Tonight my primary target is ...

[Tropo-Bob]

Neptune is just past opposition, so is moving at is its quickist from night to night- so if I am not sure which one it is, I will check again tomorrow to see if it moves (probably will look again anyway).

My secondary target in the same region will be the Helix Nebula. (RA is much the same so I may be able to lock one axis on the EQ and just move 11 degrees across!).

[Tropo-Bob]

Tonight my targets were multiple double stars: Elipson Equuleus and Beta Equuelus.

Using a Vixen 115mm, Elipson was easlily split with a 24mm EP. An enequal but interesting pair. The brigter star is apparently binary, but there was no hint of this with an 11mm EP, and my understanding is that it is of very small seperation atm.

Beta Equuelus was really of no appeal, being a bright star with a few faint, wide field stars that may have been once loged to check for possilble binary motion.

I also checked out Zeta Aquarius and found to my delight that again, if on locking the RA axis on an EQ mount, I could drift accross to te Helix Nebula. This is a large, faint nebula that shows best at low power: I could see it with EPs of 3 & 4mm exit pupils.

[Tropo-Bob]

Tonight I examined the 2 bright Planetary Nebulaes in Cygnus. With the 115mm Vixen, I easliy found NGC 6826 with a 25mmm EP in the same field as the double star 16 Cygnus (which is like a paler, wider version of the much more famous double, 61 Cygnus.)

NGC 7027 was a little more tricky and I swaped to a 24mm Panoptic to detect it more easily. With a 11mm Nagler, this planetary showed a much deeper blue colour, and also was littler brighter than NGC 6826.

[Tropo-Bob]

With predictions of light fog this morning, I thought this I may be blessed with a steady atmosphere, so I would try to see Sirius B.

The stars at 5am did seem to twinkle less, so I set up Vixen, but alas, almost immediatly a light wind seem to stir.

A quick look though the EP confirmed that the atmosphere was not especially steady, and even though I still tried, I am yet to see Sirius B.

[omegacrux]

I haven't seen Sirius B yet myself
Or Neptune
Keep trying I am

David

[Tropo-Bob]

Comet C2013 A1 (Siding springs) tonight is predicted to be Mag9.6 at 18h29m, -58.06 degress (near some good brighter stars in Pavo, to help the star hop). The comet reached max of Mag9.4 earlier this month.

I will also check out the conjuction between Mars and Delta Scorpio. After all, it is not that often that any planet appears in the same telescopic field as a bright star.

[Tropo-Bob]

The comet proved to be faint and elusive. Furthermore, my coordinates were slighty wrong. I did find a great website which I recomend. It can be used to find the comets current position according to hour. http://theskylive.com/planetarium?obj=c2013a1&date=2014-09-18&h=10&m=13

I used my 102mm Vixen to find the Comet and it appeared only as a very faint patch. I then used my 8inch Celestron to confirm the sighting. Even in the Celestron, the Comet only appeared a faint smuge.

Mars & Delta Scorpio were close, and the colour contrast between the blue white star and the Red Planet was quite striking.

Mercury is closing on Spica and will be closest on Saturday night. Its remarable to have 2 events like this so close together.

[Tropo-Bob]

Comet C2012 Panstars will be the target tomorrow morning. I had the briefest look this morning and confirmed that the Moon was awkwardly placed near the Comet. However, at 4am tomorrow, the Moon will not have risen and the Comet will be high enough to find. Comet Panstars is predicted to be Mag 6; I guess I am about to find out for myself how correct that is. Lol.

[Tropo-Bob]

Clouds this morning, so I will try again tomorrow to see Comet C2012 Panstars, which I have now been lead to believe is at Mag 8.3.

I looked at the conjection between Spica & Mercury last night. To the eye, they both looked white. However through the 102mm refractor, there was a very attractive colour contrast between the blue-white Spica and the yellow-orange Mercury. I have never thought of Mercury of having any colour when observing it, but the colour was quite obvious when alongside Spica.

[Tropo-Bob]

Cloudy again, however, the weather looks better for tonight so I will try again tomorrow.

