Just look at those stars.!

June 14th 21h15mUT Maksutov 90mm x100 AIII/IV

Out towards the south west, Jupiter stood all alone, in a beautiful clear darkening sky.

The Great Red Spot (GRS) was in mid transit at 20h51m UT tonight.

By my clock it was just past 21h05m UT, I was in luck and quickly grabbed the Mak90.

After a couple of minutes setup I was observing the Jupiter dance. 

The GRS was easily seen; just about midway on Jupiter's disk.

The seeing this evening was terrible, I was surprised to have seen anything of the GRS.

A good night for naked eye and maybe binoculars, not a good night for telescopes.

Sometimes it's better to just put away that telescope, find a dry patch of land, lie down and simply look up at the stars.

Tonight is one of those nights.

"Double glazed" Mars filters.

June 4th 03h15m UT x125  Mak90 -  Diam: 15.8"
(via-Double glazing filters)

A few mornings ago I tried my hand at Mars observing... through one of our bedroom windows!

Not my first choice of observing methods, but I wanted to see how "bad" Mars could be, as viewed through a "double glazing" filter.

Setup of the 90mm Mak was easy and within a minute, via a 10mm eyepiece, I was sailing over Mars, looking at a wonderfully massive south polar cap.

The dark band adjacent to the polar cap was easily seen.

Mars at the moment has to it a slight gibbous phase, which was easily picked out at x125.

It would have made more sense to go outside and view the red planet, but I was half asleep and didn't feel like dragging myself out into the garden. Something which I will remedy over the next month or so. 

By July I expect to be camped out on some distant hill in Pembrokeshire, unwilling to move until this Mars opposition is over!

June 4th 2018 03h15mUT

In conclusion I had a good peep at the South Polar Cap, which will be interesting to observe as it recedes in the now martian summer. 

Plus some dark banding was easily detectable on the edge of the entire polar region.  

Also the gibbous phase could easily be detected.

All in all not a bad result for viewing through a "double glazed" filter!  

Last night's Jupiter sketch

Last night's planetary sketch of Jupiter.  

22h00m UT Antoniadi II/III 

Skywatcher  90mm Maksutov x125

It was great to be outside last evening under the stars. 

Even better to be able to grab a decent sketch of the planet Jupiter, with the added bonus of capturing the Great Red spot.

90mm Maksutov telescope

That "mighty" Maksutov 90mm telescope is able to deliver great views of the planetary features, and considering its small aperture, I'm well pleased with the final results. 

This little scope, so far; has returned some lovely images of double stars, craters of the Moon and now I find that Jupiter is also holding up well...  I hope Mars is as good in July.

The crow ship returns.

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them"

Marcus Aurelius.

Recently, whilst spying Algeiba through the Maksutov, I noticed to the south west and low over a nearby roof top, that familiar of constellations "Corvus" the raven, or crow as it is also called.  

It is also known as the "Spanker" due to its resemblance to a type of boat sail.  

The constellation may be named Corvus, but to my eyes, it looks nothing like a big black bird!

Few of the constellations take on the actual shape they depict, but in the case of the "Spanker" the stargazers of old were spot on.  

Is that a spanker sail.? maybe~maybe not!

It's good to see Corvus again, a sure sign that summer will soon be calling.

Grab that telescope - Quick!

Screenshot of Mercury from WinJUPOS software March 16th 2018 - 19h15mUT

The sky was full of lingering clouds, big black Venus and Mercury obscuring clouds!

It took a little time for my cloudbusting to work, but finally the bulk of the cloud parted to reveal a brilliant Venus, and just above and slightly to the right a glorious and very welcome Mercury.

It must be three years since I last spotted the winged messenger.

Due to the often cumulus filled horizons of this county and probably most counties in the United Kingdom, Mercury remains hidden from view for much of its possible observing season.

To the southwest a cloud bank was moving ominously westward, by the look of the formation I had maybe a five minute window to catch a peep of this fiery Sun hugging planet.

The Maksutov came to mind, light weight, portable and easy to set up.

Setting up on the garden bench was easy, with a 10mm eyepiece in place, red dot finder trained , I was up and observing in about two minutes total.

Mercury had about it an obvious crescent phase

As it happened I managed a whole ten minutes of planet peeping. 

Even though, it was worth the mad rush of setting up the telescope. It’s often like  this in Pembrokeshire. 

If I see the gaps in the sky, I have to rush and grab the telescope, hesitate and all is usually lost for the night!

Yet another reason to own a “grab and go” telescope.   

Unfriended of the stars of late.

"Some nights have been 
wholly unfriended of the stars of late".

Joseph H. Elgie author of "The stars night by night".

Of late, the  nights of Pembrokeshire have definitely been "unfriended" of stars!

Between the mist, rain and snow blizzards, astronomy has taken a back seat this past month or so.

But never mind, tonight looked perfect for stargazing. 

Several of the Little Bear stars were on show, a welcome sign of a possible good night's viewing.

Maksutov 90mm/f13.8 Catadioptric

It was time to take out the little 90mm Maksutov.

As big bright Orion was well placed ,first light in the viewfinder went to the uppermost star in Orion's Belt, Mintaka, a lovely white primary with a slightly bluish secondary. 

The trapezium's  four stars next, all perfectly round shining white, not a hint of flare or fuzziness.

Rigel's secondary was difficult to locate tonight, but it was possible to pick out its obvious blue tint.

Next Messier 44 the beehive or in Latin Praesepe.  With a 40mm plossl all looked bright and clear. 

Though to my mind, the Beehive always shows its best in binoculars.

Over then to Leo, and one of my favourite doubles Algeiba. 
A yellow primary with a green/yellow secondary. 

Occasionally the secondary to my eye appears slightly purple in colour. 

Plate 7 clearly showing Rigel's bluish  comes.

Atmospherics, different types of telescope and eyepieces, and probably my mood at the time combine to alter the colour of some double stars.

Over we go to Gemini. Castor next. 
Both primary and secondary beautiful ice white in colour. 

The primary and secondary could be twins, though the secondary is slightly smaller.

The little Maksutov sat on a chair and with the help of its red dot finder I was able to locate all objects that came to mind. 

I may one day look for a long legged tripod, but for now the little table top legs of the Maksutov will more than suffice for my style of observing.

If you want a portable all round decent scope for hunting down double stars, I highly recommend these little telescopes.


Clear skies 

Mark

The wonky Plough in Orion's Belt.

Saturday 27th of January 2018 - 10x50 binoculars- Gibbous light

Apart from clouds hugging the nearby hill of Foel Drygarn, tonight's sky was clear and bathed in a wonderful gibbous moonlight.

Over the village of Crymych, only the 1st to 3rd magnitude stars were visible.

Out of all the twinkling luminaries, the three stars of Orion's belt grabbed my attention.

With only binoculars to view, I spent several minutes just observing the belt. The stars near Alnilam took on the appearance of the Plough asterism, albeit a bit of a wonky plough!

What could be called the "pointers" of the wonky Plough, laid a direct path to the beautiful yellowish/orange star called 31 Orionis.

Orion's belt and its surrounding meadow of stars can keep the binocular astronomer busy for hours.

Even though this evenings sky was washed out by moonlight, and my binoculars are one step away from the dustbin! (I must find myself a better set) it was a joy tonight to wander amongst the stars of the Three Kings.



Clear Skies

Mark.
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