Sol - December 29th 2022.

“A flower will always grow in the direction of the sun because beauty recognises beauty.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

 

Boxing Day Luna.

The Boxing day crescent Moon stood still in a Pembrokeshire blue sky, I had to capture the moment.

Within five minutes the telescope was all set up and ready to go.

The evening was cold, the clouds were nearby, I had maybe ten minutes to grab a few images.

The Mare Crisium stood out well, the photo below shows some of the craters of Crisium and surrounding area.

Here's a more detailed image with some labelling of the major craters. 

Cleomedes, Burckhardt and Geminus return beautiful black rim shadows at this part of the lunation.

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.

This morning's Christmas solar image.

The Solstice hedgerows & the promise of longer days.

There is a lovely hedgerow prominence visible on the Sun at the moment.

Haven't seen a decent hedgerow display for ages. 

photo: Harold Zirin's book  "Astrophysics of the Sun"

What better display to celebrate today's Solstice.

As of today our days will be getting that little bit longer, the promise of Spring and Summer 2023 is upon us.

Crescent Waning, Schickard on the edge.

Horizon hugging clouds didn't spoil the Moon watch this morning.

A quick setup of the Newtonian, a simple 25mm eyepiece and our old Samsung S6 phone returned a half decent view of the waning crescent.

Along the terminator, Schickard Nasmyth & Phocylides were easily spotted. 

No hint of Mare Orientale this time, I think the libration wasn't favourable, but even so the glare of the sunlight on the Moon's limb at this time would have probably ruled out any Orientale observations.

Sol 15/12/22 - Perfect Pembrokeshire Morning.

This morning's sky was winter blue, and frosty. 

A beautiful morning with a glorious high above waning Moon.

The perfect Pembrokeshire morning.

The Newtonian performed well, helped in part by a steady clear sky. 

I was very pleased to glimpse a hint of the Mare Orientale.

The low winter Sun creates beautiful contrasts, at the moment, but for the Robin and Wren, all is still in our garden of long shadows.

Old Sol wanted a morning portrait, I was happy to oblige.

Sol - 15/12/22

Clear blue sky this morning, perfect for capturing solar detail.

Visually the prominences were the best I have seen for months, possibly the best all year.

"Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hours drive away, if your car could go straight upwards".

Sir Fred Hoyle.

Mr Blue sky is back. Sol - 11/12/22

 Such beautiful low Pembrokeshire sunlight this morning. 

A welcome return of Mr Bkue sky.

Time for some solar observing.

"We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 billion years of cosmic evolution".

Carl Sagan

Sol Imaging - December 6th 2022

This morning's Sol imaging.

"The Sun, with all those planets revolving around it and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else to do".  

Galileo Galilei.

Sun dogs over Pembrokeshire.

The cold blue skies of Friday last were greeted with an arrival of a couple of lovely Sun dogs.

These "mock suns" as they are also called hung around for most of the day.  

The sun dogs are produced by a dance between sunlight and ice crystals in our atmosphere.

The ice crystals act like prisms and scatter the sunlight into a colourful light show.

It's been ages since I've have seen such a prominent display. 

The appearance of Sun dogs is not limited just to the winter months. 

One of the best displays I have seen occurred back in 2016 in the month of July.

Moon - Jupiter - Mars - Clouds

MOON

The crescent Moon looked beautiful last night,  a very welcome sight in a clearish sky, but with lurking clouds to the west.

The Newtonian was set up and some afocal phone camera photos were taken.

JUPITER

Around 17:00 the clouds rolled in completely and the sky was lost to astronomers.

I thought that was it for the night, but by chance around 20:00 a gap appeared and Jupiter was ablaze with the promise of that Europa transit I had been waiting for.

Quick set up of the Newtonian and some ten minutes later I had a sketch of Europa crossing the gas giant. 

Once again the clouds were threatening!

MARS

Mars was shining in the east and I trained the telescope onto it.  

It was a bit washed out and lacking in contrast, though I did manage to see the polar cap and some darker detail to the south.

CLOUDS

The ever present clouds finally beat me, by about 20:30 they had bullied their way back to cover the entire sky, the observing was at an end for the evening.

Though considering how persistant the clouds had been last night (and the past week or so!) I'm more than pleased with the results.

Sol sinking into the clouds.

This past week much rain has fallen, and several small gales have come and gone. 

In that time my solar observing had become a game of chance and patience.

This image was taken just before Sol sunk into the hill on the outskirts of our village.

As can been seen in the picture the clouds were just grazing the solar limb.

First 2022 Syrtis Major observation.

I managed to catch a glimpse of the Syrtis Major two nights ago on the 21st at 22h46m UT.

The seeing was terrible, I guess I was lucky to see any of the Syrtis Major outline. 

The North polar cap was evident. 

There was a slightly lighter shading in the Hellas region, though that could have been down to wishful thinking.

Hopefully over the next couple of days seeing conditions will improve.

November 21st 2022 - 22h46m UT - 150mm/f8 reflector   

x160 & x240

It's Syrtis Major week.

Syrtis Major - 110mm reflector

Syrtis Major, one of my favourite features on Mars will be visible in the evenings of this coming week.

It can easily be seen in most modest telescopes. 

For example my old 4.5 inch reflector and 70mm refractor could both easily see it, albeit a small image.

I've made a chart of the times of possible viewing for the coming week.

The dance of a swirling prominence.

Had to be quick this morning, the streets of fast moving cloud were intent on spoiling my Sol viewing!

After a bit of patience, I was rewarded with a glimpse of a wonderful swirling prominence.

So far it's probably the best dancing prominence I have seen with this little telescope.

I was hoping that the prominence would break in half and form two distinct loops, but unfortunately within the next twenty minutes the structure had notably dissipated.

Galilean shadows in November.

No observing this past week, the weather stopped play!

Though I am hoping to observe a few Galilean shadow transits sometime over the next couple of weeks.

For the remainder of November Io and Europa will be visible for evening viewing.

Here are the dates & times to watch out for:

Typed on my 85 year old typewriter ! - 

Still going strong after all these years. 

    

Bonfire Night Astronomy.

Our village was cloud free for several hours last night, this gave me the opportunity to go outside and observe.

The Moon was bright, Jupiter, and Saturn were high up, plus Mars would be around later in the evening.

I was spoilt for choice.

Jupiter first, not the best of seeing conditions, but the Newtonian returned a fair view of the Great Red Spot.

Time to spy the Moon. 

The gibbous phase, (my favourite), was just at the right position to show off the Moon Maiden.

She is always a welcome sight. I first made a post about this Clair-Obscur effect back in July 2012. 

Here is a link to that post - Moon Maiden - July 2012

Just after 7pm Mars could be seen climbing from behind the Frenni Fawr to the north east.

I did briefly observe Mars later in the evening, but there was no discernable surface detail, though the North polar cap was in evidence.