Analogue vs Digital.

A typical analogue Haiku capture device.

Computers love them or Hate them, they are here to stay.

I love the computer, I hate the computer, I don't want a computer, I need a computer!!

Never happy with the digital, always a niggling in the back of the mind that I'm being conned into accepting the tablets, iphones, WiFi, Internet etc.

I realise I'm being a hypocrite, for here I am typing away on a laptop, and posting on a blog.

No matter... I use the computer like I use a car. It gets me from A to B.

But a typewriter is a whole different machine. 

Those old analogue type machines have a life of their own.

Clunky keys, smooth keys, no electric or batteries required. 

Always ready to type, low maintenance, plus they can withstand lots of key bashing. 

Plus, if you happen to tip a whole mug of tea over a typewriter it will more than likely continue to happily punch out words.  Try that with a laptop, and you can guess what would happen!.

The laptop I write on will probably last a couple of years, if I look after it!

My old "Baby Empire" typewriter on the other hand is already 83 years old and still going strong.

Is the climate changing?

An entry from one of my favourite astronomy books "The Stars Night by Night" by Joseph H. Elgie.

This is his journal entry for May 1st 1907!  113 years ago to the day....WOW!

Climate change concern has been around for longer than I thought !


Also note how climate change was apparently an "old, old question" even back in 1907 !

Henry Hatfield's Spectrohelioscope - 1985

I love this whole video, from the subject matter, to the pace of Henry Hatfield's delivery, a classic.

Thank you to the amateur astronomer Martin Mobberley for putting this video on YouTube.

N.B. If you ever want to read a great biography about the late great Sir Patrick Moore, Martin has written the definitive story of his life. (two volumes)
www.amazon.co.uk/Martin-Mobberley

Well worth reading.

Trawling the old photos

Staying at home for obvious reasons at the moment, with plenty of time on my hands to trawl through some old astronomy pictures and sketches.

Over the next few days/weeks/Months! I will put on several posts of bygone astro images.

Here are a few to start with:

Above photo showing the projection method of observing the Sun. 

The telescope used was a 6 inch Tal2 reflector, a great white light solar scope. 

Also really good for observing Saturn.

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Notice the four distinct craters along the terminator between the five and six o'clock positions:

Crater names: from left to right: Furnerius, Petavius, Vendelinus, Langrenus  (the chain of four).

Best seen around third day after a New Moon.

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Above photo taken at a friends smallholding, some five years ago.. I think! 

I wrote an Englyn poem to compliment the photo.

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Final image, a sunspot picture I took, using my trusty old Tal1 reflector. 

It may have only been a 4 inch reflector, but it delivered some beautiful views of the Sun (with proper filters fitted.) 

Plus some great views of Mars at opposition.

Sadly though, this telescope was not much use for observing Jupiter. 

Clear Skies, Stay safe.

First sunspot of the year - for me at least.

You can just make out the spot, just off centre of the image.

Granted not the best picture, but I'm happy just to be outside solar imaging again.

The little 70mm refractor is not that brilliant for solar photography, especially if your aim is good quality solar photos, but it is ideal for projecting and sketching the sunspots.

November the 7th 2019  was the last time time I viewed a sunspot, happy to see one today.

Lets hope 2020 reveals many more sunspots..

December frost and Venus returns

Through the viewfinder

The first day of December and the skies are blue over Pembrokeshire.

Also the winter frost is upon us, a welcome sight, considering the deluge of rain these past couple of weeks... Thank you sky gods !

Venus make a welcome  return tonight, haven't seen her for several months.

Pulled out the old Hitachi digicam and captured a few Venus shots.

Venus amongst the trees

She dipped down under the Preseli hills at around 5.15pm, leaving behind a beautiful crescent Moon.

A perfect evening for all Pembrokeshire Astronomers

Nos da Venus 

A good start to this Christmas month.

Mercury Transit from Cardigan

We have been waiting to witness a Mercury transit for many a year, always the weather has misbehaved ... not today!

The transit began at 12.35pm and went on for about five hours.

The huge scudding black and white clouds hampered the viewing session, which meant that between 12.35pm and 2.00pm I only managed about five minutes of actual observing..... it was a perfect five minutes.

The little refractor and digicam behaved beautifully, and returned several photos that I later processed. 

The results can be seen on this blog post.

We decided to go to Cardigan, as I reckoned the weather would be kinder to us. 

It was a great afternoon, some people stopped and asked what was going on, a few had a quick peep at the little planet's progress, plus we met up with a dear friend and drank tea in the camper van. 

By 2.00pm it was obvious that the clouds were winning the day, so we slowly packed up.

Cardigan was completely clouded out for the May 2016 Mercury transit, but today's Cardigan allowed that small five minute window.  

Diolch Aberteifi.!