At 18:15 I decided to grab the SkyWatcher Heritage 150 baby Dobsonian and setup it up in the back garden to view the Moon and the conjunction of Venus & Jupiter that were following the setting Sun in the West.
My neighbour saw us in the garden and asked if he could pop over and take a peek. In the 25mm eyepiece we could fit Venus and Jupiter in the same field of view. Venus was way too bright for me to see the slight phase (85.5%) but with Jupiter the two main belts and three moons were clearly visible. In the 10mm we could make out the main four moons with ease.
25mm simulated view (credit Stellarium)
Moving to the Moon we used both the 25mm and 10mm eyepieces to view the craters on the shadow terminator. We tried to grab a mobile phone picture but the baby Dob really isn’t up to the task and all attempts were disappointing.
10mm simulated view (credit Stellarium)
Using the Televue x3 barlow and the 10mm we could see craters in the shadow terminator nicely along with Clavus and the craters within.
Although the baby dob is great for grab and go I feel that SW 8-inch Dobsonian with a really good eyepiece would have done Jupiter more justice but hey the views were good enough and the experience enjoyable.
Another go at Jupiter tonight. The jet stream from netweather.tv is out of the way. I got really good focus. I managed to use the atmospheric dispersion corrector and get good alignment of the channels. I then took a mixture of 90s and 120s movies. I stacked in Siril and process in PI all on the Mac. So seeing has been my real problem.
GingerGeek came over again and we setup on the patio. I then waited for the clouds to clear at 12:30am before I had 45 mins to capture Jupiter on the Mak180 without the barlow. The jet stream (https://www.netweather.tv/charts-and-data/jetstream) was much better tonight so I could get better focus and the detail on the planet looks better with glimpses of the moons showing.
GingerGeek, Alan and Bob came over. GingerGeek brought over his 4″ dob and set it up on the patio slab tower. Alan Lorrain then went about aligning it on the Moon.
Alan finds the Moon with Bob watchingTarget acquiredMoon through Dob
So with the Moon successfully acquired and whilst GingerGeek started looking at other targets through the scope, I opened the dome and slewed the 12″ to the Moon too.
Moon through 12″
Alan, Bob and GingerGeek found a small bright mountain inside the terminator. We decided to try and find it through the 12″. When we did find it we then tried to work out what it was.
Mountain inside the terminatorIt looks like the island of La Palma!
It transpired to be Mons Piton, named after the top of mount Teide on the island of Tenerife. We would need to view it the news night to see it in full daylight.
Sky Safari
Next up was a quick look at the Ring Nebula M57.
M57
We then wanted to seed if we could make out the central white dwarf.
M57 Red
However through the Red and Blue filters and the Luminance filter we could not see it. Finally through the Green filter it stood out very well.
M57 Green
Whilst slewing around with the 12″ in the dome, I had also setup the travel scope with the Mak 180 on top. I wanted to grab some data on Jupiter in particular and Saturn just as it was nearby,.
Jupiter being imaged with Mak 180Saturn through Mak 180
I took a whole bunch of data for the next hour or so which I will process at a later time.
The most funny thing about moving to a new house is assuming you have understood your horizons correctly, well at least I found it funny when I got it wrong. After several attempts to catch the conjunction, traveling out to a nearby field with low horizons, Christmas Eve was no difference. I had set off, this time with the Esprit 120 and QHY168C and on arriving at the location realising that the weather was too cloudy to grab the conjunction.
So off I went back home. I decided to wonder up the garden to see if the weather had cleared when I returned, to find that not only was there a gap on the clouds, but also I could see Jupiter !!! This meant only one thing, that my South West horizon was not +15 degrees but actually +4 degrees! Wow that is good and lucky.
View South West , observatory is going to be in front of the foreground trees
I ran back to the car and started hauling the travel scope to the building site of IMT3b which is currently a vegetable patch, this is around 200 feet away from the car part way down the garden. It took 5 trips to move all the equipment, good for my Apple watch exercise rings, not so good for the setting of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. By the time I setup and slewed the telescope round the pair were setting behind the ancient forest in the distance but I managed to snap a single image! Perfect.
