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The Stargazing Thread!

Endersmens

By Endersmens
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cubinator

cubinator

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I have just observed Neptune!

I looked in Stellarium to see what was going to be up tonight, and saw the Moon of course, but also Neptune would be quite near a naked-eye star. I decided to draw the view on a notecard and take my chances. I watched the Moon until it was dark enough to see my reference star, Hydor, then pointed my telescope there and consulted my notecard. After some searching I found the arrangement I was looking for, with several magnitude 9 stars around slightly brighter and slightly bluish Neptune. Now, the weather is a little iffy for tomorrow, but I took a second notecard to draw what I could see and I will try to look again the next night I can to look for motion to confirm that the object is indeed Neptune.

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cubinator

cubinator

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2 minutes ago, munlander1 said:

I don't think it would be distinguishable very much

Shh, I have to discover that myself. I've drawn out what I saw as exactly as I could while holding a notecard up in the air and drawing wearing winter gloves in the dark, so I should be able to find that spot again and determine whether there's motion or not. Besides, it may be a few days before I get skies clear enough to see anyways, so it has plenty of time to move at it's measly 5.43 km/s.

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Guest

Guest

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Oh, and I saw the orion nebula for the first time. It was rather low, and near streetlights, but the telescope saw it anyway. Cant wait to get an 8in reflector.

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YNM

YNM

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On 23/10/2017 at 8:52 AM, cubinator said:

Besides, it may be a few days before I get skies clear enough to see anyways, so it has plenty of time to move at it's measly 5.43 km/s.

They basically don't move at all if you're comparing it with it's revolution around the Sun ! Maybe you should wait for the signature reversed movement as we speed by.

Edited by YNM
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Adstri

Adstri

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12 hours ago, cubinator said:

I've just observed Neptune once again, and it has moved a bit to the east since 16 days ago. It is also -3 *C outside...

I always like looking at the ice giants, little blue orbs moving slowly against a sea of stars. They are fun to watch! And when veiwed through large apetures moons become a bonus.

For me they get a tad boring after a while though.

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cubinator

cubinator

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1 hour ago, Adstriduum said:

I always like looking at the ice giants, little blue orbs moving slowly against a sea of stars. They are fun to watch! And when veiwed through large apetures moons become a bonus.

For me they get a tad boring after a while though.

My telescope (an 8" Schmidt-Cassegraine) is not quite big enough to resolve Neptune as anything more than a point, I think, but Uranus might be. When it comes into the evening sky I'll try to find it, and I think I will be able to track some of it's moons too if I can't see the disk.

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Adstri

Adstri

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6 hours ago, cubinator said:

My telescope (an 8" Schmidt-Cassegraine) is not quite big enough to resolve Neptune as anything more than a point.

You sure? I can resolve Neptune as a disk with my 4"(101mm) just fine with high magnifications. It's usually more noticable with a star next to it for comparison.

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cubinator

cubinator

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24 minutes ago, Adstriduum said:

You sure? I can resolve Neptune as a disk with my 4"(101mm) just fine with high magnifications. It's usually more noticable with a star next to it for comparison.

I might be able to see it with my 12mm eyepiece, but I was unsuccessful in switching the eyepieces while keeping the telescope aligned last night.

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cubinator

cubinator

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I saw three fairly bright satellites in high orbits tonight. Two of them were in polar orbits fairly close together at slightly different longitudes, perhaps ten degrees apart. One of those two, the first I noticed, reflected a bright flare of sunlight in my direction. The third was visible later,on a southwesterly path. All three were clearly in very high orbits due to their slow speed, even though the first two were close to directly overhead. I tried looking for Uranus, but was unable to identify it.

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cubinator

cubinator

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Just got inside from a successful observation of Uranus. I was just barely able to discern a disk, and there were very few nearby stars to make a sketch from to find it again. It wasn't completely dark yet, so it was easier to tell that this object wasn't a blue star. I was not able to make out any of the moons. I think magnitude 10 is about the dimmest I can see, maybe some dimmer stuff towards the zenith. That makes all of the major planets!

What's next? I hope to observe the Moon occulting Aldebaran in December, and to keep an eye out for upcoming bright comets and asteroids.

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cubinator

cubinator

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PSA: Asteroid 3200 Phaethon will pass 10.269 million kilometers from Earth on December 16 at about 23:10 UTC, with an apparent magnitude of 11.12. It will be brightest on December 14 with an apparent magnitude of 10.7. This data is from Stellarium, which also shows the precise position of the asteroid in the sky over time. It's going to get fairly high in the sky where I live, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to see it and watch it track across the sky.

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On 11/26/2017 at 11:11 AM, NSEP said:

How did you patch those images together? I want that too!

It was hand-done in Microsoft Paint. (Registax, might be able to do it automatically, not sure though).

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I just saw mercury for the first time!

On 11/12/2017 at 6:32 PM, cubinator said:

Just got inside from a successful observation of Uranus. I was just barely able to discern a disk, and there were very few nearby stars to make a sketch from to find it again. It wasn't completely dark yet, so it was easier to tell that this object wasn't a blue star. I was not able to make out any of the moons. I think magnitude 10 is about the dimmest I can see, maybe some dimmer stuff towards the zenith. That makes all of the major planets!

What's next? I hope to observe the Moon occulting Aldebaran in December, and to keep an eye out for upcoming bright comets and asteroids.

My 3.5in refractor clearly defines Uranus as a  blue disk with a 20mm eyepiece...

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