7907 replies to this topic

[Echolight]

At around 10:30, I took a peek at the Moon, naked eye, through gaps in some lightly foliated tree limbs, before I went to bed.

[PYeomans]

Had the AR 102 out last night and primarily concentrated on the moon. Best view of another planet we get from here and endlessly fascinating at low and high magnifications. Haze much too thick to check out anything else.

[daveb2022]

Last night I observed about 60 double stars in constellations Leo, Leo Minor, Virgo, and Bootes using a 4 inch f/5.4, 540mm focal length refractor and a 3.5mm eyepiece.  Only a hand full of targets did not resolve, mostly due to poor seeing that has seemed to descend on me on and off over the last couple of weeks. From my sky last night, I could see the big dipper, however, Megrez was very difficult to see. I don't know what Bortle rating I'm in (7?) and in part use different objects to determine seeing and transparency. My magnitude limit last night was +/- a mag 10 level. I also took a look-see at Venus and the moon while they were in sight.

Using a small scope in brighter skies at home limits my target options a lot. Doubles are often an easy target for small scopes, and you can also see color variations in many. I prefer doubles that have a large magnitude offset between pairs, and/or very close companions, but a nice colored double star is a treat IMO.

BTW "doubles" is more of a label...many are multiple groups. With a small scope you need to learn magnitudes, (how bright they appear), plus determining arcsecond distances can make the difference if you are actually seeing the real companion or just a close by star. A Mak like yours is a good scope for observing and splitting doubles. I use digital setting circles and do not star hop unless absolutely necessary but working off a star chart is fun IMO. Some folks some prefer to star hop finding them. I like going off of a list using specific catalogs such as SAO or HD. We all have preferences and enjoy the hobby in different ways.

 

Here is an example of one list I use:

 

 

SAO designation               type object       location    rise time
Magnitude
HD designation                                        location    set time
Separation
Constellation

 

SAO99648                        Double Star     11:31        50° 14´ 
6.4 8.4 
HD 100180 88 Leo                                  14° 22´    -27° 11´ 
8 
Leo
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAO99673                       Double Star     11:34        52° 23´ 
6 7.3 8.7 
HD 100600 90 Leo                                 16° 47´    -25° 36´ 
3 63 
Leo
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAO81893                      Double Star      11:36       58° 57´ 
5.8 10.1 
HD 100808                                            27° 46´   -15° 07´ 
21 
Leo
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAO15580                      Double Star     11:38       56° 10´ 
6.5 7.8 
HD 101150                                           64° 20´   16° 36´ 
2 
UMa

 

 

[kasprowy]

With the smoke all over, I had two targets visible - The Moon and Arcturus, so I settled on the Moon. Got some nice sharp (although orange tinted) views with my SkyWatcher Evolux 62 / Meade 6.4mm SuperPlossl (Japanese vintage). Spent a good hour to hour and a half looking things over.

[Dave Mitsky]

One of the afocal photos of the Moon that I took last night can be seen at https://www.cloudyni...ess/?p=12779671

[Dave Mitsky]

An afocal photo that I took of the gibbous Moon as it set on Friday morning can be seen at https://www.cloudyni...ess/?p=12782837

[whizbang]

Bortle 9...

 

M13, M31, NGC457 Owl Cluster, Double double, Double Cluster NGC 884/869, M57, M27 and Alberio.

[Pipiland]

Just the Moon, its to windy to be outside

[Tony Cifani]

Quick look at the moon. Sky transparency and seeing were very poor but I just had to try out a new eyepiece. Moon still looked amazing.

[Dave Mitsky]

It was very humid but somewhat clear early last night.  I started off with some binocular observing.  A bit later I observed and took some hand-held afocal iPhone photos of the 99.6%-illuminated Moon using my 24mm Explore Scientific 68-degree and 17.5mm Baader Planetarium Morpheus eyepieces and 6" Orion SkyQuest XT6 Dob.  The sky had begun to deteriorate by then so I put the telescope away before too long.

[Dave Mitsky]

One of the afocal photos of the Moon that I took last night can be seen at https://www.cloudyni...ere/?p=12788594

[Josephus Miller]

I've been eager to break in my new 127mm Orion mak on Saturn, but the weather has been anywhere between solid overcast and smoky-hazy for 10 days or more now. I've been trying each promising morning before dawn, with no success yet.

 

The forecast for this morning looked good. Up at 4:30, and down the stairs to the sidewalk to see for myself. There it was! Saturn, like a bright yellow star hanging low in the south--excellent. So, back in to gather my gear and get set up. And of course: in the 10 or so minutes that took me, the clouds rolled in. I stayed out until dawn to see if it would make another appearance, but no good.

