart, a lot of cloud, sod had his hand at play because when Mars re-appeared the moon had dropped below the shed and clouds had p'd off

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Excellent 👍 

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So pleased that i got up to see it (despite only 4 hours kip)

I think this was the first time i've seen a lunar occultation of a major planet and i can recall very close conjunctions of Venus, Jupiter and Saturn before, but never an actual occultation, so its one off the bucket list 🙂

I setup the scope, pointing out the front door at 04:45 in the morning as you do ! and watched Mars

slowly disappear behind a dazzlingly bright moon (no filter fumbling at 5 in the morning!)

It had clouded over a bit here in Derby an hour later, but i managed an 'atmospheric shot' 😄 of it with the dslr

 

9BACAC3C-F6FB-49CC-BF89-77799F66A9F5_1_201_a

 

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30 minutes ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

Got this of Mars and the moon, 25 frames 10's apart, a lot of cloud, sod had his hand at play because when Mars re-appeared the moon had dropped below the shed and clouds had p'd off

moon_mars_2022-12-08_04-51-55_ISO200_FP0_L_1701_EOS_40D__8C_pipp.thumb.gif.29dc275a8abdb27df6bd5f3c4015268f.gif

Excellent - i can use this to explain to my partner what all the fuss was about!

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Happy Opposition Day SGL!

Brilliant images there @Stu, @Captain Scarlet, @Froeng and others- Didn’t quite achieve anything like that but was pleased I managed to haul myself out of bed at around 4.30am to catch at least some of the event. Amazing binocular view, watching the Mars approach to the Eastern Lunar Limb.

 A basic phone record of the event was the best I could do at that time but the memory will live on!

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