Pembrokeshire Astronomer

From our house the month of July is the perfect time to observe the Sun as it rises out of the  Preseli Hills .. This past week or so, I have been fortunate enough to witness several of these wonderful events.. From my astro log: July 17th 2013 My vantage point was our North facing kitchen window...   a perfect spot to wait for the Sun, and also importantly I was very close to the kettle... ! Any excuse for a cup of tea... ! I waited patiently for that first glint... It wasn't long before Sol was racing skywards.......   The Sun walks the Preselis. From day to day it's surprising how fast the Sun moves along the horizon. The varying contours of the distant Preseli Hills clearly mark the daily renewal of sunrise positions. From observations I took on the 17th, 18th and 21st of this month you can clearly trace the speeding path of Sol... I'm not sure how long it will be before the Sun disappears behind the neighbouring rooftop

Tal2 had no chance of spying the Moon tonight.. once again hidden by my neighbour's trees. Though from our back door I had a clear view of the Moon, albeit a brief one. Due to the high trees and the low Moon I had maybe 20 minutes of possible observing time. I decided to set up my tiny 40mm refractor. Considering it only has an objective glass of 40mm aperture, it does show a fair bit of lunar detail. From tonight's lunar log book I note.. along the terminator, and close by: Flammarion, Herschel, Halley, Hind, Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel, Purbach, Walter. Flammarion wasn't that distinct , but Herschel was an inky black pit with it's west wall lit up like a thin waning crescent moon. I then flew over to have a quick look at Hercules and Atlas..  Hercules exhibited a bright central region, but the 40mm aperture did not reveal much else, Atlas was outlined well. On the southwestern border of Mare Serenitatis (Montes Haemus) I spotted Menelaus plus

After a few days of looking and waiting,  I've finally spotted the July crescent Moon. Due to the location of this evening's Moon, I couldn't use Tal2 for observing. I decided to give the 40mm refractor a chance at capturing some lunar light...  The little scope performed admirably, and delivered some lovely views. The weather in Pembrokeshire is still beautiful, so to take full advantage of it, Helen and I have been  sleeping outside under the stars. These past three nights we've had the studio shed doors open, and we are both inside on the floor in sleeping bags. Our heads are sticking out of the doorway, which affords us a spectacular view of the night sky.. Last night, at about 1p.m. we were disturbed by something lurking in the hedgerow, it turned out to be a hedgehog.. a very noisy hedgehog!   Maybe he will be back again tonight to disturb our peace.. I do hope so.

The skies are blue in Pembrokeshire, the Sun and I have definitely got our hats on today.  This morning I managed the following Sol image. Due to the air turbulence I had difficulty capturing a decent close up of AR1785. I decided that as AR1785 was such a beauty I would try and attempt a sketch... The initial sketch didn't really show the turbulence I was witnessing, so Photoshop came to the rescue. I was able to create an image more in keeping with the eyepiece view.

Early this morning I was getting myself a glass of water from the kitchen. I looked out the window, and suspended in the morning mist was one of the most beautiful sunrises that I've seen in a very long time. This photo doesn't do it justice...  the Sun was a glorious shade of orange. Pembrokeshire excelled herself this morning. It looked as if the sun was caught on the nearby electrical power lines. Here's a close up: I was hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of active regions 1777 or 1775,  but nothing was seen. Later in the day, I managed the following Solar picture:                                    

Saturn has finally disappeared behind some rather large ash trees at the end of my neighbour's garden.. Not much astro activity at the moment, these past few evenings have been spent spying the waxing moon and glimpsing the odd double star through my powerful 40mm refractor.  It's such a small scope, but it's fascinating to see how much of the night sky it can reveal.  Here's an afocal image of the Moon from a few nights ago.. taken with the tiny 40mm refractor. afocal image: 40mm "Leviathan" refractor. Still no Noctilucent cloud sightings.  It helps that the street lights to the North of our property now switch off after midnight.  The picture below was taken a couple of evenings ago, at about 11.30pm.  You could easily be fooled into thinking it was 11.30 am.  Thanks to the county wide streetlight switch off, I now stand a better chance of seeing those beautiful ethereal Noctilucent Clouds "NLC".

Noctilucent Clouds above the observatory? Due to short nights of Summer, over the next couple of months my astronomy time will mostly be taken up with chasing Noctilucent Clouds , observations of Sol, and the sketching of the Moon. Though there is always time to say hello to the countless double stars, meteors, globulars, and more. Observing the pale short nights of Summer, on a balmy evening - perfect. Today's Solar image, taken with Tal2:

The weather this week has been wonderful, with blue skies every day so far... and what's more some lovely clear skies in the evening. Monday the 3rd was one of those glorious warm summery evenings.  We haven't had that many really warm evenings in Pembrokeshire over the last few years, so I took full advantage of this one. As the stars slowly switched on I spotted Vega over towards the East. I've been meaning to pay Lyra a visit these past few weeks.. tonight was my first real opportunity. Firstly Vega, beautiful as ever, with classic diffraction spikes and a crystal clear white colouring. Next Beta Lyrae "Sheliak",  primary white and secondary bluish grey.  Gamma "Sulaphat" was noticeably brighter than Sheliak. Epsilon Lyra (Double Double) easily seen at high magnification.  The seeing wasn't that good tonight, plus the Tal2 was out of collimation as can can be seen from this photo I took.  Tal1 so far giv