Friday, 3 April 2020

Henry Hatfield's Spectrohelioscope - 1985




I love this whole video, from the subject matter, to the pace of Henry Hatfield's delivery, a classic.

Thank you to the amateur astronomer Martin Mobberley for putting this video on YouTube.

N.B. If you ever want to read a great biography about the late great Sir Patrick Moore, Martin has written the definitive story of his life. (two volumes)
www.amazon.co.uk/Martin-Mobberley

Well worth reading.

Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Trawling the old photos

Staying at home for obvious reasons at the moment, with plenty of time on my hands to trawl through some old astronomy pictures and sketches.

Over the next few days/weeks/Months! I will put on several posts of bygone astro images.

Here are a few to start with:


Above photo showing the projection method of observing the Sun. 

The telescope used was a 6 inch Tal2 reflector, a great white light solar scope. 
Also really good for observing Saturn.

----------


Notice the four distinct craters along the terminator between the five and six o'clock positions:

Crater names: from left to right: Furnerius, Petavius, Vendelinus, Langrenus  (the chain of four).
Best seen around third day after a New Moon.

-----------


Above photo taken at a friends smallholding, some five years ago.. I think! 
I wrote an Englyn poem to compliment the photo.

----------


Final image, a sunspot picture I took, using my trusty old Tal1 reflector. 

It may have only been a 4 inch reflector, but it delivered some beautiful views of the Sun (with proper filters fitted.) 

Plus some great views of Mars at opposition.

Sadly though, this telescope was not much use for observing Jupiter. 


Clear Skies, Stay safe.

Monday, 27 January 2020

First sunspot of the year - for me at least.


You can just make out the spot, just off centre of the image.

Granted not the best picture, but I'm happy just to be outside solar imaging again.

The little 70mm refractor is not that brilliant for solar photography, especially if your aim is good quality solar photos, but it is ideal for projecting and sketching the sunspots.

November the 7th 2019  was the last time time I viewed a sunspot, happy to see one today.

Lets hope 2020 reveals many more sunspots..

When the West wind blows.

There's some windy stormy weather heading towards Pembrokeshire over the next few days. Looks as if I might not have a clear night for a...