Fireball biggest i have ever seen observed at 12:28am

....has anyone observed the nova in Cygnus yet? I have been planning on observing it in the pre-dawn sky but have been clouded out thus far. I have heard unconfirmed reports that it is fading? at mag 9.9. Does anybody know the latest state of this nova?....thanks in advance!

Hi Martin,
welcome to the boards.

There is a post here with news about this nova.

Seanie.

I Seanie

Thanks very much for the info on the nova. I would love to hear about these observing sessions you had with your friend, i bet they are fun

Ive got plenty of observing adventures to tell you about with Conor and i. Some amazing observations, amazing sky conds and all of that but there are a few comical times as well that makes me laugh now just thinking about it.

Did you or anyone else here ever have anything strange or unusual happen to you during an observing session? Would love to hear about these!

Hi Martin.
I've put up a post here about strange flashes I saw in the sky
www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?p=9197#9197

Was it an atmospheric phenomina or what, I dont know.
Was it cosmic particles hiting my eyes ?? :lol:
Was I imagining it ??

Hi Dave

That was a very interesting set of observations. I was about to reply in the negative regarding any sighings of my own untill i heard the description ' like static electricity'. Then i realised immediately that i have had several experiences like this over the last couple of years while observing for long hours during the night. I have only seen this under surperb crystal clear dark skies. I too thought i was witnessing some kind of electrical phenomenon, it looked like a faint neon blue colour like the ion tails of comets, it shimmered violently and was visible over the entire sky. At the time i put it down to observing too much, my eyes dark adaption and sensitivity had reached a whole new level and i put it down to eye strain or something. However i have no idea what this could be!

Very interesting indeed!!!!

..I would love to hear about these observing sessions you had with your friend, i bet they are fun....
.....Did you or anyone else here ever have anything strange or unusual happen to you during an observing session? Would love to hear about these!

Hi Martin,
yep, they were fun actually. During the 90's, I remember there being a lot more clear skies than there havebeen in the past 3 or 4 years - my observing logs show more of them.

Some of the greatest and weirdest things I have seen include watching something, maybe space junk, burn up through the atmosphere one night, crossing the Orion Nebula. Also, I remember Peter and I saw a meteor that almost travelled from horizon to horizon, perhaps more like 140 degrees long really - I have only seen that about 3 times myself. Plus all the 'collisions' like when you see the Mir space station 'crash' into Vega, catching a meteor in your telescopes' field of view looking like its coming towards you.

There has been some cool stuff!



Seanie.

I have caught many telescopic meteors but i have never seen one coming head on within the FOV....that must have been really special!