Favourite observations of 2015

Good evening, fellow amateur astronomers. We have been doing this thread over the last few years. So let us do it again at the end of this year. What were our favourite observations of 2015? All opinions are most welcome. Maybe you had only 1 outright favourite or perhaps up to 10 . Let us include all aspects of instruments: naked eye, binoculars, telescopes, camera or anything else. Please provide dates if it is at all possible.
For my list, I did use my 158 mm apochromatic refractor f/7, a 70 mm apochromatic refractor and my 9X63 binoculars. I start in reverse order:

10. January 16, I do not think I will ever achieve this again in my lifetime: 6 planets observed in one evening. There were Mercury + Venus about 3 degrees apart in my 70 mm apo. Tiny orange Mars at 140X, and Blue Neptune at 167X. These 4 planets were positioned in the western sky. Then green Uranus in the southern sky at 167X and later on big Jupiter with its 4 moons rising in the east at about 9.30 pm observed with my 112X eyepiece . My special thanks to Vice President Peter Denman for encouraging me to come early to the site at Punchestown on that particular evening.
9. I must include a carbon star; and this one I had never seen before: U Hydrae. It is not far from Alphard (Alpha Hydrae). It has a very intense orange colour. Also quite easy to star-hop to. U Hydrae is certainly up there with another carbon star TX Piscium in terms of brightness. I found it on April 22nd with a magnitude of about +5.
8. STT298 is truly a beautiful double star. A has a magnitude of 7.2 and B is 8.4. On May 19th its separation was a tight 1.2 arcseconds. I have a 5 mm Nagler which gives me 225X. I split with this eyepiece at a 4 mm eyepiece which gives me 280X. Astronomy Now magazine told me about this excellent double star. I greatly enjoyed this one more than any other
7. Among the 20 observed objects I got through on March 13th, Jupiter certainly stole my interests on that night. I was using my 5 mm Nagler on it, and only 2 moons were visible at 22.30 pm. These were Europa and Callisto. Then at 22.45, the large moon Ganymede appeared from behind Jupiter. It took an astounding 3 minutes to reach its full brightness. It simply was an awe inspiring sight. Then at 23.02, Io did its reappearing act and it took 2 minutes to get to its normal magnitude. All this took place in about 15 minutes!
6. Almach and Comet Lovejoy. Do you remember the comet of 2015? Of course you do. Well on the last night in January, it was 5 degrees from the beautiful double star in Andromeda -Almach. This orange and blue binary has a separation of 9.4" and a PA of 63 degrees. I viewed both in the 70 mm apo. Afterwards I split Almach at 112X in the large apo.
5. I was over in Athlone once again in 2015 at the brilliant Cosmos weekend. Brendan Diffley accompanied me on the Saturday night April 18th and we observed many features in the night sky. At the end of the night, I finally found for the first time the 2 galaxies M65 and M66 in southern Leo. There were so distinct even at 112X side by side in the same field of view. The following figures are mind blowing! Both are 29 million light years away. M65 has a diameter of 60,000 light years and M66 is 50,000 light years wide. Their separation is most extraordinary: 180,000 light years apart! Maybe both galaxies have civilisations communicating with each other (?)
4. On that same night of April 18th, nothing could prepare me for a exceedingly good observation of M44 the Beehive Cluster in Cancer. I only used a 2" 28 mm eyepiece which gives me only 40X and a full 2 degrees field of view. But that is all we need for this open cluster. The sky was so dark with no Moon and very little light pollution. The 3 -D effect that my apo gave me of M44 was truly remarkable. I could make out hundreds of stars down to magnitude +12. I could see the foreground, middle ground and many background stars. It just goes to show we do not need high magnification to appreciate some deep sky objects.
3. It is my wife's Valerie birthday on November 18th. My conversation on the phone went something like this.
" Hi Valerie, when are you finishing work in Grosvenor". She says" I can finish now" So I said, "well come home quick -I have something to show you through the telescope". Earlier in the day, I had discovered that Irish skies were going to be clear for a short while on this night. On www.cloudynights.com , there was an announcement that the Lunar X was going to be right on the Moon's terminator from about 17.20 UT. A perfect birthday kiss for Valerie was going to happen. She came home in her car 10 minutes later and we both saw the X at 112X. I know some of you saw it too. Some other Europeans observed it as well. As a bonus, the star 18 Aquarii was occulted at 18.27 UT on that night also. The Lunar X involves the 4 craters La Caille, Purbach, Blanchinus and Werner. The Sun catches the rims of these craters, and the centre of the craters are completely dark. The rims do appear raised above the surrounding surface.
2. Now we are getting to my climax observations. What a glorious night we had in the early hours of the morning September 28th: the Total Lunar Eclipse of 2015. It was my 11th TLE which date back to 1975. This one though was a Supermoon, a Harvest Moon and a Total Lunar Eclipse all rolled into one. It was a relatively dark red eclipse, and some of the IAS membership joined Kevin Smith and his Meath Astronomy Club met up at the Rathbeggan Lakes. Many thanks to him for organising soft drinks and the burgers for this huge event. I did not get home until 5.30 am. I also observed a prominent Mare Anguis (Serpent Sea) and Sinus Successus (Bay of Success). And I have to say it was indeed a Great Success! Totality occurred at 3.11 UT. The southern pole was brighter than the northern pole. Totality ended at 4.25 UT. It was followed by a fine morning sleep back home!
1. What could possibly be better than a Total Lunar Eclipse? Only a Total Solar Eclipse! Friday March 20th was such a big red letter day for me and Valerie. It was Valerie's 7th time to see the corona and my 9th. We stayed in the town of Billund in Denmark with organiser Tim Todd of TEI Global and 70 other eclipse chasers for 4 days. (There were 9 Irish included also). All in all, we had a marvellous time. We got up at 5 am on the Friday and walked over to the Airport and settled on board a specially chartered MD-83 aeroplane. We had a brief spell at the Faroes airport before taking off again to a height of 37,000 feet. Through my 9X63 binoculars and Mylar filter, I sighted a thin crescent partially eclipsed Sun through a window at 9.29 above all the clouds below us. Then at 9.42, the first Diamond Ring appeared followed by Totality. 2 red prominences were on the left hand side and large one appeared on the other side. We counted 8 streamers around the entire corona. It then occurred to us that we were seeing both the inner and outer coronas. They did indeed spread out very powerfully from either side of the Sun. We are the only planet in the Solar System which can truly observe a Total Solar Eclipse. This fact is also truly remarkable. Our Total Solar Eclipse lasted a long 3 minutes 40 seconds. It is highly likely I will not see a stronger corona in my lifetime.

