Touch the stars

Haven't posted a blog post since December!.... wow, the months have flown past. 

Here's one of my favourite  episodes from The Sky at Night.

This episode was recorded back (1977) when Pembrokeshire had beautiful light pollution free skies.

Pembrokeshire has pretty good night skies now, but compared to the pristine skies of my childhood, the Milky Way is but a ghost of its former self. 

Years ago the winter stars seemed to be within arms reach, you could almost touch them. 

The Milky Way used to glow with an ethereal brilliance. 

I could talk (rant) for hours about the dangers of light pollution..

Thankfully you don't have to listen to my diatribe. There is a book that will explain it all.

If you want a good read about the problems of light pollution, 

I  highly recommend "The End of Night" by Paul Bogard.

Earth-grazing Geminids.

Picture credit: Robert Ayton *

This years Geminid meteor shower will reach its peak early this coming Thursday morning (about 2.00am).

Most of the meteors between midnight and dawn on the 14th will be fast moving and have a comparatively short trail.

Beautiful to see..... But as always I'm hoping to see the so called Earth-grazers, those early evening meteors that skim the longest path across our atmosphere, much brighter and slower moving than the later evening/early morning main display.

Over the years I have seen several Earth-grazers, or bolides/fireballs as they are also called.

In my experience, the best time for a chance to see the Earth-grazers seems to be the early evenings a few days before and after the Geminid peak.

A few years ago I spotted a bright bolide breaking into what looked like three distinct separate meteors, I was on Newgale beach at the time looking east....Even though the Sun had not long set,  daylight was still very much evident..

That particular bolide was clearly seen in a blue sky, imagine how bright it would have been in the darkness!

Picture source: Sky & Telescope

Most of the fireballs/bolides I have seen have been in the month of December, and apart from being very bright and slow moving, to my eye they had a tinge of green in them.

For the next week, as the night descends, I'll be wrapping up warm, keeping as far away from streetlights as possible and directing my gaze eastwards.

If memory serves, most of my sightings of the Earth grazers have occurred between Sunset and about 8.00pm

Now all we need is a few clear night!


Good luck , lets hope we see some celestial fireworks.

* Robert Ayton was the artist who illustrated that beautiful little Ladybird book "The Night Sky" 

Author: Mary T. Bruck.

Leonids over dark skies 2018

Waldo Stone - photo: Helen Lee

We stayed the night out on Rhosfach common, perfect for astronomy, no light pollution, no street lights and plenty of open sky .

I was dozing for most of the evening and at around 01h30m I ventured outside to do a bit of Leonid fishing.

Within a couple of minutes a sporadic meteor was spotted out towards Orion, followed quickly by a sporadic over near Gemini.

It was cold outside with a slight breeze, but not noticeably freezing. Within the next minute  I spotted my first Leonid, a moderate to fast moving streak of greenish tinged flame shooting  towards the Plough.

This classic shooting star was unmistakeably a Leonid, the ionized trail was some 5 degrees in length and eminated from the direction of Leo.

I only stayed outside for about twenty minutes, in that time I spotted six meteors, only two of them were obvious Leonids.

After twenty minutes the cold night started to bite,  time to get back to the warmth of the camper van.

Looking forward to the Geminids next month.