Pembrokeshire Astronomer

Due to the terrible weather conditions these past few weeks I've only been able to grab a few moments of observing time.  The rain has stopped many a decent observation!   Lets hope February, March and April are kinder.  Fingers crossed for excellent Mars observing over the next couple of months. 

The skies were cloud free at 5.00 am , I decided to grab the C8 and does some observing, with perhaps a bit of astrophotography. Jupiter was a splendid object, very bright in the 20mm erfle eyepiece. All four Galilean moon were easily spotted. With the 9mm eyepiece in place the planet's North and South Equatorial belts stood out easily. The North and South Temperate belts were not that noticeable, the seeing wasn't as good as I had expected. The North and South Polar Regions were visible, the South was noticeably the brighter of the two. Here is this morning's quick sketch: As the night turned to day I tried a bit of daylight Jupiter observing. The image detail of the planet in broad daylight was slightly better - I took a few shots.

  Early this evening the clouds cleared long enough for me to capture a few images of Selene. I'm still working my way around using my C8 Celestron as an imaging platform.  The above lunar picture is my first attempt at astro imaging with a Schmidt Cassegrain telescope.

This morning's solar image taken with the Tal2 reflector. Not much photographic detail I'm afraid. The atmosphere wasn't in a cooperative mood, although the naked eye view did reveal the presence of faculae detail around active regions 1820 & 1830. There was also faculae detail to be found some 180 degrees further around the solar limb. Considering today's poor seeing, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the faculae stood out. Tal2 6 inch f8 Newtonian  Solar imaging - Tal2 verses Tal1. These past few months most of my solar images have been taken with the Tal2 Newtonian.  But is the Tal2 the best scope for solar imaging? Tal2 is delivering some lovely views of the night sky, but I'm not sure its up to scratch for day sky imaging.  Often I blame the seeing for the lack of solar detail, but maybe my choice of scope is not helping. My 4.5 inch Tal1 reflector over the past two years, has consist

Thanks to the mild weather of July and most of August, Helen and I have spent most of our evenings observing the stars from the comfort of our garden shed. The only astronomical equipment I have used these past six weeks, apart from a few quick peeks with Tal2, has been my sleeping bag. Simply lying in the shed with my head stuck out the door entrance has been a welcome change.  It must be about six years since we were last able to sleep outside for extended periods. At the start of July it was interesting to note that Vega around midnight was somewhat East of the zenith, whilst now around midnight some five weeks later, it has noticeably passed the zenith and is making its way Westward. As a child, at this time of year I would spend many an evening on my parent's farm, lying in a field and watching the stars pass by. Alternatively I would be found in my grandmother's garden lying on the garden bench, stargazing till the early hours.. often I would fall asleep!

From our house the month of July is the perfect time to observe the Sun as it rises out of the  Preseli Hills .. This past week or so, I have been fortunate enough to witness several of these wonderful events.. From my astro log: July 17th 2013 My vantage point was our North facing kitchen window...   a perfect spot to wait for the Sun, and also importantly I was very close to the kettle... ! Any excuse for a cup of tea... ! I waited patiently for that first glint... It wasn't long before Sol was racing skywards.......   The Sun walks the Preselis. From day to day it's surprising how fast the Sun moves along the horizon. The varying contours of the distant Preseli Hills clearly mark the daily renewal of sunrise positions. From observations I took on the 17th, 18th and 21st of this month you can clearly trace the speeding path of Sol... I'm not sure how long it will be before the Sun disappears behind the neighbouring rooftop

Tal2 had no chance of spying the Moon tonight.. once again hidden by my neighbour's trees. Though from our back door I had a clear view of the Moon, albeit a brief one. Due to the high trees and the low Moon I had maybe 20 minutes of possible observing time. I decided to set up my tiny 40mm refractor. Considering it only has an objective glass of 40mm aperture, it does show a fair bit of lunar detail. From tonight's lunar log book I note.. along the terminator, and close by: Flammarion, Herschel, Halley, Hind, Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel, Purbach, Walter. Flammarion wasn't that distinct , but Herschel was an inky black pit with it's west wall lit up like a thin waning crescent moon. I then flew over to have a quick look at Hercules and Atlas..  Hercules exhibited a bright central region, but the 40mm aperture did not reveal much else, Atlas was outlined well. On the southwestern border of Mare Serenitatis (Montes Haemus) I spotted Menelaus plus

After a few days of looking and waiting,  I've finally spotted the July crescent Moon. Due to the location of this evening's Moon, I couldn't use Tal2 for observing. I decided to give the 40mm refractor a chance at capturing some lunar light...  The little scope performed admirably, and delivered some lovely views. The weather in Pembrokeshire is still beautiful, so to take full advantage of it, Helen and I have been  sleeping outside under the stars. These past three nights we've had the studio shed doors open, and we are both inside on the floor in sleeping bags. Our heads are sticking out of the doorway, which affords us a spectacular view of the night sky.. Last night, at about 1p.m. we were disturbed by something lurking in the hedgerow, it turned out to be a hedgehog.. a very noisy hedgehog!   Maybe he will be back again tonight to disturb our peace.. I do hope so.

The skies are blue in Pembrokeshire, the Sun and I have definitely got our hats on today.  This morning I managed the following Sol image. Due to the air turbulence I had difficulty capturing a decent close up of AR1785. I decided that as AR1785 was such a beauty I would try and attempt a sketch... The initial sketch didn't really show the turbulence I was witnessing, so Photoshop came to the rescue. I was able to create an image more in keeping with the eyepiece view.

Early this morning I was getting myself a glass of water from the kitchen. I looked out the window, and suspended in the morning mist was one of the most beautiful sunrises that I've seen in a very long time. This photo doesn't do it justice...  the Sun was a glorious shade of orange. Pembrokeshire excelled herself this morning. It looked as if the sun was caught on the nearby electrical power lines. Here's a close up: I was hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of active regions 1777 or 1775,  but nothing was seen. Later in the day, I managed the following Solar picture:                                    

Saturn has finally disappeared behind some rather large ash trees at the end of my neighbour's garden.. Not much astro activity at the moment, these past few evenings have been spent spying the waxing moon and glimpsing the odd double star through my powerful 40mm refractor.  It's such a small scope, but it's fascinating to see how much of the night sky it can reveal.  Here's an afocal image of the Moon from a few nights ago.. taken with the tiny 40mm refractor. afocal image: 40mm "Leviathan" refractor. Still no Noctilucent cloud sightings.  It helps that the street lights to the North of our property now switch off after midnight.  The picture below was taken a couple of evenings ago, at about 11.30pm.  You could easily be fooled into thinking it was 11.30 am.  Thanks to the county wide streetlight switch off, I now stand a better chance of seeing those beautiful ethereal Noctilucent Clouds "NLC".