Favourite observations of 2014

Hello everyone. We tried this last year at this time and it proved quite successful. What were your favourite observations of 2014?

Perhaps contributors can state their type of optical instrument, e.g., binoculars, telescopes, photo equipment or even the unaided eye. Another option is to give the date as to when you saw your feature.

I personally had 60 observational sessions with my 158mm apochromatic refractor, and I have whittled my list down to 10 great spectacles. In reverse order, here they are:

10. July 23: do you remember those warm summer days? Well, whilst my wife Valerie was playing Scrabble with her friends, I was outside observing the great double star Izar with 112X, and the Sun had not yet set in the western sky. It was the 1st time I saw a double star in the daytime in my life!

9. July 8: during this particular evening, we were observing Ceres and Vesta quite close in their summer time conjunction, I had printed off a Guide 8 map of the area, and I noticed 2 very faint stars on the printout. So I went and searched for them in the telescope. Their designations were TYC 307970 (magnitude 9.7) and TYC 307995 (magnitude 9.9). In a north - south arrangement with about 1 minute separation, both these stars are M class -which means both are an intense RED! They looked truly wonderful at 112X.

8. February 27: my favourite Jupiter observation was observing the shadow of Europa on the largest planet. But where was the shadow? Inside the Great Red Spot which has been shrinking in recent years. The Spot was a little red on the night. Europa's shadow looked very distinctively black at 167X.

7. April 24: Mars was excellent this year, and it had been a full 11 years since I observed Syrtis Major. This wonderful roughly triangular feature was very easily visible at 280X. The night was very calm and clear.

6. July 24: Yes, I know I have observed the Great Globular Star Cluster in Hercules. But I was able to push the magnification all the way up to 374X in a 3mm Radian! I could see many of its stars resolved at its centre.

5. March 22: I was setting up the scope just after sunset, and I could see Jupiter shining high in the east. I was putting the guidescope on the side of the telescope when I saw a 2nd Jupiter positioned about 15 degrees to its east. I got John Flannery on the phone. And while Valerie was talking to him, I could see in the guidescope at 11X that the object was intensely orange! Then in the main telescope at 40X, we discovered it was a weather balloon!! It had been launched from County Kerry and was heading out over the Irish Sea. I could even see a wire coming out of the bottom of the balloon with a rectangular shaped package hanging at its end. I kept observing it as it descended from Gemini to Canis Minor for about 30 minutes it was fading all the time.

My top 4 are all features on the Moon.

4. December 27: Krishna depression observed at 225X on a 6 day old half Moon. It might be some type of elongated crater, but either way, I was not depressed to observe Krishna for the 1st time ever! At present, I have an image set as a desktop background on my PC. At 225X, it looked like one of those roof boxes we see on a car. It is only 8 X 3 kilometres in size. Krishna can be found on Map 23 of Antonin Rukl's book -Atlas of the Moon.

3. September 2: Rima Birt at 167X during an 8 day old half Moon. For many years I have had the old and the new copies of Rukl's atlas, and I have looked at Rupes Recta (The Straight Wall) many many times through the eyepiece. But on Map 54 in the atlas, I have noticed Rima Birt and wondered would I ever find it. This year I did. It is parallel west of Recta and is some 50 kilometres long with the crater Birt E at its northern point.

2. March 10: Copernicus crater at 167X during a 9 day old Gibbous Moon. Some of the western part of Copernicus was in darkness. But at its centre were 4 central peaks completely illuminated by our Sun. In the past, I have seen 1 or 2 peaks but never 4!

1. June 5: Another 8 day old half Moon. With the terminator nearby I was observing the Palus Putredinis area and heading southwards: I observed no less than 5 rilles!! Their names are: Rima Fresnel (90 km long), Rimae Theaetetus (50 km long), Rima Bradley (130 km long), Rimae Triesnecker (200 km long), and finally Rima Hyginus (220 km long). I don't think I will ever observe 5 rilles in one observation again!

Thank you for reading. Now it is over to everyone else! Let us reminisce as to what we saw in 2014. By the way, you don't need to list 10 spectacles -even only 1 will do!

Aubrey.

Friday 22nd August at the Skelligs star party was easily the best night of the year for me.

Apart from the great crack all weekend, I managed some memorable views

All views were made with a 10" Orion Dobsonian, except for M69 and 70, which were seen in Jonathan's Meade LX200.

The absolute highlights were;

M54, M69 and M70 - first ever view in a telescope from Ireland

M20 - superb, best ever view of this object (Meade 14mm UWA)

M17 (Swan nebula) - stunning (Speers Waler 10mm + UHC)

NGC253 - a long held ambition to see this galaxy finally achieved (Televue Panoptic 27mm)

Scutum star cloud - naked eye, fantastic to see this so clearly

Oh yes -the Trifid Nebula is stunning.

Thank you, Stevie, for your dramatic objects.

Aubrey.

Here are my top 5 Aubrey:

5. August 27 - Spectacular meteor/fireball across the north-western sky directly towards Limerick city. As bright as Venus and duration of maybe 5 seconds, a memorable sight.

4. November 23 - The thinnest crescent moon I've ever seen - just 28.5 hours after new. Invisible to the naked eye, needed 15x70 binos to pick it out in the bright twilight. Had then sunk below horizon-hugging cloud before I could get the scope on it. They say just 1% of the population have seen Mercury, I'd say only 1% of 1% have seen as anorexic a moon as this!

3. Jun/Jul - conjunction of Ceres and Vesta. Never since their discovery 200 years ago have human eyes witnessed as close a conjunction of these two major asteroids as we were privileged to witness this summer. Closest I managed was 15 arc-minutes on Jun 30, actual July 5 conjunction was clouded out.

2. Just like last year, three further comets - K1 Panstarrs in June, Jacques in August and now another Lovejoy to close out the year. These things can become seriously addictive, I stand to be corrected but no comets have yet been discovered from Ireland.

1. August 18 - No doubt about it, the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. It was almost the circumstances rather than the actual event; a wall of cloud had built up from 4.30 onwards and by 5.45 I'd given up and packed away the equipment. But shortly after 6 a miraculous porthole allowed a fleeting glimpse of Venus and later inspection showed that Jupiter had also been faintly captured on camcorder. So a case of triumph and disaster all on the one morning!

Happy new year all

Finbarr (Fermidox).

I love seeing wafer thin Crescent Moons as well. I remember seeing one the day after a Total Solar Eclipse in Zambia. They are excellent! Someday, I will do better with comets. Perhaps Lovejoy will come up trumps for me.

And I agree with your No.1 Venus -Jupiter conjunctions are the best. We have an evening one in 2015!

Thank you for your selection, Finbarr. Happy New Year to you all and clear skies in 2015!!

Aubrey.

Hi Aubrey

For me there is only one highlight, and that was the Skelligs Star Party, even if my mount motor refused to work. . The skies were spectacular with the southern Milky Way simply stunning, the band of the Milky Way then stretched high overhead, features within the Milky Way that I could not normally see, such as the Cygnus Rift, stood out starkly from the background stars, there were so many stars that it was difficult to pick out the constellations that are so familiar from my light polluted back garden. I managed to get some pretty good photos using a simply camera and tripod.

Later in the night Stevie showed me NGC 253 for which I am eternally grateful :rock: , it was a magnificent sight.

Around dawn there were a few of us left and we observed Orion rising in the east above Waterville, I have never seen Orion lying on his side before and this was worth waiting for.

Ballinskelligs was a series of firsts and stands out as the best of the year.

I'd like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a peaceful and safe evening, and here's to clear skies in 2015.

Paul