Anyone going out tonight?

[Akarsh Simha]

I don’t think I can. I’m also very tired. All of California has the best CMC transparency forecast I’ve seen in about two years

[Alex]

I plan to simply roll my portaball out tonight (to the wide plaza of my condo complex) just to get a peek at Jupiter in perigee. Finally have my foot recovered well enougfh for that task, but nothing more drastic yet. The sky looks very promising indeed, horizon to horizon, f.w.i.c.w. a.t.m. (love these winter nights here, always great views despite Bortle 6-7 around, as soon as you take a good care of your darkness adaptation).

[Aris Pope]

I'm at Prewitt Ridge. Was up here last night too. It was a little bit windy but calmed down later on. I was able to get a good amount of it useful imaging. Should be another clear night here. The road condition was a lot better than I expected one week after the rain. The road was dry with no wet spots or ruts. It really drained well. 

Aris

On Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 10:48 AM Akarsh Simha <akars...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don’t think I can. I’m also very tired. All of California has the best CMC transparency forecast I’ve seen in about two years

--
Observing Sites, Observing Reports, About TAC linked at top of:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sf-bay-tac
 
Subscribers post to the mailing list at:
 
sf-ba...@googlegroups.com,
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Astronomy Connection (TAC)" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sf-bay-tac+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CA%2B9k5tzFNjBfww1yY4KuV8m_fAXEpryxf38%2BFHZS9hpD2drWsA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Joel Lee]

This is an encouraging post about the conditions. I’ll probably try Jupiter from the backyard again tonight then. I tried Thursday and Friday and the seeing was absolutely terrible as my other scopes were reporting much softer images than usual despite conditions being stable. Clear skies with terrible seeing conditions are quite a disappointment. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CAP5wcX%3D%2BGnHTjb92%3D8VcxN7UjZLUOMVjJjUOUGqrD%2BPPMSjeVg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Akarsh Simha]

Wow Aris that is a fantastic view. I was looking up at the ridge last evening while driving out. I am hoping to get out later this week, and if the campsite is sparsely populated during mid-week I might just go there. The issue with a 28-inch that takes two hours to set up is that a bad neighbor who likes their RV awning lights can ruin it entirely for me, and I can’t even relocate on a whim. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CAEawR1PAxeoG3nySa%3DL50Wh3V9%3DicKStBqxSzRgZJuC%2BHXYuig%40mail.gmail.com.

[Alex]

Joel, don't forget about thermals. It's cold outside, so allow enough time for your optical mass / OTA space to fully equalize.

[Infinity Engineering]

Anyone want to join me at my dark sky island in the East Bay hills in the San Ramon Valley area? The winter horizons are challenging but there is still a lot of clear sky to view. The darkness is similar to Del Valle. Room for a lot of scopes and plenty of parking. AC power available.

As the newest member of the group, it would be an opportunity for me to meet some of you and see your more modern scopes and mounts in action. If you have not seen it, check out my introduction post, New Member/Old Observer - Introduction to the Group - 2026, to learn more about me.

Cheers,

IE

[Joel Lee]

Thanks Alex, that’s true as well and likely some neighbors are running heaters. My scope for planetary is my newt with a big open tube and imaging over 4~ hours so it’s unlikely for the later sessions. My other two’s HFRs/FWHM (50% larger than I’m used to) were stably bad even into the early mornings so I chalked it up to poor nights. We’ve been having pretty bad seeing conditions most nights since late November~. One of my images from last year references bad conditions around this time of the year as well so next time I should probably swap to shorter FL targets. 

On Mon, Jan 12, 2026 at 13:32 Alex <alex.k...@gmail.com> wrote:

Joel, don't forget about thermals. It's cold outside, so allow enough time for your optical mass / OTA space to fully equalize.

--

Observing Sites, Observing Reports, About TAC linked at top of:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sf-bay-tac
 
Subscribers post to the mailing list at:
 
sf-ba...@googlegroups.com,
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Astronomy Connection (TAC)" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sf-bay-tac+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CAG%2BmxVQXHbM1F%3DHM3xKPND-fyf%2BgitJAue-z0MBGX_Vi66bYcA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rod Brown]

I saw tonight's excellent transparency forecast, too. Even though I went out last night with my refractor and I did not sleep well after, I'm going to take my dob out tonight. And maybe I'll also bring a blanket to catch a nap in the car at some point.

