Astronomy from the 1950's, and my analogue laptop.

Digging around in a charity shop the other day I found an interesting book titled:

The Modern Children's Library of Knowledge 

Book Two 

The World we live in.

This book was published in 1957, and towards the end of the book was a chapter about astronomy. 

It contained a wealth of astronomy information and most interesting to me a large collection of 1950's era illustrations.

I love these old astronomy pictures. 

Why don't we have more illustrations like these in modern journals and magazines.

Today's astronomy  magazines just don't interest me.

Too many adverts for a start, not enough "amateur" articles, and way too "glossy".

I personally like black and white illustrations, be they photos or drawings. 

Saying that some of the most interesting illustrations can sometimes be in full colour:

In my perfect astronomy magazine I would like nothing more than to see the typesetting done on an ageing typewriter, and all the illustrations courtesy of the 1950's and 60's.

There's a lot of Luddite in me I'm afraid.

Just to prove the point, here's an old  picture of my workshed with typewriter at the ready, or "analogue laptop" as I like to call it.

I realise I'm a bit of a hypocrite as I have computer,but give me a  typewriter, planisphere and a star map any day. 

Also the clock drive on my Tal1 Newtonian is high tech enough for me.

Long live low tech..

Perseids, Jupiter and Hedgehogs..

It was clouded out in my part of Pembrokeshire last night...so viewing the Perseid Shower seemed to be a non happening event.

I decided to have an early night and hoped for a clearer  Saturday morning..maybe the clouds would part and let me see the Perseid shower in the morning twilight....

The internal astronomer's clock was working well... I awoke at 2.40 am BST and could just glimpse the friendly Moonlight illuminating the window frame...

The clouds must have parted........


Quickly up and out to the observatory, no time to put shoes on....I grabbed my Celestron 8mm plossl from the shed.... into the observatory ...... slide back the roof...

The skies were approximately 90% fast moving cloud, not as good as I hoped, but what gaps there were quickly showed me the Moon... as it slowly melted into my neighbour's ash trees...

Looking eastward I noticed Jupiter high in the sky, the highest I've seen it for many a year.

Seems like Jupiter is going to be the first  port of call for the next few months...

13th August 2011 02:00 gmt ...

Training the Tal onto Jupiter I was able to witness a transit in progress of the Moon Io...something I haven't seen for a few years...

IO Transit

Using my Celestron Xcel 8mm eyepiece, the Tal returned a decent image of Io's shadow. 

But the shadow disc of Io was much more pronounced in my old Skywatcher 150mm refractor...

I should never have sold that scope..oh well  :0(

Throughout the whole observing session I didn't see one Perseid, but then I was only getting about 10% of clear sky view at the most....strangely though, most of the clear gaps were around or near Jupiter...

Perseids, Jupiter and Hedgehogs..

I've mentioned the Perseids, and Jupiter...what about the hedgehogs...?

In our garden these past few years we have had a hedgehog, living we don't know where, but it seems to like the garden enough to stay around.

These last few months our nocturnal neighbour hasn't been seen roaming through the garden.

We had thought that our Jack Russell had scared it away..as she has often stood outside at night shouting at our prickly friend....

But last night whilst in the observatory  I had to go to my shed to fetch a sketching pencil, ...squatting just outside of the observatory was the Hedgehog Astronomer quietly sitting, taking in the scenery..

It was lucky that I didn't stand on our night time companion, especially in my bare feet...!!

Thanks to the moonlight, I was able to see where I was going....

So, no Perseids this year....welcome back to Jupiter...and Hello to Hedgehog Astronomer...

Three years plus since I last looked at the Garnet.

I can't believe it's been over three years since I last looked at Erakis  "The Garnet Star"...

Here's my last log entry of this colourful beauty....

Please click on the picture for a bigger image..

Next chance I get at the eyepiece, I'm going to say sorry to Erakis for not visiting sooner....

Full Hay (fever) Moon.

Full Hay Moon.

Last night I was too tired to fully appreciate the Moon.

Usually I find a spot in the garden, sit down on a comfortable chair and simply bathe myself in the moonlight..

It's so peaceful just sitting there contemplating and watching the Moon as she gently wheels across the night sky..

But the day's hayfever had left it's mark, and I wasn't feeling all that good.

A pity... as the Moon last night was one of the best that I've seen for a long while..


I quickly grabbed this photo, using the Tal 1 and a 25mm plossl afocal with my digital compact camera.

I don't want to wish away these summer days but, I'm  looking forward to next month's " Red Moon".

And red it usually is...... big and beautiful rising out of the Pembrokeshire landscape.

 I've already booked my front row seat......fingers crossed for a clear night....


Happy Moon watching...

The Mighty Atom telescope.

Some weeks ago I was rummaging through a box, at one of our local car boot sales...

I found an intriguing item.

It appeared to be a fountain pen, but on closer examination it opened out into a small refractor.

It works well considering the 1/2 inch aperture of the objective glass.

I christened it The Mighty Atom...

Last night the clouds were sauntering once again around Pembrokeshire, and the Moon low on our neighbour's trees, could occasionally be glimpsed.

I grabbed the Mighty Atom, put it over the lens of the digicam and captured this shot.

Also I have found, that if you reverse the scope and look through the objective glass, it makes a really handy microscope..

If you ever happen upon a box full of dubious junk, and see a Mighty Atom, buy it...you won't be disappointed.

Trying to find Napoleon's Hat..

There's a great asterism in Bootes called Napolean's hat.

I well see why it was given such a name.

I decided to try and locate it....

After a couple of failed attempts, I finally thought why not drop Arcturus  to the bottom of my field of vie.


Maybe then Napolean's hat would be easier to see without the distraction of  beautiful bright Arcturus.

It worked....

Up towards the 11 o clock position in my field of view, Napolean's Hat jumped out at me.

I don't know why I haven't noticed this asterism before, but now every time I turn my telescope towards Arcturus there it is.

Another friend to put on the observing list ....  :0)

The Harp Star.

The Harp Star -Vega

I started out last night with the sole intention of imaging M13..  after a few attempts I became distracted by the beautiful brilliance of Vega.

Vega resides in the constellation of Lyra the Harp, this blue-white star is sometimes called the Harp Star.

In Greek mythology, Lyra the harp is said to have been played by the legendary Greek musician Orpheus. 

And whenever Orpheus started to pluck those strings, nobody it was said could resist listening.

Obviously Orpheus was busy last night, for Vega the Harp Star grabbed my attention.

I attempted imaging using a Nikon D50, connected via prime focus with a x2 Barlow.

I tried a 20 second exposure, and was able to capture the above photo.

Thank You Orpheus.