Oh, what a night!

Hi all

Conditions on the east coast last night were perfect, the seeing and the transparency were the best I have seen in some time.  Even in my light polluted back garden the stars were stunning and the amount that were visible, amazing.
It was about one o'clock, as I was looking south, I noticed a couple of bright stars to the east of Spica, I was a little surprised to find they were alpha and beta LIbrae, and they were so clear.  I managed to grab Gliese 581, a red dwarf about a third the mass of the sun, it was faint, 10th magnitude, but with these conditions, this was not a problem.  Looking a little further west, and really low down, I spied Antares, it was blazing, I have never seen it shine so bright from my back garden.  When it came to a better position, I turned the scope to the region and easily caught M4, M80 was a little more difficult.
During the course of the night I had wandered from Draco to Scorpius, from Cancer to Corona Borealis and called it a night around 2.30.
This was one of those rare nights were observing from a city location was no real hindrance.

Paul

It was good up here too. I managed to film Venus right the way down to the horizon!



Enjoy!

Paul.

Very nice video, Paul.
Venus and Elnath looked magnificent setting.
I can also make out Capella, Castor and Pollux along with many other bright stars.
My scope was busy last night too.
I will publish all the details probably tomorrow.

Paul: Many congratulations on a successful observation of Gliese 581!
Isn't that the star with some exoplanets orbiting it?
You introduced me to that globular star cluster M80 just a few years ago.
And I also distinctly remember my 2 observations of M4 2 nights in a row during those memorable nights when we saw the Noctilucent Clouds at the same time at the Sugarloaf!

Clear skies from Aubrey.

I don't know if that I am more aware of them, but has anyone else noticed that there appear to be more satellites out there?  I am not talking about the starlink satellites, it just seems that every time I put my eye to the eyepiece a satellite passes through the field of view.

Paul

Yes! Me too, Paul. 
And the bright ones always give me a real fright. 

All the best, 

Aubrey. 
 

Hi All,

I very much enjoyed reading your observational report Paul. By the sounds of it you had great fun last night / this morning, and you certainly made the most the wonderful conditions -fair play!

I completely agree with you about the satellites: there seem to more of them flying over head as of late. In fact, at precisely 23:32 UT+1 last night, I noticed two shoot across the eyepiece while I was observing 24 Com! Even my wife said to me the other night that she didn't realise that there are so many satellites in the night sky. She made the comment during her five-minute venture into the back garden earlier in the week. 

in terms of your Clip Paul (Evans) I really liked it. Those star trails looked great. How long was the camera running for? 

Clear skies to all,

Darren.