Moonlight on the western wall and a touch of blue.

Last week was spent at a friends' smallholding. I had no telescopes, no binoculars and most importantly no streetlights...!

The skies were clear, the Moonlight shone on the west facing wall of our friends' house,  there was no sodium glare to spoil the show..  I recall one evening..... just gone midnight....

I was tired and fast falling asleep, but outside in the dim moonlit night Cassiopeia was shining brightly...  and it was on my mind to capture an image... 

I grabbed the camera, and propped it against the north facing window and took maybe ten shots, all with approximately six seconds of exposure.

As I was half asleep, the lens wasn't in focus, but the image that I post above conveyed the mood of that most wonderful of constellations.

It was great to simply drink in the night sky without the need of objective glass or reflector, plus the total absence of streetlighting was wonderful.

 Yesterday's reflected Sunlight. 

Yesterday I managed a Solar image, but unlike my usual yellow tinted images, this time I added a touch of blue.

Clear Skies.

Maybe Dione, could be Tethys..... definitely Halley's globular.

The clouds rolled in early this evening, bang went my chance of sketching Saturn. or so I thought.

At about 10.00pm UT the clouds moved away to reveal a beautiful night sky.

After training Tal2 onto Saturn I tried out the 25mm plossl, along with the Tal x4 Barlow.. Perfect.

Titan and Rhea stood out really well. 

Just below Rhea, I could make out a third satellite, it was winking in and out of view. either Dione or Tethys, I'm not sure which.

Next time I hope to capture that third satellite properly.

Also Tal2 got it's first look at a globular cluster, namely M13 in the constellation of Hercules.

The Astronomer Edmond Halley is credited with the discovery of this cluster in 1714.

Although.. being that M13 is within naked eye visual range, I guess countless stargazers of ancient times looked up and pondered on that distant speck of light.

Last night's Saturn sketching.

 

I've been waiting for weeks to have a decent view of Saturn..

Last night I was rewarded with a fair view of the ringed planet.

I firstly tried out the 15mm kellner with the x4 Barlow (x315), this was unsuccessful, the image was poor.

Then I tried the Barlow with the 25mm eyepiece (x190)..  this combination was perfect for last night's Pembrokeshire Skies.

The seeing wasn't brilliant, but at least I was able to detect slight surface detail, albeit very fleeting.

The Cassini Division was less pronounced than usual, but all things considered I was more than happy with the view.

My intention for the session was to make a sketch of Saturn.

 

At the x190 magnification Titan and Rhea could easily be seen.

May is usually a good month in Pembrokeshire for clear seeing, the heat hazes of the Summer months haven't yet arrived.

With a bit of luck we might have some turbulence free planet watching ahead of us.

Here's a recent photograph I took of Saturn..... I think I'll stick to sketching.

First light for Tal2.

 First Light for the Tal2, what better target than tonight's lovely gibbous Moon.

The Tal2 is noticeably showing more detail at higher magnification.

Plus the motordrive keeps everything centred long enough for me to attempt some detailed sketching.

After trying to split Algieba it became apparent that I need to spend some time cleaning and realigning the primary mirror.  That will have to wait a few days.

For now I'm more than happy to capture the lunar light.

The Seed Moon is on the rise... Deckchairs at the ready.

Tonight's eight day old Moon, captured (afocal) with my Tal1 Newtonian.

In folklore this month's Moon is sometimes called the "Seed Moon", well named and appropriate, as tomorrow afternoon Helen and I will be in the greenhouse sowing our garden seeds.

The deckchairs will be out tomorrow night for some Lyrid meteor observing.

I wonder how much of the event will be washed out by the gibbous Moon..?....

Essential April Meteor Shower Equipment:

Woolly hat, scarf, gloves, a hot water bottle and blanket, plus a flask of chai tea.  

Clear Skies

Mark.

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.

-----------------------------

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.

Jupiter sketching under a hazy sky...

I was out observing Jupiter yesterday evening, specifically looking for the Great Red Spot, which was transiting the Central Meridian at about 21h53m UT.

I was in the observatory about twenty minutes before that C.M. Transit, with pencil and paper at the ready.

During the observing session, I couldn't confirm that I saw the GRS, but there was a distinct gap in the South Equatorial Belt, which I figured was most likely due to the paler colouring of the GRS.

It was a  hazy evening with mostly only 1st and 2nd magnitude stars on show. 

By about 10pm the haze and clouds finally blotted out the stars. 