Up here in Nevada County, last night was not bad. The late afternoon clouds had me worried, but the forecast that they would be gone by 6 was right on. Seeing was mediocre, but transparency was not bad, and it was nice to be out after all the rain in recent weeks.

Rod

[Ted Hauter]

In the new East facing backyard finally got a scope out at night other than solar. Fantastic views of Jupiter!

Scope was TV 85mm out about 3.5 hours prior with the Binotron cut down on the brightness for those fine details. Forgot the 80A .

Tonight!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/bacf8539-279e-40e5-b90a-df0d02f460b2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Joel Lee]

Hi IE, I’m interested in possibly Saturday or Sunday and if there’s a group. I’m based in East Bay (Fremont) so sounds like it’s rather close by. If it’s really close by i might be down to come to a short night (7-10~) weekday event as well. It also might be better to start it as another thread if there’s some interest. I’m assuming there might be a couple of groups heading out this coming up long weekend. 

[Aris Pope]

Yeah when I came up in August there wasn't any light issues with neighbors. No issue last night. Just me and two other rigs on the entire ridge. And they're several hundred yards away from me.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CAEawR1PAxeoG3nySa%3DL50Wh3V9%3DicKStBqxSzRgZJuC%2BHXYuig%40mail.gmail.com.

Aris

[Ted Hauter]

Nice Transit. 

For some reason almost 1 hr off in the app.

Will get the Mak out tomorrow.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CAP5wcXmc2%3DTc1wjDSUhp3QXanHoU1Z%2BzWpQTmKrHr9%3DhyQgs0w%40mail.gmail.com.

[Dan Durkin]

Is the app Sky Safari? Check Settings > Precession > Light Time and set to ON. It’s an ever annoying bug that randomly resets to OFF. 

[Rod Brown]

I noticed the same problem in SkySafari last night. I'm a little annoyed with the app now. As useful as it is, basic things seem to break. I took my Celestron NexStar 8SE out last week for the first time in a few months. With the StarSense AutoAlign camera, it sets up and tracks quickly and is great for outreach. But I found the "calibrate" function for the camera had stopped working. Not a showstopper, but annoying.

But back to last night. Transparency really was very good. I enjoyed the views of the shadow transit, and during periods of steadiness I also enjoyed seeing more detail in the edges of the equatorial cloud bands. I spent much of the evening looking at the faint winter galaxies in the recent S&T article. I was seeing them up to mag 13.8 in my 18" dob under SQM 21.2 skies. The rest of the week looks pretty good, too.

On Monday, January 12, 2026 at 10:06:06 PM UTC-8 Edward Binohandle.com wrote:

[Rod Brown]

Just checked mine, and that was the problem. Thanks Dan!

Rod

[Joel Lee]

Jupiter started out rough but the seeing gradually got better as the night went on. The planet was doing jelly jiggles at 7000mm from my 10 inch newt so it likely didn’t actually support that resolution. I’ll have to see when I do the stacking. It was, however, definitely better than Thursday and Friday. My other rigs were reporting sharper images (still a little softer than usual). Conditions for the rest of the week seem to be good as well so I might try again tonight before switching that scope out. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/5e0adf68-d2fc-4653-aca1-282df4c4c3ffn%40googlegroups.com.

[Ted Hauter]

Thank you Dan!

My version does not have that but there was an automatic DST turned on.

The strange part was the time was off lest than an hour as Io was off about 45 min.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CAEawR1P%2BccETtXW1r_q1Em3jeVMfKE4eSn9u23VzAWtzT4c1yw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Dan Durkin]

Edward - What version of Sky Safari do you have? If it is Basic, that version does not account for light travel time and therefore the animations will be off.

Jupiter is currently 34 light minutes from earth. 

[Ted Hauter]

An incredible observation Dan.

Sky Safari v 6.8.9.1

I had thought it was real time in the past and always what I was seeing in the eyepiece, especially using amici diagonal. Mirrors though for Jup.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/1f27cb4a-6938-43bd-bf65-5ca175fb5091n%40googlegroups.com.