My Sept Observing Highlights!

Sept has turned out to be yet another very good month for observing. I found the first half of the month to be very cloudy however the second made up for it with plenty of clear nights....heres the my own personal highlights.....

ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA

* 30 degree solar halo

* Two 22 degree solar haloes

* A 44 degree solar halo

* 3 Sundogs - one of which was a rare 30* dog

* 3 fine displays of Iridenscent clouds

* 4 Lunar Pillars

* 22 degree lunar halo (best i have ever seen to date)

* 2 Upper Tangent Arcs (one rare 30* UTA)

* A Circumzenithal Arc

* A Parhelic circle

* A 30* and two 46* degree lunar haloes

* My first sighting of a moondog

OTHER

* Found 3 new galaxies i have never seen before during my regualr comet sweeps.

* Seen 2 naked eye sunspots

* Attended a great EAAS meeting on Supernovae

* 3 Aurora Borealis displays

* The nice Moon and Mars conjunection

* My first sighting of the Zodical light....amazing!

* Being interviewed live on radio about auroras!

* Independantly discovering a bright comet in the SOHO LASCO C3 image!

* Spent 26 hours comet hunting and picked up 109 telescopic satellites (TM) and 24 telescopic meteors (TM).

Overall i have logged 827 hours 47mins of comet hunting and seen 2839 TS and 251 TM.

I think Dave will have the best observing highlight of anyone lately!!! By the way Dave congrats again and i have mentioned your SN confirmation in my own observing logbook for the record as i feel it has put the Irish amateur scene on the big stage and i feel confident its a good omen for more achivements to come!

Clear skies!

Ahhh - but Martin, you were on Radio - you're a REAL celebrity

And by the way, I don't think I could ever match your all encompassing observing methods. You certainly get to see it all.

And well done on the comet sighting too - its a shame that it was just a matter of timing that you didn't get the discovery. Ah well, there's always tomorrow

Cheers!

Dave McD

Thanks alot Dave for the kind words.

With your equipment how long an expsoure takes you mag 18?

I can usually nab mag 18 within 90 seconds. The confirmation image was a 90 second exposure.

Of course, you need good sky conditions, well collimated scope, excellent focus, good tracking... The list goes on! But it can be done with an 8 incher

Cheers

Dave