Pembrokeshire Astronomer

Since the beginning of November it has been slim pickings astronomy wise from here in Pembrokeshire. So few have been the clear nights, that one sticks out in my mind - it was the first week of November. The best night in November was the night of the 7 th   . I decided to concentrate on some Messier objects and put the Celestron through it’s paces. Celestron C8 SCT M57 was glorious, it shone brightly with averted vision.  My 20mm Erfle eyepiece did a grand job of teasing out the photons. M13 in Hercules was easy to locate in the finder scope.  The Erfle ep really revealed a lot of detail, a beautiful sparkling globular. I trained the finderscope onto nearby M92,   a vague hint of it could be detected.  The Erfle revealed a beautiful sparkling globular, not as big as M13, but well worth spending   time observing. M31 The Andromeda Galaxy was a magnificent sight high up above, near the top of the sky.  Nearby companions NGC 205 (or M110 if you prefer, I pr

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

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

    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 im

Up at 5.45am ...just missed the Sunrise.   Captured a few shots of our mist shrouded village. -----------   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.  

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.