Astronomy thread/Kìng a teri tanhìyä tìftia

[Toliman]

I like to watch the Moon sometimes, although it should not shine brightly during the Perseids season.

Yeah, sometimes I observe moon surface too, however I prefer deep sky

This was highly probably my last perseids of this year, because forecast for next nights are not good (and also Moon tomorrow will be shine already whole night)...

Better than nothing

Yeah, that is true.
During previous nights I already saw a lot of meteors (including few really bright pieces) so I am satisfied

[Vawmataw]

Great day, but OK night. I thought it would be a clear night, but the clouds said otherwise. However, I still had time to observe some stuff. The good point is despite that the sky seemed to be in an endless astronomical twilight, the transparency was quite good.

Regular objects: NGC 663, NGC 864, NGC 889, NGC 7243, M39, M103
I also observed Kemble's cascade as well as NGC 1502 (I saw the other fainter magnitude 9-10 stars).

Finally, I saw 3 perseids (magnitude 2, -3 and maybe 5-6). I saw the fainter one when I was looking at Gamma Andromedae with my telescope. It went too fast to be just a simple satellite (less than one second in my field of view).

[Toliman]

Finally, I saw 3 perseids (magnitude 2, -3 and maybe 5-6). I saw the fainter one when I was looking at Gamma Andromedae with my telescope. It went too fast to be just a simple satellite (less than one second in my field of view).

Good
It hapened me earlier... I observed star clusters through my telescope when one bright bolid flew across observed cluster, I was almost blinded for few minutes

[Vawmataw]

Actually, I'm not sure the fainter one was a Perseid, because it flew past in the right direction as seen through my telescope, and I have a reversed view.

[Toliman]

Yeah, seems that it was not perseid (if you have a telescope with reversed view).

Maybe I will have cear sky tonight

[Toliman]

Maybe I will have cear sky tonight

And I had
Sky conditions was very good (except moonlight). I observed several double stars, few brighter open clusters and I saw few meteors too (the brightest had 0 - 1 mag).

[Vawmataw]

I will try to take pictures of the Moon tonight

[Toliman]

I will try to take pictures of the Moon tonight

Good luck
I have clouds tonight. But never mind, I should sleep a bit more...

[Vawmataw]

As planned, I took a picture of the Moon:

Spoiler

Otherwise, I haven't observed any deep sky object since there was a thin cloud cover everywhere.

[Toliman]

Good image again

Seems that I will have cloudy weekend... what about your forecast?

[Vawmataw]

Clear skies again tonight, but it they forecasted the same thing the previous nights and there were clouds.

[Toliman]

I hope that weather will be good for your stargazing.

Now seems that I could have partly cloudy or almost clear sky tonight, but we will see, weather is very variable here now...
I would observe Jupiter, Saturn and double stars (if sky will be enough clear, of course)

[Toliman]

Now seems that I could have partly cloudy or almost clear sky tonight, but we will see, weather is very variable here now...

And I had.
I observed Jupiter, Saturn and many double stars. Both planets were nice and the most beautiful and interesting double stars were Epsilon Lyrae, Albireo, Omicron 1 Cygni, Omega 2 Cygni, 16 Cygni, Delta Cephei, Eta Cassiopeiae, 15 Trianguli, Gamma Andromedae, Gamma Arietis and 1 Arietis.

[Vawmataw]

I made some observations: M13, Double cluster, NGC 663, NGC 457, Stock 2

Spoiler

I was observing in the area between Cassiopeia and Andromeda with my telescope (to find an open cluster) when a meteor passed in the field of view. It was a short, but bright (-1 maybe). I think it was a Perseid this time.

[Toliman]

I made some observations: M13, Double cluster, NGC 663, NGC 457, Stock 2

Spoiler

Good image
And how looked these object through your telescope under moonlight? It was still good to observe?

[Vawmataw]

It was not bad indeed, although for M103 and NGC 663 it was difficult due to moonlight.

[Toliman]

Yeah, bright deepskay like as Double Cluster, M13 or NGC457 are good observable even under moonlight.
Especially brighter globular clusters are good observable through my telescope even during time of full moon.

Maybe tomorrow I will have clear sky again

[Toliman]

I have a new telescoe now - 18 inch dobsonian. It's significant upgrade because my previous telescope have "only" 12 inch.

