Achievement unlocked! Five in a row!

Did it! Got out of bed at 5am and Weis and I viewed the cosmic wagon train of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury and the Moon stretched across the sky.

As predicted by Stellarium

We even got a bonus ISS sighting at 0530 as well - well, Weis did, I was distracted fiddling with the camera and didn't realize what she had spotted.

When we first got out Jupiter was clear to the left of the pine tree, and then heading Eastwards there was Spica, then Mars, then the bushes and fortunately Saturn was on the other side of those.

Jupiter

Spica and Mars

Acturis and Saturn

 
We checked out Jupiter, Mars and Saturn with Dobby - I'm really enjoying the range of EPs I now have (even if they are simple Skywatchers) Used the 17mm, the 8mm and then the 8mm plus the Barlow on Saturn. Magnificent views as the sky continued to offer great seeing and transparency!  I would estimate the seeing as an 8/10 and the transparency could have been 10/10.

Jupiter was beautiful.  The bands clearly visible and the four moons clear with three on the right of the planet and one to the left.  No details were clear on Mars, but it was bright and very salmon coloured.  Tried a few of the filters, but they didn't help to reveal any extra details this time.  Saturn at high magnification with the Barlow and the 8mm was absolutely gorgous. 

I took a few photos using 6 second exposures, the best of which are below.  Some trailing is evident.  I set the ISO to 100, use manual focusing and let the camera determine its own apeture.

By now Venus and Mercury were rising, but Dobby couldn't get the right angle on those.So I took the finder scope off Dobby and used that hand-held to check out Venus.  Always like seeing the phases of Venus - this time it was gibeous.

Then a thin crescent moon rose and I snapped a bunch of photos as dawn broke, and it was clearly time to wrap up the observations and head back to bed to grab a few more hours of sleep.

Scorpio and Saturn

A great shot of Scorpio

Venus and Mercury over the house

Shot of the evening: Venus, Mercury and the crescent Moon

Another fine night

05/06 February
 
Finally the clouds have parted for a promised week of decent summer weather, and I've been able to get out for another Friday night with Dobby.
Being the same time and only a week after the last observations, much the same part of the sky was on offer. So I started with another attempt at viewing M41 in Canis Major. This time I started with the 30mm EP, and a better idea of where to look, and managed to find it promptly. Its a large object, a beautiful open cluster, that fills most of the EP.  Tried also with the 25mm  and the 17mm EPs, the 25mm gives a great view but the 17mm is too close, loosing the effect of the cluster.

I then returned to M42 with the 30mm.  I'm loving the FOV on this EP.  The seeing tonight is about a 9/10, very little twinkle happening.  I then tried the 17mm and 6mm with and without the Barlow, trying to make out more detail.  Mostly seemed the same, just closer.  Perhaps darker skies will help. 

M43 is another part of the same nebula complex, but I'm having trouble discerning it.  Either I can't see it from here, or I just can't tell the two apart.  More research is required, I'd say.

Checked out Jupiter again, looked great but still can't identify the GRS, if it is visible tonight.  Tried the filters again - looks like the Yellow and Light Blue are probably the best results tonight.

Then went looking for Omega Centauri (NGC 5139), but it was down behind the roofline for Dobby.  So I checked out the Jewel Box Cluster in Crux, which was beautiful with a small cluster of red/orange stars amid a cloud of tightly packed diamonds.  View through the 30mm, 17mm and the 13mm EPs.  The 13mm seemed best in this case.

Then I moved Dobby down the path towards the gate.  The street lights are brighter there, but I had my back to them to look South.  Now I could see Omega Centauri - I star hopped from B Centauri to E Centauri and then drifted a bit further on and could clearly see the fuzzy blob.  Using different EPs:

30mm - A cloud-like misty blob
17mm - Could start to resolve some stars
13mm - Not bright, but can see a magnificent cloud of stars
8mm - About full FOV now.   Absolutely awesome.

I'll have to revisit this object in a nice dark sky.

Logs and Filters

29 January 2016

Some cruising around the web during the week lead me to a site call Astronomy Logs, which has a stack of pdf files that are really nice log sheets that have maps and diagrams with spaces for recording observations. I've already downloaded the Messier catalog and a moon atlas and will return for the other catalogs on offer.
To my surprise Friday night cleared up beautifully after a rainy day, so I printed out a couple of charts and took Dobby out on the front step.

I started observations at midnight with Orion high in the sky, so naturally went to M42 first. The seeing was good and I enjoyed using the 30mm ep with and without the Barlow to view the nebulae.

That becomes my first Messier object officially ticked off using these new log sheets.
I then tried to find M41 (the little beehive cluster) in Canis Major, but kept getting lost trying to star hop up from Sirius using the log chart. I'm putting that down to being out of practice, so I spent some time on Stellarium the next day practicing.

Then it was time to move on to Jupiter as it had emerged from behind the peach tree and I wanted to spend some time on it before it disappeared behind the front bushes. (the pitfalls of front yard observations)

Great transparency and good seeing was an awesome way to welcome back the big guy for the first viewing since last winter. Using the Barlow and my 17mm ep I could see four distinct bands and the four moons neatly lined up to the right of the disc.  Even had the pleasent surprise of seeing a satellite pass through the field of view as I was looking through the 25mm.  Couldn't make out the GRS, either it wasn't showing or the viewing conditions were not quite right.

I then observed through all my colour filters to see what would bring out better detail. With the following observations:

Filter -            Notes
---------------------------------
80A                The blue improved the bands
21                   Not a huge improvement with this red
58A                Bands were quite well defined
25                   Waaay too red
12                   The yellow helped define the bands
56                   This green was ok
----------------------------------
 
As Jupiter slid behind the bushes it was getting on for 2am, and I had some hopes of coming out again at 5am for a quick look at the line of planets, moon and stars that is occurring this month so I backed it in and went to bed.
I then slept through my 0500 alarm, but a quick look outside at 0630 showed that some high level cloud had come over during the morning, so there probably was nothing to see anyway.
That's my first proper entry for 2016. My intention is to observe, log and make an entry at least once a month for the rest of the year.
Woot!

Clouds. Dammit.

So there is an alleged lining up of the five visible planets in the morning sky. Jupiter up high and then a line of Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury down to the horizon. Something that only happens once a decade or so.
So of course this week has been nothing but clouds. Australia Day morning there was possibly a break in the cloud cover, so I got up at 5am to check, but there still was patchy cloud and misty cloud in the gaps. Not working at all.
Just have to keep checking Skippy Sky and crossing my fingers for a break.

Planet Earth is blue...

David Bowie died yesterday. I'm sadder about that than I would have expected.
But Major Tom will continue to sit in his tin can, so there still is that.
And he will always remind me of the baby...

New year resolution

Welcome 2016!

This year, at least one entry per month - hopefully of an observation... weather permitting.

Clear summer night

A beautiful clear night tonight after a nice dinner, so dragged Dobby out the back for a look.
Orion is above the house so checked out the nebulae (it's the name of the blog ya know) Used the 30mm ep with the barlow and enjoyed the view. Tried all the filters, just to see the effect. Nothing really special, perhaps the blue helped define a bit... Maybe
Played with the indirect mode on my mobile
Looked for ngc1617
Bed time