What did you see tonight?

[Ratlet]

Out for a decent run with the new 12mm BST Starguider, in spite of the moon. 

With the 130PDS and a barlow this gives me x54 and  x108 power.  Whilst quite close to the 8mm Starguider (x81 and x162)  I already have, I figured it would provide slightly better framing of some DSO.  I initially tried it out on Jupiter and I would say the 8mm beat it here without the barlow (unsurprising) but the seeing or lack of scope cooling meant the barlowed 12mm was the best of the views.  I’m pretty confident that I’d be able to pick out the GRS with it, but by the time the miserable sod got round, Jupiter was behind my house.  Soon™…

I did throw the barlowed 12mm at the moon and it was definitely worth it.  Seeing wasn’t great as, like Jupiter, it was above my house so it looked like it was underwater, but it wasn’t too unpleasant.  I should probably do a bit of moon map studying as I’ve essentially no idea what anything is called but the Southern Highlands showed some really nice contrast with one of the craters showing a nice bright central peak and some deep shadows towards the crater walls.  At the far south towards the limb there was a incredibly bright region well within the terminator shadow.  No idea what it was but it was very nice. 

I finally remembered that The Garnet Star existed whilst I was outside and got an observation in.  It's remarkably different in colour to anything else near by and stood out nicely.

Almach was a fairly easy split with the 12mm but a no go with the 32mm (x20).

I tried the Double Cluster but whilst I can see it with my widefield binos I struggled massively to see it with the 32mm.  It’s too near Zenith and navigating that high is a real struggle for me.  I did see lots of clusters though as I panned through but nothing I would conclusively say was the double cluster.

I tried a quick look at M81/M82 but they were fairly brutally washed out by the moon.  I was listening to Actual Astronomy podcast and remembered them talking about Auriga being rife with cluster so decided to give that a shot instead, clusters being relatively moon proof.

Star hopping has gotten a lot easier since I started using Skysafari instead of Stellarium on my phone but there is always a bit of uncertainty that you are going to find what you are looking for or if you’re going to find something else by accident.  The Starfish Cluster M38 is not one of those objects.  As it rolled into view on the 32mm it quite clearly looked like a Starfish.  It was quite nice to change from the 12mm to the 32mm as it would go from a collection of stars to a granular squashed star fish.  I could also make out NGC 1907, although it was mostly fuzzy.  I star hopped using the 12mm up to M36 but neglected to change the eyepiece here so missed a trick.  I think some of these clusters look better with lower power so you can get the granularity.

Back to the 32mm for a hop over to M37.  This is an absolute treat.  There is something faintly organic about it. It almost looks like a cluster of clusters.  Little islands of graininess of unresolved stars separated by very dark bands.  The 12mm framed it beautifully.

I finished off with M42.  It’s getting better placed earlier and despite the moon the nebulosity looked great.  This is actually the reason I went for the 12mm.  I thought it might provide better framing for the nebula and make it a bit easier to pick out the nebulosity.  Just about spot on I think.  Comparing to an earlier sketch I’m pretty sure I could make out more faint nebulosity compared to the 8mm and also more structure within the nebula.  I did drop in an SVBONY UHC filter which may have helped in that regard.

All in all it was a really good session.  I got more time out of it than I thought I would as it was supposed to cloud over.  I should really have gotten some sketching in, but feeling pressed I just decided to try and cram in as much as I could.

[SuburbanMak]

Nipped out earlier with the ST80 to look at Jupiter & the Moon in the same field (24mm Baader Hyperion giving just over 4 degrees @ 16.7x Mag & a reasonably flat field).  

With this still on the tripod I went back out later for an ad hoc couple of hours on a cluster of clusters 

Took in M42/3 and up through Orion, Auriga clusters M36/7/8, the Double Cluster, Owl NGC 457, M35, M67, M46, M48, M50 then finished up with the brighter Beehive M44, Alpha Persei cluster and the Pleiades M45. 

Lovely to get reacquainted with some winter favourites and lazy widefield GoTo operation worked well & suited my mood. 

 

[paulastro]

I went out with the Celestron 8inch StarSense Explorer dob from  10.15 to about 11.45pm when cloud came in.

I had some nice views of Mars, Syrtis Major, Sinus Sibaeus and Aeria being the main features on show. Also looked at a few deep sky objects before the sky came in.