I've a few lunar pictures from earlier in the evening to put on, but they can wait till the next post.

Last Night's Jupiter sketch.

Seeing: Antoniadi III

Last night was cold and windy, and the fast moving clouds were also playing havoc with my Jupiter observations.

Tal1 did a good job of dampening down the vibrations of the gusting wind - even at X169 the image was pretty well vibration free.

I decided to make a brief sketch and then get back to the warm fire as quickly as possible to draw up my results.

Here is the finished sketch in pencil.

Tal1 captures the Great Red Spot.

Just before supper last night, I had a quick look through the telescope.

Jupiter was shining brightly over in the East, so I trained the scope onto the King of the planets.

With the 15mm Kellner and X3 Barlow I was able to up the magnification to X169.

Considering the pretty poor seeing I was surprised to see any detail on the gas giant.

Whilst observing I thought I saw the great red spot.

It was only just visible through my 110mm reflector.

Messier Revisited.

This year I'm hoping to sketch a lot more of the Messier objects list - using the Tal1. 

To get me started, I've reworked a couple of my sketches from last years collection.

Also I've added a photo of the Pleiades that I took; I think back in November.  

I'll have to dig through my CD's to find the actual date.

I've had Tal1 for nearly two years, and in that time I've not as yet attacked the Messier list with any real conviction.

Over the years I've seen many of the Messier objects through various telescopes, but it will be interesting to see what the mighty Russian reflector is capable of.

With Tal1 as company it will be nice to revisit some of my Messier favourites.

I'm expecting mostly to make sketches of my Messier-Tal1 findings, but sometimes it will be easier just to train our Nikon D50+ 300mm lens onto my intended target.

The picture below of M45 was taken with our 70-300mm telephoto lens.

I wonder if the 300mm lens will capture the Beehive Cluster ?

The Messier Album an observer's handbook.

One book that is indispensible if you're chasing the Messier objects is, The Messier Album an observer's handbook by John H. Mallas and Evered Kreimer.

John H. Mallas visually observed and sketched the Messier's with a lovely 4" Unitron refractor. 

Whilst Evered Kreimer photographed the Messier's with his 12.5 inch Cave reflector...again another beautiful looking instrument.

Between these two astronomers, they managed to produce a beautifully illustrated and informative book. 

John H. Mallas's sketches in particular give a wonderful representation of what you will actually see through most small telescopes with the naked eye. Equally Evered Kreimer's black & white photographs are really impressive ... 

Most of the photos in this book are black & white.

Although there are 16 pages in the back that contain colour pictures of the Messier objects, from several other amateur astronomers. 

In total the volume runs to some 230 pages.

Plus if you look on Amazon, you can pick this up for only only a few pounds.

If I was only allowed one Messier book on my shelf this would be the one.

Astronomy by Candlelight.. Happy New Year...

I do a have a red safelight in the observatory, but I find no reason to hook it up and use it...

The reason being...... I enjoy candlelight.....

The soft subdued glow of the naked flame imparts a feeling of warmth that no red safety light is able to do.

Also when my hands feel a bit cold, I move them for a while closer to the flame.

Now if I could also run my RA drive on mechanicals, be it a wind up clock, or maybe a falling weight, then that would be my perfect astronomy set up.

Sir Patrick Moore... you will be missed.

It was with much sadness on Sunday that I learnt of the passing of Sir Patrick Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS.

Since the winter of 1976 Patrick Moore has been a constant companion on my astronomical journey.

I must have been about nine years old when I was first allowed to stay up late to watch the Sky at Night.

I was hooked from the first episode.

From the opening title music of Sibelius's At the Castle Gate...the simple studio props, the fascinating interviews, and especially the wonderful enthusiasm and eccentricity of Mr Moore, how could I not be hooked.

Often at the end of an episode Patrick would mention that a newsletter/factsheet was available.

To obtain this A4 information sheet,  you simply sent off a stamped addressed envelope to the BBC.

Whenever Patrick mentioned it was newsletter time, I couldn't get to a post box fast enough to send off my SAE.


Back in April of 2005 my wife, our son Jac and I were lucky enough to meet Patrick Moore, at his home in Selsey.

We could not have had a warmer welcome.

He gave me one of his books, which he signed, a gift I will always cherish.

It was a day I will never forget.

RIP Sir Patrick Moore.

For Patrick...

Early this morning Helen and I set out to capture a shot of Mercury, Venus and the crescent Moon.

