Thought these diagrams might be of interest to eclipse chasers in the UK.
From one of my favourite astronomy books, written by the great Welsh Moon mapper Percy Wilkins.
These past many weeks (months!), Pembrokeshire has not been kind to astronomers.
Lots of rain and too much wind have kept the dustcaps on all telescopes in our county.
Tonight that all changed.
It was a pleasure to finally take the telescope out and do a bit of Lunar watching.
Since it was the "first light" for this little Skywatcher refractor I thought the Moon would make a great target.
High up in the sky and clear of the horizon murk and dust, the views the refractor delivered were very steady and sharp.
No real observing of craters was done, this evening I only wanted to fly over the Moon.
Tonight's moon peep was for soaking in the moonlight, whilst lost in my thoughts of H.G.Wells' Selenites, Apollo landings and future lunar drawing projects.
Fingers firmly crossed for better weather and clearer skies.
The pencils are sharpened, the ink pens are waiting; can't wait to make some Lunar sketches and drawings.
Clear Skies wherever you are.
Mark.
Partly due to the weather, and partly due to having a stinking cold a week or so ago!
Thankfully the cold has now gone, and the blue skies are back.
The pst was taken out for a quick peep at Sol.
I only have my small tripod at the moment, so everything is a bit wobbly to say the least.
A few Sol shots were captured, but mainly it was all naked eye viewing this morning.
The camera I use had a flat battery, so I tried out my other phone camera... nowhere near as good, but it managed to capture two of the major prominence.
Loads of sunspots today, this solar cycle is definitely picking up.
Took a spin to Newgale today, we haven't been for ages, at least not since the pandemic.
It was wonderful to see the vast stretch of beach.
Helen and I, and our son Jac spent fifteen years living only two miles from this glorious seafront ( 2001-2016).
Today, with every footstep we made in the sand, it was a trip down memory lane.
The gibbous Moon was visible over the nearby hill, only the second time we have seen it this lunation, blame the wind and rain!
As the night deepened, I set up the camera phone on a flimsy little £3 tripod I bought a few days ago.
After a bit of trail and error I managed to capture the following.
Mizar and Alcor (The Horse & Rider)
Amazing that the phone was able to capture Mizar AND Alcor, I didn't expect that.
The view from the camper van of the Moonlight over Newgale will stay with us always.
The sky gods behaved today, mo more rain for awhile.
The last few weeks have been a testing time for any astronomical activities.
So much rain! So many cloudy nights!
Today all sins have been forgiven, the good weather quietly and calmly returned to Pembrokeshire.
We ventured over to Waldo's stone over at Rhosfach Common near Mynachlogddu.
There was an excellent Sundog event in progress.
Lots of information on the Internet about sundogs, not so many actual displays, it was great to see one today.
I think the last time we spotted one was back last December.
They always seem to occur on those most quiet and calming still air days.
She totally caught us by surprise, and radiated that warm orange glow that only the Moon knows how to do.
We sat and gazed, and Moon bathed, and dreamed of past lunations. All those many Moon rises, lifting out of rock, trees, salt water and earth.
Not forgetting the eclipses, both lunar and solar, who could ever get tired of seeing those.
Tonight's Moon was no exception, as always a welcome old friend.
Out and about in the camper van , spent the night at a favourite local dark sky location.
What a beautiful night, witnessed the Moon rosy red and westward bound, melting into the nearby hills near Maenclochog.
Several meteors flashed by, Helen spotted a possible bollide, she mentioned that it left a definite trail in its wake.
Of course I missed it completely, at the time I was totally distracted by the the Plough asterism!
Out towards the east Jupiter was bright and sharp, and nearby the Pleiades was rising, a sure sign that Autumn is here.
Here's a picture I managed to capture with the phone camera.
A perfect night for all astronomers, hopefully the first of many in this new autumn astronomy season.
It's been at least ten weeks since my last solar observation photo.
The weather in that time has not been kind for solar observers (at least where I've been located), and the night skies have been much devoid of star light, or in other words crap!
Strange weather indeed, probably the worst summer weather since about 2012, as far as Pembrokeshire astronomy is concerned.
Return of September Sol.
Finally, this morning the Sun was parked in a beautiful blue sky, and I was able to capture old Sol, resplendent with a chain of prominences.
Above is this morning's picture, captured with the trusty old PST.
Today's Sol image revealed a beautiful snake like filament.
It got me thinking... How long is that filament?
With the help of the laptop software, I decided to have a go at making a rough guess.
By placing a grid over today's Sol image I was able to "very" roughly figure out the filament length.
As the Sun is around 865,000 miles in diameter, and the grid took sixteen squares to cross the Sun's diameter I figured that each square was roughly 54,000 miles wide.
865,000/16 = 54,062 miles.
The filament in question, down near the 5.00 clock position on the image easily stretched some two squares.
By my "very rough" reckoning today's filament was around 108,000 miles from end to end!
If you ever decided to walk the length of that filament, at a speed of five mile per hour, without stopping, it would take you just under two and a half years to reach the other end!
How long would it take to walk from one end of the Sun to the other end ? How long would it take to walk from the Sun to my back garden?
I think I'll leave these questions for another time.
........
After some photoshop tweaking of today's image I found a new way (for me) to display the solar detail.
It needs further work to be of any use, though for now I am pleased with the results.
That snaking filament shows up much better in this new image format.
This morning's partial solar eclipse was predicted to be a disaster, with a rain, cloud and misery forecast to be spread over much of Pe...
