2021 - A Brief Summary

[cloudsweeper]

Not a great year, but not a total flop either!  I have recorded 55 decent sessions throughout the whole year.

The most memorable were:

# My second subarcsecond split of a double star - O Sigma 95 in Taurus, 0.97", using x339 with the 8SE Cat.  Always a battle against seeing, focus, and 'scope wobble!

# Moon.  Shadow of Walther's central peak reaching the western wall, about 40 miles away.  Such estimates really put lunar observation into context!

# Rapid movement of Jupiter's moons.  Io and Europa very close, in an up-down orientation, then just 20 minutes later, much further apart on a 45deg line.  Fascinating to be watching these changes from a distance of hundreds of millions of miles!

Wishing all my SGL friends/members a Happy New Year, with plenty of opportunities for indulging our shared passion,

Doug.

 

[Stu]

Nice ones Doug, it’s been great reading your reports this year as always 👍👍

It’s not been a terribly memorable year for me unfortunately. I did plenty of lunar and solar observing in the first half of the year, and enjoyed the partial eclipse but the second half has been somewhat overrun by our house move and the poor weather.

I have enjoyed testing the AZ75 despite some of the unfortunate stuff surrounding that, and am looking forward to actually getting some proper testing of the motor kit on the AZ100 done, again weather dependent.

Hopefully 2022 will be better.

[Ags]

I'll remember this year for the many doubles I "discovered" this year (if Columbus can say he discovered America, I can say I discovered Achird!). Another highlight was the return of solar activity.

[domstar]

Just 49 sessions this year. There were a lot during lockdown but it tailed off later in the year. The highlights were mostly doubles- my smallest double split 1.8 arc seconds and finally splitting S Mon in the Christmas Tree Cluster. I also saw my first dark nebula. I can't wait for a crisp clear night on Orion. 

Thanks for your reports. They really help keep me enthused. 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

55!!! Hats off Doug. 🤳 You have made me ponder... including quick binocular views maybe twenty sessions... Not a good year but there were some highlights like solar observing for the first time, resulting in a very red face(!), the touch & go partial solar eclipse turning out alright. Lunar photography is improving, a comical Jupiter photo attempt and one fantastic bortle 3 binocular session, so not so bad.

Great reports btw. Thanks. 👍

[Zermelo]

Happy New Year, Doug.

57 sessions for me this year, though I notice I had nothing between 24/12/20 and 21/01/21, so this time last year wasn't great either.

As I've only recently started there were a lot of 'firsts', but a memorable one was our trip to a dark site in June, where I bagged 16 new Messiers.

[JeremyS]

Looking back on 2021, my overall impression is that the weather has been poor, but the stats actually show something different: I had a good first 4 months, but the last months of the year, autumn into winter, were indeed poor.

I find that I observed on 112 nights, or 31% of all nights in the year. My best month was April (22 nights) and the worst was June (only 2).
I submitted 6997 individual variable stars observations (plus quite a few time series, which are not included in this stat)

I have been collecting these stats since 2005 and I find 2021 was pretty typical during with on average I observed on 110 nights (30.5%)

I wish everyone a Happy New Year and clear skies in 2022!
 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

7 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Looking back on 2021, my overall impression is that the weather has been poor, but the stats actually show something different: I had a good first 4 months, but the last months of the year, autumn into winter, were indeed poor.

I find that I observed on 112 nights, or 31% of all nights in the year. My best month was April (22 nights) and the worst was June (only 2).
I submitted 6997 individual variable stars observations (plus quite a few time series, which are not included in this stat)

I have been collecting these stats since 2005 and I find 2021 was pretty typical during with on average I observed on 110 nights (30.5%)

I wish everyone a Happy New Year and clear skies in 2022!
 

If only we had a 'wow' button. 😀

[F15Rules]

1 hour ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

If only we had a 'wow' button. 😀

Ssshhh.. if they give us that, next thing you know is that Jeremy will be wanting a "handle" button!!

Dave

[Ags]

I am going to record my sessions this year, I wonder how many times I go out?

[cloudsweeper]

12 hours ago, Ags said:

I am going to record my sessions this year, I wonder how many times I go out?

Good plan Ags.  In my Observation Log, for each session I note the number for that month and for the whole year, e.g.:

[Mar. - 5, Yr. - 16].......[Apr. - 1, Yr. - 17]......[Apr. - 2, Yr. - 18], and so on.

Doug.

[RobertI]

You have done well Doug (as have many other people here). Looking back over the last few years has really made me realise how little I get out (15 'recorded' sessions in 2021 plus a handful of unrecorded planetary and lunar sessions). Thinking about the reasons why (mainly family and work) I can't easily improve this in the short term. But perhaps we will have more clear nights at the weekend in 2022!

On 31/12/2021 at 09:22, cloudsweeper said:

# My second subarcsecond split of a double star - O Sigma 95 in Taurus, 0.97", using x339 with the 8SE Cat.

That's a good result. I must admit, although my C8 is my biggest scope, I never use it for doubles as it doesn't give very good star images, and is especially poor on bright, close doubles. But I've never used it on fainter tight doubles, so might surprise me. It is of course possible that I have a dud! 

[cloudsweeper]

4 hours ago, RobertI said:

cloudsweeper: # My second subarcsecond split of a double star - O Sigma 95 in Taurus, 0.97", using x339 with the 8SE Cat.

That's a good result. I must admit, although my C8 is my biggest scope, I never use it for doubles as it doesn't give very good star images, and is especially poor on bright, close doubles. But I've never used it on fainter tight doubles, so might surprise me. It is of course possible that I have a dud! 

I'd go along with that, Rob!  The 8SE on GoTo is good for some doubles, largely because of the aperture and the tracking.  But yes, it's not great for sharp images of bright stars - the Dob is better, but that suffers from more "wobble" and is just manual.  

(What I really want is a 12" Dob with PushTo!  Dream on....)

Doug.

[Stu]

11 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

(What I really want is a 12" Dob with PushTo!  Dream on....)

How about an EQ platform?

[Time Traveler]

this is my eq platform, which I am always making modifications to.  Next modification is going to be remove some of the wood in front of the eq1 motor, along with the adjustable foot.  The other side will remove equal amount of wood and the adjustable foot.  I will then add the adjustable feet back under the "feet of the ground board of the dob.  This will help balance the dob on the platform better and lighten the load a little.  I have thought about cutting out a triangle or some shape of the platform to lighten it up a bit.  I'm thinking it may hurt the rigidity of the whole thing.  It's not really that heavy anyway.  Any thoughts, friends?

 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Time Traveler

[RobertI]

8 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

What I really want is a 12" Dob with PushTo!  Dream on....)

Funnily enough, me too!