And sky was clear few previous nights (surprisingly, because we surelly know Murphy's law of astronomers: "if you buy a new telescope, sky will be few weeks cloudy" xD) so I could try his power on various objects. I went far away from my city under nice dark sky. Sky conditions, transparency and seeing vere very good during all nights which I observed.

Saturn was great and despite low declination I was able totally easily see his moon Enceladus (+ all five the brightest saturn moons, of course). During excelent sky conditions I was able to see Enceladus even my 12 inch telescope, but there is problem with proximity of Enceladus to very bright Saturn's rings so excelent seeing was needen. Now, with 18 inch telescope, no problem under a bit stronger magnification.
I was able easily see also Neptune's moon Triton and Uranus moons Titania and Oberon.

Globular clusters are just fantastic under stronger magnification through such big telescope. I observed M22, M5, M13, M92, M10, M12, M2 and M15 and I was surprised how details in their structure were visible. The most beautifull were M5 and M15, In their peripheral parts (where is not such amount of stars) were visible amazing formation of many stars.

Nebulae... epic, especially through nebulae filters. Veil Nebula was absolutelly amazing through O-III filter, there were visible incedible details of her filament structure, it was almost like as on some photos... After it I explored area around Gamma Cygni star - there was visible incredible amount of faint stars (faint meant under 15.5 mag in this case) and when I use UHC filter, I easily and cleary saw nebulous complex around Gamma Cygni which was visible only difficulty with my 12 inch telescope.
M27 Dumbbell Nebua - amazing structure and through O-III filter it was next incredible beautiful object.
Nebulae in Cassiopeia - great too. NGC281 Pacman Nebula was super bright with distinct structure and when I used UHC filter, I was almost shocked, such beauty... IC1848+1805 Soul and Heart Nebula, this was great too, with few open clusters in this part of the sky this is very nice region!
M1 Crab Nebula in Taurus - incredible structure, through UHC filter amazing. And M42+43 Orion Nebula - thanks 18 inch telescope and good transparency epic, despite her current possition (10 degree above horizont in last 30 minutes of the night). I am not able describe what I was able to see here... especially central part of nebula around Trapezium star has incredible brightness and structure.

Open clusters - I didn't observe a lot of open clusters, because other deep sky interested me more during previous nights. I observed M11, M26 + few other slusters in Scutum and also Doube Cluster, M52, NGC7789, M35 and M36-38. When I observed clusters in area of Scutum star clouds, this region very interested me, that amount of faint stars which was visible in this very bright region of milky way, I don't know how describe it...

And galaxies, M31 and M33 was absolutelly amazing, especially spiral arms of M33 with many nebulous regions and large nebula NGC604 which was amazing through my new telescope. I will observe this two galaxies more during next nights (if weather will be good. I observed also few fainter galaxies in this part of night sky and also bright NGC253 Sculptor Galaxy - next nice surprise, despite low declination of this galaxy (only 15 degree above horizon), it was incredible mosaic of light and dark spots.

[Vawmataw]

I'm glad you're 10000% enjoying this upgrade. I hope I'll upgrade someday...

Spoiler

I just stargazed
And it felt so good (felt so good)
Clouds let me point my telescope at the sky
I just stargazed (Hey!)
And I'll never go back (never go back)
To the not stargazing
Ways of the past

Honestly I couldn't complain tonight about the sky conditions. 2/5 seeing but 4/5 transparency and 0% cloud cover! Unfortunately, I didn't have the appropriate cloud cover last weekend.

I went outside after 9:30PM to enjoy the sky at its best. Tonight's "discoveries" have been NGC 225 and M16. NGC 225 was a wanted target and M16 was the nebula I had regretted not having observed. The visible nebulosity of M16 was around the region of the cluster.

Finally, here's the list of the objects I observed:

M: 2, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 24, 27, 29, 31, 32, 34, 40, 45, 57, 92, 103
NGC: 225, 457, 663, 869, 884, 1502, 6530, 6871, 6883, IC 4665
Other: Stock 2, Biurakan 1, Biurakan 2, Melotte 20
Planetaries: Saturn, Titan, Jupiter, Ganymede, Europa, Io, Callisto
Stars: Albireo, 61 Cygni, Barnard's star, NGC 771
Special mentions: I saw two Cassiopeias tonight
Kemble 1 and Kemble 2 were observed.

[Toliman]

I'm glad you're 10000% enjoying this upgrade. I hope I'll upgrade someday...

