Another clear day, blue skies since dawn.

Venus and Mercury were first again then, while I was waiting to get a polar alignment I got a fantastic sight my first Iridium flare cross overhead at 17:50 headed due North, I saw it as it reached maximum brightness which appeared to be far brighter than Venus, it then faded and appeared as a typically dim satellite.

I then spent some time looking at M42 using the 40mm EP, lots of nebulosity could be seen quite clearly and the stars of the Trapezium were easily separated even at this low power (25x mag). This eyepiece really shows the advantage of the large aperture of the scope, most people seem to want to instantly go for a maximum mag for their scope but usually with a huge loss in image quality.

Next I tried yet again to find M81 and M82, still no result.

By 8.30pm it was getting a tad too cold, and I have more work to do so will try to take another look later.

Mitch

Woke at 4.30am and needed to check on some work I've been doing this week so getting back to sleep was not likely.

After doing some work I noticed that Jupiter was staring back at me, so I decided to cart out the Skywatcher. Because I didn't want to wake the wife I took everything out of the back door and round to the front. Then the weights and the battery + controller from the garage.

Due to the low altitude the view was quite fuzzy, although at low power I'm sure I could see 6 or even 7 moons! Too fuzzy to see any cloud belts though so a little disappointing, I decided to take a quick peek through the Opticron and that wasn't sowing any detail either so I can't blame the Skywatcher.

Pity about missing Saturn last night, right now Saturn is still chasing the Moon but over to my west out of view, that would have made 4 planets in 2 sessions.

later
Mitch

Went back out at 21:30 and couldn't find Saturn at all due to the glow of the full moon!

It seems that whenever I get a decent clear night it always coincides with the full moon!

later
Mitch

After the earlier excitement at seeing Mercury I aligned the skywatcher, I wanted to get some tracked images of my favourite constellation Orion. It's my favourite probably because it's one of the few that I could identify as a youngster.

Anyway, I was looking around when I noticed that a star just to the right of Orion seemed unusually bright, i.e. I hadn't noticed it before at all as being as bright as that. Next thing my wife was calling me to help with something. When I got back outside my bright star had disappeared.

So, it was a supernova, or more likely a plane or satllite :o(

Got a couple of tracked pics of Orion....



Not brilliant at this resolution but shows quite a lot of detail at full res.

Left the scope outside to hopefully get view of Saturn later

Blue skies!

It's been a glorious clear sky all afternoon, so I took the skywatcher outside at 16:30 to get it set up, while waiting for it to get dark enough to get a polar alignment I thought I'd see if I could spot Mercury.

My western horizon is the other side of the hill so I don't get much observing in that direction and there isn't anywhere local that I've found where I'd get an uninterrupted view and can park up.

Anyhow, I spotted Venus with the EB so went to grab the opticron on my camera tripod. Still wasn't really dark enough but by centreing Venus and then roughly tracking back down the ecliptic, bingo Mercury still not visible to the naked eye but quite bright through the scope!

First time I've seen Mercury since I was a youngster.

Hopefully it will keep clear!

cheers
Mitch

Sunday I woke at 5.00am and having looked outside I noticed it was clear, so I decided to avoid the temptation to get more sleep and wait up for Jupiter to rise. By 6.30am the sky had clouded over :o(

Today, at 4.30pm the sky was perfect, but I had work to do, I thought I'd be OK for a couple of hours and anyway Saturn would be a while to rise. By 8.30pm when I had finished working, guess what? More clouds!

I have to get up early in the morning to catch a train at 7.00am so will soon be off to bed as it will be a long day.

later
Mitch

Clouds,

Sitting here at just after 5.00pm on a Friday evening and more clouds, we've had some bad weather across the UK this week culminating in some gales on Wednesday and Thursday. On my way home yesterday I had to go through some flooding and past a large uprooted tree that thankfully had just missed the house next to it and the road!

