Crescent Moon & Sleeping under the Stars..

After a few days of looking and waiting,  I've finally spotted the July crescent Moon.

Due to the location of this evening's Moon, I couldn't use Tal2 for observing.

I decided to give the 40mm refractor a chance at capturing some lunar light... 

The little scope performed admirably, and delivered some lovely views.

The weather in Pembrokeshire is still beautiful, so to take full advantage of it, Helen and I have been  sleeping outside under the stars.

These past three nights we've had the studio shed doors open, and we are both inside on the floor in sleeping bags.

Our heads are sticking out of the doorway, which affords us a spectacular view of the night sky..

Last night, at about 1p.m. we were disturbed by something lurking in the hedgerow, it turned out to be a hedgehog.. a very noisy hedgehog!  

Maybe he will be back again tonight to disturb our peace.. I do hope so.

Straw hats & Sol Sketching - July 8th 2013.

The skies are blue in Pembrokeshire, the Sun and I have definitely got our hats on today. 

This morning I managed the following Sol image.

Due to the air turbulence I had difficulty capturing a decent close up of AR1785.

I decided that as AR1785 was such a beauty I would try and attempt a sketch...

The initial sketch didn't really show the turbulence I was witnessing, so Photoshop came to the rescue.

I was able to create an image more in keeping with the eyepiece view.

All about the Sun.

Early this morning I was getting myself a glass of water from the kitchen.

I looked out the window, and suspended in the morning mist was one of the most beautiful sunrises that I've seen in a very long time.

This photo doesn't do it justice...  the Sun was a glorious shade of orange.

Pembrokeshire excelled herself this morning.

It looked as if the sun was caught on the nearby electrical power lines.

Here's a close up:

I was hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of active regions 1777 or 1775,  but nothing was seen.

Later in the day, I managed the following Solar picture:

                                   

Night time Daylight - No NLC.

Saturn has finally disappeared behind some rather large ash trees at the end of my neighbour's garden..

Not much astro activity at the moment, these past few evenings have been spent spying the waxing moon and glimpsing the odd double star through my powerful 40mm refractor. 

It's such a small scope, but it's fascinating to see how much of the night sky it can reveal. 

Here's an afocal image of the Moon from a few nights ago.. taken with the tiny 40mm refractor.

afocal image: 40mm "Leviathan" refractor.

Still no Noctilucent cloud sightings. 

It helps that the street lights to the North of our property now switch off after midnight. 

The picture below was taken a couple of evenings ago, at about 11.30pm. 

You could easily be fooled into thinking it was 11.30 am. 

Thanks to the county wide streetlight switch off, I now stand a better chance of seeing those beautiful ethereal Noctilucent Clouds "NLC".

The pale short nights of Summer.

Noctilucent Clouds above the observatory?

Due to short nights of Summer, over the next couple of months my astronomy time will mostly be taken up with chasing Noctilucent Clouds, observations of Sol, and the sketching of the Moon.

Though there is always time to say hello to the countless double stars, meteors, globulars, and more.

Observing the pale short nights of Summer, on a balmy evening - perfect.

Today's Solar image, taken with Tal2:

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.