What did you see tonight?

[Captain Scarlet]

After First Light late afternoon/early evening in dark conditions, I went out later into the bright moonlight to resume. Tube sparkling in frost but optics seemingly clear. I couldn’t understand why when aligning on Capella I couldn’t get focus AT ALL, and Capella seemed much redder than it should. 🙄 stupid me. I’d pointed to Mars, which looked quite good high up at 141x.

I went to Pleiades with my Nagler 31 to reassure myself that coma correctors actually work … they do! What a difference. I also noticed that with the secondary now so close to the open end, any local bright light source, particularly at right angles to the scope, really impinges. Need to fashion a dew shield.

I looked briefly at Luna at 183x and noticed Lambda Cancri just off the Southern limb. I split Rigel but it was a bit wobbly and finished off with Sigma Orionis again, this time getting the C star but nothing really pin-sharp.

Brrrr, Magnus 

[josefk]

looks VERY "Brrr" @Captain Scarlet

[Stu1smartcookie]

10 minutes ago, josefk said:

looks VERY "Brrr" @Captain Scarlet

I was cold just looking at it ... brrrrrr indeed 

[Ratlet]

The bairn is ill and the wife has work to do so I'm stuck inside (Pro tip:. Children do not like cuddles from their dad if their dad is had hands about the same temperature as a Cornetto, no matter how upset the are).

Not a wasted evening though, because I have the gift of North facing velux windows and 2x42 widefield binos!

Mostly spent the evening familiarising myself with constellations and how they are laid out.  Pleiades is really nice at very low powers.  Looks like a mini big dipper.  Also a nice curve up from there to mirfak that traces out most the stars of one half of Perseus.  The area around Aldebaran is also nice.  It's like a cluster of clusters.  Also found most of Draco but Camelopardalis and lynx continue to evade.  Perhaps when the night isn't quite so bright.

It was quite fun (and warm).  I'd be tempted to try it on a night when the moon isn't out, but I am intensely reluctant to give those up from the scope!

[Greymouser]

Another good advert for your location, are you sure you don't work for the tourist board?

Seriously though, I do like the wooden tripod, very tempting to buy one. Which is it?   ( I know the make, obviously! )

[Astro_Dad]

An optimistic quick look outside last night - Geminids potential! But no luck there. Was probably just a little early at 11.45, and the Moon not helping. Enjoyed a nice binocular tour of the sky anyway, paying particular attention to the Sword of Orion - never disappoints. Pleiades- amongst other targets - also looking good. 

The Waning Moon looked sharp against the blue sky this morning on the way to work, would have enjoyed a quick session with the Heritage but work gets in the way…

Very clear skies tonight so definitely potential later in the evening to brave the cold…

Edited December 14, 2022 by Astro_Dad

[PeterStudz]

Far too tired to do anything tonight, high cloud coming and going so doesn’t look ideal. But just been out to put our rabbits to bed and during that short time (about 5mins) I saw a couple of Geminids. One of which was certainly bright.

Edited December 15, 2022 by PeterStudz

[IB20]

Six geminids in under 20 mins. 3 really bright, lovely stuff! 🤗

[Epick Crom]

I had a good session observing Mars last night. Identified Syrtis Major for the first time. Also saw what looked like a tiny polar cap, Mars sure is looking beautiful at the moment!

[Alan White]

Just in from sitting out with some of my Astro Club CPAC and meteor watched.

A first in ice and snow for me, but at -2 and having seen 30 I came in for a warm up, fun but a tad chilly 

[Whistlin Bob]

A work and clouds induced 6 week hiatus ended in spectacular fashion tonight 😀

Needed my thermals and big coat, but had a greatest hits type of evening, starting with a looong time on m42 (first of the season) with e and f stars showing nicely in the trapezium: very nice conditions. Then round to the flame, just about there in Oiii, and up to the Pleiades for the gorgeous diamonds on velvet thing they do. Next was m31, with m32 showing nicely and m110 just about there with some av. Went for a challenge on m33, and managed to just make out ngc604. Very happy now!!! Finished off by dropping to the 8mm ep for a squint at Mars (very bright and some surface detail) and a star hop to tiny green Uranus. 

Haven't had a session like that in a long time- really enjoyed it.

[Captain Scarlet]

A brisk and freezing north-easterly meant no scope but I did dress up to spend 45 minutes trying to see some Geminids. Two really big long ones, one the second I stepped outside, and perhaps 12-15 more smaller ones. The best display I’ve ever seen.