So no chances for getting the scope out, but this morning it was clear as I left for work at 7.00am and Jupiter looked very grand to the south. If it's clear tomorrow I might get up early and get the Skywatcher out for it's first encounter with an old friend of mine!

Yep, should have done my homework before trekking off.

Just checked here and it seems I've missed out, the comet would have been too low for me to see it.

Last comet I saw was Hale-Bopp back in 1997.

Comet hunting!

At 4.00pm we still had blue sky but there was a lot of high Cirrus clouds that would make seeing conditions pretty poor.

While it was still clear I decided to jump in my car and go find somewhere where I could get an unobstructed view of the sunset from the comfort of the car! I had to drive several miles before I found somewhere to pull over without getting in anyones way.

The objective was to get a glimpse of Comet McNaught near Venus.

The sun went down and I got some nice views of the clouds near the horizon, should have taken the camera! At approx 4.40pm Venus popped into view and I waited until after 5.00pm but no sight of a comet!

It must be too low in the sky now, I had heavy clouds across the horizon just below Venus.

I need to read up on the viewing prospects, if I get up early for work I'll see if I can see it then.

Mission failed!

Clear sky

OK, so it's only 2.30pm but we have blue sky for the first time in what seems like weeks.

Fingers crossed!

Mitch

Well, travelling home from work at 5.00pm today things were looking promising, lovely clear sky.

So, got in fed the dog etc and generally rushed around to get changed and get the scope set up. Polar alignment was a breeze, set the scope aimed at Capella and started tracking while I dashed back into change again, I'd bought some thermals just after xmas so wanted to try out the long sleeve vest (just like my grand father used to wear!).

Rushed back outside again and Capella was still in the centre of the FOV!

Then I noticed the clouds....managed to get a lovely view of the Pleiades with the 40mm EP (25x mag). Then the clouds were everywhere :o(

I only had an hour or so tonight free as I have to do some work after supper!

What a let down, will try to get out later if I get the time and if it clears up of course!

later
Mitch

OK,

So I decided to not be lazy and went out to see what I could of Saturn. First I just took out the Opticron MM2 with my camera tripod, Saturn was low to the East quite near to the moon but not as close as it appeared with Stellarium. The Opticron zoomed in at max magnification (40x) showed the planet quite clearly, the rings quite easily discernible and overall quite a sharp image.

So tempted I swapped for the Skywatcher, the 40mm EP showed a similar view to the Opticron but as I increased mag the image quality dropped off considerably. I tried the 40mm (25x), the 25mm (40x), 10mm (100x) and the 10mm with the Barlow (200x), next I tried the 25mm with the Barlow (80x) this seemed to be the best combination but the sharpness wasn't a patch on the Opticron. However the Opticron doesn't give a large enough image to be useful.

Having said all of this the seeing conditions were nothing short of attrocious, although I'm not now so impressed with the Skywatcher for Planetary observing. Even taking into account the conditions it will obviously not perform as well as the Opticron for image sharpness at higher mag's. Of course this could well be down to the quality of the standard EP's which themselves seemed to be far better than Meade's.

The standard series of EP's for the Skywatcher seem to cost in the order of £40, the EP for the Opticron (albeit a zoom EP) was £90. So I guess I might need to invest in some higher quality EP's (some sell for £200 or more!).

Anyway, back inside now, I was about to say in the warm, but of course we have been having a very mild winter so far. Hardly any frosts that I can recall, our cricket team should have stayed home rather than tour Australia where we just suffered a 5-0 series defeat in the Ashes series! Worst performance for over 80 years apparently! But that's another story.

More later.

Well, first post of 2007 so Happy New Year to all!

First post because we've had nothing but cloud all over the Christmas break, I had been hoping to get some clear skies while I was off work.

Just noticed that it is clear at the minute but quite misty, we've had rain all day so everywhere is wet, could turn quite nasty if we get a frost!

