Mars Mars and Mars again....plus Ladder Astronomy

"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 take me long to realise why so many people use webcams and Registax software...

No way was I going to capture a Martian photo...Time to rethink....!!

I quickly decided to have a go at sketching.....

This is infinitely more interesting....  I simply use the Tal combined with the x3 Barlow and the 15mm Tal Kellner.

So far over the last couple of weeks I have only been able to sketch a few drawings....  

I then scan these initial drawings into PaintShop Pro and go to work on them digitally until I arrive at a fair representation of what I've seen..

Then I try to make it all look presentable...  :0)

So far this is the sum of my Martian observing.....

Ladder Astronomy.

Here in Simpson Cross many of the good observations of Mercury have been lost to me because of all the neighbouring houses getting in the way......

Last night I had a brainwave...!!!!  Use the ladder and climb up above the roof tops.........

It worked  :0)  

From the top of our ladder I could plainly see Mercury......  along with brilliant Jupiter and Venus..


Because of the neighbour's roof tops getting in the way, I reckon I haven't seen Mercury for at least the last three years.

Thanks to a bit of "Ladder Astronomy"  that's no longer a problem..

Saturday night under the Martian Light.

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.... one black.... one red...and a piece of paper ...

After a few minutes of observing, Mars revealed its Snowy North Polar Cap.

Next came some darker detail near the polar cap...and a little later a strip of darker detail was seen to the South.

Mars is like one of those magic 3D holographic pictures.....you have to stare at iMars for awhile, and then slowly as if from nowhere the Martian detail will appear...

I would have had no hope of finding these features with the camera set up I was using.... I'm all in favour of astrophotography...but for me... huddled in my observatory, tonight's viewing was for the eyes of the dreamer alone.

It was great to be observing surface features again on this supposedly barren planet....

I reckon back in 1976 the Martians were standing behind both Viking landers, having a real good laugh.!!!!!  :0)

Whenever I see any surface detail on Barsoom, I'm off dreaming of Percival Lowell's nightly vigils on
Mars Hill in Flagstaff Arizona....

Percival Lowell was convinced of life on Mars, and spent 15 years extensively studying the Martian terrain, with the help of his amazing 24-inch (0.61 m) Alvan Clark Telescope.

Lowell was sure that the canals he observed were signs of intelligent life...  

It has now been shown that the canals he observed were mere optical illusions...
How disappointing!!!  :0(

Still....I reckon this fascinating ochre coloured planet has many secrets yet to be revealed...

Sunday Morning:

Tidying up my scribblings..

The following day I fired up Paintshop Pro and set to work on the previous night's drawing.

After processing  I managed to digitally draw the image below:

And after adding the written details... 

This was the final write up of my...

"Saturday night under the Martian Light"

Now is the best time to be observing Mars. The red planet will reach Opposition on the 3rd of March.

Here's a link to explain a bit more: Earthsky.org


Clear Skies and hopefully Clear Martian Skies

Pickering, the Moon, Mars and Leo.

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 to be both yellow in colour, but tonight my retina was picking up yellow on the primary star and grey/light blue on the secondary. 

It's always intrigued  me as to how every observer will see different colour variations in the same star.

Hello Mars nice to see you again.

Hello it was... as I haven't yet attempted observing Mars this time around. 

Tonight was "first martian light" for the Tal1.  

First martian light went well, the Tal1 exceeded my expectations, and delivered a wonderful view of the Northern polar cap. 

Now that I know that the Tal1 is up to the challenge, I'm hoping to be glued to the eyepiece over the next few weeks as the red planet draws closer and closer, until it closest approach on the 5th of March. 

This time around Mars will be 100.78 million km away. 

Thankfully this distance between our worlds will undoubtedly thwart any possible Martian invaders, that might be spying our planet with envious eyes!  

Humbling to think that if you ever decided to walk to Mars, it would only take about 4000 years to complete the trek!

Moonshine everywhere.

As the Moon was so prominent last night I had to try a quick capture afocally with my small digicam.

Only one thing left to do tonight before the observatory roof was parked up.

Simply lean against the observatory roof opening.

NO cameras or telescopes , NO pencils and paper... 

and then, just look up at the night sky...   AND DREAM...

The Moon and Venus dancing....

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 satellites are clearly visible... 

Wonderful celestial show tonight...

I would like to say a big Thank You to all the clouds for staying away  :0)

Early start for Saturn.

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 acrobatics I was able to capture this one shot, out of many taken I might add.

Saturn: Please use a magnifying glass for a better look   :0)

George & Mildred & Wet and Windy West Wales .

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.

Pembrokeshire Flu and the tiny Tasco 40mm

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 then my trusty Tasco was already a couple of years old, and well battered and worn.

That little scope went everywhere with me, and gave me wonderful views of the night skies. 

Everything from the craters on the Moon, Jupiter's satellites, Solar projections, in focus and out of focus stars.

Especially I fondly remember seeing Albireo for the first time with this telescope.

The Pleiades, The Sword Handle, The Beehive, and many many more celestial wonders were snagged with this tiny Tasco.

I know many complain about small refractors. especially small Tasco refractors, but I will always thank the makers of my 40mm Tasco.

An excellent introduction to the night sky.

I only wish I had it now, it finally fell apart a couple of years after this photo was taken.

Maybe one day I will find another one like it in the back of a junk shop.