What did you see in the sky tonight?

[Fred the Cat]

I'm happy we both had a clear view. I'd like to invest in a phone/binoccular adapter because that sight was splendid.

[Fred the Cat]

I was taking a photo of the full moon tonight.

After dinner, I looked up to our second story window

and saw dessert.

[Ann]

Fred and Chris, you've shown us such superb pictures lately! Love your Moon shot with the Lady in the Moon showing so clearly, Fred. And Chris, your portrait of galaxy M63 is just wonderful!

But, hey - we are all allowed to post our little efforts here, aren't we?

So here goes. This is the first time I've managed to photograph a thin crescent moon and made it look actually thin! Wo-hoo!!!

As the sky grew darker, I just couldn't make the crescent Moon look so thin. Talk about pixel bleeding!

Oh, and... I have to show you this...

Can't you see? It's obviously the Pleiades!

Ann

[Fred the Cat]

Can't you see? It's obviously the Pleiades!

Ann

Sometimes it's hard to know what a photo can be made to realize.

When I was trying to photograph Jupiter and Venus from inside our house, an out-of-focus image seemed to contain unexpected detail of Jupiter.

This post and the others were very helpful to alleve my wishfulness. It does make me curious how much detail a skilled digital reconstructionist could glean from a flawed image.

[Ann]

Can't you see? It's obviously the Pleiades!

Ann

Sometimes it's hard to know what a photo can be made to realize.
IMG_6229 (3).JPG
When I was trying to photograph Jupiter and Venus from inside our house, an out-of-focus image seemed to contain unexpected detail of Jupiter.
IMG_6219 (2).JPG

This post and the others were very helpful to alleve my wishfulness. It does make me curious how much detail a skilled digital reconstructionist could glean from a flawed image.

Looks fine to me, Ron!

Click to view full size image

Jupiter's belts and zones. Image: Astronomy Stack Exchange.

---

Only problem is... The light-colored stripe across the face of Jupiter in your picture is found just where the dark North Equatorial Belt is supposed to be located!

Ann

[Ann]

Okay, crappy picture. And not a very impressive display. But I did see some noctilucent clouds last night.

I woke up at midnight, having been asleep since about ten. I stumbled out into my kitchen, took a quick peek outside, noticed a brightening at the horizon which shouldn't be there, grabbed my mobile, took a picture and stumbled back to bed again.

And some noctilucent clouds were there alright!

Ann

[Rauf]

Noctilucent clouds June 4 to 5 2023.jpg


Okay, crappy picture. And not a very impressive display. But I did see some noctilucent clouds last night.

I woke up at midnight, having been asleep since about ten. I stumbled out into my kitchen, took a quick peek outside, noticed a brightening at the horizon which shouldn't be there, grabbed my mobile, took a picture and stumbled back to bed again.

And some noctilucent clouds were there alright!

Ann

A beautiful picture! I love the mixture of clouds with the sky, Some people prefer to have an all clear sky for observing, and for a good reason, but the presence of a couple of clouds make me feel I'm actually on Earth, and I'm looking at this giant universe from my small planet (If you know what I mean)
I love your picture, but I guess a power outage would have made it even prettier

[Chris Peterson]

Pretty nice rainbow yesterday... more supernumeraries than I've ever seen before!
_

[rstevenson]

This evening (July 31, 2023) at 9:18 pm Atlantic Standard Time I looked to the SSW from my home in Halifax, to catch a glimpse of the ISS as it slid by at over 27,500 kph to the south of Nova Scotia following a generally NW to SE arc. (I used the GoISSWatch app to find where and when to look.) To my surprise another almost identical looking object went through my binocular field of view in the opposite direction, a little lower from my point of view. They were together in the same view for only a few seconds, not surprisingly considering the speed of the ISS at least. Since the ISS, at about 420km high, was bright in our night sky due to reflected sunlight I wonder if the other object was also quite high up and was a satellite. Anyone know enough about satellites to tell me if there was another large one for me to catch? It may have been a bit closer and lower, but not too much or it wouldn't have been in sunlight. And no, I don't think it was a plane. It was a steady and quite bright yellow colour, just like the ISS.

