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.!

Trying out my old digicam.

Last night, the gibbous Moon shone down over Crymych, I set up the small refractor and experimented a bit with my trusty old digicam. 

The same camera I used for taking many of my solar pictures back in 2011-2013.

Considering the camera has been kept in a drawer for the past few years, it still worked well. 

With luck, the transit next week will be within the grasp of the little refractor.

This morning I made a quick sketch of last night's Moon (Mare Imbrium region).

Today has been the first noticeably cold damp day this autumn, time to put the heating on!

As soon as the Sun allows, I will be outside with telescope and digicam capturing Sol.


Clear Skies

That perfect 1970s evening.

Waiting patiently for the Moonrise.

The lunar eclipse was upon us:

The evening clouds held to the west, the eastern skies were clear.

It was time for the eclipse to unfold. 

All we had to do now, was wait for the Moon to make an appearance.

Sitting patiently in the camper van, waiting for the eclipse to begin.

We parked up just outside the sleepy village of Hermon, all was quiet, a hush that only eclipses bring descended over the Pembrokeshire countryside.

This was to be the quietest lunar eclipse I have witnessed in many a year.

The last really quiet lunar eclipse was back in February of 2008, but that was in the early hours of the morning, when most people were asleep.  

The stillness of this evening, the quiet countryside, the subtle colours of the darkening sky, all added up to remind me of my childhood astro observing, way back near the end of the 1970s.

Back then astronomy was different from what it is today.. How?

Well, the skies were clearer, with fewer aeroplanes, less contrails, less turbulence.

Back then the stars did seem sharper, the winters were definitely colder, and the light pollution was non existent in this part of the country.

Tonight's sky had all of those attributes going for it.

Tonight was that perfect 1970s evening.

Touch the stars

Haven't posted a blog post since December!.... wow, the months have flown past. 

Here's one of my favourite  episodes from The Sky at Night.

This episode was recorded back (1977) when Pembrokeshire had beautiful light pollution free skies.

Pembrokeshire has pretty good night skies now, but compared to the pristine skies of my childhood, the Milky Way is but a ghost of its former self. 

Years ago the winter stars seemed to be within arms reach, you could almost touch them. 

The Milky Way used to glow with an ethereal brilliance. 

I could talk (rant) for hours about the dangers of light pollution..

Thankfully you don't have to listen to my diatribe. There is a book that will explain it all.

If you want a good read about the problems of light pollution, 

I  highly recommend "The End of Night" by Paul Bogard.

Earth-grazing Geminids.

Picture credit: Robert Ayton *

This years Geminid meteor shower will reach its peak early this coming Thursday morning (about 2.00am).

Most of the meteors between midnight and dawn on the 14th will be fast moving and have a comparatively short trail.

Beautiful to see..... But as always I'm hoping to see the so called Earth-grazers, those early evening meteors that skim the longest path across our atmosphere, much brighter and slower moving than the later evening/early morning main display.

Over the years I have seen several Earth-grazers, or bolides/fireballs as they are also called.

In my experience, the best time for a chance to see the Earth-grazers seems to be the early evenings a few days before and after the Geminid peak.

A few years ago I spotted a bright bolide breaking into what looked like three distinct separate meteors, I was on Newgale beach at the time looking east....Even though the Sun had not long set,  daylight was still very much evident..

That particular bolide was clearly seen in a blue sky, imagine how bright it would have been in the darkness!

Picture source: Sky & Telescope

Most of the fireballs/bolides I have seen have been in the month of December, and apart from being very bright and slow moving, to my eye they had a tinge of green in them.

For the next week, as the night descends, I'll be wrapping up warm, keeping as far away from streetlights as possible and directing my gaze eastwards.

If memory serves, most of my sightings of the Earth grazers have occurred between Sunset and about 8.00pm

Now all we need is a few clear night!


Good luck , lets hope we see some celestial fireworks.

* Robert Ayton was the artist who illustrated that beautiful little Ladybird book "The Night Sky" 

Author: Mary T. Bruck.

Leonids over dark skies 2018

Waldo Stone - photo: Helen Lee

We stayed the night out on Rhosfach common, perfect for astronomy, no light pollution, no street lights and plenty of open sky .

I was dozing for most of the evening and at around 01h30m I ventured outside to do a bit of Leonid fishing.

Within a couple of minutes a sporadic meteor was spotted out towards Orion, followed quickly by a sporadic over near Gemini.

It was cold outside with a slight breeze, but not noticeably freezing. Within the next minute  I spotted my first Leonid, a moderate to fast moving streak of greenish tinged flame shooting  towards the Plough.

This classic shooting star was unmistakeably a Leonid, the ionized trail was some 5 degrees in length and eminated from the direction of Leo.

I only stayed outside for about twenty minutes, in that time I spotted six meteors, only two of them were obvious Leonids.

After twenty minutes the cold night started to bite,  time to get back to the warmth of the camper van.

Looking forward to the Geminids next month.

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.