Lawn astronomy, the Summer Triangle & Where's my Teapot.!

The Summer Skies..  

Thanks to the recent warmer weather (at last!!) Wednesday evening was perfect for some Lawn Astronomy.

Out came a blanket and a good sized cushion to prop my head against.

I made myself comfortable by lying on the warm garden path, and with my 7x50 binoculars beside me I began my tour of the Summer Triangle, and it's surrounding companions.

I spent a while bino viewing Deneb, though I was soon mesmerised by the bright lights of the surrounding star fields, it was time to venture along that Milky expanse....

It is always wonderful to see the Milky Way, ethereal and ghostly, as it snakes its way towards our Galactic Centre.

Last night's view of our Galaxy was particularly magical,  I spent ages just simply drinking in the galactic photons. They renergised my astro batteries beautifully.

As part of my astro tour, I stopped off at Aquila, and was able to capture Altair and it's companions of Tarazed and Alshain in the same field of view of the 7x50's.

Delphinus

Delphinus had not long unsnagged itself from the big tree at the end of our garden. The ugly little dolphin made a lovely binocular image...

Now it was time to see Collinder 399 the Coathanger asterism.  This little asterism is always worth a good long look....

Next stop M57, or what I thought might be M57..!

I know the 7x50's are pushing it, but I thought I caught a glimpse of that most wonderful of planetary nebulae....  but really I think my brain was filling in the astro gaps...!!

Vega: the harp star

Off then to Vega, what a beautiful star, so bright so white.

So lovely hanging there at the zenith, like the bright light atop a Christmas tree..




It was great to be actually observing again. The apalling weather these past few months has really tested the patience of many an astronomer in the county.

Due to the ever growing trees, this is the extent of my Southerly viewing.

I can 't believe that July is nearly over, and that I still haven't seen the Teapot this year.

I really wanted to see the Teapot from our garden, but as you can see from the above picture, I have no chance...!!!  it's sadly lost somewhere in the neighbouring trees...

I'll just have to go astro-mobile one night soon and catch me that Teapot......

Maybe it's time to grab the tent and go for a nighttime walkabout up on the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire.....

Fingers crossed for more of this wonderful weather....

Venus Transit as viewed by Mr & Mrs Pembs...

June the 5th 11.00 pm  First Contact via Hawaii.........

Both Helen and I were looking forward to seeing the transit, but due to cloud cover, Pembrokeshire was wrapped in a thick blanket of the grey stuff...  

Also our part of the planet was badly placed for the beginning of the event, so we watched First Contact via the webcam at the Mauna Loa Observatory Exploratorium

Fascinating imagery and the background music and narration were almost hypnotic...  

Thank you to all at the Mauna Loa Observatory for putting on the Live show....

Up at 04:15am - Off to find the Transit Show.....

Looking Southward...

The alarm went off at 04:15. Outside the grey clouds were still smothering the Pembrokeshire skies.

Helen and I got on the motorbike and went out looking for some hopeful gaps in the early morning sky.

We drove maybe two miles, and yes the clouds were beginning to thin...but still no clearing in the East.....however there was a lovely early morning blue sky towards the South...  so frustrating!

We could easily see the beautiful gibbous waning Moon, but from the South West right round to the South East nothing but cloud...   

We drove on.....  passing through the ghost town of Haverfordwest; no cars passed us, no people on the streets. only the occasional cat and a lone fox to greet us on this most glorious morning.....

We reached the local golf course some two miles out of town, only to notice that there was now cloud cover for a full 360 degrees..... 

It looked as if we had little chance of viewing the transit....

We decided to make our way slowly back and watch the Third/Fourth Contact via the internet....

05:27am We were about three miles from home, and noticed a possible break in the clouds... 

Quickly the bike was parked..... then we set up the camera and homemade solar filter ready for some Transit pictures....  

05:27am  Looking North - East

We waited a couple of minutes, but soon realised we were being teased by the Pembrokeshire clouds.....  !!