Due to the poor seeing I thought I'd wait until later to get my first decent view of Saturn through the Skywatcher. Checked with Stellarium to see what time Saturn will be in a nice part of the sky. Guess what? It turns out that Saturn will be very close to the moon for most of the evening :o(

It will probably turn out cloudy soon anyway, the drawback that I've found with having a large scope on a decent mount is that you need to be pretty certain that by the time you get outside and align the scope that it hasn't clouded over.

Things are looking promising right now, just got the scope setup outside, should be dark enough to get the alignment done in ten minutes or so. Vega is always the first star to appear closely followed by Capella, Polaris isn't bright enough to be seen through the polarscope as yet.

Just checked on Heavens Above and I have 2 passes of the ISS today, first at 17.05 next at 18.40.

Well, the ISS showed right on time, got a very nice view as it crossed the sky, not the brightest of passes but still very impressive.

Next I set to aligning the scope, as I wasn't planning on taking any photos I was happy with a very rough alignment, with the new (xmas present) 40mm EP it takes quite a while to drift.

First target was the Pleiades, the 40mm EP is perfect for this, got the entire cluster in the same FOV, as I was adjusting focus a satellite whizzed by and appeared to increase in brightness as it crossed the FOV.

Next target was Taurus, I'm not sure if it's just me but the Hyades seems almost quite boring as there are practically no background stars in this area of the sky. As I aligned the scope on Aldebarran amazingly another satellite skimmed across the FOV!

As I stood back to look at the whole sky with the naked eye I spotted another ISS like object moving North at a steady pace. Of course it's because it's so close to sunset that I can see these satellites, later on they are not so easy to see (if at all).

Unfortunately that looks like it for now as the moon is merrily lighting up my southern sky and nicely highlighting all the high cloud that is making the seeing conditions not so good. Did get a nice view of Albireo with the 40mm (25x) and 25mm (40x) EP's.

Left the scope set up waiting for Orion, wanted to see M42 through the new EP. Got to 19.50 and Orion was beginning to show his shoulders and...you guessed, clouds started to roll in!

More later

Well, we've been pretty much fogged out here the last few days, so much that Heathrow airport have cancelled half their flights. The last chance I had to use the scope was last Saturday evening, objective was to test out the recalibrated Polar scope.

Got the scope aligned fairly quickly and then started with some piggy backed shots, this time I wanted some shots of Cygnus....



Quite pleased with this 10 minute exposure (longest yet), this shows the rear section of Cygnus with Deneb showing nicely, this is a very rich section of the sky as the Milky Way runs through here. The image below has some lines drawn to show the outline of the constellation, Deneb is top right and is in fact the tail star of the swan.



Next I thought I'd have another go at Lyra as it was higher in the sky than last time and therefore out of the glow of light pollution....



Another 10 minute exposure at ISO:400, 35mm equiv 90mm focal length.

Then I tried some prime focus shots and also using the camera attached to the Barlow lens. The Barlow lens seems to have a blurring effect though.

Also I ran into some camera shake again, I've tried everything to eliminate shake. I purchased a 2 metre extension lead for the remote shutter release, this was then isolated by being clipped to a photo stand next to the scope with plenty of slack between the scope and the stand.

I tried shooting with the mirror lock up function also, all to no avail. I've come to the conclusion that there's either a fault with the drive or my patio (made of concrete slabs) has a bounce in it so that as I walk away the scope is picking up vibrations.

Next opportunity I get I will downsize the camera by removing the battery grip and using the camera in its standard configuration.

Just looked outside and...more fog.

cheers
Mitch

Last night we had a good few hours of clear skies here after a dodgy start with lots of broken cloud. So I had a go at taking some piggy back images, this is basically taking photos with the cameras own lens rather than through the scope but with the camera attached to the OTA. This way you can get wide field images and long tracked exposures, this one is of Lyra....



Canon EOS350D 35mm Equiv focal length 90mm, 200 seconds at f5.6 ISO:400.

Next is the Pleiades....



Same camera setup but 268 second exposure

The next shot was taken in the direction of Cassiopea but due to the dim view through the camera viewfinder it could be anywhere! Lots of stars, though some of the really tiny stars might be just noise!