The Orion Neb looked particularly fine due to a very transparent sky and steady seeing conditions. The best view since returning from Kelling in October.  Beautiful views of M35, zooming in and out with the Baader Mk111.  Castor looked great, just like two headlights looming out of the darkness. M1 and M41 looked good, and I just had to say goodnight to ET before the cloud came in 😊.

 

 

[cajen2]

I've just been out and have to report a failure (I think it's just as informative as reporting successes!).

I collimated my SL 8" dob today and all looked good. On the way out of the door, the OTA took a bit of a knock, pushing my RACI finder out of alignment 😡. On setting up, the scope achieved focus just fine but the stars were not their usual sharp points of light: all seemed to have "crow's feet". I tried several different EPs but to no avail. I came back in high dudgeon.

Either the knock put the scope out of collimation again or I've tightened too many knobs and pinched the optics. I'll have to give it a good going over tomorrow - too late now.

😥😥😥

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

I've just been out and have to report a failure (I think it's just as informative as reporting successes!).

I collimated my SL 8" dob today and all looked good. On the way out of the door, the OTA took a bit of a knock, pushing my RACI finder out of alignment 😡. On setting up, the scope achieved focus just fine but the stars were not their usual sharp points of light: all seemed to have "crow's feet". I tried several different EPs but to no avail. I came back in high dudgeon.

Either the knock put the scope out of collimation again or I've tightened too many knobs and pinched the optics. I'll have to give it a good going over tomorrow - too late now.

😥😥😥

Never fun when that happens

[paulastro]

cajen2, you'd have to have given it a knock to put the collimation out, particularly as it sounds as if you were a bit over enthusiastic on the tightening front when collimating it. Just easy them all off and recollimate if necessary - you don't need them to be tight.

 

 

 

 

[Pixies]

44 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Out for a decent run with the new 12mm BST Starguider, in spite of the moon. 

 

With the 130PDS and a barlow this gives me x54 and  x108 power.  Whilst quite close to the 8mm Starguider (x81 and x162)  I already have, I figured it would provide slightly better framing of some DSO.  I initially tried it out on Jupiter and I would say the 8mm beat it here without the barlow (unsurprising) but the seeing or lack of scope cooling meant the barlowed 12mm was the best of the views.  I’m pretty confident that I’d be able to pick out the GRS with it, but by the time the miserable sod got round, Jupiter was behind my house.  Soon™…

 

I did throw the barlowed 12mm at the moon and it was definitely worth it.  Seeing wasn’t great as, like Jupiter, it was above my house so it looked like it was underwater, but it wasn’t too unpleasant.  I should probably do a bit of moon map studying as I’ve essentially no idea what anything is called but the Southern Highlands showed some really nice contrast with one of the craters showing a nice bright central peak and some deep shadows towards the crater walls.  At the far south towards the limb there was a incredibly bright region well within the terminator shadow.  No idea what it was but it was very nice. 

 

I finally remembered that The Garnet Star existed whilst I was outside and got an observation in.  It's remarkably different in colour to anything else near by and stood out nicely.

 

Almach was a fairly easy split with the 12mm but a no go with the 32mm (x20).

 

I tried the Double Cluster but whilst I can see it with my widefield binos I struggled massively to see it with the 32mm.  It’s too near Zenith and navigating that high is a real struggle for me.  I did see lots of clusters though as I panned through but nothing I would conclusively say was the double cluster.

 

I tried a quick look at M81/M82 but they were fairly brutally washed out by the moon.  I was listening to Actual Astronomy podcast and remembered them talking about Auriga being rife with cluster so decided to give that a shot instead, clusters being relatively moon proof.

 

Star hopping has gotten a lot easier since I started using Skysafari instead of Stellarium on my phone but there is always a bit of uncertainty that you are going to find what you are looking for or if you’re going to find something else by accident.  The Starfish Cluster M38 is not one of those objects.  As it rolled into view on the 32mm it quite clearly looked like a Starfish.  It was quite nice to change from the 12mm to the 32mm as it would go from a collection of stars to a granular squashed star fish.  I could also make out NGC 1907, although it was mostly fuzzy.  I star hopped using the 12mm up to M36 but neglected to change the eyepiece here so missed a trick.  I think some of these clusters look better with lower power so you can get the granularity.

 

Back to the 32mm for a hop over to M37.  This is an absolute treat.  There is something faintly organic about it. It almost looks like a cluster of clusters.  Little islands of graininess of unresolved stars separated by very dark bands.  The 12mm framed it beautifully.

