Freakishly Good Viewing Last Night

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Every now and then, there are holes in the atmosphere or more realistically pools of clear, still air, that allow the naked eye to see very faint things in the sky. Up in Clarence Town, last night was one of those times.

After yet another fruitless visual search for the new comet Brown (this project now entering its 38th year!) I noticed that the sky was very, very clear and still. Through the 16" I wandered across the Grus Quartet now in the south west and was greeted with detail I had only seen in photos. NGC 7582 (mag 10.6) had form rather than the usual grey smear akin to poorer seeing. Similarly, NGC7552 (mag 10.6) was showing faint detail beyond the usual flat disc.

I walked around to the northern side of the house to see, rising over the gum trees, maybe the best view of Orion and Taurus I have ever seen. Averting my vision revealed masses of stars, especially around the Hyades and Pleiades.

I checked the limiting magnitude. HR 1830, about halfway between Saiph and M42, was flickering in the corner of my eye - magnitude 5.8. There was the definite presence of another spot - HR 1826 at Mag 6.38 just to the west.


I enjoyed the vista for about ten minutes before calling it a night.

Did anyone else have a wonderful view last night?


Richard.

[glend (Glen)]

Yes indeed I did have great seeing last night, it seemed best around midnight but I packed up shortly afterwards. I had my 16" out for another look around the Horsehead and various nebulas with different filters. I did also look at the Grus Quartet, having first seen it out at Bretti I use it as a regular gauge of comparative sky quality, and the group was well displayed and approaching Bretti definition. I have a new Sky Quality Meter (just arrived today) and I am going to start using it on a regular basis. It would be nice to have a network of these Sky Quality Meters and a place that people could publish their local readings. It works on magnitude per square arcsecond readings.

BTW with the conditions here right now I am expecting tonight to be good again and already have the dob in position.

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Originally Posted by glend

BTW with the conditions here right now I am expecting tonight to be good again and already have the dob in position.

Same here, Glen! THe Dob is outside cooling as I write this. Hoping for a repeat of last night. I'm going to have a look at M42 etc tonight. Also NGC 253 is certainly worth a gander in the current conditions.

Richard

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Also, Glen,

See if you can determine the limiting magnitude tonight. It would be good to compare.

Richard.

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Very envious - seems like ages since we've had a really good clear sky around our patch!

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

I just got an SQM of 19.75 overhead and 19.66 to the south (towards Parramatta) over the roof. Not bad for a Sydney suburb.

[Joves (Aaron)]

I'll second that.

The skies were freakishly nice last night. I went outside at around midnight and was surprised to see how clear it was. I went inside to grab my binoculars for a quick look and got some of the nicest views I've had of the star fields around Orion, Crux and Eta Carina. Jupiter was also a cracker, showing slight hints of banding in Canon 18x50 IS bino's. I've never been able to see any detail on Jupiter with them on other nights. I would have loved to take out the scope, but couldn't be bothered at that time of night. As it turned out, I stayed out there for more than an hour with the bino's.

[glend (Glen)]

I just came in from a wonderful night here at west Lake Macquarie. My sky quality readings were: 20.29 @ 9:09pm, 20.69 @ 10:09pm, and 20.74 at 12:16am. All reading with my new SQM-L and pointed straight up to zenith.

Had some wonderful seeing and worked the various nebula again, adding the Witch, the Flame, Eta Carina, and all the usual Orion objects. Tarantula was almost as good as at Bretti which is very hard to equal from here. I even gave my 130 goto newt a run to test out the mods to the mount.

I hope everyone with a scope was outside tonight enjoying it.

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Had an excellent night last night too. Probably merginally less clear than Mnday night but nevertheless great viewing.

By the way, how much does a SQM cost?

Richard

[glend (Glen)]

I think that mine was $134 USD, but I bought the narrow field one (L model), there are several types and a least one cheaper.

BTW I forgot to check plain sight limiting magnitude but I can tell you my old eyes are more a limiting factor than most. But with the scope my eyes become corrected to almost as good as any young guys.

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

Yes I have had two good nights, though last night the seeing seemed to go off a bit around 1130 down here. It was so promising last night that I drove 20km west to a deserted area to get a decent northerly horizon. My aim was to spot NGC 891 in Andromeda with a 106mm refractor. I failed in this despite spending a good half hour as this object transited the meridian. Maybe it was the Sydney skyglow which has grown further west over the past 20 years, or NGC 891 is more difficult than I had imagined. Other than that the two nights have been really good. Spotting innumerable galaxies in Fornax, Dorado and Eridanus with the little refractor has been the highlight!

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by bkm2304

By the way, how much does a SQM cost?

Price depends on the model. I bought my SQM-L direct from www.unihedron.com

[glend (Glen)]

Just now (11:15pm Thursday night) recorded 21.25 here at Lake Mac on the Sky Quality Meter, that's pretty dark. But that cold wind has some bite to it.

[glend (Glen)]

Pretty good viewing night with 20.6 on the SQM at midnight which is the best viewing for weeks.