Having all written all this, it is over to the rest of you. What were your highlights of 2015? Please do list as many or as few as you wish.

Clear Skies for 2016!

Aubrey.

Hi Aubrey,
I've just realised this is a really good exercise. It's amazing how much you forget about what you have observed during the year, apart from the really stand-out moments such as solar and lunar eclipses. Here is a synopsis of my favourites. My equipment consists of a 200 mm f/6 dobsonian and 10x50 binoculars.

1. 10th January: On that evening there was a conjunction of Venus and Mercury very low in the south west. It was so low that both planets barely cleared a distant building (several hundred metres away) as viewed from my back garden. I spotted Venus quite easily with the naked eye around 17.00 UT. Mercury was obvious in binoculars, less than a degree below Venus and to the right. Once I knew where it was, I could see it with the naked eye. Later that evening (around 21.30 UT) I had a good view of Comet Lovejoy in binoculars and then at 21.43 UT a really brilliant and very fast fireball - it could have been mag. -9 - passed north to south through Orion.

2. 16th January: I was at Punchestown too but arrived late so missed many of the planets. However the lesser light pollution from a rural site allowed me to see some deep sky objects which I can no longer see from at home in Dublin. (These are objects, with the exception of NGC 2158, that I could easily see from Dublin 20 years ago with the same equipment): the galaxy M77 with its bright nucleus; the supernova remnant M1, the globular cluster M79 and the planetary nebula NGC 2392 (Eskimo). Again, thanks Aubrey for showing me where to find NGC 2158 close to M35. This was the first time I had ever seen this distant open cluster.

3. Mutual eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites: These only occur every 6 years or so. I observed two. On 16th February Ganymede partially occulted and then its shadow partially eclipsed Io. There was a noticeable drop of brightness over a 5 minute period. On 11th March Io was eclipsed by Europa's shadow.

4. Paritial solar eclipse, 20th March: I feel lucky to have seen this at all. I just got glimpses of the thin crescent sun through thinner gaps in the thick cloud from Dunsink observatory with the naked eye. The cloud was so thick it did the filtering.

5. ISS pass on 15th April followed by the much fainter Dragon supply craft about 15 minutes later.

6. In late April I saw Mercury low in the west on several consecutive (well, almost consecutive) evenings: 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 26th and 30th. All observations were with the naked eye after spotting it with binoculars first.

7. Venus visible in daylight: 20th June during lunch break at Solarfest in Dunsink. The waxing crescent moon could be used as a guide. Venus was very easy to see once you knew its exact position.

8. Venus-Jupiter conjunction of 30th June: I saw this from Sandymount low in the north-west. Both planets were visible to the naked eye. In the telescope at x49 both fitted into the same field of view. Although Jupiter is significantly larger, the apparent diameter of both planets was approximately the same. Venus was considerably brighter and was a thick crescent.

9. On the morning of 8th October I got up at 5 am BST (04.00 UT) to see the line-up of bright planets in the morning sky. From west to east I saw: the thin crescent moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Regulus was close by. It was also time to marvel at the winter constellations looking brilliant compared to the dull autumn ones seen in the early evening at that time of year.