Tonight, I am aiming for the Saturn Nebula and the nearyby Gloublar M72.
I will probably also check out the easy, M2 and may get into the spirit of the moment and look at M30.

I am planning to use a larger scope, the Meade ED 127mm, which is relatively new to my collection.

[Tropo-Bob]

I found Comet C2012 Panstars this morning by virtue of a little star hopping. M48 was a good reference point from where to start. In the Vixen 115mm, the Comet showed a bit of size with a condensed nucleus. I saw no evidence of a tail. It actually looked a little like some globular clusters. I estimated that the Comet was about Mag 8, or perhaps very slightly brighter. I used a 24mm Panoptic EP (37x) to find the Comet (which was pleasantly easy to find), but found the better view was with my 14mm Radian (63x). On using a 11mm Nagler (81x), I felt that I was in the realm of empty magnification.

I also found it with the 10x50 binoculars, but that was much more difficult and I knew exactly where to look because I had found it in the telescope first. Suffice to say, people will be able to find the Comet with a casual scan of the binoculars.

This is a much brighter Comet than Comet Siding Springs in the evening.

I have been up at the right time each morning for the last week, but now the clouds have finally parted, I am looking forward to a better night’s sleep!

[Tropo-Bob]

Sorry, I am having an editing problem with my previous post. I wanted to say, that people will not be able to find the Comet with a casual scan through binoculars.

[Tropo-Bob]

Tonight’s target with be Comet C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden), which is very roughly located 10 degrees south of Saturn. I was able to see it last night with the 102mm Vixen, but it was low and Moon was still not fully eclipsed. It was not that difficult to see, but saw no tail, just a fuzzy head. I will try again tonight and hope to have a small window of opportunity to see it higher in the sky, with a larger telescope (8inch) before the rising Moon.

[Tropo-Bob]

I saw Comet Lovejoy last night and its the brightest Comet that I have seen this year. It was visible with 8x30 binoculars.

Located approximately 1/3 of the distance between Canopus and Sirius and brightning, this may be one to encourage the general public to try and find.

I will be writing to my local paper tomorrow to encourage people to try and find this 'Christmas Comet'.

[Tropo-Bob]

Tonight, I will be checking the reappearance of Callisto at 19.51 EST. I have only viewed this once previously. The problem is that it is not be eclipsed by Jupiter on each orbit, as are the inner Moons. If I miss tonight, it happens again on July 2nd at 19.54. After that, my understanding is that this is not visible to us again for several years.

[Tropo-Bob]

The main thing that struck me while watching Callistro reappear was just how long it took to recover full brightness. Compared to Europa & Io, it seemed to take ages. ( I will try timing it next time).


Thinking about it, Callistro is a larger Moon, and being further out, it moves more slowly out of Jupiter's shadow than the inner Moons. (As per Kepler's Laws of Motion).

[Tropo-Bob]

Europa falls into Io's shadow again tonight a very convenient time from 8.29 to 8.34. Europa brightness is expected to dim by 0.9 mag.

I will then stick around for another 20 minutes to see Calisto disappear behind Jupiter.

[skysurfer]

Did somebody see Mercury ?
I saw it today well before sunset (Sun alt. 13º) with my ED 110mm as a nice bright crescent.
Mostly the planet is better visible in broad daylight as it is higher in the sky ans there is less turbulence.

[goober]

I saw Mercury walking to work before 7am on March 19th. I couldn't work out what the bright object was S of the moon, just before sunrise. It looked out of place.

Some 30 minutes of walking, and deductive reasoning led me to think it must have been Mercury.

[Tropo-Bob]

Tonight's target is Venus. The thin crescent is dropping like a stone at the moment, as it heads towards inferior conjunction.
My planned observation is something akin to a primitive 'Stonehenge' look at when and where the planet sets. Last night, it set at 6.31pm behind a prominent tree on a nearby mountain. I wish to see how much earlier it sets tonight and if it sets behind the same tree!

[Tropo-Bob]

Venus set at 6.25pm tonight, on the left-hand side of the tree spoken about in yesterday's observation. So in a horizontal sense, Venus is moving south away from where the Sun sets, but then the Sun itself is moving south (being past our Summer Solstice), probably at a faster rate.

