Tonight's Jupiter sketch

The Great Red Spot could be seen, it exhibited to my eye, an orange/red hue. 

Overall the image was "mushy" at x225.

A beautiful day with lots of bird song, and blue skies, Spring is finally springing.

 

 

Earlier in the evening  managed two images, one of the Jason refractor eyeing up the Moon.

The other was an afocal image of Luna taken with the 40mm Kellner and Jason.

Clear Spring skies

Thank You clear sky.

The Schmidt C8 behaved last night and returned some lovely views of the gas giant. 

The evening was cold, with not a hint of a breeze to disturb the viewing.

I managed to grab myself the above sketch of Jupiter. 

Earlier in the evening the crescent Moon had been busy looking gorgeous over in the west.

The viewfinder of the Jason refractor revealed the crescent.

I then captured an image of the crescent Moon afocally through the Jason refractor.

It was a great evening for observing, probably the clearest evening we have had since last October!

Fingers crossed for more.

Clear Skies

Mark

Jupiter Majestic

Observing blank, blending stump and pencils at the ready.

“the camera could not replace the human eye”  

Étienne Léopold Trouvelot

Jupiter is now well placed in the night sky, it's time to gather my pencils and observing blanks .

For the next few months I will be collecting as many Jovian sketches as I can.

The Schmidt telescope has been on form recently, so as long as the sky gods cooperate I shall have a fair collection of observational drawings by the end of this apparition.

These past few days I have been sifting through my 2011-2015 Jupiter drawings.

Each drawing brings back memories of standing at the telescope eyepiece, teasing out the faintest planetary detail, and looking for any colour and contrast variations.

With each sketch I am reminded of the varying yearly Pembrokeshire weather patterns. One day it would be T shirt weather, another I was dressed like an eskimo, frantically trying to warm my fingers to allow quick sketches.

One late night I almost stood on a hedgehog that was sitting outside the observatory door.!!

Thankfully my dark adapted eyes spotted him just before I put my foot down.

Various drawings to be collated

This majestic king of the planets is visually a beautiful sight through the eyepiece.

If you ever have a chance to telescopically view Jupiter  grab it..!

Jupiter & Galilean moons

From an early age I was fascinated by the early drawings of the planets, especially from the end of the 19th Century.

The artist and astronomer Etienne Leopold Trouvelot's  pastel drawing of the planet Jupiter, easily stands out as one of the best examples.

“The planet Jupiter. Observed November 1, 1880, at 9h. 30m. P.M.” E.L. Trouvelot, 1881–82.

What a beautiful Great Red Spot, look at those lovely cloud formations on the Equatorial Zone.. the detail is so wonderfully abstract. I love this drawing!


Fingers crossed for some sketching weather

Clear Jupiter Skies

Mark.

When the North wind blows.

Gibbous moon February 18th 2016 - Jason 60mm/f15 refractor.

I think I might have the makings of a cold, so I've been keeping away from that Northerly biting cold breeze that has been hanging around our village today.

The gibbous moon looked glorious in the early evening sky..... I just had to grab a quick photo of it.

Out came the Jason refractor, the digicam at the ready....

Part of Gassendi's crater wall was brightly lit, Copernicus looked magnificent, Eratosthenes was amazing and the Moon Maiden looked beautiful... 

I didn't stay out long, the cold was eating into my bones.... must be getting soft in my old age!

Polaroid type photo of tonight's Moon

I will no doubt be out later on this evening.. but for now it's feet by the fire time and something to eat.


Clear Skies

Mark

Solar day - Cold Lunar night.

Jason 60mm/f15 refractor

Today the Sun came out to play....
I grabbed the Jason refractor and took a solar projection of the  Midday-ish Sol.

Solar projection

Later I cropped the above photograph and processed the image to within an inch of its life!

The active region (AR2497) at the ten o'clock position could easily be seen in the projection.

There was another active region (AR2501) at the three o'clock position, this only showed up after a bit of teasing with Photoshop.

