It was a marvellous weekend, blazing sunshine, with soaring temperatures.
Starting with the BAA Comet Section Meeting in Northampton on the Saturday.
Great to hear lots of talks about comets and chat to lots of like-minded people.
When I got home it looked like it was going to be clear that night, so I set everything up.
As it got dark Jupiter started to show, so the webcam was pointed in its direction.
(Throughout the night I tried to do some live Facebook video through the telescope to share the view).
Jupiter and 3 Galilean Moons.
Jupiter
My next target was Comet 2015 V2 (Johnson) Heading southwards through Virgo.
Despite me not yet getting my mount polar aligned since the Solar workshop a couple of weeks ago, i was determined to catch some of the comet to see if I could detect the ion tail.
Comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson) and some distant galaxies.
I didn’t manage to capture the ion tail, as the light pollution and dusty sky caused quite a bright background.
Next target was Saturn. Very low in the south, but as soon as it cleared the neighbouring house, I was on it.
I soon realised that I could only use about a quarter of the scopes aperture, as it was mostly obscured by the fence and plants. (I attempted to trim them there and then in the dark, but finished the job properly next day, to give me more of a chance next time).
Saturn.
Once finished with Saturn, I did some processing and visual observing while waiting for the Moon to rise.
By half past 2 it finally cleared the neighbours house, and the twilight was also starting to break, so I had very little time to get what I wanted. A DSLR Image first and then it was a race to capture some detailed surface feature shots before the sky got too bright. Moon images below.
All in all it was a very productive night.
One feature in particular I was after: The Lunar Swirl Reiner Gamma. I had stumbled upon this feature while observing about 2 years ago, and had been wanting to get a reasonable image of it. Google it, it seem to be very interesting how they think these features are caused.
Reimer Gamma Lunar Swirl.
Crater Kepler and the bright splash rays surrounding it.
Two pane montage of the two images above.
Another feature I have wanted to get a better image of is Rook Mountains and Mare Orientale.
I could see that it was librated quite nicely into view just below the dark feature Grimaldi.
Bullialdus and the Flooded craters Lubiniezky and Kies. The lunar dome Kies Pi can just be seen.
Crater Lambert situated on a wrinkle ridge within Mare Imbrium.
Sunset at Copernicus. The lunar dome complex just above crater Hortensius is visible.
The southern Lunar Highlands. Two pane montage.
Schroters Valley and the bright crater Aristarchus.