 

Next time, perhaps...

[jcj380]

Just a quick look at Jupiter this morning.  We're under another "unhealthy" air quality alert with high humidity, so there's a lot of schmutz in the air.  And I was using a fast frac, so there was a fair amount of CA.

[rocco13]

Was able to spend four nights in a row this past weekend, despite the full moon, fireworks, and a hot breeze keeping temps over 100 well after sunset.

 

Managed to get quite a few M's...57, 56, 27, 39, 27, 10, 12, 14, 4, 80, and 22. Also several dozen doubles in Ursa Major, Draco, Cygnus, and Lyra.

 

My backyard has obstructions (houses, trees) that prevent me from seeing anything south of Antares. That means the trailing half of Scorpius and virtually all of Sagittarius is not visible. But I managed find tiny window under the trees and above the block wall, and nabbed M22 as it barely preceded the full moon rising. Was maybe 10-15° above the horizon. Through thick air, heavy light pollution, and the moon only a few degrees away, I managed to detect it in my 4" refractor. First Sagittarius object in years!

[aToas7er]

Well, perhaps I'm reviving a dead thread, but it seems most appropriate for what I was able to catch last night!

I'm located in a Bortle 9 region within Kansas City, MO.

Having setup on a flat roof section of my house I had a decent view of high-latitude objects to the south. I was using last night as a test of the r.ha drive on my mount and after doing polar alignment with my phone as a compass and inclinometer I targeted Antares.

My objective this evening was to improve my polar alignment, try to familiarize myself with the constellation Scorpius, and catch M4 and a few doubles in the neighborhood.

I tricked myself a few times- using a 23mm plossl with my Celestron 130EQ reflector I didn't quite realize I could see M4 at the same time as Antares itself and ended up searching all over for it. In the process I observed i Sco and the two stars forming a triangle with it, as well as the four primary stars in the Oph Nebula.

Despite relatively decent seeing where I live, I couldn't distinguish individual stars while looking at the M4 globular cluster, or the two doubles in the Oph Nebula. Those objects all just looked like a single point. I'll be interested to see if a slightly higher magnification would assist in resolving the doubles, but I think darker skies are the ticket for me.

 

As a fun note- I saw about 9 satellites last night over the course of an hour. Five of those were THROUGH the eye piece and not just with the naked eye. I went back and found out just what I had seen and 3 satellites were the new and 'darker' Starlinks. They're much darker than the old versions, but still pretty bright. I have a feeling those will cause headaches if/when I get into astrophotography.

 

Tonight I hope to get somewhere slightly darker to keep exploring the higher latitudes of Scorpius.

[Josephus Miller]

Let's keep it going!

 

 

Here's Jupiter this morning. A transit of Io's shadow was in progress--you can't tell from this iPhone shot, but I could just make it out visually. 

[MrsM75]

Let's keep it going!

 

 

Here's Jupiter this morning. A transit of Io's shadow was in progress--you can't tell from this iPhone shot, but I could just make it out visually. 

 

wow Sir, that is a beautiful picture of Jupiter.! Jupiter is so fat, hihi. (Jupiter also look super fat under my Mak too).

 

May I ask what telescope you use, what aperture is your telescope?

 

I love the picture, thank you for posting.

Edited by housewife, 11 July 2023 - 06:33 AM.

[MrsM75]

And thank you so so much for everyone   that replied and share your experience and what do you saw with the bright sky Bortle.

 

I liked all the posts, and I do take notes on what objects (planets, stars, DSO) that you saw, so I will try to find it in my sky Bortle too. I live in what the light pollution map said Bortle 7 (but that was an old map result), maybe now my sky is Bortle 8, who knows.

 

I did finally find Andromeda galaxy again tonight at 2:30AM.

First time I saw Andromeda was last year in December 2022, then I stop stargazing for a while due to the rain comes and goes in California back in Jan to Feb 2023 earlier this year.

....

Then I got a 4 inch SkyMax Mak, and now I'm back at stargazing, so I'm trying to find the DSO objects that I saw before (which not much). But I finally found Andromeda again tonight, I was so happy, hihi. 

 

Thank you again for share with me what you saw, and help me in this thread too as what objects you saw, I will take notes and will try to find it my sky too.

Edited by housewife, 11 July 2023 - 09:24 AM.

[mikemarotta]

My instrument was an Astronomers Without Borders OneSky 130mm (5-inch) Newtonian using my new Astronomics Astro-Tech Premium Flat 5.5 mm ocular.