[Benjamin]

I enjoyed reading your observation of Venus Bob. "Prominent-tree-henge" certainly gives a bigger sense of our planetary motions :-)

[Tropo-Bob]

Venus set at 6.19 tonight, again to the left hand side of the tree, just a tiny bit further left than yesterday. I really did not expect it to be so close, so I wish I had taken a little more care with yesterday's observation. To give an indication of scale, I estimate that if there was 7 to 10 of this tree in a row, it would equal the width of a full Moon.

I tried to see Venus's rather-large crescent with my naked eye, but really could not see anything.

[Tropo-Bob]

For me, Venus set at 6.12 tonight, still behind the 'prominent' tree, though to the right of where it has set the last 2 evenings. I take this as meaning that Venus is now moving in a northerly direction. Venus is clearly decreasing it distance from the Sun in both a vertical (through setting time) and in a horizontal sense (moving to the right whilst the Sun is moving left when setting behind the Mountain ridge).
It is obvious that making these observations will become increasingly difficult each day from now on.

[Tropo-Bob]

I tried to be a bit more accurate tonight, and estimate that Venus set at 6.06:40 give or take 5 seconds. (I lost too much time putting my reading glasses on!)

Venus moved a little to the right again this evening (as in real life, not left as it appeared with the star diagonal), so this means that it is moving north.

It still set behind the tree and really only a fraction to right of where it set last night. This surprised me, as I cheated and looked up Venus's coordinates and I was expecting it to move a significant amount to the north this evening.

It struck me tonight that the angle of the planet's phase is shifting. I estimated the angle to be about 50 to 60 degrees with respect to the horizon, so I will attempt to see if this changes in the next few days.

This was the first evening when I was not able to detect Venus visually with the naked eye.

I hope my luck holds with the weather.

Can anybody tell me what the separation between the Sun & Venus will be at Inferior Conjunction.

[Tropo-Bob]

Venus set at 6.00.14 tonight, on the extreme right-hand side of the tree. I tried using filters tonight to see if this made viewing Venus easier. The red filters seemed to help a little, the darker red being better.
I had problems with light cloud tonight and found it difficult to estimate if the angle of the phase was different from last evenings.

To answer my own question from yesterday, I found a site that stated that Venus will be 8 degrees from the Sun at Inferior Conjunction. Given that the Sun is setting on a higher part of the mountain ridgeline than Venus, and that Venus is to the South of the Sun (meaning it sets later)I do have hopes of being able to see it at Inferior Conjunction.

[Tropo-Bob]

Venus passed to the right of the tree and set at 5.53.57. Thus. moving up vertically and horizontally moving right (to the North).
The horns of the phase were difficult to line up because Venus is no longing the easy object that it normally is and there is too much atmospheric turbulence at that low attitude. To make it worse, my mind kept doing that psychological effect of closing the circle. Hmm.
I was able to spot Venus about 15 mins before it set, so this gives me great hope that I will still see it at Inferior Conjunction.

[Tropo-Bob]

I was blessed with a clear evening tonight with a steady atmosphere. The phase of Venus was much more vertical tonight; I estimate it to be at angle of approx. 75 degrees from the horizontal.
The phase itself seemed to only go about 150 degrees around the planet.

I first located Venus with at aid of a red filter at 5.35. I viewed it without a filter when it set at 5.47. I had company tonight and unfortunately the seconds did not stay in my memory.

Venus again moved north, but still would be less than a Moon's width from where I first viewed it when I commenced this series of observations.

Some showers are forecast for tomorrow, but I can only hope and try.
When Venus sets tomorrow, it will only be about 12 hours short of being at Inferior Conjunction.

[Tropo-Bob]

Despite clear skies and good conditions, I could not see Venus today. Is it because the planet has become 'backlit' and no longer showing a distinct phase? I don't know, but it was disappointing.

I later saw Mercury, and as I type (7pm), it is about to set in the same place that Venus has been setting.

Apparently, Mercury will be close to the new Moon tomorrow evening.

