From Messier to Barsoom.

The Plough - Join the dots.

I set the telescope up at about 10.30 p.m. and waited for Mars to show its face from behind the trees at the end of the garden.

While waiting I trained the scope on to a few Messier objects around the Plough.

It would be the first time I had used this scope (305mm/f5) from my home location.

Here are some of the observations I made last night:

M-97 - The Owl Nebula. Stands out easily as a faint fuzzy patch!, though no doubt a darker sky background will add to the overall contrast.

M-108 - Easily spotted in the 30mm eyepiece (x50) plus M97 was spotted in the same field of view.

Move M108 to one side of the 30mm eyepiece field of view and you will find M97 at the other side of the field of view.

M-51- The Whirlpool Galaxy. Considering that the sky background was not totally dark the whirlpool was easily found.

Both fuzzy patches noted, with a hints of added surrounding nebulous detail.

After spending some time circling the Plough, I slewed the scope over towards Cygnus the Swan.

M-13 - This globular cluster in Hercules looked amazing, much brighter than in the Schmidt C8. With the 9mm eyepiece the cluster filled the field of view.

M-57 - The Ring Nebula in Lyra, stood out from the not yet dark background really well.

M-29 - OMG! the open cluster in Cygnus, filled the field of view through the 30mm eyepiece. Stars were spilling out everywhere. 

Helen hogged the eyepiece with this Messier object, I had to wait my turn to grab a view.

Mars was now well placed for viewing and so I grabbed my chance to observe before it took refuge in the big tall trees to the west.

Through the x2 Barlow and 9mm plossl (x333)  I was able to see slight martian surface detail.

Seeing wasn't up to much, but after inserting a 80a filter in the optical path, the planet was noticeably sharper looking and more detailed.

The blue tinge of the 80a filter made Mars look like an habitable planet.

I spent the next 10 minutes lost in thoughts of Barsoom, the world of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.

Actual sunset on Mars.

NASA have amazing pictures of the surface of Mars, click on this link to find more:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_347.html

Conversations with Selene.

Conversations with Selene
extracts from my poetry journal

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 It is midnight and the culminating Moon looks down at me with inquisitive eyes.

I stare back and shout "Shwt mae, Hello, how are you tonight?"

The Moon whispered her reply ~

"You are such a tiny speck, a mere grain of cosmic sand in the ever present Galactic hour glass..

how is it that you are so small?"

"But Moon", I replied "I am a GIANT!.. a COLOSSUS.. YOU to ME are small.. 
why, I can even place your full Moon face upon my thumb, and flick it like a coin"

The Moon sulked. 

I simply drank my chai tea, whilst overhead countless stars ebbed and flowed across the sea of the sparkling Milky Way.

Sometime later I awoke to the sight of a red faced Moon dropping slowly into the west. 

The darkened Moon smiled and whispered  "So long tiny speck of sand, see you later tonight, we will continue our talk then."

"So long dear Moon" I shouted..... "I will be waiting"

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Warming by the fire.

Jupiter and the Moon 17/04/16

I was feeling the cold tonight, so I decided to light the fire and grab myself some dandelion coffee.  

Observing Luna would have to wait another night.

Though I didn't entirely abandon the Moon.

Before packing away the telescope I captured a few images of beautiful gibbous Selene.

17/04/2016

The above image is a bit blurred at the edges, this is due to the method of photo capture that I use. namely afocal photography.

Best described with this photo:

afocal photography

Afocal photography is a brilliant way of capturing astro images, all you have to do is simply place the camera lens over the eyepiece of the telescope. 

Though sometimes it can be a bit hit and miss. Tonight's lunar image was a bit miss around the lunar limb. 

Blame it on camera shake from cold hands.

 

As I was packing away the telescope ominous dark clouds to the west were gathering and slowly rolling in for the night.

Maybe sitting by the warming fire isn't such a bad idea.


Warm fingers crossed for more clear skies in the week ahead.

Birdsong and the Moon

Tonight a blackbird was perched on Gilbert's roof, singing a song for the Moon.

A perfect evening to train the Jason refractor onto the waxing crescent.

The nearby blackbird gently sang and the troubles of the world melted away.  

 

Sketching Sol and Jove.

 Last night's Jupiter sketch.

I didn't stay outside long last night as it was windy and cold. 

There were also clouds looming on the western horizon, which is a sure sign of soon-to-be bad weather. 

Within the hour it was raining and blowing. 

Considering the amount of cloud cover this March, I have been lucky to capture several Jupiter drawings.

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 I've also managed a fair few solar sketches.  Here's a sample of my March solar sketches:

Luna and Sol dance across the sky.

60mm'f15 Jason refractor - afocal 40mm Kellner eyepiece

 This evening's lunar photo, taken with the Jason refractor.

Earlier in the day I managed to make a sketch of Sol.

