Sunday 31 July 2016

Perseids.. just around the corner..


It's that time of year again... the Perseids are back.

Every August the deck chairs are dragged out of the shed, and the chai tea is prepared.

Then, for the next few weeks the Perseid meteor shower will be much on my mind.

This annual celestial fireworks display is probably one of my favourite naked eye astronomical events.

The peak of this year's event will be on the evening of the 11th into the early hours of the 12th.

Which for me means pulling an all night observing session through until early day break.

With any luck the skies will be clear, and I will be completely exhausted from my all night vigil.

The Perseid shower is one of the best meteor showers to observe.

Many people are on holiday at this time of year, so staying up all night is less of a problem.

Plus the weather is usually warmer, meaning we can all sit outside for longer periods of time.

Though you will usually still need some warm clothing at hand for observations between midnight and Sun up the next day.

  
Capturing the Perseids
28mm -  f3,5 - 1600ISO - 45 seconds

This image was taken with a digital SLR camera, with around 45 seconds of exposure.

The trouble I find with digital SLR cameras is that the shutter staying open for long periods of time is dependant on the condition of the battery. 

I don't trust the battery to perform for the long exposures that I require.

Plus, leaving a camera out all evening might allow night dew to find its way into the camera body.

The last thing an electronic digital camera wants is water ingress across its circuits!

Zenit 35mm SLR
This year to avoid that possible headache I'm going to set up my old mechanical "no battery required" Russian Zenit 35mm film camera.

If need be I can leave the Zenit shutter open all evening without a problem.

Those Russian cameras are built to last.

Leaving a £500 digital camera out overnight on a tripod is not something I would happily try.

But leaving a £5 Zenit "tank" outside overnight is not a problem.

With any luck over the next couple of weeks, I will capture several "long exposure" meteor trails.

Final thoughts:
Even though it will be fun to capture the Perseids, I don't aim to be spending that much time fussing and fiddling with cameras, tripods and film.


For me the enjoyment of meteor watching is simple.

Grab yourself a good deckchair, failing that a decent dry grassy spot and sit back and ponder the Universe.

For many of us, our daily lives are saturated with stress and fear.

We all need quiet moments to recharge and reflect.

These warm August "Meteor" nights allow us that time to recharge, reflect and dream.

Vincent Van Gogh had it right when he said:

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. Vincent Van Gogh
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/vincentvan385867.html
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. Vincent Van Gogh
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/vincentvan385867.html
“I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream".

Saturday 23 July 2016

Two Sun Dogs in the sky.



Whilst driving home last night, Helen noticed a familiar, but not often seen sight in the sky....
.... a Sun dog.!

These subtle patches of brightness can appear at anytime of year, though usually in Pembrokeshire, January, July and August seem to be the times that I have mostly noticed them.

The sun dogs are produced by a dance between sunlight and ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Those ice crystals act like prisms and re-scatter the sunlight into the colourful light show you can see in the above photograph.

Usually I only ever see the one sun dog, but opposite and equidistant, if you are lucky, you will find another one.



I have spotted a single sun dog on several occasions, but yesterday seeing both together was amazing.

We have Sun dogs, noctilucent clouds, rainbows, Sunsets, Sunrises, Moonrises and Moonsets, plus countless other day and night time naked eye wonders.

It just goes to show that you don't always need telescopes to enjoy the heavens above.


Clear Skies

Mark

Tuesday 19 July 2016

The ghosts of everyday clouds.


I was having a wonderful dream this morning.... and then.... BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! BEEP!

Somewhere in the village a car alarm was singing!  The sound was a cross between hyperactive cicadas and a flying saucer attempting to land in a nearby garden!


Here's a recording of this morning's cicada driven spaceship...!


It was about 4.00 am the birds weren't even awake...  I got up and double checked that it wasn't our car making that lovely noise.

Looking out of the north window I was greeted by a beautiful display of Noctilucent Clouds....

All thoughts of the annoying car alarm quickly disappeared.

I haven't seen a display of NLC since July of 2009.

Here are a couple of the pictures I captured that evening.

Can't believe its been seven years since I last spotted the "night clouds".


July 2009
July 2009


After about ten minutes the BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! stopped..!

Simpson Cross was again plunged into a wonderful July morning twilight.
Silence PLUS no street lights...PERFECT.

I simply leaned on the windowsill, and bathed myself in this most glorious of mornings.