[Tropo-Bob]

I decided to try my old classic Unitron (60mm, F15, altz mount) on a few targets tonight to see what this undersized classic can do. I normally only use it on the Moon and the Sun (with appropriate filters). It gave a the best image of Venus transit in 2012 of all my scopes.

I started on the Orion nebula and off course, it was somewhat faint. Yet, I was surprised of the good texture that showed within the Nebula. (at 36x)

Then to the nearby, multiple star Sigma. Three star were visible at both 36x & 100x; the fourth star being simply to faint.

Rigel: I could not see the companion, even at 100x.

M1 was visible at 36x (barely).

M41 was notable, but shows much better in a larger scope.

Beta Monoceros showed all three components at 100x, only 2 at 36x.

I could see M31 and it brighter, more condense companion galaxy, but not the other more diffuse companion.

Gamma Andromeda was split at 36x, but showed better at 100x. The colour contrast was easily seen.

That was my quick tour that took less than 15minutes. It was probably not long enough for my eyes to become properly dark-adapted.

And it was a very easy task to pick up the feather-weight telescope and carry it back inside.

(I took some photos of the scope on the weekend, but am having problems downloading them from my new mobile; I will try again next weekend).

[Tropo-Bob]

With Suzy's report that Comet PanSTARRS is brightening unexpectedly, I will try for that tonight.

[Tropo-Bob]

I observed Comet PanSTARRS with the same telescope that I observed Comet Calalina with this morning. (Vixen 102mm ED; 30x).
PanSTARRS was much fainter, probably about 2 magnitudes fainter than Calalina, and slightly less than half as wide (so about 1/5 of the area). There was no hint of a tail. It was properly dark when I observed (8.20ish). I could not see the Comet with 10x50 binoculars.

[glend]

After five days and nights of constant rain I would like to see any star again.

[Tropo-Bob]

I am planning an easy night, looking at what I personally describe as bi-visual doubles in Volans. Bi-visual is my description for when a double star has two stars that each would be visible to the eye if they were solo.

Gamma Volans is a wide double with components of Mag 3.9 & 5.4 according to Haas. Similarly, Kappa Volans is very wide, with Mag 5.3 & 5.6 components.

My main interest in double stars centres on bi-visual doubles. I always find it fascinating that what looks to be one star visually has another star hiding in plain sight. More famous examples of bi-visual stars are Castor & Alpha Centaurus.

[bigjoe]

Hello Bob .

I used to look at these very same objects in my 4" Unitron alt az , which I stupidly sold about 20 years ago; purchased from Astro in Crows Nest.

How good were these scopes! And how good are Beta Monoceros, Almaak, Iota Cancri, 145 Canis Majoris etc- MORE double star observing folks!


bigjoe.

[Tropo-Bob]

Comet Johnson is almost at maximum brightness (Current prediction is mag 6.8.) It is currently located near Epsilon Bootes.

I hope to see this later tonight.

[Tropo-Bob]

Comet Johnson appears are a rather defuse smudge with no obvious head or nucleus. Comparing it to M3, it is of similar size but aprox 2 magnitudes fainter. I estimated it to be no brighter than mag 7.5.

There seemed something odd about its shape. Maybe the beginning of the tail made the nucleus appear obligated. I would love to see an image.

Within 10 minutes, I did notice some movement.

The observation was made with a 80mm F6 Triplet and a 14mm Radian. There has been lots of clouds so its not a great night for viewing.

[Tinderboxsky]

Just been outside trying from Coburg in Melbourne with 7x50 bins but no sighting. There is just too much light pollution. I need to be home under my dark skies in Tassie with a larger scope!

[OzEclipse]

Tried it under dark skies tonight with 7x35 binoculars. Almost drowning in dew by 730pm, camera lenses fogging so didn't set up the scope.

Joe

[OffGrid]

Thanks Bob for heads up on Comet 2015 V2. ( Johnson ).

With assist from SkiSafari 5 Pro and this link http://members.westnet.com.au/mmatti/sc.htm I was able to find it.

From our lit up skies at around 22:00 last night, I could nearly make out something with avert vision in 7x50 bino's and confirmed that with a little blob in the GSO 10" dob with a 2" 30mm eyepiece from Bintel.