It's time again to buy some solar film and set up my digicam.

With solar film I will be able to photograph sunspots with higher quality, as you see below:

August 2nd 2011

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Later in the evening, the Moon was up high, I couldn't resist setting up both telescopes and grabbing some Lunar images.

Lunar light on a cold February evening.

Schmidt C8 40mm Kellner - Afocal

I wanted to try some Jupiter sketching , but as it was so cold last night, after half an hour of Lunar watching I packed up the telescopes.

It was time to go indoors and sit by a warming fire.

Observing and sketching Jupiter would have to wait for another night.

Clear Skies

Mark......

Simply the Analogue Sun.

February Sunlight

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Pencil and paper

Simply the Analogue Sun

I capture the day.

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Today's big idea was to take a picture of the Sun with my digicam....NO CHANCE!!! 

The digicam refused to focus, then the battery died. 

After a quick recharge I tried again..... Still no luck!.... The camera again failed to focus...

After a bit of tutting and mumbling I thought stuff it. The "digital" gremlins had won the day......

I grabbed a HB pencil.

Pencil and Conte Crayon

I simply sketched the Sun, nothing complicated, just a quick outline of the features that I could see, namely the Active Region 2489.

The sketch only took a couple of minutes, nothing went out of focus, batteries didn't run out, and there was no tutting and cursing.

It was a lovely "analogue" solar observation.

Sometimes all you need is a pencil and a piece of paper.

First Light for the "Jason" 60mm/f15.2 refractor.

“I've never owned a telescope, but it's something I'm thinking of looking into.” - George Carlin

 

Since November of last year it has rained almost everyday in Pembrokeshire, the starry skies have been few and far between.

Needless to say I've had a bit of astronomical "cabin fever"!

There has been the odd clear night, plus several small windows of viewing opportunity, but usually only some ten minutes or so, not enough time to set up the Schmidt C8. 

The skies that have been clear returned poor to average seeing.

The Schmidt did not fair well peering through that most murky of Pembrokeshire gloom.

To beat the poor seeing and the slow setup time of the Schmidt telescope, I decided to buy a smaller aperture telescope, with quicker and easier set up time.

I had my mind set on a long focal length 60mm refractor.

60mm/f15.2 Jason refractor

Within a week of searching I had found a lovely 60mm/f15.2 Jason refractor (Thank You Alan). 

Perfect for the temperamental Pembrokeshire skies.

First Light with the Jason went to Jupiter. The North and South Equatorial Belts  were easily spotted.

Jason 60mm/f15.2 refractor x101 (9mm Ortho)

My 9mm orthoscopic (x101) eyepiece showed pleasing detail even though the seeing was at best AIII.

The thermals from the nearby houses were making Jupiter dance and shimmer a bit, but considering the murky sky, the Jovian giant stood up well.

So far a promising result for the tiny refractor.

Sirius was next on the list. Through the Jason it was a beautiful white Airy disk, with a partial Airy pattern.

With the 9mm ortho eyepiece Sirius was ice white. With the 6mm plossl (x151) eyepiece Sirius hinted at a slight white/brown ochre colour. 

The Pleiades fitted completely within the field of view with the 40mm Kellner (x22) eyepiece.  

The moon looked pin sharp with the 9mm (x101) eyepiece.  

Along the terminator of the almost full moon the crater Pythagoras stood out sharply with plenty of inky blackness beyond the limb.

The evening was cold, the clouds were many,  and the near full moon sky had washed out most of the stars below the second magnitude. 

I had to cut the observing session short, for after only fifteen minutes of observing, in came the clouds and they parked themselves over the county for the remainder of the night..... 

Still, that first fifteen minutes has proved the Jason refractor to be a little champion of a telescope.

I now have a small lightweight scope that I can quickly grab and be outside observing in less than a minute.

Come on clouds clear off, I want to see what this tiny refractor is capable of.....


Clear Skies

Mark.