Pembrokeshire Astronomer

I thought tonight would be a no go for astronomy as the clouds were back, and they covered much of the darkening sky.  I managed a quick photo of the Moon before it disappeared into the bullying clouds.. By the look of those clouds it seemed better to head indoors and sit by a warming fire. I happened to go outside about 11.00pm and was greeted with a beautiful smiling Moon looking down at me from a completely cloud free sky . Coat,hat and scarf on... and quickly out to the observatory and roll back the roof. The Moon was about 98% illuminated so many of the stars were washed out by the radiance of the bright moonlight... But I was able to make out a a few of the main constellations. The one that caught my eye was Leo the Lion  which was positioned right next to the Moon. Considering the proximity of Leo to the moon Gamma Leonis " Algeiba" was easily resolved with a x3 Barlow and both the 25mm plossl and the 15mm plossl. These two little beauties are said

It was cloudy all day today...... with the odd shower thrown in for good measure.  According to the weather forecast website that I follow there was to be a break in the clouds around teatime....   They were thankfully right!!!  :0) Like magic the clouds parted.... and as the days light faded I was greeted with the the Moon and Venus dancing above the trees at the end of our garden....   PERFECT !!  :0)   I was using our Nikon D50 camera with a 300mm lens set up on a tripod.  For the above shots the camera was set up at 1/13 of a second ISO at f9. Also I was able to capture a bit of the Da Vinci Glow (Earth Shine)... and you can also see from this photo a bit of glow from some passing clouds. I noticed Jupiter was almost due South and I was wondering if the 300mm camera lens would be able to pick out any detail of the Jovian Moons...   I aimed the camera and tried a two second exposure...    This was the result........Jupiter's satel

Third Quarter Moon hiding in the Simpson Cross trees this morning. I was early up this morning and quickly outside to the waiting clear skies. Stumbled towards the observatory - opened the door - removed the dust cover - hooked up the EQ motor drive - open the side shutters of the observatory - All done. Now I was ready to try a quick image of Saturn using our Nikon D50 camera (with a X3 Barlow). I was in luck... Saturn was just below the sliding roof line of the observatory so I didn't need to push the roof back, just open the one side south facing shutter and train the scope onto Saturn. I was using 1600 ISO  and the exposure was about 1/15 of a second. Clearly I was pushing my luck as the daylight was fast approaching, and I was balancing yet again on the observatory stool with my head twisted at all angles whilst one foot steadied me, and an elbow held part of me against the observatory wall. How I don't fall off the stool is beyond me. After all the acroba

This is a view I never get tired of, the Seven Sisters as seen from the comfort of a folding chair.  Especially when viewed through a pair of 7x50 binoculars. Unfortunately for me Father Christmas forgot to drop off my 7x50's this year.  But I do have two really nice sets of field glasses, each of them giving a x3 magnification. Though I'm guessing it's x3 magnification.. I may be wrong.  My field glasses even have names. George Mildred Wet and Windy West Wales. Even if I had a pair of 7x50's I don't know when I would get a chance to use them.  The weather in Pembrokeshire has been diabolical for weeks, even months! Recently we have had more than our fair share of clouds in Pembrokeshire, as this small video shows.

I'm just getting over a larger than life dose of Pembrokeshire Flu. I never get the flu...but this year it hit good and proper...It's been over a fortnight since I was outside in the cold of the observatory. And at least a fortnight before that without any real observing.  So with that in mind I have been trawling around our pc's hard drive and found this video of my last attempt at solar astronomy from the observatory. The Sun as we all know is still heading South, and as such my possible window of viewing from the observatory is maybe limited to approximately an hour, due to the trees at the end of our garden. I love the trees and so do the birds, especially the magpies who have bought a home in a nearby tree. I will just have to wait a while until the Sun heads North once again..  No hurry. Whilst digging around in our many photo CD's I found this photo of my first telescope, the mighty 40mm Tasco refractor. This picture was taken back in 1981.  By

"As Mars is once again upon us, I thought I would post one of my log entries that I made back in January 2010......" Pembs Astronomer  23rd January 2010  Observation of Mars.... I set up the telescope in the front garden and decided to have a good long look at Mars. It's nearly at it's closest at the moment, shining brighter than Betelgeuse, and slightly dimmer than Sirius. At first the red planet revealed nothing just the usual blank expressionless ruddy red, no detail, no imagination not a hint of any possible Martian detail. But persistence I am told will reward, and definitely tonight persistence paid off. Tonight Mars opened up and allowed a glimpse of its often hidden beauty. The dust storms on the planet were obviously having a good well deserved rest, and I saw for the first time in over six years the Martian surface with it's tell tale mottled patterns. Above picture from  http://www.astronet.ru/db/xware/msg/1194973 This d

