Crescent Moon & Sleeping under the Stars..

After a few days of looking and waiting,  I've finally spotted the July crescent Moon.

Due to the location of this evening's Moon, I couldn't use Tal2 for observing.

I decided to give the 40mm refractor a chance at capturing some lunar light... 

The little scope performed admirably, and delivered some lovely views.

The weather in Pembrokeshire is still beautiful, so to take full advantage of it, Helen and I have been  sleeping outside under the stars.

These past three nights we've had the studio shed doors open, and we are both inside on the floor in sleeping bags.

Our heads are sticking out of the doorway, which affords us a spectacular view of the night sky..

Last night, at about 1p.m. we were disturbed by something lurking in the hedgerow, it turned out to be a hedgehog.. a very noisy hedgehog!  

Maybe he will be back again tonight to disturb our peace.. I do hope so.

Straw hats & Sol Sketching - July 8th 2013.

The skies are blue in Pembrokeshire, the Sun and I have definitely got our hats on today. 

This morning I managed the following Sol image.

Due to the air turbulence I had difficulty capturing a decent close up of AR1785.

I decided that as AR1785 was such a beauty I would try and attempt a sketch...

The initial sketch didn't really show the turbulence I was witnessing, so Photoshop came to the rescue.

I was able to create an image more in keeping with the eyepiece view.

All about the Sun.

Early this morning I was getting myself a glass of water from the kitchen.

I looked out the window, and suspended in the morning mist was one of the most beautiful sunrises that I've seen in a very long time.

This photo doesn't do it justice...  the Sun was a glorious shade of orange.

Pembrokeshire excelled herself this morning.

It looked as if the sun was caught on the nearby electrical power lines.

Here's a close up:

I was hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of active regions 1777 or 1775,  but nothing was seen.

Later in the day, I managed the following Solar picture:

                                   

Night time Daylight - No NLC.

Saturn has finally disappeared behind some rather large ash trees at the end of my neighbour's garden..

Not much astro activity at the moment, these past few evenings have been spent spying the waxing moon and glimpsing the odd double star through my powerful 40mm refractor. 

It's such a small scope, but it's fascinating to see how much of the night sky it can reveal. 

Here's an afocal image of the Moon from a few nights ago.. taken with the tiny 40mm refractor.

afocal image: 40mm "Leviathan" refractor.

Still no Noctilucent cloud sightings. 

It helps that the street lights to the North of our property now switch off after midnight. 

The picture below was taken a couple of evenings ago, at about 11.30pm. 

You could easily be fooled into thinking it was 11.30 am. 

Thanks to the county wide streetlight switch off, I now stand a better chance of seeing those beautiful ethereal Noctilucent Clouds "NLC".