Interestingly, where we parked was close to a pub called "The Rising Sun". Pity it wasn't called the "The Clear Skies Rising Sun"  ...  :0)

Back on the bike to head off home.....

05:36am That's when we had a bit of good luck. About a mile into our homeward journey the Sun winked at us from behind the darkened clouds.....  

05:36am

Again I quickly parked the bike, brought out the camera and solar filter, climbed up onto a hedge, and we were greeted with the Sun's happy disc, shining brightly.....and waited...... 

05:48am After some anxious cloud watching, and the odd look by the occasional motorist, the Pembrokeshire Hedge Dwelling Astronomers Society were finally awarded a ONE MINUTE window of Transit viewing.....

Just enough time to capture Venus before Fourth Contact...

05:48am 

Goodbye Venus...

05.50am Helen and I were dancing on the hedge and shouting Yahoo!!!!!.... 

We literally had ONE MINUTE of viewing,  BUT....that one minute was TOTALLY worth it......

05:50am

Back in 2004 I had an uninterrupted view of the Transit. At the moment of Fourth Contact that day, I remember saying to Venus "Thank You Venus...hope to see you at the next one in 2012"  

Thankfully I was able to do that, albeit briefly ......

Yesterday, once again, I said goodbye to Venus, but this time there was no "see you at the next one".

The Venus Transits of 2004/12 truly have been a once in a lifetime event......

In the words of  Jeremiah_Horrocks

Thy return posterity shall witness;
Years must roll away,
But then at length the splendid sight
Again shall greet our distant children’s eyes

Venus Transit 2004 .. I found another picture.

Goodbye Venus ..See you in 2012

Yesterday I was looking through one of my old astronomy log books, and I found the above picture.

I've always thought I had just the one picture of the 2004 Venus Transit....It looks like I was wrong...  :0)


Time to attack it with Macintosh software........

After a bit of photo manipulation using iPhoto...
I managed to obtain the following image...

Hidden in a drawer, I have some video footage of the 2004 transit. In total I think I have the last 15 minutes of the transit.  

If I convert this footage from analogue to digital I will be able to exam more closely the individual frames..

It seems yesterday morning I had one photo of the 2004 transit....  this morning I now thankfully have two....  If the video footage can be transferred to the computer ...

I'll hopefully have a lot more images of the event to look through....

Fingers crossed that the video footage is salvageable....  :0)

Waiting for the evening star....

Tal1 patiently waiting to snag the evening star

The back garden doesn't get used that often for astronomical observing, it's a pity as it affords some lovely views of the setting inferior planets .

Tonight though it was time for the Tal1 to be let loose on Venus. 

I simply parked up the scope and waited for the night to draw in...

About an hour later the sky was still blue, but Venus shone brightly......
......time to put the Tal into  action....

Firstly I took this image with just the 25mm plossl and the zoom on my digicam:

Afocal image.. with simple digicam

Then I connected our Nikon D50 via a camera adapter to the Tal's focuser using the prime focus method...

It took a few attempts to capture a decent image, but finally I managed the following image.

Nikon D50 prime focus plus x3 Barlow

Not the best shot in the world, but at least it gave me a record of the current Venusian phase...

It was a beautiful evening, the seeing was Antoniadi II but I would guess sometimes the clarity hinted at maybe an Antonadi of I........  the best seeing for many months I reckon....

Astronomy and Poetry go hand in hand.

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, weave their subtle spells upon us. 

The imagination soars aloft, and aspires to the sources of Eternal Beauty"

Much more was to follow..

"The crimson disk of the Sun has plunged beneath the Ocean. The sea has decked itself with the burning colors of the orb, reflected from the Heavens in a mirror of turquoise and emerald. The rolling waves are gold and silver, and break noisily on a shore already darkened by the disappearance of the celestial luminary"

"If you will yield yourselves to the pleasure of gazing upon the sparkling fires of Space, you will never regret the moments passed all too rapidly in the contemplation of the Heavens"

Nicolas Camille Flammarion was born in 1842 at Montigny-le-Roi in the department of Haute Marne, France. 

