Pembrokeshire Flu and the tiny Tasco 40mm

I'm just getting over a larger than life dose of Pembrokeshire Flu.

I never get the flu...but this year it hit good and proper...It's been over a fortnight since I was outside in the cold of the observatory. And at least a fortnight before that without any real observing. 

So with that in mind I have been trawling around our pc's hard drive and found this video of my last attempt at solar astronomy from the observatory.

The Sun as we all know is still heading South, and as such my possible window of viewing from the observatory is maybe limited to approximately an hour, due to the trees at the end of our garden.

I love the trees and so do the birds, especially the magpies who have bought a home in a nearby tree.

I will just have to wait a while until the Sun heads North once again..  No hurry.


Whilst digging around in our many photo CD's I found this photo of my first telescope, the mighty 40mm Tasco refractor.

This picture was taken back in 1981. 

By then my trusty Tasco was already a couple of years old, and well battered and worn.

That little scope went everywhere with me, and gave me wonderful views of the night skies. 

Everything from the craters on the Moon, Jupiter's satellites, Solar projections, in focus and out of focus stars.

Especially I fondly remember seeing Albireo for the first time with this telescope.

The Pleiades, The Sword Handle, The Beehive, and many many more celestial wonders were snagged with this tiny Tasco.

I know many complain about small refractors. especially small Tasco refractors, but I will always thank the makers of my 40mm Tasco.

An excellent introduction to the night sky.

I only wish I had it now, it finally fell apart a couple of years after this photo was taken.

Maybe one day I will find another one like it in the back of a junk shop.

Dreaming of Barsoom

"As Mars is once again upon us, I thought I would post one of my log entries that I made back in January 2010......" Pembs Astronomer 

23rd January 2010  Observation of Mars....

I set up the telescope in the front garden and decided to have a good long look at Mars.

It's nearly at it's closest at the moment, shining brighter than Betelgeuse, and slightly dimmer than Sirius.

At first the red planet revealed nothing just the usual blank expressionless ruddy red, no detail, no imagination not a hint of any possible Martian detail.

But persistence I am told will reward, and definitely tonight persistence paid off.

Tonight Mars opened up and allowed a glimpse of its often hidden beauty.

The dust storms on the planet were obviously having a good well deserved rest, and I saw for the first time in over six years the Martian surface with it's tell tale mottled patterns.

Above picture from http://www.astronet.ru/db/xware/msg/1194973

This dreamer once again was transported to the  Mars of  H.G. Wells and Percival Lowell. The Mars of vegetation and wonderful canals, and possible highly intelligent creatures living on a dying planet.

I spent several minutes at the eyepiece and slowly but surely an image appeared, the more I looked the more was revealed...like a 3D magic holographic picture.

And like one of those magic holographic pictures ...suddenly I saw it, the white tell tale spot..!!

Percival Lowell Canal system.

As I looked at the Martian disk a snow cap was visible at the 5 O'clock position.

The snow cap stood out....  a sight not seen by my eyes since the August opposition in 2003.

Even though Earth probes have visited Mars, not one creature from our beautiful blue world has ever set foot on Mars......NOT YET!

Several probes have landed on Mars, relaying valuable information and data. But only in the realms of fantasy and imagination have we touched the lands of this red planet of Barsoom.

The Viking 1 Lander 

The view through my telescope was breathtaking...

Slowly I wandered off to thoughts of poetry....yet unwritten..

I was here....

Tonight I sit upon Barsoom.

I think of a time when the Earth was my home.

What matters now is the Martian dust reflecting in my human eyes.

And starlight falls... but not a photon do I detect 

I gaze only at the Martian soil and reflect..

Poem by Pembs Astronomer, sat on a park bench just outside Mars City - 5th December 2089AD.  :0)

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 Post Script  
05/12/2011
 

Last night I looked out towards the east and noticed Regulus hovering just above my neighbour's rooftop. 

Sadly Mars which is in the vicinity of Regulus was obscured by a slowly moving rather large gloomy cloud. 

It was too cold outside last night, and I have a bad case of the man flu at the moment, so back to the warmth of the fire for me..

I haven't as yet had a decent look at Mars since I wrote the above entry in my observation book, back in January of  2010..

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.