Shining Bees & Whirling Galaxies...on a cold night in March.

The sky was clear and cold, the stars were shining, and my eyes were adapting to the darkness.

Armed with my trusty 8x30's I decided to search for a few Messier open clusters....

M44 "The Beehive Cluster' high up in the South was the first target... in the 8x30's it was a breathtaking sight.

The bees were certainly busy tonight, each one a sparkling icy white.

I panned down slightly to M67, which is a somewhat vague smudge of light in the 8x30's, but still very much worth a look.

Next.... up and over to Auriga....

This constellation held my gaze for several minutes as I took in the view of M37, M36 and M38... all in the same field of view.

Across to M35 in Gemini....  

M35 was just visible to my naked eye, many stars were visible through the binoculars.

Considering it is of visual magnitude 5.2, I was really pleased to see M35 with the naked eye from my slightly light polluted village. 

Next....Over to the Double Cluster in Perseus.... They were a bit disappointing tonight in the 8x30's. 

This was mainly due to a nearby street light throwing up an orange glare towards the direction of the cluster.  

At other times of the year the Double Cluster looks wonderful.....blasted street lights...!!!!

Then a quick look at the Hyades.... 

Whenever I search out the Hyades I get side tracked into gazing at Aldebaran, such a beautiful orange, which always has a mesmerising effect...

It was very cold tonight in Simpson Cross,  I was wearing my fingerless gloves, and the tips of my fingers were suffering for being out in the open... 

Before I escaped back to the open fire of our living room I decided to give Tal1 a quick walk around the the handle of the Plough...  

Seeing that the Plough was almost on the roof of the sky, and away from much of any possible light pollution,  I was hoping to glimpse M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy.

Tonight M51 turned out to be an easy target for Tal1. With the 25mm plossl I could clearly see both M51 and it's companion galaxy, plus a slight haze, mostly around M51.

Both M51 and companion took on a comet like appearance. 

No wonder Messier made up his list of objects to avoid... 

The cold weather finally beat me.... :0)

The night had finally got the better of me and the cold was too much....

In the East I could see a faint glow in the trees, I soon realised it must be the Moon waiting to make an appearance. 

Just above the trees Virgo was tentatively tip toeing across our neighbour's treeline...... 

When the temperature rises I might be able to sit awhile and draw those clusters, for now I've added a couple of sketches from memory......  Roll on the warmer weather.....

I said goodnight to Tal1, closed up the observatory ....  and left the night to the Moon and stars....

My hands really appreciated that warming open fire.....  :0)

First Light, PANSTARRS... Big Bino convert..

Yesterday evening near sunset, a bank of heavy black cloud lay to the North, but the North West through to the South was fairly clear....... I was  hoping for a chance to glimpse the comet.

I decided to head off to one of Pembrokeshire's best observing sites, a small car park named Maidenhall near Newgale.

This elevated site has a wonderful 360 degree view, especially out towards the sea.

Another good reason to visit Maidenhall last night was to meet up with friend and fellow astronomer Andrew Merrick, who was also hoping to see "First Light" on Comet Panstarrs.

Andrew had already set up his 72mm refractor, and right next to the scope was a lovely pair of 25x100 binoculars.....

The skies behaved perfectly; the Moon and Jupiter were visible, the stars slowly switched on and the cloud bank to the NW was fairly low... ideal conditions for finding Panstarrs......

But where was it....? ....  We both searched and scanned the horizon.... and then searched some more......nothing to be seen...!!!

Then finally Andrew snagged the comet in the refractor....

My little 8x30 binos were not up to the task, and I would have been searching in vain for much of the session....

Andrew's 25x100 binos were a different matter...

The Big Binos delivered a beautiful image of the dust tail, and the coma was very striking.

The overall big binocular view left a lasting impression.

Earlier this evening to mark the event, I made a Panstarrs sketch for my astro log book.

I've always fancied a pair of Big Binos, but I wasn't sure if they would deliver.

Thanks to several views of the comet, M42 and M45 last night, I'm now a Big Bino convert..


It was great to catch up with Andrew and his family......

I hope to meet up with him again soon at Maidenhall....... maybe next month for some Saturn observing.....

Twinkling Sirius and Messier March.

Not much to report for the last couple of weeks.

The night skies haven't been too bad, but the evenings have been really cold.  We have had a couple of frosty nights, perfect for spying the twinkling stars.

My favourite twinkling star on the frosty evenings has always been Sirius; when viewed through a slightly out of focus telescope Sirius puts on a lovely rainbow light-show of swirling colours.

This past fortnight it was nice to simply go outside on those few cold evenings and just look up at the stars without running to find my sketch book or camera.

If the weather allows, I intend this month to dig out the binoculars and search out some of those Messier objects.

Tal1 will be having a rest for the month of March.

Plus, fingers crossed for Comet PANSTARRS, lets hope it puts on a good show for all .


Last night I rolled back the observatory roof and grabbed a quick sketch of Jupiter.

I've enjoyed sketching Jupiter these past few months, and I'm looking forward next month to spending some time with Saturn.

Between the Comet and the Messiers, and a bit of twinkling starlight, I reckon March is going to be an interesting month of observation.

Fly by Fred.

I was pleasantly surprised that the media didn't whip up a doomsday prophecy about the recent fly by of asteroid 2012 DA14  -   or "Fly by Fred" as I liked to call it.  