[Tropo-Bob]

Saturn's brightest 2 Moons have their greatest Elongations tonight.

Titan, the most visible moon (Mag 8.4) has its greatest Elongation East, whilst Rhea, the second brightest moon (Mag 9.6) has it greatest Elongation West.

I plan to follow these moons in the coming days or months to give myself a better appreciation of the 3D aspect of viewing Saturn and its Moons.

After being comfortable in immediately identifying Rhea, I will then hope to build on this knowledge to improve my knowledge of the inner Moons.





Well done! I am surprised you saw it with binoculars.




Joe, I hope U have a better night tonight.


Steve, I hope U see if with the big 140mm before the Moon interferes.
I hope the same for me. I had a family dinner last night and afterwards set up for a quick look with the 80mm and then intended to get serious when the clouds really spoilt my plans.

[Tinderboxsky]

I also find chasing down Saturn's moons an interesting challenge. Now is the best opportunity with Saturn at Opposition. I had a quick look at Saturn between cloud banks this evening whilst waiting for the clouds to clear around Comet Johnson.
Titan, Rhea, Tethys and Dione were clearly visible. With some effort and patience, Iapetus and Enceladus were visible if I moved Saturn and it's rings just outside the field of view. The Moon was impacting the visibility of these two moons.
Scope: Vixen NA140SS with LVW13 giving 62X on TRex mount.

[Tropo-Bob]

I will check out Io and Europa's shadows on Jupiter tonight. Io's shadow is normally easier to view. Europa forms the least distinct shadow of the big 3 inner Moons. They will be both visible between 8.30 and 9.30 tonight.

Re tracking Saturn's Moons: This has proved difficult, mainly coz of the weather. I also missed last weeks 2-shadow event because of rain.

The good news is that there is also a 2-shadow event next Friday (16/6) but at aprox 11pm.

[Tinderboxsky]

I had a reasonable view of the two moon shadows transiting Jupiter this evening. As you say Europa's shadow is quite small, but it was clearly visible this evening despite the less than perfect seeing. I was only able to view from about 9.20, so missed the two moons' transit exits. Actually, Io and Europa formed a nice close pair this evening and you could see the relative motion between the two over time.
I commented that I thought the seeing was less than perfect. Interestingly, after Jupiter I took a look at Antares. The companion poped out in full view quite easily at 160x. Perhaps the seeing was okay after all.

[Saturnine]

Would've loved to have watched and got some avis' of the double transit tonight but all I could see were the bottom of raindrops falling into my eyes. Last Fridays double was also clouded out but I live in hope as there is another double transit next Friday, the 16th. Surely the law of averages deem that 1 out of 3 can be seen this month.

[Tropo-Bob]

It is actually like that right now,as I type. Both Io and Europa are close to Jupiter's disc and there is a real sense of motion as they head to commencing transits within about 4 minutes of each other at 8.15 ish tonight.

[Tropo-Bob]

Transits are now underway, but aprox 15 minutes after commencing, I can still see the white little discs of Europa and Io in front of Jupiter. Io is the more easily seen, its brighter, started later and also is in front of one of bands.

Both Moon's shadows appear on Jupiter tonight. Ios from about 9.30pm and Europa's from about 10.45. Both are on Jupiter from then to when Io's shadow leaves Jupiter from about 11.40.

Also worth seeing is when the Moons finish their transits within about 15 mins of each other from about 10.30.

Hope the weather holds. Last week I tried to see this, but the seeing was so bad that I could only pick out Io's shadow.

[Saturnine]

Missed out on this double transit ( again ) due to wall to wall cloud. Three Friday nights , 3 double transits , 3 cloudy and / or rainy Fridays. Actually had a sucker hole about 8:00 pm and could see the 2 moons near Jupiters disc but the view didn't last long as the clouds thickened again. I think that tonights transits were the last in the series in prime time for the east coast but will check Astronomy 2017 to, hopefully, have another chance.

[Tinderboxsky]

Clouded out here too Jeff. Hard luck missing all three. I managed one out of three.

Enjoyed your report Bob. Did the weather hold for you so you could see all of the events?

