Pembrokeshire Astronomer

The sky last night was beautifully clear.  So I decided to roll back the observatory roof and give Tal2 a bit of an airing. Firstly Arcturus was spotted, the diffraction spikes around the star made for a mesmerising sight. I took a good long look at this most wonderful of stars. My thoughts were so far away that I completely forgot about my initial target ..Mars! Mars noticeably now has a slight case of the "shrinks", at least it does through the 9mm Orthoscopic eyepiece. Surface detail was very low tonight on Barsoom. It won't be long before my National Geographic Mars map is replaced with my Moon Map. After a few more minutes of telescope observing I decided to close up the observatory, sit on the garden bench and take in the night sky without the help of visual aids. All was quiet in the village, the streetlights had gone off, and the evening was mine to take in the starry night.

Tonight the Moon  was calling me, a big bright gibbous Moon, sitting above the treeline, along with Mars.... they were irresistible!  Plus at the other end of the garden a brilliant shining Saturn was winking at me from amongst the naked ash trees. Definitely time to drag out the Schmidt. I set up outside the front door, the street lights had all gone out, and the neighbour's lights all switched off...perfect for a spot of observing. The north polar cap of Mars stood out well, plus a few dark markings. There seemed to be a hint of south polar cap, though this was probably haze or cloud. The Moon was gibbous and very bright, almost sunglasses bright as viewed through the 25mm Kellner eyepiece (x50). I can highly recommend wearing sunglasses for telescopically observing the bright Moon, and cheaper than a moon filter! Saturn looked amazing tonight (x220), through the gaps in the trees I could easily detect some surface banding, with a hint of colour (brownish to my ey

Would I see Mercury tonight? Helen and I made our way to Newgale, we arrived at about 10.00p.m. After about five minutes of searching I spotted a tiny point of light over towards the North West that was without doubt the planet Mercury. Out came the Schmidt telescope, and quickly to locate the planet I put in the 20mm Erfle eyepiece (x100), followed by the higher magnifying 9mm Ortho eyepiece (x220). What a lovely rainbow. Due to the low altitude of Mercury I wasn't able to see any hint of a planetary phase. All I could see was a swirling mass of rainbow colours, plus a sea breeze was nudging the Schmidt slightly. The result of the planets low altitude, plus the sea breeze left Mercury a dance of swirling colours. At one point I thought I had caught a glimpse of the gibbous phase, but I reckon my brain was playing tricks. Mercury is a difficult planet to view, maybe I'll have better luck in late October when it becomes a morning object.