From the Harp to the Small Bear.

The weather this week has been wonderful, with blue skies every day so far... and what's more some lovely clear skies in the evening.

Monday the 3rd was one of those glorious warm summery evenings. 

We haven't had that many really warm evenings in Pembrokeshire over the last few years, so I took full advantage of this one.

As the stars slowly switched on I spotted Vega over towards the East.

I've been meaning to pay Lyra a visit these past few weeks.. tonight was my first real opportunity.

Firstly Vega, beautiful as ever, with classic diffraction spikes and a crystal clear white colouring.

Next Beta Lyrae "Sheliak",  primary white and secondary bluish grey. 

Gamma "Sulaphat" was noticeably brighter than Sheliak.

Epsilon Lyra (Double Double) easily seen at high magnification. 

The seeing wasn't that good tonight, plus the Tal2 was out of collimation as can can be seen from this photo I took. 

Tal1 so far gives the better view of the double double.

M57 a beautiful greyish colour in the Tal2. Great views with the 42mm and 25mm eyepieces. Averted vision was needed to draw out the distinctive oval shape.

No sighting of M56, but nearby Albireo looked stunning in the 42mm eyepiece. Yellow primary with a piercing French ultramarine blue secondary.

Moved on to M13 in Hercules, the globular looked amazing in the 42mm and the 25mm. 

It reminded me of the seed head of a dandelion.

Tal2 resolved the globular many more stars than Tal1 has ever shown.

Moved on to Ursa minor.  

I turned the the scope onto our Northern star Polaris.. what an absolute beauty, further enhanced by it's blue secondary sitting nearby.. which stood out wonderfully.  

Considering the seeing wasn't that good, I was more than happy with the observing session.

Tal2 needs some tweaking as the above collimation picture shows.

The Double Double put on a poor show, but the view of M13 and Polaris redeemed any failings that Tal2 may have shown.  

I think it's time to get out the collimation eyepiece.

Roll off Roof fixed - AT LAST.

Up until today, the majority of the Northern sky has been difficult to observe from my observatory, due to the roof being unable to retract fully.

Over the last couple of years I've mostly had my Tal1 scope pointing South. Very rarely would I venture Northwards past the zenith.

If ever I needed a clear view to the North I would usually drag the Tal1 out on to the lawn. 

Or sometimes take the lightweight roof off completely. but even though the roof was lightweight it was still cumbersome to handle.

Thankfully that problem has been solved, as can been seen in the above picture.

Now that I've fixed the roll off roof, I will have a much wider view of the night sky to observe.

First on the list will be Polaris..  It's been months since I last observed the secondary star of Polaris. 

I wonder what Tal2 will reveal.

Fingers crossed for some clear skies.

Moonlight on the western wall and a touch of blue.

Last week was spent at a friends' smallholding. I had no telescopes, no binoculars and most importantly no streetlights...!

The skies were clear, the Moonlight shone on the west facing wall of our friends' house,  there was no sodium glare to spoil the show..  I recall one evening..... just gone midnight....

I was tired and fast falling asleep, but outside in the dim moonlit night Cassiopeia was shining brightly...  and it was on my mind to capture an image... 

I grabbed the camera, and propped it against the north facing window and took maybe ten shots, all with approximately six seconds of exposure.

As I was half asleep, the lens wasn't in focus, but the image that I post above conveyed the mood of that most wonderful of constellations.

It was great to simply drink in the night sky without the need of objective glass or reflector, plus the total absence of streetlighting was wonderful.

 Yesterday's reflected Sunlight. 

Yesterday I managed a Solar image, but unlike my usual yellow tinted images, this time I added a touch of blue.

Clear Skies.

Maybe Dione, could be Tethys..... definitely Halley's globular.

The clouds rolled in early this evening, bang went my chance of sketching Saturn. or so I thought.

At about 10.00pm UT the clouds moved away to reveal a beautiful night sky.

After training Tal2 onto Saturn I tried out the 25mm plossl, along with the Tal x4 Barlow.. Perfect.

Titan and Rhea stood out really well. 

Just below Rhea, I could make out a third satellite, it was winking in and out of view. either Dione or Tethys, I'm not sure which.

Next time I hope to capture that third satellite properly.

Also Tal2 got it's first look at a globular cluster, namely M13 in the constellation of Hercules.

The Astronomer Edmond Halley is credited with the discovery of this cluster in 1714.

Although.. being that M13 is within naked eye visual range, I guess countless stargazers of ancient times looked up and pondered on that distant speck of light.

Last night's Saturn sketching.

 

I've been waiting for weeks to have a decent view of Saturn..

Last night I was rewarded with a fair view of the ringed planet.

I firstly tried out the 15mm kellner with the x4 Barlow (x315), this was unsuccessful, the image was poor.

Then I tried the Barlow with the 25mm eyepiece (x190)..  this combination was perfect for last night's Pembrokeshire Skies.

The seeing wasn't brilliant, but at least I was able to detect slight surface detail, albeit very fleeting.

The Cassini Division was less pronounced than usual, but all things considered I was more than happy with the view.

My intention for the session was to make a sketch of Saturn.

 

At the x190 magnification Titan and Rhea could easily be seen.

May is usually a good month in Pembrokeshire for clear seeing, the heat hazes of the Summer months haven't yet arrived.

With a bit of luck we might have some turbulence free planet watching ahead of us.

Here's a recent photograph I took of Saturn..... I think I'll stick to sketching.

First light for Tal2.

 First Light for the Tal2, what better target than tonight's lovely gibbous Moon.

The Tal2 is noticeably showing more detail at higher magnification.

Plus the motordrive keeps everything centred long enough for me to attempt some detailed sketching.

After trying to split Algieba it became apparent that I need to spend some time cleaning and realigning the primary mirror.  That will have to wait a few days.

For now I'm more than happy to capture the lunar light.

The Seed Moon is on the rise... Deckchairs at the ready.

Tonight's eight day old Moon, captured (afocal) with my Tal1 Newtonian.

In folklore this month's Moon is sometimes called the "Seed Moon", well named and appropriate, as tomorrow afternoon Helen and I will be in the greenhouse sowing our garden seeds.

The deckchairs will be out tomorrow night for some Lyrid meteor observing.

I wonder how much of the event will be washed out by the gibbous Moon..?....

Essential April Meteor Shower Equipment:

Woolly hat, scarf, gloves, a hot water bottle and blanket, plus a flask of chai tea.  

Clear Skies

Mark.