Pembrokeshire Astronomer

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