Nice Sights Day And Night

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

G'day fellow observers..

I had some fantastic observations made yesterday, starting at 4pm in the afternoon observing the waxing crescent moon. It was at the meridian and more importantly Spica(Alpha Virginis) was was just over a degree away! My 10 inch dob had been outside for over an hour acclimatising. I observed the moon first, enjoying daytime views of its craters, then it was time to attempt to observe a star in the daytime! I used my 24mm Panoptic giving me 50x and a 1.3° field of view and slowly aimed the scope at where Spica was according to Sky Safari Pro. Bam! There she was! A brilliant blue point of light against a blue sky. This was the first time I've ever observed a star during the day

Come nightfall I observed several objects in eastern Sagittarius:

M54: Bright and concentrated globular cluster. Interesting as this globular is actually extragalactic! I could not resolve any stars in my 10 inch.

M55: In contrast to M54, this globular is bigger and more loose. A fine sight, myriad faintly sparkling stars.

NGC 6818: The Little Gem planetary nebula. A nice object. Took magnification well, at 686x I saw a circular cloud with hints of fine details within the nebula. I could still see hints of colour even at this high magnification.

NGC 6822: Barnard's Galaxy. I think I saw this last night, but it was hard to tell definitively due to the moonlight. A vague long haze with signs of mottling or very faint stars mixed in the faint glow. It was almost overhead so that might have been a help.

M75. Appeared as a concentrated misty ball of light. Fairly bright from my light polluted backyard, no stars resolved.

To finish I took another look at the moon/Spica conjunction. By now they were less than a degrees apart! A spectacular sight naked eye and through my 10x50mm binoculars. It was a very pleasing day and night of observations!

Clear Skies
Joe

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

Great report, Joe.

Daytime observing can be quite challenging, but equally quite rewarding. I have observed many of the brightest stars during full daylight over the years. Alpha Centauri presents as the beautiful double that it is, against the blue sky. Acrux, too. Red Antares and the more softer orange coloured Arcturus look beautiful against the blue sky.

The five brightest planets are rewarding targets, too. The fine bright crescent Venus is just spectacular against an emerald blue sky. This is my favourite view of Venus and probably my favourite view of all of the planets. Mars, Jupiter and the faint Saturn are best targeted near their Oppositions when they are at their brightest.

Several years ago, when the oppositions for Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were only a month or two apart, I was able to complete a little observing challenge - to observe all five planets; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, in daylight hours on the same day. I have only managed this once!

As you observed, The Moon - Spica conjunction was very pretty last night. It was one of the observing highlights for a sidewalk astronomy event on the Hobart waterfront last night.

Thanks for posting.

Steve.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Hi Steve, thanks mate.

Wow, that's a difficult feat you pulled off by observing all five naked eye planets during the day, on the same day I will have to try to attempt this someday.

Best wishes for your sidewalk astronomy events there in beautiful Hobart!

Cheers
Joe

[gaseous (Patrick)]

Nice report Joe, thanks for sharing.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Cheers Patrick, I'm glad you enjoyed it