Lucky!
Clouded over here for days (er, nights) in Newcastle…real shame as I’m only here until tomorrow and I have a great expanse of sky to grumble at.
1 Like
I missed the Northern Lights here in North Bucks.
The previous night my small town had an electrical blackout. I went outside and did a naked-eye star count within Orion. 11 stars excluding the four corners. I didn’t have time for my eyes to fully adapt to the dark.
1 Like
If you have a clear sky on 1st March evening, Venus & Jupiter are very close and should be spectacular.
Four of Jupiters moons will add to the viewing.
PS: 1st March, clear sky at sunset, so fingers crossed
2 Likes
I may try to see this tomorrow night, they will still be in close conjunction and the weather forecast is better
Clear sky at sunset, fingers crossed.
A good view at half light, can just see one moon with 42x10 bino’s
Now at almost dark, it’s clouded over.
Hope for better during the next hour or so
I got lucky at about 6.30pm here in Northest Bucks. Took a quick snap with the phone, hence quality is a bit ropey…
Venus on right, Jupiter on left
1 Like
Nice.
By the time I got home from work they were below the horizon, and it was cloudy to boot. No chance!
We have another planetary alignment next week, nothing that special, but worth a look if you have a clear westerly low horizon.
March 27 & 28 – Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus & Mars.
Look west after sunset. Very near the horizon you will see Jupiter & one degree away is Mercury
More or less directly above is Venus, unmistakable as the brightest planet.
To see Uranus, you need a ‘scope or very powerful binoculars, it’s about two degrees above Venus.
Mars, just above the moon & unmistakably red.
2 Likes
Lovely sight just now of the ISS passing The Moon and Venus. Wish I’d had a camera with me!
Typical…get the scope out, nice and clear overhead (quick look around in Lyra), set everything to cool…inside, cuppa…back out and almost completely clouded. Sigh.
No Saturn for me tonight.
Stargazing teaches one patience, I must say.
My son and I are usually out at this time of year to watch the Perseid meteor showers but this year - pah!
1 Like
Well, a little break in the clouds and I saw a murky Saturn for a few minutes, but seeing was bad. Like looking through a shower door with the steam on.
No Perseids that I could see, either, just satellites whizzing about.
Just looked out and the clouds are near gone, but I had already put the scope away…double pah!
Cygnus is looking nice, and I can see Albireo, but…just can’t be bothered getting set up again. Time for bed.
1 Like
Finally got my first clear skies in months. No perseids but started with Alberio, the beautiful coloured double in Cygnus before moving to the much tighter Izar in Bootes. Then a few Messier objects in in and around Sagittarius (M29, M24, M20, M28) . Saturn was as impressive as ever with the rings more edge on than last time I observed it. Finished with the mesmerising M13 In Hercules.
2 Likes
I have at last got around to starting to sort out the scope I bought nearly two years ago(!), aiming to be ready for darker nights, having so far just done a couple of minimal planetary viewings from my garden.
To any experienced astrophotographers out there: as well as viewing, I would like to explore this. Whilst in due course I might consider buying a dedicated cmos camera for it, such as one from ZWO, but for now I’m thinking in terms uf using my existing camera, a DSLR (actually a Canon R mirrorless, with standard EOS adapter) I’d appreciate any observations you might have on the approaches that seem appropriate to me:
The camera has previously been modified to full spectrum, and I have ordered an Astronomik CLS-CCD filter for it, which has sharp IR cutoff above the H alpha line.
The scope is a Meade LX90 10" (2500mm f/10). I’ve replaced the back fitting with a larger diameter one for full 2" capability, and have a Vixen flip-mirror 2" diagonal, with T-mount to take the camera on the straight-through port, enabling full-frame coverage.
-
For larger deep sky objects, Andromeda galaxy to various nebula, piggyback the camera on the scope, latter equatorial mounted, to use its tracking capability. Most useful lens is probably my 100-400L f/4.5-5.6. Shoot multiple (100+) exposures of maybe around a couple of minutes and stack them. Ihaven’t yet looked into whether I can automate this with the camera - if not then fewer longer exposures.
-
For planetary, attach camera to scope via the 2" diagonal. I think the FOV full frame would be of the order of 1 degree (similar to about a 35mm eyepiece). That isn’t high enough mag for planets, so I think I’ll need to contrive additional magnification, I guess at least 5x, maybe 10x though that might be excessive. Whether that means the complexity of shooting through an eyepiece, or something else, I’m not sure… (I have 7mm and 24mm eyepieces, plus a 1.6x Barlow, and I will get a 40x 2" soon.)
All observations/suggestions welcome.
I’m 100% visual so I am not going to be able to help you other than to recommend you post this on one of two main astronomy forums - StarGazers Lounge (UK) and Cloudy Nights (US but with an international membership).