Quote:
Originally Posted by pgc hunter
Thanks Rob. You've been quiet in recent times. No obs?
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Cheers Sab. Tons of observing, no reports! I'm out almost every clear (or partly clear) night. Visual observing takes a bit of a back seat but I do a lot through local outreach and our club observing nights, aside from the odd night out in the backyard. Also visual comet observing and occasional visual variable star observing (cataclysmic variables), all through the little Tasco reflector or binoculars. But mostly I do photography - not "astrophotography" in the IIS sense but grabbing as many photons as possible from interesting targets like comets, novae etc. Spectroscopy is another interest and has been pretty productive. Results are shared through PACA groups (Pro-Am Collaborative Astronomy) and various databases.
I also incorporate a pretty broad nova search and a somewhat intermittent comet search. No results yet - have missed by a whisker on a few novae but comets are a sore point at the moment. I imaged the current bright comet C/2015 G2 (MASTER) over a week before it was discovered but somehow missed seeing the brightish green diffuse object on the bottom of the frame - doh!
Was out last Friday under brilliant skies and among many other targets I had a quick squizz at the Leo Triplet, fantastic view through the little scope, among the best ever I reckon. I spent a while cruising the galaxy field between Vindemiatrix and Denebola - no charts so no idea which ones were which but that wasn't the point! Galaxy after galaxy, often multiple galaxies in the same field, what a feast!
Cheers -