Jupiter and Galilean Moons with Saturn below – 120 Esprit and QHY168CCropped
The weather forecast suggested that this was the only clear night for some time and the planets were low in the sky. So GeekGirl and I wondered if Jupiter/Saturn were visible from the front of the house to the South-West or if we were going to have to traipse over to the muddy farm fields to view the conjunction.
Conjunction View Facing South – Credit stellarium.org
Luckily for us even though they were less than 10º altitude we could see them both between two houses from the front drive. We quickly got some warm gear on and setup the binoculars and the kiddy scope (Sky-Watcher Heritage 150P Dobsonian) on a camping table.
We quickly got Jupiter/Saturn in GeekGirl’s binoculars (Celestron 20×80 SkyMaster). The pairing although not as close as they would be on the 21st still looked nice. The rings of Saturn were discernible and the four Galilean moons were visible in this modest setup and I’m sure the view would be have been better in Dave’s monster binoculars due to the aperature.
Approximate view through 20×80 Binoculars – Credit stellarium.org
In order to get the focus for the planets I used the Heritage 150P on the near half Moon (47%). The views of the craters on the terminator along with the shadows were amazing, we could see the centre peaks of many of the craters.
View via Heritage150P/Super10 eyepiece – Credit stellarium.org
I wonder what they looked like in Dave’s Sky-Watcher SkyMax 180 Pro ?
Our next-door neighbour popped out and we invited him to view the planets and the Moon. I think he was impressed but everyone reacts differently to the experience.
Once we had both wondered over the Moon, checking out the mountain ranges and the changing shades of grey for the Mares we turned to viewing the conjunction in the 150P using the standard eyepieces (SW Super25 & Super10) that came with the scope.
View of Conjunction through Heritage150P – Credit stellarium.org
We could see all four Galilean moons with Io being placed close to Jupiter’s limb. The division in Saturn rings was visible and GeekGirl could glimpse Titan so she was happy. All in all a pleasant experience, which is rare in the current human malware situation. I finished off the evening with a Brewdog IPA ….. bliss !
Dave Shave-Wall viewing
Start time 3pm – End time 6pm
After deciding that I could not get the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter at the new house, I spent the best part of 40 minutes packing up the travel scope to travel locally to view the conjunction. I set off to view about 1 mile away across a field with allow horizon. I took my Mak180 without the Barlow and the ZWO290MC on the Paramount MyT with the Berlebach tripod. On arriving at the side of the road on the narrow country lane in North Hampshire, I was just about to setup when I realised not only had I forgot the travel car battery, but also the laptop. After a few expletives and a good old English, “I cannot possibly believe I did this, oh well carry on”, I jumped back on the Landrover and set off back home to retrieve the important parts. On arriving back home I ran up the garden to the shed for the battery, grabbed the laptop and jumped back in the car as time was against me for capturing the pairing before they set below the local horizon about 6pm. It was not 4pm.
I arrived back at the field and quickly set about fitting together the mobile setup for the 2nd time!
Field with a view
This time I settled the tripod and mount up in quick time, slide the Mak180 with its imaging train into the Losmandy Versa plate and connected the Mac. I manually aligned on Jupiter which by this time I could see with my naked eye, synced the scope and started the imaging software. After a few back fourths I found Jupiter, however Saturn was nowhere to be seen. It soon became apparent that my field of view FoV indicator on Sky Safari 4 was not accurate and indeed both planes on this particular day would not fit in! So rather than waste the occasion I shot some view of Jupiter and then slewed to Saturn for the same.
Mak180 ready to slew
I then packed the setup away, but before heading off grabbed the Canon 6D with the 100-300mm lens and grabbed a few exposures. My first attempts were not good, having not used the camera for some time and forgetting how to set the correct exposure. After a while I grabbed a single good frame, over exposed to see the Galilean satellites.
Jupiter and Saturn near conjunction Canon 6D 100mmJupiter and Saturn near conjunction Canon 6D 300mmJupiter and Saturn near conjunction Canon 6D 300mm Cropped
I would attempt another go with the larger FoV Esprit 120 a few nights later.