 

I finished off with M42.  It’s getting better placed earlier and despite the moon the nebulosity looked great.  This is actually the reason I went for the 12mm.  I thought it might provide better framing for the nebula and make it a bit easier to pick out the nebulosity.  Just about spot on I think.  Comparing to an earlier sketch I’m pretty sure I could make out more faint nebulosity compared to the 8mm and also more structure within the nebula.  I did drop in an SVBONY UHC filter which may have helped in that regard.

 

All in all it was a really good session.  I got more time out of it than I thought I would as it was supposed to cloud over.  I should really have gotten some sketching in, but feeling pressed I just decided to try and cram in as much as I could.

 

M37 is my favourite of the 3 main Auriga clusters. But next time you are in the area, check out NGC1664 - the kite cluster. Very different but really interesting. 

[paulastro]

I meant to say hard knock!

[cajen2]

1 minute ago, paulastro said:

cajen2, you'd have to have given it a knock to put the collimation out, particularly as it sounds as if you were a bit over enthusiastic on the tightening front when collimating it. Just easy them all off and recollimate if necessary - you don't need them to be tight.

 

 

 

 

Sure, that's what I thought and it's why I want to take my time tomorrow rather than do a rush job now. I'll check the secondary alignment too.

[Guest]

Tonight i saw..... Clouds.... Again. 

[bosun21]

7 hours ago, Mike Q said:

I've tightened too many knobs and pinched the optics.

The optics can only be pinched if you actually tighten the screws on the three brackets that hold the mirror in place. As you didn’t remove your mirror to gain access to these screws it’s got to be the collimation you have knocked out of alignment. You will have it looking sharp again no problem.

[RobertI]

9 hours ago, Ratlet said:

As it rolled into view on the 32mm it quite clearly looked like a Starfish.

Yes at some magnifications the starfish effect is really striking. 

[cajen2]

10 hours ago, cajen2 said:

I've just been out and have to report a failure (I think it's just as informative as reporting successes!).

I collimated my SL 8" dob today and all looked good. On the way out of the door, the OTA took a bit of a knock, pushing my RACI finder out of alignment 😡. On setting up, the scope achieved focus just fine but the stars were not their usual sharp points of light: all seemed to have "crow's feet". I tried several different EPs but to no avail. I came back in high dudgeon.

Either the knock put the scope out of collimation again or I've tightened too many knobs and pinched the optics. I'll have to give it a good going over tomorrow - too late now.

😥😥😥

Just an update for anyone with a similar problem or just interested: I adjusted the secondary (wasn't far out). I then loosened all the primary screws (locking and collimation) completely. To my surprise, the collimation was now exactly right. Gently tightened all screws till I felt the first resistance. So, pinched optics or not, I think it's solved the problem. Moral of the story: don't tighten a knob unless another is loosened.

[cloudsweeper]

40 MILE SPIKY SHADOW ON MOON

6.00pm, looked good.  10" Dob inaction.  First quarter Moon high, east of south.  Jupiter lower, near south.  Mars high in the east.

Great, off we go.  Crater Walther was near the terminator.  Its central peak cast a spike-like shadow from a little east of centre to the western rim.  Diameter of crater is 128km, so this shadow was at least 64km, which is about 40 miles!

6.15 total cloud.  

Short but sweet!

Doug.

 

[Mr Spock]

Just a few gaps between the clouds here, and what there is, is misty. Would be a waste of time to get the big lad out, or even the little lad.

So, first light for the wee laddie. Moon and Jupiter quite sharp but dim in the 4mm Nirvana. Jupiter showing two crisply defined belts. Just what you'd expect from 60mm though. Tried the SLV 2.5mm on the moon, very dim but sharp. 

Photo tripod is hopeless for high powers! Difficult to move and centre and the strong wind has it all over the place. Still, that's not what it's for.

[Ratlet]

I think tonight I mostly saw poor transparency.  Orion was visible over the house but I could hardly make out his sword.  For all the improvement pointing my scope at things made, I would have been as well throwing it at it! 

Everything just seemed dim and dark and there wasn't much of the milky way visible.  Mars looked okay, but a continuing theme of me being unable to discern contrast on the red planet and I came in ealier than I would have liked.

I did try the UHC filter on the rosette but it's got several massive thumb prints on it.  I'm not sure how my 4 year old did it, but he's getting the blame in the morning lol.  Surely couldn't be me that did it...

Came in and cleaned it up and printed out an ew collimation cap since the 4 year old lost it as well.  Normally use a laser pointer but I put some milk carton on the secondary as the screws were binding the aluminium and I'm pretty sure it's not aligned properly.

