Clear Skies!...So whats on sky?

Yeah, Nick had me down for it! Awesome…sorry, I didnt had it marked in my diary, terrible. See you at the Great Equatorial

Oh well,  I was about to say if you're going to Blackheath, I might join you but I guess you'll be having much more fun with the great eq 🙂

Yeah, I'm sorry, Ahmed!  Still, take advantage of tonight with your scope.  Jupiter and the moon will be rising quite close to each other from around 6:30ish.  Although, moon is bright tonight, try see if you can still see the comet with Kemble's Cascade before the moon gets too high, otherwise enjoy the moon and Jupiter when  they get high enough.

Clear skies tonight! (Wednesday)

It has been several weeks since I've been able to do any visual/photo astronomy.  I will be at Blackheath from 6pm-ish.  My ankle hasnt completely healed but it has improved  enough to fetch my telescope though I will be taking a cab, rather than haul my stuff on buses and trains.

It will be an eventful evening a Jupiter will have a double moon and double shadow transit simultaneously!  So Ganymede, Ganymede's shadow, Io, Io's shadow will all be on Jupiter's disc.  To make it more sweet, the great red spot will also be accompanying the moon transits.  This multiple transit event will start at around 8:50pm (when both moons and their shadows are on the disc) and will last for an hour and a quarter apprx.

There is also another celestial event.  The gibbous moon will occult a 5th magnitude star at around 7:07pm.  (the star will vanish on the darker limb of the moon).

I wont be imaging as a priority this time but always like to do some visual astronomy before I start that. Anyone like to join me?

Thursday promises to also be a clear night so might head down again to Blackheath but I'll confirm next day.

Great idea, Tej... all being well, I will join you. I'll be in my usual spot!

Looking forward to seeing the occultation of 26 Geminorum by the Moon... it's always amazing to see a star suddenly "blink" out of existence!

The double shadow transit should also be a lovely sight.

I'll put the word out to the Observing and Imaging group, as this is an "informal" event.

Great!  And yep this time, I'll set up usual spot too 🙂

Clouds made sure we didnt see Jupiter at all, much less any Galilean moons and shadows and occultations.   But we did see the the occultation of 26 Geminorum by the Moon!  What a moment it was too, to see a bright star that literally did "blink" out of existence as Mike perfectly describes, in that apparent blackness of space.  It was made even more thrilling by the fact that the odds were completely stacked against us in seeing it.  The sky was 95% cloud covered but a small gap was sweeping across and like magic, perfectly synchronised its own transit over the moon for several seconds in which we saw the star blink out on the dark limb of the moon.  Real high five moment.

Thanks Mike and Ahmed for coming down to join me!

Great fun, Tej... despite the clouds.

Though we often complain about the weather, it can sometimes provide moments like we witnessed last night. I suspect if we had been half-a-mile away, we wouldn't have seen it... the cloud gaps and Moon wouldn't have lined up for us.

That's part of the challenge of doing astronomy in the UK... if it was easy, it wouldn't be half as much fun!

hahahaha the look on your faces when you saw the star blink out of existence was priceless ... Though you both were glued to your scopes and I seeing it with my eagle eyes, watching the clock tick away it's minutes and then down to seconds and then wishing the break in the clouds ... moments like these I'm so glad I am in this hobby. Yes though the cloud cover pretty much meant we couldn't do actual stargazing but had a good laugh & good chat. My only regret, I had to leave too soon but then I nearly froze to death too lol

Chance of clear skies from 10pm ish.  I have nice breathing space from work this bank holiday weekend to have a another viewing of Mars while its still in the bracket of its close proximity.  I will blow the dust of my dslr and have a stab at imaging it too.

So if clouds look clear enough, I'm going to head down to Blackheath around then, with my Nexstar, some eyepieces and a dslr 🙂    Anyone like to join me?

I'm up for it and will most definitely bring in my beast as well

See you then, Ahmed!  I will try post on here if forecast takes a turn for the worst.  I will also text you and anyone else that I know is joining me.

Unfortunately I won't be able to join you this evening... a shame, cause I'd like to give Mars a go.

Latest forecast is suggesting that cloud will roll in later, but hopefully it will stay clear for you.

Ah that's a shame but no worries, Mike.  I am using sat24 and cloud is over London but its moving northwards so I am hoping for it to leave behind a nice clear opening of the South Eastern skies for Mars and Saturn viewing.    Its all down to chances of where the wind blows so will keep monitoring and update.

Hope is the name of the game. See you there Tej

4 other Flamsteed members are joining me.

Targets:  Jupiter and its GRS, Mars (with and without a 23a red filter that I just acquired to etch out more details, hopefully) then Saturn and for later stayers, perhaps even the great Andromeda galaxy. Its raining lightly now which normally is good for better seeing later!.

Will keep monitoring the skies and update 🙂