Digging around in a charity shop the other day I found an interesting book titled: The Modern Children's Library of Knowledge  Book Two  The World we live in. This book was published in 1957, and towards the end of the book was a chapter about astronomy.  It contained a wealth of astronomy information and most interesting to me a large collection of 1950's era illustrations. I love these old astronomy pictures.  Why don't we have more illustrations like these in modern journals and magazines. Today's astronomy  magazines just don't interest me. Too many adverts for a start, not enough "amateur" articles, and way too "glossy". I personally like black and white illustrations, be they photos or drawings.  Saying that some of the most interesting illustrations can sometimes be in full colour: In my perfect astronomy magazine I would like nothing more than to see the typesetting done on

It was clouded out in my part of Pembrokeshire last night...so viewing the Perseid Shower seemed to be a non happening event. I decided to have an early night and hoped for a clearer  Saturday morning..maybe the clouds would part and let me see the Perseid shower in the morning twilight.... The internal astronomer's clock was working well... I awoke at 2.40 am BST and could just glimpse the friendly Moonlight illuminating the window frame... The clouds must have parted........ Quickly up and out to the observatory, no time to put shoes on....I grabbed my Celestron 8mm plossl from the shed.... into the observatory ...... slide back the roof... The skies were approximately 90% fast moving cloud, not as good as I hoped, but what gaps there were quickly showed me the Moon... as it slowly melted into my neighbour's ash trees... Looking eastward I noticed Jupiter high in the sky, the highest I've seen it for many a year. Seems like Jupiter is going to be the fi

I can't believe it's been over three years since I last looked at Erakis  "The Garnet Star"... Here's my last log entry of this colourful beauty.... Please click on the picture for a bigger image.. Next chance I get at the eyepiece, I'm going to say sorry to Erakis for not visiting sooner....

Full Hay Moon. Last night I was too tired to fully appreciate the Moon. Usually I find a spot in the garden, sit down on a comfortable chair and simply bathe myself in the moonlight.. It's so peaceful just sitting there contemplating and watching the Moon as she gently wheels across the night sky.. But the day's hayfever had left it's mark, and I wasn't feeling all that good. A pity... as the Moon last night was one of the best that I've seen for a long while.. I quickly grabbed this photo, using the Tal 1 and a 25mm plossl afocal with my digital compact camera. I don't want to wish away these summer days but, I'm  looking forward to next month's " Red Moon". And red it usually is...... big and beautiful rising out of the Pembrokeshire landscape.  I've already booked my front row seat......fingers crossed for a clear night.... Happy Moon watching...

Some weeks ago I was rummaging through a box, at one of our local car boot sales... I found an intriguing item. It appeared to be a fountain pen, but on closer examination it opened out into a small refractor. It works well considering the 1/2 inch aperture of the objective glass. I christened it  The Mighty Atom ... Last night the clouds were sauntering once again around Pembrokeshire, and the Moon low on our neighbour's trees, could occasionally be glimpsed. I grabbed the Mighty Atom, put it over the lens of the digicam and captured this shot. Also I have found, that if you reverse the scope and look through the objective glass, it makes a really handy microscope.. If you ever happen upon a box full of dubious junk, and see a Mighty Atom, buy it...you won't be disappointed.

There's a great asterism in Bootes called Napolean's hat. I well see why it was given such a name. I decided to try and locate it.... After a couple of failed attempts, I finally thought why not drop Arcturus  to the bottom of my field of vie. Maybe then Napolean's hat would be easier to see without the distraction of  beautiful bright Arcturus. It worked.... Up towards the 11 o clock position in my field of view, Napolean's Hat jumped out at me. I don't know why I haven't noticed this asterism before, but now every time I turn my telescope towards Arcturus there it is. Another friend to put on the observing list ....  :0)

The Harp Star -Vega I started out last night with the sole intention of imaging M13..  after a few attempts I became distracted by the beautiful brilliance of Vega. Vega resides in the constellation of Lyra the Harp, this blue-white star is sometimes called the Harp Star. In Greek mythology, Lyra the harp is said to have been played by the legendary Greek musician Orpheus.  And  whenever Orpheus started to pluck those strings, nobody it was said could resist listening. Obviously Orpheus was busy last night, for Vega the Harp Star grabbed my attention. I attempted imaging using a Nikon D50, connected via prime focus with a x2 Barlow. I tried a 20 second exposure, and was able to capture the above photo. Thank You Orpheus.

