Hello, everyone.
Please permit me to encourage you all to list your favourite observations of 2017 on this forum.
I have whittled my list down to 10 wonderful spectacles with my William Optics 158 mm f/7 apochromatic refractor.
In reverse order:
10. Do you remember observing the Crescent Venus last January? Well on the 20th at 280X in bright blue evening sky with minimal shimmering, I noticed that the north and south cusps were distinctly brighter than the rest of the planet. It surely was the first time I saw such an apparition.
9. January 13: I sought out a very dim carbon star which has the designation UY Andromedae. As I increased the magnification up to 225X, I discovered its lovely strong red colour at about magnitude +10 -that's 2 magnitudes fainter than Neptune!
8. December 27: it was my final night observing in 2017. I was completely captivated with the double star Eta Cassiopeiae (Achird). The yellow primary has a magnitude of +3.5. But its secondary (mag 7.4) has a very unusual colour. Almond brown is the best I can come up with. I got this estimation from Sissy Haas. The separation is 13.3". The PA is 325 degrees.
7. Zeta Cancri (Tegmine) is still my favourite triple star. On March 16th, I had the great pleasure of seeing all 3 components at 225X. Magnitudes are 5.3, 6.3 and 5.9. A and B's separation is a tight 1.1". Try it if you dare!
6. My favourite new binary of 2017 was 36 Andromedae. I successfully split it at 225X. The magnitudes were +6.1 and 6.5. The separation is 1.1" and a PA of 331 degrees. It was truly excellent to see both white stars side by side in my 5 mm Nagler on Friday 13th January.
5. April 3: We had a Half Moon; and at 112X Valerie and I saw both the Lunar X and V. It is vital that both features are right on the terminator. This makes them both easy and stunning to see.
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4. May 25th is my birthday. A clear sky greeted us when we got home from a Japanese Restaurant. It was most extraordinary to observe the planet Jupiter, its 4 moons and no less than 3 double stars and 1 triple star nearby.
The easy doubles were Gamma Virginis split 112X, Struve 1690 split at 40X and 44 Virginis split at 40X. The triple star was Theta Virginis split at 112X. It will be 12 years until Jupiter visits the area again.
3. June 17th: I am happy to say I was not hallucinating. During observing Jupiter once at 167X, a red additional horizontal line was touching the southern part of the South Equatorial Belt. Quite clearly it was a red barge. A first time for me. How rare is that?
2. May 30th: whilst the 5 day old Moon was getting lower in the western sky, Rupes Altai (Altai Mountains) was cutting across the Moon's terminator. I had no preparation for this. At 112X I could easily see the eastern part of the mountain range in the bright part of the Moon. But west of the terminator and because of the height of the range, a substantial part continued on into the blackness of the lunar surface. The scope picked up the 3-D effect very well. This most certainly would have been my favourite observation of 2017. Except for:
1. August 21st, my wife and I observed my 10th Total Solar Eclipse in Wyoming USA. Highlights were 3 large streamers in the corona, 2 Diamond rings (before and after totality), 3 strong red prominences, 7 sunspots, and the icing on the cake, the star Regulus (Alpha Leonis) at 8 o'clock about 2 degrees southwest of the stunning corona.
That's it from me.
So over to the rest of you.
What thrilling experiences are you willing to share with everybody this time round?
Let us keep this post open for the next 7 to 10 days.
Clear skies for 2018,
Aubrey.
  