[paulastro]

Out last evening with the 8inch StarSense Dob. I went out paticularly for the Moon. Set up by 5.50pm. 

Surprisingly, the seeing was excellent. Close to first quarter, the detail near the terminator was quite jaw dropping. There was great detail on show, but the sharpness and contrast was exceptional - and unexpected with strong winds which made me keep a firm grip on the scope. The large knob at the eyepiece end and the handle on the tube were very helpful in this respect.

I also wasn't using my binoviewer as usual, but my Baader Mk111 zoom, which made the quality of the image even more impressive. Set at 8mm (×125), the view would have convinced any doubters about how well a good zoom can perform. Indeed, it was as good as you could expect from any fixed focal length eyepiece.

Alas, I only had a 35mt session until the forecast cloud consumed the Moon. Well worth the effort though, and a session I won't forget.

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by paulastro

[Spile]

On 30/12/2022 at 11:18, cajen2 said:

Just an update for anyone with a similar problem or just interested: I adjusted the secondary (wasn't far out). I then loosened all the primary screws (locking and collimation) completely. To my surprise, the collimation was now exactly right. Gently tightened all screws till I felt the first resistance. So, pinched optics or not, I think it's solved the problem. Moral of the story: don't tighten a knob unless another is loosened.

I adopt the same strategy. I know some folk replace the springs for stronger ones and remove the lock bolts but like you by tightening each pair of bolts gradually and in turn I don’t have any issues.

[cajen2]

3 hours ago, Spile said:

I adopt the same strategy. I know some folk replace the springs for stronger ones and remove the lock bolts but like you by tightening each pair of bolts gradually and in turn I don’t have any issues.

I don't see any problems with the springs on mine: once the bolts were loosened, the mirror sprang back to perfect alignment completely.

Oh, and a diagnostic tip: I noticed before the problem that the dot on my laser collimator was like the stars - with 'crows feet'. After the correction, it was a tiny dot again. So from now on, step one of collimation for me is to check the laser dot (I know the laser itself is perfectly aligned).

Edited January 1, 2023 by cajen2

[Astro_Dad]

“Warming up” for the occultation of Uranus later. The big Dob is out ready and already showing some nice crater detail e.g on Copernicus here. 

[Ratlet]

16 minutes ago, Astro_Dad said:

“Warming up” for the occultation of Uranus later. The big Dob is out ready and already showing some nice crater detail e.g on Copernicus here. 

Hopefully there'll be a follow up image/report.  Weather is utter rank up here and my scopes collimation is even worse.

[Captain Scarlet]

I made an attempt this evening at all-planets-in-one-session as soon as twilight allowed. Weather was more or less perfect, clear, but my worry was Mercury at only 12%. A well-founded worry: I didn’t get it. Venus was obvious though heavily CA’d and I knew exactly where Mercury was, but it was not possible. Damn.

I had my Skymax 180, first light since being completely flocked including home-made flocked secondary baffle.

Jupiter, in twilight, showed the most detail I’ve ever seen, by a distance. Subsidiary belts quite clear. But while changing up magnification to 160x 220x, dew started to intrude and from there it became a race against it.

Saturn was not bad but too low for the best view. Uranus, still a distance from near-occultation by Luna was easy to find. Mars was quite extraordinarily orange, more so than I can ever recall. Not my best view of Mars, that was with my then-new OO 300mm two years ago, but not bad nonetheless. But so Orange!

Neptune took a while to find. I had a dewed-over Telrad and then straight to 160x 220x. Telrad got me to the right area (three fingers at arm’s length = 5 degrees) and panning around finally got me there!

Nearly the full house but no Mercury.

Cheers, Magnus

 

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Captain Scarlet
mag was 220x not 160x!

[Stu]

A valiant attempt @Captain Scarlet, Magnus, shame about Mercury. I must say, I found it fairly tough to find the other night.

[Peter Drew]

Just got in from viewing the Uranus occultation, previous cloudy sky cleared just in time.  Only scope available at home was my Meade 90mm Maksutov on an AZ3 mount using a Baader zoom giving 150x.  Seeing very good but Uranus quite faint and would be difficult to see emerging from the bright limb.  First successful observation in 2023.     🙂 

[Stu]

Well done @Peter Drew 👍. I’m too far south here for the occultation, but I’ve JUST managed to see Uranus through hazy cloud very close in, just past the end of the terminator and fairly near Clavius. I used my 150mm f6 AstroSystems scope, very handy for a quick session.