Pembrokeshire Astronomer

Looks like most of the UK is hidden under a veil of cloud this morning.  Though parts of Mediterranean coastline look fairly cloud free.  Not a bad image considering the weather satellite camera is some 530 miles above our heads!

This mornings weather fax.  Downloaded from the NOAA 18 weather satellite, via my ham radio and decoded with weather data decoding software. Pembrokeshire looks clearish this morning. Clouds moving in from the east, bringing cold weather,

The 2020 Mars apparition has so far  been a bit tricky.  Many nights of bad seeing, and lots of cloudy evenings.  On the whole I have only been able to capture the odd evening of Mars viewing.  But those evenings you see above, more than made up for the lousy weather.

 

August 9th 2020 : 04h00mUT 76mm O.G. x112 Antoniadi I Early this morning the world of John Carter, Tharks, Synthetic men and dreamers finally came back to life. It has been a long wait, at least four years since I last had a decent glimpse of this most wonderful and enchanting of planets. My 76mm refractor revealed with ease the white bright polar caps, the gibbous planetary phase, a hint of Mare Sirenum, and most interestingly a whisper of light over two small areas of the Tharsis region. To my mind one of those small light areas might be connected to nearby Mons Olympus, the highest volcano on the martian surface. Was I seeing the Nix Olympus "The Snows of Olympus"? I made a quick sketch, said hello to John Carter, and dreamed the astronomer's dream, for maybe another half hour. The night was now fast giving way to the day, I slowly packed away the telescope, and made a few notes. This was my first observation of the 2020/21 apparition, the planet w

Yes, it is a most Beautiful Cosmos. Ivor Cutler's songs and poems...Brilliant!

"Perky" the Perkins engined camper van Looks like this little beauty will be up for sale soon! It's been a great little camper, but now it's time someone else made some memories with her. She has served us well, never breaking down, always starting first time. In the nearly two years that we have owned her, she has only required a new exhaust box and pipe. Though she does have what I call "progressive" steering -  it does wander slightly! Also no power steering, sluggish turning at slow speed and no turbo means she is really bad at going up steep hills. There are one or two hills around here I wouldn't even contemplate. In camper van terminology, she is "getting on a bit".     We will be sorry to see her go, but she leaves us with many happy memories: