June

[Nightspore]

Well, it’s half way through the year and I have had a total of sixty one observing sessions so far. This June I’ve had ten sessions, twice the amount compared to last June. The seeing and transparency haven’t been brilliant though and all of this month’s sessions have been with small, easily set-up grab and go scopes. On the 1st, 6th and 7th I got my ST80 out. I ended up mainly splitting doubles although a low Coma Berenices was still fairly impressive early in the month.

 

 

Scorpio as a whole and Antares are low for me but I did get to view M4 and M19 a couple of times. The tip of the Scorpion’s Claw contains two of my favourite doubles. Beta Scorpii (Graffias/Acrab) is quite beautiful and easily separated with small apertures. I see the primary as a bright white and the secondary a pale lilac colour. Nearby is Nu Scorpii which is apparently a quintuple system about 430 light years away.

 

 

I only got my 60 EDF out once in June, on the 4th, but I had a great night culminating with witnessing an Io transit.

 

 

In June I finally found a way to transport my 72 ED DS Pro out in one journey with the AZ5. As the Summer Triangle has been steadily rising I’ve been spending a lot of time there. It’s full of exciting objects. I’d forgotten how many great doubles are in and around the Triangle, particularly Struve 2470/74; the ‘other’ Double Double. The 72 ED has been out five times in June. I only use it with 1.25” accessories. On the 13th I’m pretty sure I saw the ‘Nova Her 2021’ in Hercules with it. I also got a view of the Western Veil Nebula culminating with seeing Jupiter and the GRS. On the 22nd I managed IC 4665 aka the ‘Summer Beehive’. I hadn’t seen it this year.

 

 

The final session on the 30th was with my 102mm SkyMax.

 

 

This was an early morning Saturn, Jupiter and Moon session for about an hour. As the seeing wasn't very good, let alone the dodgy transparency, I decided to take the biggest aperture I could carry easily in one journey. I only used orthoscopic (BCO, KK, Circle-T) eyepieces for maximum transmission and contrast. Well, that, and they're light. 

 

 

As I got to see the GRS I considered this a win. 

[MarkAR]

What !!!! 61 sessions this year😱 I think I've only had 6 clear nights for imaging or anything so far.

 

Nice write up though.

 

[Nightspore]

16 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

What !!!! 61 sessions this year😱 I think I've only had 6 clear nights for imaging or anything so far.

 

Nice write up though.

 

 

Thanks. Yeah, I think it's slightly more than this time last year. I only had four last June, the fifth was a total washout due to clouds. I nearly made 62 sessions this morning but I injured my back. 

[jcj380]

The last two weeks of June were pretty much all clouds and rain here, so here's hoping July will be better!  Maybe I can even make it out to a dark site once or twice.

 

[Nightspore]

Plus the astro dark is slowly returning.

[Marmot]

“Nightspore”.....you need to change your name to “AstroHero”! The number of sessions you have managed is something to be proud of.

Unfortunately the past few weeks have been disappointing for me due to my focus being required on other things. I have however, managed to find time for some research on the net and of course keeping an eye on The Yard, which is always time we’ll spent🙂

[Padraic M]

@Nightspore is talking about observing sessions. I've had around 180 observing sessions this year. Every night I walk outside, look up, observe the night sky and say "Nah, no imaging tonight!".

[Nightspore]

4 hours ago, Marmot said:

“Nightspore”.....you need to change your name to “AstroHero”! The number of sessions you have managed is something to be proud of.

Unfortunately the past few weeks have been disappointing for me due to my focus being required on other things. I have however, managed to find time for some research on the net and of course keeping an eye on The Yard, which is always time we’ll spent🙂

 

Sixty one sessions by June is slightly above average to be honest. Although there are a few with my 90mm Mak used on its mini-Dob' that I haven't counted as they were very short impromptu lunar/planetary sessions. 

 

 

The past two or three years the conditions have been surprisingly well above average in February, March and April. June and July can often be a bit stormy & cloudy. An exception was the 2018 July heatwave. But in 2018 I didn't get any scope out at all until late March. This year I had ten sessions before March 1st (nine in February). Twelve in March and seventeen in April. Oddly I had seventeen in April 2020 as well. So, I'm a bit above average compared to last year at least. It's worth pointing out that my 80ED and ST102 have only been out one and two times respectively. Everything else has been light enough for only one journey. As I'm physically disabled the light set-ups are probably going to win this year. The 60 EDF has been out thirty one times.

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Nightspore