Thanks,

Rob

[Chris Peterson]

This evening (July 31, 2023) at 9:18 pm Atlantic Standard Time I looked to the SSW from my home in Halifax, to catch a glimpse of the ISS as it slid by at over 27,500 kph to the south of Nova Scotia following a generally NW to SE arc. (I used the GoISSWatch app to find where and when to look.) To my surprise another almost identical looking object went through my binocular field of view in the opposite direction, a little lower from my point of view. They were together in the same view for only a few seconds, not surprisingly considering the speed of the ISS at least. Since the ISS, at about 420km high, was bright in our night sky due to reflected sunlight I wonder if the other object was also quite high up and was a satellite. Anyone know enough about satellites to tell me if there was another large one for me to catch? It may have been a bit closer and lower, but not too much or it wouldn't have been in sunlight. And no, I don't think it was a plane. It was a steady and quite bright yellow colour, just like the ISS.

Thanks,

Rob

Really nothing that bright up there then (or at all!) I assume when you say "the opposite direction" you just mean relative to your tracking of the ISS. If it was actually going east to west it really couldn't have been a satellite.

Maybe a balloon? That could pick up the low Sun and have a similar color. Or a plane that just presented oddly?

[rstevenson]

This evening (July 31, 2023) at 9:18 pm Atlantic Standard Time I looked to the SSW from my home in Halifax, to catch a glimpse of the ISS as it slid by at over 27,500 kph to the south of Nova Scotia following a generally NW to SE arc. (I used the GoISSWatch app to find where and when to look.) To my surprise another almost identical looking object went through my binocular field of view in the opposite direction, a little lower from my point of view. They were together in the same view for only a few seconds, not surprisingly considering the speed of the ISS at least. Since the ISS, at about 420km high, was bright in our night sky due to reflected sunlight I wonder if the other object was also quite high up and was a satellite. Anyone know enough about satellites to tell me if there was another large one for me to catch? It may have been a bit closer and lower, but not too much or it wouldn't have been in sunlight. And no, I don't think it was a plane. It was a steady and quite bright yellow colour, just like the ISS.

Thanks,

Rob

Really nothing that bright up there then (or at all!) I assume when you say "the opposite direction" you just mean relative to your tracking of the ISS. If it was actually going east to west it really couldn't have been a satellite.

Maybe a balloon? That could pick up the low Sun and have a similar color. Or a plane that just presented oddly?

Yes, it seemed to be moving east to west, but considering I was tracking the fast moving ISS in my binoculars, I really couldn’t say for sure. It certainly didn’t present as a typical plane, but perhaps if a plane was banking rather sharply at that precise moment it would reflect the sunlight so brightly that I wouldn’t see its running lights. As a comparison, I saw a plane about an hour later to the north of me on a typical airport approach track. It was very bright too but distinctly silver-white (its “headlights”, I suppose) with noticeable green and red lights at its wing tips.

Thanks Chris.

[Fred the Cat]

Mostly cloudy but a slight chance of sun

Another cloud break to "C" it.

[Ann]

Eclipse 10-14.JPG
Mostly cloudy but a slight chance of sun
Eclipse 10-14-2.JPG
Another cloud break to "C" it.
Eclipse1-14-3.JPG

Nice, Fred!

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Popped down to New Mexico (just a 6 hour drive) to put myself on the centerline. Perfect skies, perfect weather (got a bit chilly mid-eclipse, though).
_

[Christian G.]

Popped down to New Mexico (just a 6 hour drive) to put myself on the centerline. Perfect skies, perfect weather (got a bit chilly mid-eclipse, though).
_

seq_crop.jpg

stages.jpg

Eclipse 10-14.JPG
Mostly cloudy but a slight chance of sun
Eclipse 10-14-2.JPG
Another cloud break to "C" it.
Eclipse1-14-3.JPG

Great images, both of you! (sure beats the cloud eclipse I saw)

[Chris Peterson]

Eclipse! Finished processing some pictures, and a video of the entire thing through my telescope. Posted at http://www.cloudbait.com/2023ecl.php
_

[Ann]

Eclipse! Finished processing some pictures, and a video of the entire thing through my telescope. Posted at http://www.cloudbait.com/2023ecl.php
_
seq_11_800_line.jpg

Delightful, Chris! The images on either side of the annual eclipse one are perfect "upside down" versions of each other, except that the two prominent sunspots are seen in four of the images to the left of the annular eclipse one and in only two of the ones on the right. But there is a small sunspot near the top right limb that is seen in all five images to the right. I love the sunspots!