[Tropo-Bob]

Tonight, I will content myself just going for Jupiter's red spot and the comet with a smaller scope. (Vixen 80mm, Achromatic, F11.4)

Weather looks dicey, but it looked a lot worse this time yesterday.




Unfortunately not Steve, clouds started appearing and by the time Europa was due to throw its shadow on the surface, I could see little. Occasionally, it thinned enough to show the two Moons near the planet after they had reappeared, but never enough to see even Io's shadow.

[Tropo-Bob]

I will check out a rather odd occurrence with Europa tonight. It reappears after being occulted and then disappears into eclipse only few minutes later.

I will try to watch from around 7.50 (weather permitting).

[Tinderboxsky]

Yes, I am keen to observe this event too. Weather is not looking promising.

An identical event occurs Sunday evening 2nd July.

[Tinderboxsky]

I managed this rather interesting event this evening. The bright dot against Jupiter’s limb could be seen to gradually brighten and eventually clear separation was seen. I judge the separation to be no more than 2”. Not long after this separation was seen (no more than a minute or so - I was not noting times), there was a rapid decline in Europa’s brightness and then the complete eclipse disappearance.

The concurrent Io shadow transit was visible, but I could not see Ganymede which was also transiting.

I was very fortunate with the weather. There had been scudding showers all afternoon and evening with tempting gaps of clear sky. Ever hopeful, I set my scope up on a tripod under the shelter of a veranda rather than on the exposed fixed pier. As it turned out, the last band of showers passed over at about 7.45 leaving a clear sky with good seeing and transparency.

Scope Vixen NA140SS on TRex mount and LVW5 giving 160X.

[Tropo-Bob]

There are further events with Jupiter and its Moons tonight.

Shortly after 10.20pm, Europa will reappear after it occultation and then will disappear into shadow 5 minutes later. I observed this last week and it was per Steve's excellent description.

One bonus last week was earlier in the evening, there was the sight of Jupiter looking like it had pearl earrings! Io was had just reappeared from transit and Ganymede was about to commence transit. So the disc of Jupiter was flanked with by moons being extremely close to the disc on both sides. Indeed, it was an interesting spectacle.

I will also attempt to look at around 7.50 when Europa is about to be occulted and Io's shadow may be visible on the limb of Jupiter.

[Saturnine]

Will be watching tonights Jupiter moondance with interest and hopefully clear skies of the past few days prevail so that , maybe get some images as well. The Red Spot also crosses the meridian at 18:08 pm EST , hopefully the jetstream be co-operative as well.

[Tropo-Bob]

With the exciting news that the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchus is now visible, I can hardly wait for tonight.

I used to monitor this frequently in the early 2000s, but completely missed the February 2005 explosion, as it was in the middle of our tropical wet season. Unfortunately, I did not even know of the event till several months later.

I have only last year started re-monitoring it, as I thought it was due again. I looked several times during the last month, but there has been too much cloud in the evening for viewing during the last few evenings. Damn. I am hoping for better weather tonight.

[Saturnine]

On the subject of variable stars, I noticed last night that Mira in Cetus seemed quite bright, didn't do a thorough comparison with nearby stars but at a rough estimation, about the 2.5 / 3.0 magnitude.
Will have to have search for RS Oph. tonight, just for interests sake.

[Tropo-Bob]

I noticed that this morning around 5am. I have rarely seen it that bright before. Then, I went back to bed and forgot about it!

[Tropo-Bob]

This image of RS Ophiuchus is taken through my Orion 80mm triplet at prime focus tonight about 8.10pm.

This is with a Cannon M50 camera, 8secs, 3200 ASA. (EQ5 mount)

RS Ophiuchus is marked and is in the central area. It is the brightest star in that region. (Please expand the image, there really are stars there.)

[Tinderboxsky]

Thanks for sharing Bob. I hope it does not fade before the clouds clear for me to take a look.

[Tropo-Bob]

Hi Steve,
I have the clouds clear soon for U. I had the same problem last night, but will try again this evening.

[Tropo-Bob]

RS Ophiuchus again, 11 days later than previous image. The nova is still going strong, but has faded a little.

80mm ED, cannon M50, 4secs, 4000 asa.