[Mr Spock]

It's clear tonight but there's a marked haze over the sky. Currently sitting at -5.3°, my thermometer is telling me I'd be better off in bed. I couldn't agree more 😛

[paulastro]

I went out to check the sky at 9.25pm to check the sky for later and saw six bright Gemenids between 9.30 and 9.45, all but one brighter than zero. The brightest at 9.30 was mag -4 or -5 and came from near the radiant and went down through Cygnus towards the SW. Another was -2 or -3 ppassed through Orion leaving a train behind it

 

Then went out at 11.50, it was -6 degrees with ice and frozen snow on the ground degrees, to look at Mars and the Moon, but the seeing was poor, Mars not so bad at x150, the low Moon was terrible.. 

 

Using the 8inch StarSense Dob I went through some open clusters with the 17.5 Morpheus, M37,M36, M38, M35, M41 and M44. I then spent some time on the OrionNeb which looked great with the binoviewer, barlow and 24mm Orthos, x150. The nebulosity looked like billowing clouds with an inky black background - despite the wanning crescent Moon

I then looked at the 'Winter Albireo' - HR2764, very low in Canis Major.  It really is like a fainter version of its name sake, a beautiful yellow and blue to my eyes, if I remember correctly they are m4.8 and m6 respectively, distance  around 24". I then looked at Hershels Garnet Star in Cepheus, a colour star lovely with a back drop of numerous faint stars, beautiful.

By now my fingers were tingling with the cold and I felt quite shivery, still -6, so I finished off with two of my favourites, ET Cluster (C13) and the Double cluster. Came in at 1.35.

I've had a coffee, still cold - I might just have another.  A very enjoyable session though. 🥶

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

9 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

Far too tired to do anything tonight, high cloud coming and going so doesn’t look ideal. But just been out to put our rabbits to bed and during that short time (about 5mins) I saw a couple of Geminids. One of which was certainly bright.

i mirror your report ...although the sky was crstal cklear last night , i just went outside , looked up and immediately saw a geminid ... hopefully tonight i will be outside !

[josefk]

In the chilly temps i dropped in last night on Planetary Nebula NGC 2392 [the] Eskimo Nebula and NGC 7662 The Blue Snowball [i guess you had to be there...🤣]. Both Herschels in the H400.  Both showing brightly but without colour or detail and it was too cold to mess about finding the best mag/filter etc.

I thought the pre moon sky would support going for some difficult [faint] Herschels but i was washing out and it was too cold for lingering in vain so picked up a couple of doubles - Theta Aurigae at ~4" and 55 Gem/Struve 1066 at 5.6". The seeing wouldn't support tighter. Then moved on to Mars.

Finishing on Mars the seeing wouldn't support 200x and 140x mono was very bright but 152x in the Binoviewer was quite enjoyable. Quite definite smudgy features in the Northern hemisphere and Southern hemisphere. Definite without being sharp. There was also a very bright ring around the full circumference of the planet. i'm not exactly sure what accounts for this effect. it wasn't limited to a single eyepiece. Diffraction from the secondary mirror support again very bright so roll on new refractor before Mars shrinks too much further. 

Clear outside had it as -2 "feels like -7". It did!

[Astro_Dad]

14/12/22

An excellent night of observing tonight with reliable companion the Heritage 150p. 

A very cold, crisp night and as predicted extremely clear. 
 

 

I started off on M42 and M45 to check all working well. Lovely views, and then into GOTO mode (with a simple 2 star alignment) and using Plan files loaded into Sky Safari Pro for a broad sweep across the winter sky taking in a range of targets:

In Auriga + Perseus- 

NGC 1664. NGC 1582, NGC 1513. NGC 1545

In Cassiopeia- 

M52. M103. NGC 129, NGC 225. NGC 457 (ET Cluster!) 

Next into M42 again for a more detailed look at the Trapezium region at higher power. Stunning as always. 

Finally, away from the deep sky briefly, Mars looking very sharp tonight in what proved to be very steady seeing. Powering up to just over 100x revealed good surface albedo features that I later identified as probably Mare Sirenum and Aurorae Sinus. 

A great night, but freezing cold and writing this up afterwards with numb hands and feet !

I’ve written up a more detailed report on the DSO tour here:

 

 

[PeterC65]

It was well below zero last night so I opted for EEVA and did a 4 hour session as the sky was so clear and still!

I've been concentrating on the Moon and Planets lately so last night I switched to widefield and selected the 72mm APO with the x0.6 Reducer. I covered some old favourites plus some objects suggested by SkEye that were new to me.

M31 / M32 / M110 - great to see all of the big galaxy and its two neighbours.

M33 - too small to fill the field of view but it remains one of my favourites now that I can reliably see it with EEVA.

M45 - finally some nebulosity around a few of the main stars.

M35 - always a beautiful thing with its near neighbour NGC2158.

NGC2174 - the Monkey Head Nebula has been too big to fit in the field of view previously, but not so tonight.

