Pembrokeshire Astronomer

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)

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