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

A very unusual sundog this morning. Sun is still behind the peak on the left, but must be shining into the valley between it and the slightly more distant ridge to the right. The sundog itself is coming off of ice crystals in the air, just above the ground. It was chilly... about 20° F. And a lot of interesting color in the sundog, which they don't normally show.
_

[Chris Peterson]

Moonrise tonight across the valley, above Castle Mountain.
_

[Cousin Ricky]

I saw meteors last light, lots of meteors. This was easily the most prolific meteor shower I’ve ever seen, with more than one per minute.

I also caught quite a few DSOs with my binocular: M31, M35, M41, M42, M43, M44, M45, M103, NGC 654, NGC 663, the Double Cluster, and NGC 1973-5-7. I believe I caught M78, just barely, intermittently, and with serious averted vision.

I was unable to make out M32, M110, NGC 659, or anything in Leo.

Of course, no night of sidewalk astronomy is complete without my having to correct someone, “No, that’s not the North Star, that’s Jupiter.” One other person caught the mistake, observing that the object was not towards the north. I then showed the curious how to find the North Star.

Speaking of Jupiter, I saw Callisto and Ganymede in my binocular, but Io was too close to Jupiter’s glare, and I had no luck with Europa. I thought for sure I should have been able to see Europa, but I couldn’t get the binocular focused enough. Hopefully, that was due to my aging prescription eyeglasses, and not the binocular.

On that note, I also got my eyes checked yesterday, and they are in pretty good condition. The optometrist thinks my declining ability to see DSOs is more from the increasing light pollution than to my aging vision.

[Rauf]

I saw meteors last light, lots of meteors. This was easily the most prolific meteor shower I’ve ever seen, with more than one per minute.

I also caught quite a few DSOs with my binocular: M31, M35, M41, M42, M43, M44, M45, M103, NGC 654, NGC 663, the Double Cluster, and NGC 1973-5-7. I believe I caught M78, just barely, intermittently, and with serious averted vision.

I was unable to make out M32, M110, NGC 659, or anything in Leo.

Of course, no night of sidewalk astronomy is complete without my having to correct someone, “No, that’s not the North Star, that’s Jupiter.” One other person caught the mistake, observing that the object was not towards the north. I then showed the curious how to find the North Star.

Speaking of Jupiter, I saw Callisto and Ganymede in my binocular, but Io was too close to Jupiter’s glare, and I had no luck with Europa. I thought for sure I should have been able to see Europa, but I couldn’t get the binocular focused enough. Hopefully, that was due to my aging prescription eyeglasses, and not the binocular.

On that note, I also got my eyes checked yesterday, and they are in pretty good condition. The optometrist thinks my declining ability to see DSOs is more from the increasing light pollution than to my aging vision.

Nice! Can I ask what kind of binocular did you use?

[Cousin Ricky]

Nice! Can I ask what kind of binocular did you use?

It was a handheld 50×7. At my age, I should probably be using one with a smaller exit pupil, such as a 50×10, but I haven’t been moved to replace it yet.

[Rauf]

Nice! Can I ask what kind of binocular did you use?

It was a handheld 50×7. At my age, I should probably be using one with a smaller exit pupil, such as a 50×10, but I haven’t been moved to replace it yet.

Cool! Unfortunately for me, I don't have access to dark skies, I live in an urban area with a humid weather, so the sky is not so lovely in the night. Even with a 20x80 binocular, I can only barely recognize M31 and M13.

[Fred the Cat]

The conjuction tonight

with its beautiful crescent

led me back to "The Road to the Snow Moon" from last month.

I love finding images you forgot you took.

[Fred the Cat]

The conjuction tonight
with its beautiful crescent
led me back to "The Road to the Snow Moon" from last month.


I love finding images you forgot you took.

FMI. Is there a possibility that Uranus crept into the conjunction image?

That would be an unexpected surprise.

High-res upper left hand corner.