Astrophotography on a cold St David's Night

Tonight skies were clear, and the Moon shone down on a cold windy Pembrokeshire.

I didn't fancy staying out long tonight, moonlight may warm the heart, but it doesn't warm the hands! 

Before I escaped to the warmth of the house I set up the Nikon D3000 and tripod for a quick shot of the Plough.

The Plough above the moonlit shed

The above picture is my first D3000 attempt at a night shot of the constellations. 

The biting westerly wind was beginning to chill, time to get out of the cold. 

But as usual I couldn't resist taking a few more shots.

Looking North West

Taurus and the Seven Sisters

Smoke on the Chimney

As long as I kept the ISO at 800 the D3000 delivered some fairly good images.

In the above picture you can see the wood smoke in the chimney.

After a shivering quick hello to Perseus and Cassiopeia, it was time to pack up.

Astrophotography will have to wait for another night!


Clear Skies

Mark

Meditative "Little Zen".

Early this evening the Moon was shining down on a cloud-free Pembrokeshire; perfect for testing my new homemade tripod. 

A few weeks ago, I spotted a dusty old eq mount in the back of a local junk shop. 

It was all working, but alas the tripod legs were missing! Still worth buying I thought.

For a few weeks  I simply used it as you see below.

The above method works quite well, though my back thanked me whenever I placed the whole set up on our coffee table.

It was time to fabricate a tripod and I decided to keep the height of the tripod about the same as the coffee table.

Today I made that tripod.. just in time to catch this evening's gibbous Moon.

Little Zen

It may be a small tripod, but with a cushion and the lotus position the views are comfortable enough for many minutes of observing. 

Maybe next time I'll make myself a small stool to sit on. 

This setup would be perfect for the Zen practitioner....  sitting meditation and peeking at the Universe with a 60mm/f5 glass...  an excellent combination.!

Helen meditating on the Luna light

This little scope, (fingers crossed), will be out and about around the county next month for the solar eclipse on March the 20th... I must remember to bring a cushion!

Clear Meditative Skies

Mark & Helen

Mars Venus and the Moon

Mars,Venus and Moon - 20/02/2015 -  Nikon D3000

Thanks to this evening's merry dance of Mars, Venus & the Moon, tonight's supper was almost ruined!

Helen was the first to spot this beautiful celestial display.

I quickly ran inside,grabbed the camera and frantically searched for a tripod.  

Meanwhile, the evening meal was fast cooking on the stove, with neither of us attending to it.
 
Despite the frantic camera setup and the possibility of burnt food, we managed to capture the above image.

Mars Venus and Luna in the same field of view, WONDERFUL.

A good start to the evening, plus we managed to save the supper.


Mark & Helen

Fly me to the Moon.

Log Entry for November 2014.

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 7^th  .

I decided to concentrate on some Messier objects and put the Celestron through it’s paces.

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.

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. 

Guy Fawkes Moon.

Close to the Equinox.

Returning Subaru echoes the Autumn.

The Pleiads, rising thro the mellow shade,

Glitter like a swarm of fireflies

Tangled in a silver braid

Tennyson

 

A clear night with a whisper of a cooling breeze.

High up Vega is now noticeably Westward bound.

The Pleiades now spotted in the East.. here comes the Autumn.

There are many names given to this most wonderful of star clusters, The Seven Sisters, The Starry Seven, Children of Atlas, The Seven Atlantic Sisters, The Hen and her Chicks to name just a few.

But my favourite name for the Pleiades has to be the Japanese name of SUBARU.

 

The Japanese language contains some lovely astronomy related names e.g. Hoshi=Star, Hi=Sun, Tsuki=Moon, Milky Way=Ama-No-Gawa.

Viewing Subaru through 8x40 binoculars never fails to bring a smile to my face.

This cluster was made for binoculars. Subaru along with the Orion nebula can always guarantee a spontaneous WOW! followed by a dance around the garden.

Clear Skies

A Swift view of the Milky Way.

This evening’s sky was a delight , even with the nearby streetlights shining, the Milky Way stretched far and wide overhead.

At about 11.00pm I grabbed my Swift 8x40 binoculars and planted myself in the front garden.

Thanks to an earlier collimation my new binoculars were spilling out sharp pin-point stars in all directions.

My Swift Auburon 8x40’s cost £15 at a local bootsale, and I can highly recommend that particular model.

One thing is to always make sure that any prospective binoculars have collimation grub screws.  

These four tiny screws are easy to find (with a magnifying glass!) and are necessary to properly align the stereo view you see.

Without the ability to adjust this double view, you will quickly go cross-eyed and relegate the binos to the dustbin!

For astronomy usage I would never buy binoculars unless they have the four adjustment grub screws.

When I first tested the 8x40’s, I mounted them on a tripod and placed Arcturus in the field of view. 

I was rewarded with a lovely view of Arcturus and what appeared to be its identical twin! 

After a slight adjustment of all four grub screws, the double image of Arcturus merged back into one sharp starlight point.

Do they work?

Most definitely, so far I’ve had good views of M13, M33, M31, M81/82,  Kembles Cascade, the Sword Handle and The Coat Hanger.

Plus, ambling through the river of the Milky Way is a joy with those little 8x40’s.

Gibbous Moon and Chasing the ISS

 

 

This evening I took the Schmidt outside to spy the gibbous moon.

I wanted to have a good look at the Moon Maiden and Gassendi before they slipped behind the trees at the end of the garden.

After about ten minutes of viewing the moon slowly but surely slipped behind the blasted trees.

Never mind.... across I went to my favourite double Albireo.

With the 20mm Erfle in place I was able to distinguish the blue and yellow of this lovely double.

By defocusing the image the two stars exhibited an even stronger yellow and blue colour contrast.

Copernicus and Gassendi

Plato and the Moon Maiden

 Chasing the ISS

THEN..  in the west I noticed the International Space Station racing towards me.

I wondered if I would be able to capture its image in the Schmidt?



After a bit of frantic repositioning I centred the ISS in the field of view.. for about a SECOND!

I quickly tried to manually keep up with the ISS.

For several seconds I managed to see a decent image of what looked like two long horizontal bright bars, connected to a much shorter vertical bright bar.   

Did I see the space station, or was my brain playing tricks with me? 

I'm not sure, but at least what I saw was not the usual star like point of light, as seen through my binoculars.

Misty Solar Sunrise.

Up at 5.45am ...just missed the Sunrise.

 

Captured a few shots of our mist shrouded village.

-----------

 

Last night we slept in the shed again. 

Around about midnight I spotted a lovely meteor trail.

The meteor started its journey around Vega and continued over towards Altair.

 

 

At around 02h30m I was awake again and watching a gibbous Moon as it perched itself on some nearby treetops. 

The air was still, no cars to be heard,  a beautiful calm morning.