Returning Subaru echoes the Autumn.

The Pleiads, rising thro the mellow shade,

Glitter like a swarm of fireflies

Tangled in a silver braid

Tennyson

 

A clear night with a whisper of a cooling breeze.

High up Vega is now noticeably Westward bound.

The Pleiades now spotted in the East.. here comes the Autumn.

There are many names given to this most wonderful of star clusters, The Seven Sisters, The Starry Seven, Children of Atlas, The Seven Atlantic Sisters, The Hen and her Chicks to name just a few.

But my favourite name for the Pleiades has to be the Japanese name of SUBARU.

 

The Japanese language contains some lovely astronomy related names e.g. Hoshi=Star, Hi=Sun, Tsuki=Moon, Milky Way=Ama-No-Gawa.

Viewing Subaru through 8x40 binoculars never fails to bring a smile to my face.

This cluster was made for binoculars. Subaru along with the Orion nebula can always guarantee a spontaneous WOW! followed by a dance around the garden.

Clear Skies

A Swift view of the Milky Way.

This evening’s sky was a delight , even with the nearby streetlights shining, the Milky Way stretched far and wide overhead.

At about 11.00pm I grabbed my Swift 8x40 binoculars and planted myself in the front garden.

Thanks to an earlier collimation my new binoculars were spilling out sharp pin-point stars in all directions.

My Swift Auburon 8x40’s cost £15 at a local bootsale, and I can highly recommend that particular model.

One thing is to always make sure that any prospective binoculars have collimation grub screws.  

These four tiny screws are easy to find (with a magnifying glass!) and are necessary to properly align the stereo view you see.

Without the ability to adjust this double view, you will quickly go cross-eyed and relegate the binos to the dustbin!

For astronomy usage I would never buy binoculars unless they have the four adjustment grub screws.

When I first tested the 8x40’s, I mounted them on a tripod and placed Arcturus in the field of view. 

I was rewarded with a lovely view of Arcturus and what appeared to be its identical twin! 

After a slight adjustment of all four grub screws, the double image of Arcturus merged back into one sharp starlight point.

Do they work?

Most definitely, so far I’ve had good views of M13, M33, M31, M81/82,  Kembles Cascade, the Sword Handle and The Coat Hanger.

Plus, ambling through the river of the Milky Way is a joy with those little 8x40’s.

Gibbous Moon and Chasing the ISS

 

 

This evening I took the Schmidt outside to spy the gibbous moon.

I wanted to have a good look at the Moon Maiden and Gassendi before they slipped behind the trees at the end of the garden.

After about ten minutes of viewing the moon slowly but surely slipped behind the blasted trees.

Never mind.... across I went to my favourite double Albireo.

With the 20mm Erfle in place I was able to distinguish the blue and yellow of this lovely double.

By defocusing the image the two stars exhibited an even stronger yellow and blue colour contrast.

Copernicus and Gassendi

Plato and the Moon Maiden

 Chasing the ISS

THEN..  in the west I noticed the International Space Station racing towards me.

I wondered if I would be able to capture its image in the Schmidt?



After a bit of frantic repositioning I centred the ISS in the field of view.. for about a SECOND!

I quickly tried to manually keep up with the ISS.

For several seconds I managed to see a decent image of what looked like two long horizontal bright bars, connected to a much shorter vertical bright bar.   

Did I see the space station, or was my brain playing tricks with me? 

I'm not sure, but at least what I saw was not the usual star like point of light, as seen through my binoculars.

Misty Solar Sunrise.

Up at 5.45am ...just missed the Sunrise.

 

Captured a few shots of our mist shrouded village.

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Last night we slept in the shed again. 

Around about midnight I spotted a lovely meteor trail.

The meteor started its journey around Vega and continued over towards Altair.

 

 

At around 02h30m I was awake again and watching a gibbous Moon as it perched itself on some nearby treetops. 

The air was still, no cars to be heard,  a beautiful calm morning.  

Spying on Venus.

This morning whilst waiting for the sunrise I spotted Venus shining brightly over towards the Haverfordwest area...  it looked amazing.

 

 

 

From the front garden it looked even better as it hovered above the rooftops.... 

 

What a beautiful start to the day.

  

iPhoto Solar Projection

 

Today I managed a quick solar projected image...

After a bit of processing using iPhoto software I was able to obtain this final image..

 

Clear Solar Skies

 

Mark

 

Astronomy from our garden shed.

 

Tonight the skies were beautifully clear. I decided to give the 40mm refractor a bit of an airing.

The crescent moon looked amazing as it hung over the nearby rooftops.

I was able to capture a few shots afocally with the digicam.

It was so warm that we decided to sleep in the garden shed, with our heads peeping out of the doorway.

 

The stars after midnight looked amazing, and thanks to the street lights being switched off we could easily see what looked to be Noctilucent clouds way out to the north.

 I haven't seen NLC's since July of 2009......!!!

No Schmidt telescope for me tonight, just the naked eye, a sleeping bag, a heart full of poetry and the stars above....

Clear Skies

Mark....