I hope too that you will can

Quite a lot of deepsky Congratz to observation of M16!





I had next clear night so I went away from my city for next observation with my new telescope. Sky conditions were very good, transparency was excellent and sky was nice dark. This observation was very detailed observation of galaxies M31 and M33. It was great!

M31 Andromeda Galaxy
I observed this galaxy whole 4 hours, such many details visible here with 18 inch telescope... I was able see a lot of stellar associations and dust clouds and lines and also I was able found 38 globular clusters of this galaxy. I have detailed charts of galaxies M31 and M33 so finding and identification was not too difficult.

Where I should start... well, dust lines. Already through my 12 inch telescope earlier I was able to see two long dust lines very well (designated as D153-425 and D47-392). But now it was something totally different, it was visible that both lines are beautifull complex of many smaller dust clouds. I am not able describe all details which I saw here. Next very obvious dust structure were D39 and also D507 which looks like as thin dark line near very bright core of M31. I was able found many other dust structures and I will continue with this observation next nights.

Star clouds and stellar associationes of M31 - next nice structures. The brightness star clouds of Andromeda Galaxy is designated as NGC206 or A78 and it's huge stellar association which contains the most luminous stars of Andromeda Galaxy. When I observed this structure through my 12 inch telescope, it was just bright nebulous cloud. But now I saw here many details which I didn't saw earlier and under stronger magnification I saw this structure not as nebulous cloud but as grained structure! And by averted vision I saw here few tiny stars. I am not sure whether it were stars of our galaxy or stars of M31 because different sources gives different data about brightness of the brightest stars of M31: between 16 and 17 mag (the fainter star which I saw tonight had 16.5 mag so theoretically...) In any case, this is my next target for next observations.
I saw also many other brighter regions and stellar associations. The most interesting were A54, A56, A6, A49, A35, A40, A41 and A102. And I was also able to see three object which was classified as open clusters, but it's question whether they are huge clusters or small stellar associationes. Their designations are C107, C202, C203 and as compared with previous (bigger) stellar associationes it were very faint tiny spots, but visible.

Globular clusters of M31 - the brightest and biggeŕ globular cluster of Andromeda Galaxy is G1 (designated also as Mayall II). It has 13.8 mag and size 20 arcsec so I could see it even my 12 inch telescope as tiny nebulous spon. Now I can see her bright spot and fainter peripheral parts under strong magnifcation.
Other globular clusters of M31 are fainter (under 14 mag) and smaller (size just few arcsec) so they were visible like as tiny nebulous spots or almost dots. Nine of them has brightess between 14 and 15 mag (G280, G78, G76, G213, G272, G205, G72, G73, G87) and other 28 globular clusters (which I observed) has brightness between 15 and 16 mag. There are many other fainter globulars, I will try find them next observations.

M33 Triangulum galaxy
After this long observation of beautiess of Andromeda Galaxy I moved to my second target - galaxy M33, gorgeous object too. This galaxy has nice spiral structure and her spiral arms contains few bright nebulous regions and many stellar associationes. This galaxy is really incredibly rich on relative bright nebulous regions. I observed it whole rest of the night (two hours). I really can't describe how this galaxy looks through 18 inch telescope, it must be seen...

The brightness nebulous region of Triangulum Galaxy is known NGC604. Through 18 inch telescope is possible observe few detailes of his structure, especially with using of UHC filter. View of this galaxy through UHC filter was magic, structure ofown galaxy become more faint (but still good distinctive) and on the contrary, brightness of nebulous regions rapidly increased. It looked almost like as "lights on christmas tree"...
Four the brightness nebulous regions have NGC designations (NGC604, NGC588, NGC595, NGC592) and ten others has IC designations (IC131, IC132, IC133, IC135, IC136, IC137, IC139, IC140, IC142, IC143). NGCs was super bright, some ICs was relative faint but through UHC filter was visible well (it were that "lights on christmas tree" xD). Except these I saw also few other stellar associationes (A14, A21, A48, A71, A110, A112, A87, A121, A131) these already were mostly very faint.

As compared with Andromeda Galaxy, Triangulum Galaxy has not such number of globular clusters and they are fainter. The brightest globular cluster of M33 is C39 and it has 15.9 mag and size only 2 arcsec. I was able to find it and it looks as fainter tinny spot.


After this night ended and sky on east became light. It was time to ride back to home...