Pembrokeshire Astronomer

Tal1 patiently waiting to snag the evening star The back garden doesn't get used that often for astronomical observing, it's a pity as it affords some lovely views of the setting inferior planets . Tonight though it was time for the Tal1 to be let loose on Venus.  I simply parked up the scope and waited for the night to draw in... About an hour later the sky was still blue, but Venus shone brightly...... ......time to put the Tal into  action.... Firstly I took this image with just the 25mm plossl and the zoom on my digicam: Afocal image.. with simple digicam Then I connected our Nikon D50 via a camera adapter to the Tal's focuser using the prime focus method... It took a few attempts to capture a decent image, but finally I managed the following image. Nikon D50 prime focus plus x3 Barlow Not the best shot in the world, but at least it gave me a record of the current Venusian phase... It was a beautiful evening, the seeing was Antoniadi

Camille Flammarion All astronomers are poets of that I am sure. You can't help but feel the calling of the poet, once you've gazed upon the night skies. To better emphasize my point, I often mention one of my favourite astronomers..  Camille Flammarion. I was first introduced to Mr Flammarion some 10 years ago when I purchased a small book of his in a local charity shop. The manager of the Charity shop, knowing how nuts I was about astronomy, kept the book to one side for me. I'm glad she did. .after a quick browse I was immediately drawn into the world of this wonderful French astronomer.  The book was "Astronomy for Amateurs" Who could not be captivated by the opening paragraph.. " The   Science of Astronomy is sublime and beautiful. Noble, elevating, consoling, divine, it gives us wings, and bears us through Infinitude.  In these ethereal regions all is pure, luminous, and splendid.  Dreams of the Ideal, even of the Inaccessible, we

An old photo of Orion Tonight Helen and I set up our small wood burning stove out in the garden, and lit a fire. The hot plate on the stove had a small saucepan of water gently simmering.... ......Sitting around a campfire without a cup of tea...!!!! ............. Unthinkable!! The object of lighting the stove was to simply sit under the stars with our feet warming by an open fire..... All we had to do now was wait for the night to unfold..... Venus was first up followed by an aerial display courtesy of our local bats.... Procyon was spotted of to the South West....Castor and Pollux followed shortly afterwards, and Capella was high up to the West...nudging slightly to the North.... Aldebaran decided to make an appearance a little later, no doubt this bright orange beauty was until now lost in the lovely Pembrokeshire twilight still much in evidence... Jupiter soon disappeared behind the ridge of a neighbouring house.. It isn't that often that we get to sit in

" It was a most clear and frosty night, enough to make Mark haul out the telescope... and it was so worth it.  He saw the dales and vales and snow caps of Mars..... "  From the journal of Mrs Pembs  25th January 2010 I make no apology for droning on about Mars...now is the time to drag out those telescopes and feast your eyes on the wonderful world we call Mars... Observing Mars has dominated all my astronomy spare time of late, and for good reason. The planet Mars is currently at opposition , and as such it will allow us our best chance of viewing Mars for the next 40 or so days...after that time...as far as good viewing is concerned, Mars and our planet Earth say goodbye to each other for another 2 years . My attempts at photography:  What can I say  !!!!! As you can see from these photos, my Martian photography skills leave a lot to be desired... :0) I tried to connect our Nikon D50 via a x3 Barlow to the eyepiece holder of the Tal..... It didn't t