Since the beginning of November it has been slim pickings astronomy wise from here in Pembrokeshire.
So few have been the clear nights, that one sticks out in my mind - it was the first week of November.
The best night in November was the night of the 7th .
I decided to concentrate
on some Messier objects and put the Celestron through it’s paces.
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| Celestron C8 SCT |
M57 was glorious, it shone brightly with averted vision.
My 20mm Erfle eyepiece did a grand job of teasing out the photons.
M13 in Hercules was easy to locate in the finder scope.
The Erfle ep really revealed a lot of detail, a beautiful sparkling globular.
I trained the finderscope onto nearby M92, a vague hint of it could be detected.
The Erfle revealed a beautiful sparkling globular, not as big as
M13, but well worth spending time
observing.
M31 The Andromeda Galaxy was a magnificent sight high up above,
near the top of the sky.
Nearby companions NGC 205 (or M110 if you prefer, I
prefer NGC 205) and M32 were easy to
locate.
The last time I saw M32 that clearly I was peeping at it through a 6
inch refractor.
To test the seeing, and to give the Celestron a
challenge I trained it towards Epsilon Lyrae, the double double. Both
stars revealed their companions easily.
Albireo in nearby Cygnus delivered a striking Yellow primary
with a lapis lazuli blue.
I’m glad Albireo was on top form tonight, these past
several months this most favourite of stars was noticeably washed out, until
tonight I was blaming the lack of colour on my ageing eye.
Thankfully
tonight the clear skies restored faith in my eyesight.
Gamma Delphinus had to go and spoil it though by returning a lack lustre green and yellow,
not the bright lemon and lime colours usually detected.
I reckon the skyglow
of Milford Haven might be the culprit
for lack of detail in this most beautiful of double stars.
At midnight I began
turning my eye towards Jupiter who by now was well above the roof tops and
some distance away from the blessed trees of my next door neighbour.
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| An old sketch from my first printed astronomy book. |
By chance I witnessed the emergence of Europa from behind
the gas giant, plus at the same time a transit of Ganymede was also in progress.
It was complete luck that I happened to witness
Europa emerging from behind the gas giant.
The satellites of Jupiter are a source of constant
fascination, though I do have some trouble teasing out the details in the
belts.
This I know is in a large part due to the seeing conditions from my
location.
The Celestron performed really well, though the mirror image
of the planet is a bit strange, though I will undoubtedly become accustomed to
it!
That dance of Europa
and Ganymede was a beautiful grande
finale to the evenings viewing.
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