Pembrokeshire Astronomer

The Plough - Join the dots. I set the telescope up at about 10.30 p.m. and waited for Mars to show its face from behind the trees at the end of the garden. While waiting I trained the scope on to a few Messier objects around the Plough. It would be the first time I had used this scope (305mm/f5) from my home location. Here are some of the observations I made last night: M-97 - The Owl Nebula . Stands out easily as a faint fuzzy patch!, though no doubt a darker sky background will add to the overall contrast. M-108 - Easily spotted in the 30mm eyepiece (x50) plus M97 was spotted in the same field of view. Move M108 to one side of the 30mm eyepiece field of view and you will find M97 at the other side of the field of view. M-51- The Whirlpool Galaxy . Considering that the sky background was not totally dark the whirlpool was easily found. Both fuzzy patches noted, with a hints of added surrounding nebulous detail. After spending some time circling the Plough, I s

Conversations with Selene extracts from my poetry journal ---------------   It is midnight and the culminating Moon looks down at me with inquisitive eyes. I stare back and shout "Shwt mae, Hello, how are you tonight?" The Moon whispered her reply ~ "You are such a tiny speck, a mere grain of cosmic sand in the ever present Galactic hour glass.. how is it that you are so small?" "But Moon", I replied "I am a GIANT!.. a COLOSSUS.. YOU to ME are small..  why, I can even place your full Moon face upon my thumb, and flick it like a coin" The Moon sulked.  I simply drank my chai tea, whilst overhead countless stars ebbed and flowed across the sea of the sparkling Milky Way. Sometime later I awoke to the sight of a red faced Moon dropping slowly into the west.  The darkened Moon smiled and whispered  "So long tiny speck of sand, see you later tonight, we will continue our talk then." "So lon

Jupiter and the Moon 17/04/16 I was feeling the cold tonight, so I decided to light the fire and grab myself some dandelion coffee.   Observing Luna would have to wait another night. Though I didn't entirely abandon the Moon. Before packing away the telescope I captured a few images of beautiful gibbous Selene. 17/04/2016 The above image is a bit blurred at the edges, this is due to the method of photo capture that I use. namely afocal photography. Best described with this photo: afocal photography Afocal photography is a brilliant way of capturing astro images, all you have to do is simply place the camera lens over the eyepiece of the telescope.  Though sometimes it can be a bit hit and miss. Tonight's lunar image was a bit miss around the lunar limb.  Blame it on camera shake from cold hands.   As I was packing away the telescope ominous dark clouds to the west were gathering and slowly rolling in for the night. Maybe si

Tonight a blackbird was perched on Gilbert's roof, singing a song for the Moon. A perfect evening to train the Jason refractor onto the waxing crescent. The nearby blackbird gently sang and the troubles of the world melted away.    

 Last night's Jupiter sketch. I didn't stay outside long last night as it was windy and cold.  There were also clouds looming on the western horizon, which is a sure sign of soon-to-be bad weather.  Within the hour it was raining and blowing.  Considering the amount of cloud cover this March, I have been lucky to capture several Jupiter drawings. ------------------------------------------  I've also managed a fair few solar sketches.  Here's a sample of my March solar sketches:

60mm'f15 Jason refractor - afocal 40mm Kellner eyepiece  This evening's lunar photo, taken with the Jason refractor. Earlier in the day I managed to make a sketch of Sol.   I brilliant day for astronomy...... later in the evening a thin hazy sea mist crept over the village, blocking out much detail on the planet Jupiter.  So... no planetary sketching tonight. But it was still an amazing evening for all West Wales astronomers..

The Great Red Spot could be seen, it exhibited to my eye, an orange/red hue.  Overall the image was "mushy" at x225. A beautiful day with lots of bird song, and blue skies, Spring is finally springing.     Earlier in the evening  managed two images, one of the Jason refractor eyeing up the Moon. The other was an afocal image of Luna taken with the 40mm Kellner and Jason. Clear Spring skies

The Schmidt C8 behaved last night and returned some lovely views of the gas giant.  The evening was cold, with not a hint of a breeze to disturb the viewing. I managed to grab myself the above sketch of Jupiter.  Earlier in the evening the crescent Moon had been busy looking gorgeous over in the west. The viewfinder of the Jason refractor revealed the crescent. I then captured an image of the crescent Moon afocally through the Jason refractor. It was a great evening for observing, probably the clearest evening we have had since last October! Fingers crossed for more. Clear Skies Mark