July 19th 2016 - 04h06m BST

Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in the sky, occurring some 50 miles up in the Earth's atmosphere.

The word noctilucent is derived from the Latin "night shining" and night shine is exactly what they do.

This morning's display had an ethereal wispy glow, its trailing silvered beauty traversed a large chunk of the northern horizon.

If clouds were ever alive, then the noctilucent clouds could be described as the ghosts of deceased clouds.

I may not get to use the telescope much at this time of year, but when you have such beauty as the ghost clouds to keep you company a telescope is not needed.

Clear Noctilucent skies

Mark

Wednesday 13 July 2016

Time for tea and cake.


The Teapot: July 2006 : View from nr Wolfscastle

It's that time of year when the teapot comes around.

The teapot is an asterism found in the constellation of Sagittarius.

It contains many interesting objects, so many infact that I will be re-studying the teapot for several weeks to come. 

Tonight I'm hoping to catch a few of the Messier objects that are scattered in and around the teapot.

Screen Shot : Stellarium
If I stay at home tonight, my only real chance of seeing the teapot will be at around 23.45 BST.

As you can see from the screenshot the asterism fits pretty much within the confines of the trees at the end of the garden...   Those trees are a real pain for extended observing of southerly objects...

I really now need to go mobile...!


Talking of mobile astronomy, does anyone fancy doing some stargazing evenings around the county of Pembrokeshire?

I cannot do any mobile observing for the next few weeks, I'm still recovering from shingles and painful abdomen muscles..!

A fortnight ago I nearly gave my self a hernia....!

Thankfully all is OK again, but no way am I lifting anything heavy for the next few weeks.

OK enough moaning ..... here are some "Teapot" Messier objects to see this evening:




That list should keep me busy for awhile...

All this talk of tea has made me thirsty... time for some Earl Grey... and definitely time for cake..!

Clear Skies



Sunday 3 July 2016

Waiting for the sky to clear.

Waiting for the sky to clear...

These past couple of weeks have been terrible for viewing here in south Pembrokeshire. 

There has been almost constant cloud cover on practically every night for the last fortnight.  

I haven't been able to make observations with the big Dobsonian since June 8th. 

Though, due to some strained abdomen muscles, followed by shingles I reckon I wouldn't have been able to observe, even if the weather had been kind..!! 

Over the next week I hope to at least observe Saturn, which will be near due south at around 11.00pm for the next week...

Thanks to the nearby ash trees 11.00pm is perfect for Saturn watching in our garden....  

View southwards from our garden. photo: Stellarium


The above photo is a screen shot from the excellent Stellarium astronomy program.

It just happens that the "trees" template in that program looks exactly like the south side of our garden...

At this time of year the gap in our southerly tree line allows maybe half an hour of planetary observing.

As you can see I have to time my southerly observing  precisely...!

Maybe I should try my hand at mobile astronomy.


Clear skies

Mark.

Thursday 9 June 2016

From Messier to Barsoom.

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 slewed the scope over towards Cygnus the Swan.


M-13 - This globular cluster in Hercules looked amazing, much brighter than in the Schmidt C8. With the 9mm eyepiece the cluster filled the field of view.

M-57 - The Ring Nebula in Lyra, stood out from the not yet dark background really well.

M-29 - OMG! the open cluster in Cygnus, filled the field of view through the 30mm eyepiece. Stars were spilling out everywhere. 
Helen hogged the eyepiece with this Messier object, I had to wait my turn to grab a view.



Mars was now well placed for viewing and so I grabbed my chance to observe before it took refuge in the big tall trees to the west.

Through the x2 Barlow and 9mm plossl (x333)  I was able to see slight martian surface detail.

Seeing wasn't up to much, but after inserting a 80a filter in the optical path, the planet was noticeably sharper looking and more detailed.

The blue tinge of the 80a filter made Mars look like an habitable planet.

I spent the next 10 minutes lost in thoughts of Barsoom, the world of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.

Actual sunset on Mars.

NASA have amazing pictures of the surface of Mars, click on this link to find more:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_347.html


Wednesday 18 May 2016

Conversations with Selene.



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 long dear Moon" I shouted..... "I will be waiting"

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

Late evening Aurora.

Last night the Aurora Borealis was visible throughout a large portion of the UK. Here in Pembrokeshire it did not disappoint, though in my c...