Touch the stars

Haven't posted a blog post since December!.... wow, the months have flown past. 

Here's one of my favourite  episodes from The Sky at Night.

This episode was recorded back (1977) when Pembrokeshire had beautiful light pollution free skies.

Pembrokeshire has pretty good night skies now, but compared to the pristine skies of my childhood, the Milky Way is but a ghost of its former self. 

Years ago the winter stars seemed to be within arms reach, you could almost touch them. 

The Milky Way used to glow with an ethereal brilliance. 

I could talk (rant) for hours about the dangers of light pollution..

Thankfully you don't have to listen to my diatribe. There is a book that will explain it all.

If you want a good read about the problems of light pollution, 

I  highly recommend "The End of Night" by Paul Bogard.

Earth-grazing Geminids.

Picture credit: Robert Ayton *

This years Geminid meteor shower will reach its peak early this coming Thursday morning (about 2.00am).

Most of the meteors between midnight and dawn on the 14th will be fast moving and have a comparatively short trail.

Beautiful to see..... But as always I'm hoping to see the so called Earth-grazers, those early evening meteors that skim the longest path across our atmosphere, much brighter and slower moving than the later evening/early morning main display.

Over the years I have seen several Earth-grazers, or bolides/fireballs as they are also called.

In my experience, the best time for a chance to see the Earth-grazers seems to be the early evenings a few days before and after the Geminid peak.

A few years ago I spotted a bright bolide breaking into what looked like three distinct separate meteors, I was on Newgale beach at the time looking east....Even though the Sun had not long set,  daylight was still very much evident..

That particular bolide was clearly seen in a blue sky, imagine how bright it would have been in the darkness!

Picture source: Sky & Telescope

Most of the fireballs/bolides I have seen have been in the month of December, and apart from being very bright and slow moving, to my eye they had a tinge of green in them.

For the next week, as the night descends, I'll be wrapping up warm, keeping as far away from streetlights as possible and directing my gaze eastwards.

If memory serves, most of my sightings of the Earth grazers have occurred between Sunset and about 8.00pm

Now all we need is a few clear night!


Good luck , lets hope we see some celestial fireworks.

* Robert Ayton was the artist who illustrated that beautiful little Ladybird book "The Night Sky" 

Author: Mary T. Bruck.

Leonids over dark skies 2018

Waldo Stone - photo: Helen Lee

We stayed the night out on Rhosfach common, perfect for astronomy, no light pollution, no street lights and plenty of open sky .

I was dozing for most of the evening and at around 01h30m I ventured outside to do a bit of Leonid fishing.

Within a couple of minutes a sporadic meteor was spotted out towards Orion, followed quickly by a sporadic over near Gemini.

It was cold outside with a slight breeze, but not noticeably freezing. Within the next minute  I spotted my first Leonid, a moderate to fast moving streak of greenish tinged flame shooting  towards the Plough.

This classic shooting star was unmistakeably a Leonid, the ionized trail was some 5 degrees in length and eminated from the direction of Leo.

I only stayed outside for about twenty minutes, in that time I spotted six meteors, only two of them were obvious Leonids.

After twenty minutes the cold night started to bite,  time to get back to the warmth of the camper van.

Looking forward to the Geminids next month.

Just look at those stars.!

June 14th 21h15mUT Maksutov 90mm x100 AIII/IV

Out towards the south west, Jupiter stood all alone, in a beautiful clear darkening sky.

The Great Red Spot (GRS) was in mid transit at 20h51m UT tonight.

By my clock it was just past 21h05m UT, I was in luck and quickly grabbed the Mak90.

After a couple of minutes setup I was observing the Jupiter dance. 

The GRS was easily seen; just about midway on Jupiter's disk.

The seeing this evening was terrible, I was surprised to have seen anything of the GRS.

A good night for naked eye and maybe binoculars, not a good night for telescopes.

Sometimes it's better to just put away that telescope, find a dry patch of land, lie down and simply look up at the stars.

Tonight is one of those nights.

"Double glazed" Mars filters.

June 4th 03h15m UT x125  Mak90 -  Diam: 15.8"
(via-Double glazing filters)

A few mornings ago I tried my hand at Mars observing... through one of our bedroom windows!

Not my first choice of observing methods, but I wanted to see how "bad" Mars could be, as viewed through a "double glazing" filter.

Setup of the 90mm Mak was easy and within a minute, via a 10mm eyepiece, I was sailing over Mars, looking at a wonderfully massive south polar cap.

The dark band adjacent to the polar cap was easily seen.

Mars at the moment has to it a slight gibbous phase, which was easily picked out at x125.

It would have made more sense to go outside and view the red planet, but I was half asleep and didn't feel like dragging myself out into the garden. Something which I will remedy over the next month or so. 

By July I expect to be camped out on some distant hill in Pembrokeshire, unwilling to move until this Mars opposition is over!

June 4th 2018 03h15mUT

In conclusion I had a good peep at the South Polar Cap, which will be interesting to observe as it recedes in the now martian summer. 

Plus some dark banding was easily detectable on the edge of the entire polar region.  

Also the gibbous phase could easily be detected.

All in all not a bad result for viewing through a "double glazed" filter!  

Last night's Jupiter sketch

Last night's planetary sketch of Jupiter.  

22h00m UT Antoniadi II/III 

Skywatcher  90mm Maksutov x125

It was great to be outside last evening under the stars. 

Even better to be able to grab a decent sketch of the planet Jupiter, with the added bonus of capturing the Great Red spot.

90mm Maksutov telescope

That "mighty" Maksutov 90mm telescope is able to deliver great views of the planetary features, and considering its small aperture, I'm well pleased with the final results. 

This little scope, so far; has returned some lovely images of double stars, craters of the Moon and now I find that Jupiter is also holding up well...  I hope Mars is as good in July.

The crow ship returns.

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them"

Marcus Aurelius.

Recently, whilst spying Algeiba through the Maksutov, I noticed to the south west and low over a nearby roof top, that familiar of constellations "Corvus" the raven, or crow as it is also called.  

It is also known as the "Spanker" due to its resemblance to a type of boat sail.  

The constellation may be named Corvus, but to my eyes, it looks nothing like a big black bird!

Few of the constellations take on the actual shape they depict, but in the case of the "Spanker" the stargazers of old were spot on.  

Is that a spanker sail.? maybe~maybe not!

It's good to see Corvus again, a sure sign that summer will soon be calling.