 

I brilliant day for astronomy...... later in the evening a thin hazy sea mist crept over the village, blocking out much detail on the planet Jupiter. 

So... no planetary sketching tonight.

But it was still an amazing evening for all West Wales astronomers..

Tonight's Jupiter sketch

The Great Red Spot could be seen, it exhibited to my eye, an orange/red hue. 

Overall the image was "mushy" at x225.

A beautiful day with lots of bird song, and blue skies, Spring is finally springing.

 

 

Earlier in the evening  managed two images, one of the Jason refractor eyeing up the Moon.

The other was an afocal image of Luna taken with the 40mm Kellner and Jason.

Clear Spring skies

Thank You clear sky.

The Schmidt C8 behaved last night and returned some lovely views of the gas giant. 

The evening was cold, with not a hint of a breeze to disturb the viewing.

I managed to grab myself the above sketch of Jupiter. 

Earlier in the evening the crescent Moon had been busy looking gorgeous over in the west.

The viewfinder of the Jason refractor revealed the crescent.

I then captured an image of the crescent Moon afocally through the Jason refractor.

It was a great evening for observing, probably the clearest evening we have had since last October!

Fingers crossed for more.

Clear Skies

Mark

Jupiter Majestic

Observing blank, blending stump and pencils at the ready.

“the camera could not replace the human eye”  

Étienne Léopold Trouvelot

Jupiter is now well placed in the night sky, it's time to gather my pencils and observing blanks .

For the next few months I will be collecting as many Jovian sketches as I can.

The Schmidt telescope has been on form recently, so as long as the sky gods cooperate I shall have a fair collection of observational drawings by the end of this apparition.

These past few days I have been sifting through my 2011-2015 Jupiter drawings.

Each drawing brings back memories of standing at the telescope eyepiece, teasing out the faintest planetary detail, and looking for any colour and contrast variations.

With each sketch I am reminded of the varying yearly Pembrokeshire weather patterns. One day it would be T shirt weather, another I was dressed like an eskimo, frantically trying to warm my fingers to allow quick sketches.

One late night I almost stood on a hedgehog that was sitting outside the observatory door.!!

Thankfully my dark adapted eyes spotted him just before I put my foot down.

Various drawings to be collated

This majestic king of the planets is visually a beautiful sight through the eyepiece.

If you ever have a chance to telescopically view Jupiter  grab it..!

Jupiter & Galilean moons

From an early age I was fascinated by the early drawings of the planets, especially from the end of the 19th Century.

The artist and astronomer Etienne Leopold Trouvelot's  pastel drawing of the planet Jupiter, easily stands out as one of the best examples.

“The planet Jupiter. Observed November 1, 1880, at 9h. 30m. P.M.” E.L. Trouvelot, 1881–82.

What a beautiful Great Red Spot, look at those lovely cloud formations on the Equatorial Zone.. the detail is so wonderfully abstract. I love this drawing!


Fingers crossed for some sketching weather

Clear Jupiter Skies

Mark.

When the North wind blows.

Gibbous moon February 18th 2016 - Jason 60mm/f15 refractor.

I think I might have the makings of a cold, so I've been keeping away from that Northerly biting cold breeze that has been hanging around our village today.

The gibbous moon looked glorious in the early evening sky..... I just had to grab a quick photo of it.

Out came the Jason refractor, the digicam at the ready....

Part of Gassendi's crater wall was brightly lit, Copernicus looked magnificent, Eratosthenes was amazing and the Moon Maiden looked beautiful... 

I didn't stay out long, the cold was eating into my bones.... must be getting soft in my old age!

Polaroid type photo of tonight's Moon

I will no doubt be out later on this evening.. but for now it's feet by the fire time and something to eat.


Clear Skies

Mark

Solar day - Cold Lunar night.

Jason 60mm/f15 refractor

Today the Sun came out to play....
I grabbed the Jason refractor and took a solar projection of the  Midday-ish Sol.

Solar projection

Later I cropped the above photograph and processed the image to within an inch of its life!

The active region (AR2497) at the ten o'clock position could easily be seen in the projection.

There was another active region (AR2501) at the three o'clock position, this only showed up after a bit of teasing with Photoshop.

It's time again to buy some solar film and set up my digicam.

With solar film I will be able to photograph sunspots with higher quality, as you see below:

August 2nd 2011

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Later in the evening, the Moon was up high, I couldn't resist setting up both telescopes and grabbing some Lunar images.

Lunar light on a cold February evening.

Schmidt C8 40mm Kellner - Afocal

I wanted to try some Jupiter sketching , but as it was so cold last night, after half an hour of Lunar watching I packed up the telescopes.

It was time to go indoors and sit by a warming fire.

Observing and sketching Jupiter would have to wait for another night.

Clear Skies

Mark......