Pembrokeshire Astronomer

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

Saturday's initial sketch of Mars Saturday Evening: Last Saturday evening I was all set up in the observatory to take some photos of Mars. The Nikon D50 camera was ready, the x3 Barlow was in place, the Tal clock drive was ticking away, the skies were crystal clear. Also my quarry had not long risen over the edge of the easterly wall of my observatory.... I good nights viewing was ahead..... PERFECT.....!!! Perfect that was until I actually tried to image this little red beauty........!! It quickly became apparent that my planetary photo imaging left a lot to be desired..... I wasn't having much luck capturing my images.....then it struck me....!!! Why am I trying to capture mediocre Mars photos on such a beautiful night. These nights of steady seeing are so few from here in Pembrokeshire that it felt right to put the digital imaging equipment away and employ the old fashioned analogue photon detectors, namely my eyes. Out came the pencils....

I thought tonight would be a no go for astronomy as the clouds were back, and they covered much of the darkening sky.  I managed a quick photo of the Moon before it disappeared into the bullying clouds.. By the look of those clouds it seemed better to head indoors and sit by a warming fire. I happened to go outside about 11.00pm and was greeted with a beautiful smiling Moon looking down at me from a completely cloud free sky . Coat,hat and scarf on... and quickly out to the observatory and roll back the roof. The Moon was about 98% illuminated so many of the stars were washed out by the radiance of the bright moonlight... But I was able to make out a a few of the main constellations. The one that caught my eye was Leo the Lion  which was positioned right next to the Moon. Considering the proximity of Leo to the moon Gamma Leonis " Algeiba" was easily resolved with a x3 Barlow and both the 25mm plossl and the 15mm plossl. These two little beauties are said

It was cloudy all day today...... with the odd shower thrown in for good measure.  According to the weather forecast website that I follow there was to be a break in the clouds around teatime....   They were thankfully right!!!  :0) Like magic the clouds parted.... and as the days light faded I was greeted with the the Moon and Venus dancing above the trees at the end of our garden....   PERFECT !!  :0)   I was using our Nikon D50 camera with a 300mm lens set up on a tripod.  For the above shots the camera was set up at 1/13 of a second ISO at f9. Also I was able to capture a bit of the Da Vinci Glow (Earth Shine)... and you can also see from this photo a bit of glow from some passing clouds. I noticed Jupiter was almost due South and I was wondering if the 300mm camera lens would be able to pick out any detail of the Jovian Moons...   I aimed the camera and tried a two second exposure...    This was the result........Jupiter's satel

Third Quarter Moon hiding in the Simpson Cross trees this morning. I was early up this morning and quickly outside to the waiting clear skies. Stumbled towards the observatory - opened the door - removed the dust cover - hooked up the EQ motor drive - open the side shutters of the observatory - All done. Now I was ready to try a quick image of Saturn using our Nikon D50 camera (with a X3 Barlow). I was in luck... Saturn was just below the sliding roof line of the observatory so I didn't need to push the roof back, just open the one side south facing shutter and train the scope onto Saturn. I was using 1600 ISO  and the exposure was about 1/15 of a second. Clearly I was pushing my luck as the daylight was fast approaching, and I was balancing yet again on the observatory stool with my head twisted at all angles whilst one foot steadied me, and an elbow held part of me against the observatory wall. How I don't fall off the stool is beyond me. After all the acroba

This is a view I never get tired of, the Seven Sisters as seen from the comfort of a folding chair.  Especially when viewed through a pair of 7x50 binoculars. Unfortunately for me Father Christmas forgot to drop off my 7x50's this year.  But I do have two really nice sets of field glasses, each of them giving a x3 magnification. Though I'm guessing it's x3 magnification.. I may be wrong.  My field glasses even have names. George Mildred Wet and Windy West Wales. Even if I had a pair of 7x50's I don't know when I would get a chance to use them.  The weather in Pembrokeshire has been diabolical for weeks, even months! Recently we have had more than our fair share of clouds in Pembrokeshire, as this small video shows.