Pembrokeshire Astronomer

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)