Where did the party go?

The press was exstatic on announcing the biggest Northern Lights show since May earlier this year. That comnined with a clear night, made a lot of innocent people very excited and hopefull to see the aurora.

Sadly this big party became a major bummer as in: nothing at all to see!

Which raises the question: how precise are these perdictions anyway? Not very precise at all? It looks more a rigged gamble then anything calculated.

On the night movie a very minor aurora is visible around 3h36, and that’s it! Not really worth abandoning the warm comfort of your bed, unless maybe you have never ever seen an aurora, and even then: this miserable patch of barely visible light is probably more a turn-off

Because, as a amateur-astronomer: what are you telling the public the day after?

The more experienced people will likely already have abandoned the gambling game of actually seeing something spectacular, when newspapers announce again a ‘supermoon’, ‘comet of the century’ – or in this case a major aurora show.

Hopefully the maybe science but also the press will have as many articles explaining why nothing was there as they had sensational articles on announcing the show.

A long night under the stars

Last night was pretty clear, with a big Moon dominating the sky. The seeing was also steady and delivered sometimes stunning planet views.

The EDPH76mm F 4,5 could continue (under the moonlight) it’s capture of the Crescent Nebula in the Swan (NGC 6888). The field of view in combination with the ASI2600MC is 236×157 arc minutes or about 4°x 2,5°. With that large field, also the Butterfly nebula around Gamma cygni filled partially the field;

The original test with 9x60s
Final result with 460×30 seconds or 230 minutes.
Jupiter through the 180mm Maksutov. At the right side it’s clear the planet is not yet 100% illuminated. The shadow of the moon Ganymede was on the planet. I forgot to anchor it for stacking so it’s elongated more than it should.
Jupiter with the C14. I had issues with the B/W images, to combine them properly on a color version.

Craters Atlas (upper right), Cepheus & Franklin (middle right & low) ; C14 F11 QHY5III200M IR ; Atlas diameter is 87 kilometers.

Mare Fecunditatis with the elaborate wrinkle ridge system of Dorsa Mawson.

Chang’e 1 was a Chinese Moon space vessel that crashed in 2009 – as intended – on the Moon’s surface; Chang’e is the Chinese Moon Goddess.

Interesting also is Messier A, a young impact crater, with two prominent impact rays stretching out over the mare surface

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