Same setup with 411 second exposure

This has to be the downside to this aspect of imaging I think, due to the low magnification and the digital SLR's small frame size (compared to a 35mm SLR, it is 60% of that) you can only make out the very brightest of stars in the finder. Also due to the fact that the lens is autofocus even operating in manual mode is tricky because the lens does not have an infinity setting like the old lenses had. I guess part of the solution is to try and get some older non autofocus EOS lenses.

Finally a wide shot showing a part of Taurus including the Hyades....



Same setup with 259 second exposure.

We've had cloud and rain and lots of wind here all day, watched a recording of the shuttle launch from last night, interestingly it seems that whenever the shuttle is docked with the ISS there are no sightings from my location! Must be an amazing sight to see the whole lot going over.

more later
Mitch

Cloud Dodging...

Well it looked like it was clearing up later on so I decided to take the scope out to hopefully get a first look at Saturn with the Skywatcher. As I was setting up the scope Saturn was in view as I'd predicted through a clearing in the clouds.

By the time I was all set to go, you guessed it, Saturn disappered behind the clouds, I missed it by seconds!

So I swung the scope around and had a nice view of the Pleiades and Hyades, and after waiting for what seemed like ages I gave up with Saturn and decided the moon was looking good...as I dashed inside to get the camera the clouds were starting to cover the moon also!

Managed to get a few shots in, here is the best....



More later
Mitch

No clear skies at all since the last post, I'm desperate to get out so I can test the tracking on the scope.

I decided to sell the Meade, put it on eBay and got £155 for it, it would have been nice to have kept it as a travel scope but I just don't have the room to keep it handy. I'd rather someone else get some use out of it.

It was great to read in the news this week about American plans to return to the moon by 2020, it's a shame that as a race we can't just all get along and not waste so much money on killing each other! We'd have surely made more progress in space by now had we not been waging wars both phoney (as in the Cold War) and the many real conflicts.

The irony though I suppose is that it was the cold war that sparked the Space Race and prompted the US to invest so heavily in order that they could prove they were better than the Soviets!

Anyway I digress, this is not a political blog! The OU course has started but I've not had much time to spend on it lately, I have 2 weeks holiday to take over Christmas so I'm hoping to get on with that then. There seems to be a good spread of people taking the course in terms of experience and knowledge of Astronomy.

More later.
Mitch

Managed to spend some time outside last night from about 8.00pm on, had a great session taking photos but suffered from wind again, the scope did I mean!

Tried taking some of the Pleiades but the stars kept coming out looking like dumbells......



This I think is due to the scope rocking in the wind, there was only a slight breeze but it seems that is enough to sway the OTA from side to side, I can't think of another reason for this, but if you know better then please let me know!

By the time that I'd failed to get a decent long exposure of the Pleiades I noticed that Orion had risen. Here's another shot of M42, a bit more detail than my first effort so I'm quite pleased with the result.....



Canon EOS350D 35mm equiv focal length = 1.6 metres, 160 seconds ISO400.

Managed to "grab" a nice photo of the crescent moon at twilight today, I say "grab" because it took a good ten minutes to set everything up, worth it though I think....



Attended the Rosliston Astro group meeting last night, we had a presentation by a chap by the name of Mike Gill who has attended the last 14 total eclipses of the sun, including 1 at Antarctica and one in the middle of the Pacific ocean near Pitcairn Island. Quite an impressive feat, I think that most of the guys in the audience had 2 unspoken questions though, a) If you're married how do you justify the time etc in preparing for these expeditions? and b) How on earth can you afford it?

His trips seem to have been full of long haul flights to places like Australia before embarking on very one off excursions to the middle of nowhere. If it sounds like I'm jealous, off course I am! To most people though this kind of thing is quite simply unobtainable financially so it seems this exclusive club is exclusively for the rich!

Anyway, he did point us in the direction of a certain Glenn H Schneider, who's website is now in my links, quite an individual and a fascinating web site.

later
Mitch