This is the one of the shots that was taken. It was a beautiful morning, with frost on the ground.

Morning Star Mercury & Co, over Haverfordwest...

Early this morning I grabbed the Nikon D50, plus a small tripod and headed off for an astro adventure.

I decided to walk to the outskirts of our village to afford myself a better view of Mercury..

From our garden I have no chance of seeing Mercury if it's in the East; there are too many trees and especially too many houses barring any possible view...

After setting up the camera I was lucky enough to capture this image of all three planets.....  seconds later some passing clouds snuffed out Mercury's light.

Mercury-Venus-Saturn : 06h:49m 

I then moved to a better location, about 200 yards further along.....

Now I had an uninterrupted view towards the East.

The lights of Haverfordwest were twinkling in the distance.

Mercury was once again free of the clouds, and I witnessed a beautiful celestial display of all three planets.... plus my favourite named star... Zubenelgenubi.

Mercury-Zubenelgenubi-Venus-Saturn: 06h:56m UT

There were loads of clouds to the West, but luckily the East was fairly cloud free, at least in the parts of the sky that mattered to my observations....

Mercury over Haverfordwest  07:05 UT

Happy Mercury hunting....

Clear Skies

Mark

Jupiter on my mind ~ plus echoes of Mr Herschel.

Afocal method

Last night I tried a bit of afocal photography with my little Hitachi DZHV582E digicam.

I've had this little camera for about 18 months, and in that time I reckon it's been used practically everyday for one thing or another. Mostly it's used to capture my solar pictures and videos.

If you ever see one of these little cameras.. .grab it... it's ideal for afocal photography.

Well worth the intial £40 I paid for it.

Capturing the Jovian Light...

I trained the Tal1 onto Jupiter and placed the 25mm plossl plus x3 Barlow in the focuser.

This gave me a magnification of x96, anymore and the image started to degrade.

I then simply placed the camera over the eyepiece (afocal method) and over exposed the shot to capture the Jovian moons

As many amateurs know, by exposing for the satellites I completely washed out any detail in the actual planet -  as you can see in this picture.

Over Exposed

I then under exposed the next shot to capture the detail in the planet  as shown here.

Under Exposed

After some copy/paste and a bit of further tweaking, I managed to secure this final image.

Now that I've figured out the camera and photoshop settings, I will be able to log many more Jupiter images on this blog.


Musings on the perfect planetary reflector:

Jupiter has always been a difficult planet to view and photograph with my small Tal1 telescope.

But considering the size of the Tal1 main mirror (110mm) I'm not going to complain.

For many years I've wondered about making a small planetary-only reflector.

Much has been written about the merits of a 6 inch f12 spherical mirror reflector.

Many say this type of telescope would be ideal for planetary work.

Plus a spherical mirror would hopefully be easier to produce with these Welsh hands.

Mr Herschel's 6 .2 inch/f13 reflector

I've a mind to try making a 6 inch f12 reflector.


I've read that Sir William Herschel made, and favoured a 6.2 inch f13 reflector.

If it was good enough for Mr Herschel, then it's good enough for me.

Mornings, Evenings and Messiers...

Venus and the crescent Moon looked stunning this morning....  

I really enjoy the early mornings of Pembrokeshire's October and November, they seem to have more than their fair share of clear skies. 

I've noticed that over the last six years;  no matter how bad the weather may be the night before,  there's a good chance of being cloud free in the hour just before the dawn.

Often in the months of October and November I have been lulled to sleep courtesy of a howling Atlantic South Westerly storm; only to wake at around 5.00 am to the sight of starlight.

Usually after about a hour the clouds roll in....... and once again the Atlantic bellows....

So for the next two months I will be looking for that early morning window of starlit opportunity...

Fingers crossed.....

This evening's viewing log:

I didn't expect the stars to be out tonight......  I was wrong....  :0)

Straight into the observatory...roll back the roof and time to chase a couple of Messiers.

I've been meaning to catalogue the Messier list, in a series of sketches. 

Tonight I was able to add two to the list....

M71 was first on the list,. it took me a little while to find it as I was distracted by nearby Gamma Delphinus. 

Gamma Delphinus is one of my favourites; a beautiful lemon and lime green double...well worth a look. 

Tonight though, the seeing wasn't up to much, and poor old Gamma Delphinus looked a bit washed out.  

In fact tonight's star views were pretty awful...  though the two globulars I sketched stood out quite well considering....

Two sketches completed, only another 107 to go....  !!!