Fred was some 50 metres wide and the estimated mass was around 190,000 metric tons.

Last Friday, this peripatetic lump of rock came within 17,200 miles of our lovely blue planet Earth!

Even though I didn't want to meet Fred close up, I was more than happy to just shout hello to him from a distance.

I'm so glad he didn't decide to drop in for a cup of tea.

Fred is somewhere up there.

Being ONLY 50 metres long, and at a minimum Earth distance of some 17,200 miles meant that Fred was below the naked eye visibility. 

So I grabbed my binoculars and meteor deckchair and was outside around 9.00pm eager to glimpse some space rock.

I also brought along the Nikon DSLR to capture some shots.

At five minute intervals I was hoping I might be able to capture an image of Fred's wanderings as he traversed the Ursa Major region of the skies..

No joy, not one of the photos showed the slightest hint of the asteroid, nor did I see anything through the binoculars.    

But still a very pleasant way to spend half an hour under the stars.

Io casts a shadow.

Last night there was an Io transit, between 20h 48m UT - 22h 48m UT.

Perfect timing, as the skies were cloud free.

With help from my old friend Tal1, I managed the above sketch......

Io was clearly visible, hovering as it did above the South Equatorial belt....

That little Tal1 always makes me smile...... for example:  Io is about the same size as our Moon, plus it's some 430 million miles away at the moment, yet my little Russian scope can see the shadow it casts onto Jupiter's clouds....  !

All done with a 110mm mirror.....!!  :0)

I'm looking forward to capturing the other three Galilean moons.....  

Clear Jupiter Skies

Mark...

..

The Gwdihw serenades the Gibbous Moon...

Early yesterday evening the clouds filled the skies, I thought there was to be no observing .....  thankfully I was wrong.

At around 10.00pm the clouds parted, and the gibbous Moon and Jupiter could be seen softly shining through a thin veil of mist. 

Due to the brightness of the Moon, I could only make out a handful of stars.

To the South, Sirius was peeping through the trees, Procyon was shining happily above the tree line, whilst Orion was snagged almost waist height in the tops of the trees at the end of the garden.

To the North, I could make out the shape of the Plough and also Polaris.

Kochab and Pherkad "the Guardians of the Pole" were also prominent.  

Apart from spotting Aldebaran and Capella; not much else of the starry night could be seen.. my targets for the evening where.... Jupiter and the Moon....

The 13 day waxing Moon was bright enough for my observations to be noted without the need of torch or candle....

After taking several shots of the Moon with the Tal1, and digicam, I moved onto trying a sketch of Jupiter...

Unfortunately Jupiter wasn't in a cooperative mood.  

Very little detail of the planet's belts were seen through the eyepiece...

But to make up for the lack of planetary detail... I was rewarded with a lovely arrangement of the Galilean moons.....

I was in and out of the observatory for about half an hour. In that time the mist cleared enough to reveal a clearer Moon, but no extra stars were seen... 

In the distance on the village boundary, I could hear an owl calling to the night....  serenading to the bright Moon no doubt... I was glad to once again hear the song of the Gwdihw*

It's officially Full Moon on Sunday morning around 5.00am.....

No doubt, like many others Luna-tics, I'll be awake early Sunday morning staring out of the bedroom window looking at lovely Selene.. 

Clear Lunar Skies 

Mark......

*The Welsh word for owl is Tylluan... but there is an alternative Welsh word....  Gwdihw... pronounced "Goody Who".

Clarkson on the Moon....

I felt the cold last night in the observatory ...especially in my feet...

Even though the observatory floor is made of wood, I could feel the chill rising up through my boots....

I think it's time to put on some thicker socks.

Never mind, it was worth the discomfort to capture the gibbous Moon...  :0)

Along the terminator last night Gassendi was most prominent. A friend once commented that Gassendi looked very much like a tortoise or maybe a turtle.

You can easily see the shape of a tortoise, with the crater Gassendi A being the tortoise's head...

I prefer to use the alternative name for Gassendi A .... that being Clarkson.

Roland Clarkson (1889-1954) was a lunar astronomer from Suffolk UK.

Between 1906 and 1954 Roland spent may years dedicated to the pursuit of lunar observing and sketching.

Then in early 1954, in recognition of his many years of  lunar study and sketching, the crater Gassendi A was renamed in his honour.




Unfortunately the International Astronomical Union has since removed the name of Clarkson as it was felt that he wasn't well known internationally....!!!!

What a load of nonsense...!!

I will continue to use the name "Clarkson' in memory of this most prolific of Moon mappers.... :0)

Clear Lunar Skies

Mark.... 

Gibbous Moon, igloos - it's warm by the fire.

Around 8.00pm the clouds cleared to reveal a lovely gibbous Moon high up in the sky.

After training the Tal1 onto the lunar surface, I was able to capture these afocal shots with the digicam:

Through the eyepiece at X169 the central mountain peaks of Eratosthenes, distinctly look like three tiny domes - maybe they're igloos built by the Selenites !

At x169 Clavius looked beautiful through the Tal1 - I was inspired to try a quick sketch.

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Jupiter Observation

I also managed to capture the gas giant in graphite.

It was cold out there in the observatory tonight, half an hour was enough for me.

After making the Jupiter sketch it was time to pack up, and get back to the warm fire in the living room.