At a star party this past Saturday, the finder scope failed. So, yesterday I installed a new one, collimated the mirrors, and revisted more-or-less familiar targets.

 

Messier 4 - west of Antares: detectable and discernable; not good.

Messier 22 - Globular cluster - east of Kaus Borealis (Cap of the Teapot)  prominent and easy.

Messier 28 - like M22 but smaller  - west of the Cap.

Nu Scorpii - multiple star system

Beta Scorpii - "Graffias" - double star

Messier 80 - globular cluster

Zeta Scorpii 1,2 - double star and NGC 6231 small open cluster

Messier 13 - Hercules cluster

 

I never found the Lagoon or Triffid nebulae but i did enjoy a lot stars while searching. It is a very rich area of the sky into the center of our galaxy.

 

Thanks,

Mike M.

[jcj380]

Messier 4 - west of Antares: detectable and discernable; not good.

Yeah, M4 is barely visible at my home even with my ST120.  Too much LP muck.

[Josephus Miller]

wow Sir, that is a beautiful picture of Jupiter.! Jupiter is so fat, hihi. (Jupiter also look super fat under my Mak too).

May I ask what telescope you use, what aperture is your telescope?

I love the picture, thank you for posting.

Hey, thanks!

I’m a mak fan like you: I was using my 127mm Orion Apex mak with my 6mm SV Bony goldline eyepiece (so about 250x). That was really pushing it though, and my 10mm Plössl was much more comfortable at around 150x.

Jupiter is a favorite! I’m looking forward to the fall when it should be more conveniently visible.

[aToas7er]

Let's keep it going!

 

IMG_1913.jpg

 

Here's Jupiter this morning. A transit of Io's shadow was in progress--you can't tell from this iPhone shot, but I could just make it out visually. 

That's gorgeous! Were you holding the iPhone up to the eyepiece or did you use a mount of some sort?

I've not yet mastered the skill of cellphone astrophotography as I can't really get the camera lined up. Outside of that- do you have any experience with smaller maks? I've got a Svbony 105mm and prefer it over my 130mm Celestron newtonian and am thinking of sticking with the mak train.

 

Cheers, and remember- "Doors and corners kid!"

[daveb2022]

For the fun of it, I decided to take a look at M-13 and M-92 in Hercules with my 101mm refractor. When M-13 was close to zenith, I could detect granularity using a 3.5mm EP (154x). The globular took took up two/thirds of the field of view...it's huge. M-92 was smaller and somewhat stellar, but it was brighter and more concentrated.

 

Once you find the target using low power, I'd think your larger Mak would respond well around 140-160x. I think my skies are similar, B-7ish???  From my backyard, if I can see Megrez in Ursa Major at this time of year with the naked eye, I rate the transparency as very good.

 

Last night I didn't have any issues seeing Megrez or the constellation Lyra with my old eyes (that really need glasses). Most of the night I observed several double stars but was glad I took a peek at M-13 and 92. Later I cheated with night vision. I posted this is a different thread, but on the morning of the morning of the 7th I saw Saturn for the first time this season. My first thought was "housewife" because you've been so uplifted observing it.

 

Here is a (unprocessed) shot of Saturn using a cell phone through a Delos 3.5mm EP. Not great but doable for a resized phone shot I guess.

 

 

 

[Josephus Miller]

That's gorgeous! Were you holding the iPhone up to the eyepiece or did you use a mount of some sort?
I've not yet mastered the skill of cellphone astrophotography as I can't really get the camera lined up. Outside of that- do you have any experience with smaller maks? I've got a Svbony 105mm and prefer it over my 130mm Celestron newtonian and am thinking of sticking with the mak train.

Cheers, and remember- "Doors and corners kid!"

Thanks!

Yes, this was through the eyepiece, no holder used. My trick is to actually shoot a video while I’m lining it up, since the target always seems to zip in and out of the iPhone’s field of view. By capturing video you don’t have to worry about timing the shutter at all. Later you can go back frame by frame and find the best ones. I just do a screenshot to capture my favorites, but there’s probably a more elegant way. This is also zoomed, cropped, and with the color saturation turned way up (just using the iPhone’s photo editor) to bring out the bands. Anyway, I don’t want to get busted for discussing AP in the beginner’s forum!

Oh, and this is my first and only mak so I can’t comment on smaller apertures I’m afraid. I just switched from my newt a month or so ago.

[jcj380]

Double Cluster in Perseus and the Pleiades this morning.  102mm.