At the age of 16, in 1858, he wrote a 500-page manuscript, Cosmologie Universelle, and became an assistant of Le Verrier at the Paris Observatory. 

From 1862 to 1867, he temporarily worked at the Bureau of Longitudes. 

Camille was the author of more than fifty books, he did much to popularise astronomy.

His writing has been described as eccentric, i.e he thought there was superior intelligent life on Mars, and that comets possibly contained toxic gases that would extinguish life on our planet etc .

After reading the work of some of his contemporaries, it seems many people were sure that Mars was inhabited, and that Selenites roamed the Moon, and many thought comets were full of toxic gas.

Yes truly eccentric maybe.

I have no problem with eccentricity.. the mark of a true amateur astronomer as far as I see it.

Observatory at Juvisy

In 1883 he set up his own private observatory at Juvisy (near Paris).
 From here he continued studies of double/multiple stars, the Moon and Mars.

More words by Camille:  from  Astronomy for Amateurs

Hail, vast Sun! a little star in Infinitude, but for us a colossal and portentous luminary. Hail, divine Benefactor! How should we not adore, when we owe him the glow of the warm and cheery days of summer, the gentle caresses by which his rays touch the undulating ears, and gild them with the touch? The Sun sustains our globe in Space, and keeps it within his rays by the mysteriously powerful and delicate cords of attraction. It is the Sun that we inhale from the embalmed corollas of the flowers that uplift their gracious heads toward his light, and reflect his splendors back to us. 

In 1919, Camille married his second wife Gabrielle Renaudot 1876–1962).

For six years they worked side by side to promote astronomy in France. 

After Camille died in 1925, Gabrielle continued to maintain Juvisy Observatory. 

She is buried next to her husband in the observatory park.

I'm not able to do justice to the astronomer Camille Flammarion in this short blog post.

All I can say is, if you like poetry and are fascinated by the night skies, seek out one of his books, you won't be disappointed.

Of all the astronomers of yesteryear, Camille Flammarion to my mind best captures the poetry of the stars that many amateur astronomers of today undoubtedly experience.

The final words go to Camille:

"Let us suppose that we inhabit a planet illuminated by two suns, one blue, the other red.

It is morning. The sapphire sun climbs slowly up the Heavens, coloring the atmosphere with a somber and almost melancholy hue. The blue disk attains the zenith, and is beginning its descent toward the West, when the East lights up with the flames of a scarlet sun, which in its turn ascends the heights of the firmament. The West is plunged in the penumbra of the rays of the blue sun, while the East is illuminated with the purple and burning rays of the ruby orb"

Unfold the Stars.... Hello to warmer weather...

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 the garden and watch the stars unfold, often the weather is cold, it's raining, or the dreaded clouds park themselves overhead.

But tonight the skies were kind...

For me, seeing the V of Taurus and the Pleiades as they dip into the West, washed out as they are in the   evening twilight, signifies a whisper of the Summer ahead..


The next time I see the Pleiades in the East it will be time to put on the extra layers of clothing...but for now it's a welcome five months of possibly good weather...!!!

Also, from now on it's Lawn Astronomy season...

I'll soon be lying on my favourite bit of ground, and just simply staring up at the night sky.....

One hour of Lawn Astronomy I reckon, is equal to a week's holiday...

Saturn..

Later in the evening I slid the roof back on the observatory, and trained the Tal onto Saturn.

Saturn did not disappoint.... I could clearly make out the Cassini Division and some banding was evident in the North Temperate Zone.. to my eye the banding appeared to be slightly grey in colour.

Both A & B rings seemed to be of equal intensity.

I'm looking forward to sketching more images of this gas giant as the weeks go by.....

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)