10. My set-up is completely manual and I star-hop to find objects. On 12th and 13th October I found and observed Neptune and Uranus respectively. Uranus was seen as a tiny disc at high power. I could not resolve the disc of Neptune.

One abiding memory, particularly of the last few weeks, is observing in wellies to keep my feet dry as the garden has become saturated!

Looking forward to a drier and clearer 2016.
Patricia

For me it was the total lunar eclipse in September. Getting out of bed at 1.30am and setting up under near perfect conditions. Lining up the 8" LX10 and my new Skywatcher 90mm mak and getting the DSLR mounted on the SCT, focused and ready to roll. I love the sound of the old DC clock drive on that scope with no other sounds around.
Bliss

Lunar eclipse, hands down.

Paul

pmc wrote: Hi Aubrey,
I've just realised this is a really good exercise. It's amazing how much you forget about what you have observed during the year, apart from the really stand-out moments such as solar and lunar eclipses. Here is a synopsis of my favourites. My equipment consists of a 200 mm f/6 dobsonian and 10x50 binoculars.

1. 10th January: On that evening there was a conjunction of Venus and Mercury very low in the south west. It was so low that both planets barely cleared a distant building (several hundred metres away) as viewed from my back garden. I spotted Venus quite easily with the naked eye around 17.00 UT. Mercury was obvious in binoculars, less than a degree below Venus and to the right. Once I knew where it was, I could see it with the naked eye. Later that evening (around 21.30 UT) I had a good view of Comet Lovejoy in binoculars and then at 21.43 UT a really brilliant and very fast fireball - it could have been mag. -9 - passed north to south through Orion.

2. 16th January: I was at Punchestown too but arrived late so missed many of the planets. However the lesser light pollution from a rural site allowed me to see some deep sky objects which I can no longer see from at home in Dublin. (These are objects, with the exception of NGC 2158, that I could easily see from Dublin 20 years ago with the same equipment): the galaxy M77 with its bright nucleus; the supernova remnant M1, the globular cluster M79 and the planetary nebula NGC 2392 (Eskimo). Again, thanks Aubrey for showing me where to find NGC 2158 close to M35. This was the first time I had ever seen this distant open cluster.

3. Mutual eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites: These only occur every 6 years or so. I observed two. On 16th February Ganymede partially occulted and then its shadow partially eclipsed Io. There was a noticeable drop of brightness over a 5 minute period. On 11th March Io was eclipsed by Europa's shadow.

4. Partial solar eclipse, 20th March: I feel lucky to have seen this at all. I just got glimpses of the thin crescent sun through thinner gaps in the thick cloud from Dunsink observatory with the naked eye. The cloud was so thick it did the filtering.

5. ISS pass on 15th April followed by the much fainter Dragon supply craft about 15 minutes later.

6. In late April I saw Mercury low in the west on several consecutive (well, almost consecutive) evenings: 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 26th and 30th. All observations were with the naked eye after spotting it with binoculars first.

7. Venus visible in daylight: 20th June during lunch break at Solarfest in Dunsink. The waxing crescent moon could be used as a guide. Venus was very easy to see once you knew its exact position.

8. Venus-Jupiter conjunction of 30th June: I saw this from Sandymount low in the north-west. Both planets were visible to the naked eye. In the telescope at x49 both fitted into the same field of view. Although Jupiter is significantly larger, the apparent diameter of both planets was approximately the same. Venus was considerably brighter and was a thick crescent.

9. On the morning of 8th October I got up at 5 am BST (04.00 UT) to see the line-up of bright planets in the morning sky. From west to east I saw: the thin crescent moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Regulus was close by. It was also time to marvel at the winter constellations looking brilliant compared to the dull autumn ones seen in the early evening at that time of year.

10. My set-up is completely manual and I star-hop to find objects. On 12th and 13th October I found and observed Neptune and Uranus respectively. Uranus was seen as a tiny disc at high power. I could not resolve the disc of Neptune.

One abiding memory, particularly of the last few weeks, is observing in wellies to keep my feet dry as the garden has become saturated!

Looking forward to a drier and clearer 2016.
Patricia

Hi Patricia.

That is an excellent list of 10 great experiences. If I had made my list a little bit longer, I would have added the Eskimo Nebula and the mighty fine double star Mu Cygni. And I truly enjoyed M1 in Punchestown too. But I think 10 is enough. It truly has been a busy year.
I might just set up the scope once again tonight New Year's Eve to observe a last few observation before I call it a night.

Clear skies to all

Aubrey.

lunartic wrote: Lunar eclipse, hands down.

Paul[/quote

Hear, hear to you both, John and Paul. It was a truly memorable night / morning that so many of us had to observe the Total Lunar Eclipse. And we have so much more to observe in 2016. I have just bought the January 2016 issue of Astronomy Now.