M81 / M82 / NGC3077 / NGC2976 - I love observing M81 and M82 together but didn't know there were two more smaller galaxies that I could also squeeze in to the field of view.

M42 - I'll never tire of looking at this.

NGC2024 / IC434 - the best I've seen the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae, I could make out the horses head after only a few 4s frames.

M78 - rounding of the big nebulae in Orion, a very slow moving object crossed as I was observing.

NGC2244 - another nebula that needs a wide field of view.

NGC1499 - the California Nebula, a new one for me, also needing a wide field of view, and then some!

NGC884 / NGC869 - the Double Cluster is another favourite, not orientated well for the camera but beautiful none the less.

M44 - not one I've observed much but suggested by SkEye and a nice bright target for a wide field of view.

Moon - I'd been out so long that it appeared low on the horizon so I took some captures of the whole disc to process later, too small for the field of view really.

By the time I came in the kit was well iced up, but it was a great session. Possibly another one tonight!

 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Seeing late last night was as perfect as it gets here but sadly on a work night I daren't stay out late, because I specialise in sleeping through alarms! So no kit set up for me, just the 10x50s at around 2330 for thirty minutes and really nice views (considering the location) of all the usual brighter targets... Hyades, Pleiades, M42, M31, the Auriga clusters, a very steady pink Martian disk, a faint, greenish Uranus and so forth.

Unfortunately I'm not striking today as well as next Tuesday, so I could have had a nice sleep in. Last night was definitely worth the full goto equatorial kit! 🙄

[johnturley]

Braved the weather last night, according to the thermometer in my observatory shed it was minus 8, and had a look at Mars.

Conditions were not ideal with quite a bit of unsteadiness, attach my best image of Mars taken through my 14 in Newtonian, ZWO ASI 462 Camera, and 2.5 x Powermate, 2 minute exposure, approx 10,000 frames at 90 fps, processed in AutoStakkert (sacked best 25%), and Registax, plus a bit of polishing in Lightroom. 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by johnturley

[jock1958]

2 hours ago, johnturley said:

Braved the weather last night, according to the thermometer in my observatory shed it was minus 8, and had a look at Mars.

Conditions were not ideal with quite a bit of unsteadiness, attach my best image of Mars taken through my 14 in Newtonian, ZWO ASI 462 Camera, and 2.5 x Powermate, 2 minute exposure, approx 10,000 frames at 90 fps, processed in AutoStakkert (sacked best 25%), and Registax, plus a bit of polishing in Lightroom. 

 

 

Very nice and similar to what I was seeing last night through my Tak FC-100DL, WO Binoviewers, TV 2.5x PM & Pentax XF 8.5 eyepieces.

[IB20]

A first for me, put the 8” dob out to cool about 14:30 and am just catching the tail end of a Europa shadow transit in still decentish daylight. 😃

[Astro_Dad]

16 hours ago, paulastro said:

I then looked at the 'Winter Albireo' - HR2764, very low in Canis Major.

Sounds like you had a great night/early morning session Paul. I can’t remember seeing the “Winter Albireo” before, will have to seek that one out next time. 

[cloudsweeper]

I was tempted by the crystal clear sky, so set up the 8SE/GoTo and took in Jupiter, which was beautifully sharp at x73, 160.  Fancied some tightish doubles in Perseus,

but I had to pack up after 30 minutes - fingers frozen, ice glistening on the lawn and risk of slipping.  The coldest I've known it since I began this pastime 8 years ago!

Hope it's this clear in a few days when it's meant to get a couple of degrees warmer!

Doug.

 

 

 

[HollyHound]

Setup the FC-100DZ and Mewlon 180 on AZ100, earlier this evening and allowed it all to cool properly.

Just been out for 30mins and taken in some fantastic views of Mars and Jupiter 🙂

Mars is the clearest and most detailed I've seen it, in both scopes... plenty of dark areas very visible and I thought I saw some white at one of the poles, but it was very faint, so not sure (certainly nothing like the very distinct and clear ice I saw in 2020 with my StellaMira).

Jupiter has given me the best view yet with my Mewlon... combination of very cold and relatively clear night, plus the MaxBright binoviewer.... I watch Ganymede very close to Jupiter and then disappeared as it started it's transit across the face 😁 Loads of belt detail in both the DZ and Mewlon.

One thing is for sure... the Mewlon really does need an hour for it to give it's best... anything before that (without active cooling) and it's better to stick with the DZ. But once it's cooled, then the extra details is visible against the DZ, although it's quite close 🤔

Left everything covered up again now and slowly freezing out there, so I can eat, watch a bit of TV and then once M42 is up I'm hoping to give that a go... see what the extra aperture of the M180 does 🤞