Astronomy thread/Kìng a teri tanhìyä tìftia

[Toliman]

Nice image!

Tonight I found some time for observation of Jupiter and Saturn, thanks quite good seeing it was nice observation. Cassini division in Saturn's ring was super sharply visible and also many details on Jupiter were visible. Jupiter's moons were nice too, Io and Europa were quite close, it was nice close pair and their color difference was very obvious - white europa and yellowish Io.

[Vawmataw]

I also observed Nova Cassiopeiae last night. It has rebrightened recently. Do you know why it behaves like that, especially since it's been visible for 4 months now? In comparison, Nova Herculis 2021 didn't stay around for long.

[Toliman]

That is good question, behavior of this nova is really unique. Really I am not sure why it behaves in this way.

[Vawmataw]

That is good question, behavior of this nova is really unique. Really I am not sure why it behaves in this way.

And after being bright it's dim again HRH


Objects that I've seen tonight: M2, M8, M13, M15, M16*, M17, M18*, M21*, M22, M24, M25, M31, M32, M57, IC 4665, NGC 457, NGC 869, NGC 884

Solar system objects: Jupiter and the galilean moons, Saturn and Titan, 12 Victoria

Other: Nova Cassiopeiae (again!) and ISS

*There seemed to be a tiny bit of nebulosity so I'm not sure

[Toliman]

Nice observation! We had rain tonight hrh

That is good question, behavior of this nova is really unique. Really I am not sure why it behaves in this way.

And after being bright it's dim again HRH

Ngary, I am curious whether there will be any next surprise about this nova xD

M16*, M18*, M21*
*There seemed to be a tiny bit of nebulosity so I'm not sure

M16 - Eagle Nebula (xD), how good sky conditions were? Did you observed before moonrise?

[Vawmataw]

M16*, M18*, M21*
*There seemed to be a tiny bit of nebulosity so I'm not sure

M16 - Eagle Nebula (xD), how good sky conditions were? Did you observed before moonrise?

Yes, I observed before moonrise. I would say the transparency was good although my telescope was wet (just not the lenses).
Of course it was just a bit of something around two stars, I didn't see the entire nebula. Same thing with M8, there was nebulosity around NGC 6530 and a pair of stars nearby, but it was more visible.

[Toliman]

 

M16*, M18*, M21*
*There seemed to be a tiny bit of nebulosity so I'm not sure

M16 - Eagle Nebula (xD), how good sky conditions were? Did you observed before moonrise?

Yes, I observed before moonrise. I would say the transparency was good although my telescope was wet (just not the lenses).
Of course it was just a bit of something around two stars, I didn't see the entire nebula.

Yeah, then you could see the brightest part of this nebula With good transparency I was able to see this the brightest part of M16 even on urban sky through my first telescope, smaller refractor.

Did you tried similarly bright M20?

[Vawmataw]

M16*, M18*, M21*
*There seemed to be a tiny bit of nebulosity so I'm not sure

M16 - Eagle Nebula (xD), how good sky conditions were? Did you observed before moonrise?

Yes, I observed before moonrise. I would say the transparency was good although my telescope was wet (just not the lenses).
Of course it was just a bit of something around two stars, I didn't see the entire nebula.

Yeah, then you could see the brightest part of this nebula With good transparency I was able to see this the brightest part of M16 even on urban sky through my first telescope, smaller refractor.

Did you tried similarly bright M20?

As I tried to observe to M21 I didn't see anything but stars nearby.

[Toliman]

M16*, M18*, M21*
*There seemed to be a tiny bit of nebulosity so I'm not sure

M16 - Eagle Nebula (xD), how good sky conditions were? Did you observed before moonrise?

Yes, I observed before moonrise. I would say the transparency was good although my telescope was wet (just not the lenses).
Of course it was just a bit of something around two stars, I didn't see the entire nebula.

Yeah, then you could see the brightest part of this nebula With good transparency I was able to see this the brightest part of M16 even on urban sky through my first telescope, smaller refractor.

Did you tried similarly bright M20?

As I tried to observe to M21 I didn't see anything but stars nearby.

I remember that (with my first small telescope and urban sky) I was able to see usually also M20 when M16 was visible. Both nebulae are similarly bright but M20 has more southern declination.

[Toliman]

Perseids coming. I saw five meteors before morning, one was nice bright (-5 mag), probably one of Perseids.

[Vawmataw]

I will try to watch the Perseids if I can. I'm on vacation this week, so far there's only one possible clear night, but things can change.

[Toliman]

Hope that you will have clear sky in right time

[Toliman]

And we have next bright nova!

The recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi just went into outburst — its first burst in 15 years — and it's bright enough to see with the naked eye.
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/recurrent-nova-rs-ophiuchi-just-blew-its-top/

[Toliman]

One night before maximum of Perseids. I observed meteors between 1am and 4am, in this time I saw 35 meteors. Sky conditions were great (clear dark and moonless sky). Three the brightest meteors had approx. -3 mag and another five had around 0 mag. Seems that next night it could be great!

[Vawmataw]

Did you observe RS Ophiuchi?

[Toliman]

Did you observe RS Ophiuchi?

Yeah, forgot to mention hrh
I observed it before midnight when it's still high above horizon. It's really bright and with 5 mag easily visible by naked eye on our dark sky
Can you try to observe this nova too?

[Vawmataw]

There might be one free slot this weekend, I hope it's not a quick nova.

[Toliman]

There might be one free slot this weekend, I hope it's not a quick nova.

This is recurrent nova which already went into outburst several times in past so there is possible to predict his behavior - RS Oph typically rises steeply and rapidly to maximum and then quickly declines, dropping about two magnitudes over a week's time, before leveling off and fading more gradually. So at this this weekend you still would be able to see it easily through your telescope on urban sky.

[Vawmataw]

So finally I've got the chance to have some time to stargaze tonight, but it was short.

So I observed RS Ophiuchi, its magnitude seems to be around 6.
I also observed again Nova Cassiopeiae 2021 and it seems to be really faint now.
I also pointed my telescope at Jupiter and Saturn.

As for the Perseids, I saw only one, the clouds came in after that.

[Toliman]

Only one Perseid... how bright it was? I hope that it was at least something special That is a pity that clouds came such soon.
But nice that you was able to see second nova of this year!



So how was my night of Perseids peak... sky conditions were not such good as previous night but it still good enough hrh - saw 110 meteors:

1 bolide brighter than -10 mag
5 meteors a bit brighter than -5 mag
20 meteors of brightness between -3 and 0 mag
41 meteors of brightness between 0 and 2 mag
43 meteors fainter than 2 mag

That bolide was epic, brightness was comparable with full moon and it made shinning track across half of the sky and changed color from green to golden.