Yesterday was cloudy, windy at times, and spotting with rain, the Sun was nowhere to be seen for much of the day...! I really was looking forward to visiting Cygnus with the Tal. I wondered if I would be able to observe at all tonight. The evening arrived, the clouds moved away, and a glorious summery evening was revealed. By midnight the skies had darkened enough to get out there and observe......... First on my list Albireo........ Albireo was the first double I ever viewed, back in 1979 with my 40mm Tasco table top refractor. This double will always evoke fond memories. Tonight though it was not shining with it's usual intensity, probably because of atmospheric turbulence..... Sadr was next on the list, but as always, there are so many stars in this region that I was easily distracted. I happily wandered of on a mini tour of our Galaxy with my 32mm eyepiece. I then spotted a beautiful meteor...... It's radiant was close to Sadr and it made its wa

“Were I to write out one prescription designed to alleviate at least some of the self-made miseries of mankind, it would read like this: “One gentle dose of starlight to be taken each clear night just before retiring.” ..Leslie C Peltier It's been really quiet here of late in Simpson Cross, not much observing as the weather has been really bad. The night skies that have appeared were not really that good for astronomical observations, I've spent the time available just observing with binoculars. Newcomers to the hobby of astronomy invariably look for a telescope as their first instrument. This is false economy I feel. I would suggest the humble binoculars everytime. They're light, inexpensive and very portable..and there's loads to see in the night sky with them. My favourite pair of 8x30's only cost £5. I used to have a very useful pair of 10X50's that only cost £1.50...they looked really rough , but the optics were fine. If it's cloudy with no

Just as you're about to observe... here come the clouds! A familiar tale for all astronomers....not any more, here in Simpson Cross. A couple of weeks ago one of our neighbours kindly offered a pile of scrap wood for our fire. It just so happened most of the scrap wood was the remains of his 8x6 foot garden shed. I managed to salvage enough wood to make a start on an astronomy shed. I had two complete side panels, and enough wood to build the two remaining sides. The building started on what must have been the hottest days of the year so far. Somewhere I had heard it was the hottest April in the UK since 1911 ! The two sides bolted together quickly but the structure was still swaying quite a bit. Good job there was no breeze that day. After fixing the remaining two sides the structure became really strong.... It might just stand up to the Simpson Cross  winter gales. I was going to make a roll of roof with support posts, but as the observatory is only 6x5 foot

I'm happy to report the weather behaved itself yesterday. We arrived early and having made sure to pack the car with all the equipment I needed, I began  confidently to assemble the scopes. Just one problem.....I had forgotten one "minor" item...the actual sun filter!!! ... Luckily we only live 3 miles from Newgale so Helen was able to quickly go home and pick it up. It wasn't long before Phil, a member of the Preseli Astronomy & Science Group arrived. This was our first meeting, we had talked via the PASG forum, on several occassions. It was great to finally meet up. Phil arrived armed with two refractors ... A  meade 70mm was to be his main solar scope...and it proved to be a good choice for solar work...infact it  had the edge over my Tal reflector. We carried out a few tests with each scope... Refractor Vs Reflector.. There did seem to be slightly better contrast with the refractor. Such a portable refractor is ideally be suited for solar w

                               Yesterday my solar filter sheet turned up. It took ten minutes to fit it to my filter holder, and another five hours for the skies to clear sufficiently to allow me to test it. Around about 16h30m UT the skies were perfect for observing with the Tal1. I well see why astronomers get hooked on observing the Sun.  It was mesmerising as it hung there shimmering with life giving heat. I've always been a night time astronomer, the Sun always took second place to the moon and stars. From now on, observing our nearest star is going to be high on my list. First image with the new solar filter. Helen and I went to our local bootsale in Haverfordwest yesterday morning, where I picked up for £1 this digital camera. It has a 3.1Mp chip and a video mode that captures AVI's. After setting up the Tal and solar filter, I managed to capture this image. I've added a bit of colour with Paint shop Pro. Also, the video setting on the camera allow

I thought it time to make myself a solar filter for the TAL telescope. Before I say anything...please be careful when viewing the Sun, only use approved sun filters and projection methods. Even looking at the Sun with the naked eye for a few seconds can cause damage.   I found this out the hard way about 32 years ago. I still have the small scar on my left retina to prove it! As the prices of ready made filters range from £40 to £90 for my particular telescope, I decided to make one incoporating the Baader solar film, which cost £18. I would buy the ready made item, but at the moment all my pennies are going towards my next project, that of building my observatory. The initial idea for my construction method is described here:- http://www.baader-planetarium.com/sofifolie/bauanleitung_e.htm    with slight alterations made by me. I've placed an order for the solar film. But I bet with the bank holiday post, I'll probably receive delivery next tuesday