I know I enjoy going out to groups and doing presentations, especially to non-astronomers, but following my presentation in Bedford last week, I have just received the following comments from them and it has really made my week:

“It was absolutely fantastic as you guided us through “A Whistle-stop Tour of the Universe” (Hitch-hiking on a Ray of Light) – the images were superb – so exotic. It really was out of this world. You explained everything to us so we were able to understand the various unique and incredible shots. We all enjoyed your charismatic friendly personality and do hope we will have the pleasure of another of your talks sometime in the future”

That’s what it’s all about, bringing the universe into everyone’s lives and showing them what an absolutely spectacular place it is.

Is it my age?
All-night observing or imaging sessions appear to be a much rarer event these days.
The last one I can remember doing at home was when I was hunting down Comet 67P in 2015.

My daughter was flying home from South Africa on the 31st of April, so I knew I’d have a restless night before picking her up from Heathrow early next morning. By staying awake, I could indulge in the crystal clear skies and keep an eye on the progress of her flight.

During the day of Friday the 31st of March no solar imaging was possible due to clouds, but it cleared up very nicely as the Sun got lower.

Before the sky got dark, I was out on the hunt. The extremely shy planet Mercury, due to reach eastern elongation the next day, was my first target.

The half phase of the extremely small planet is just about visible.

Of course, the Moon was coming back, so that was my next target.

I thought it would be quite a wheeze to do some live webcasting on Facebook.
See the results here: https://www.facebook.com/Eagleseye45

I started with the DSLR, before switching to the Webcam.

DSLR image.

I took a series of overlapping images to produce a full image of the Moon.

Mare Crisium – Single image.

Webcam mosaic composed of 13 overlapping images.

I have been trying to improve the quality of my lunar images with the monochrome DMK41 camera.
It looks like my efforts are really starting to pay off (More of which later in the week).

By the time the Moon got lower in the sky, Jupiter, now approaching opposition, was climbing higher.

A bit later, the planet had rotated enough to bring the red spot into view, but some strange horizontal bands were visible in the final image Grrr!!

Colour webcam images using Phillips webcam.
I also did some more live Facebook video as well.

By now the Moon had completely gone, my daughter was now somewhere over north Africa and I was on a roll.

A old favourite of mine beckoned, so the DSLR was rolled out.

M13 – The great Hercules Globular Cluster.

I tried for M81 & M82, but the auto-guiding played up something chronic, s a lot of time was wasted taking subs that were not acceptable. 🙁
This is something I have noticed before, especially if trying to guide on something almost at the zenith.

A new imaging subject for me, NGC2169 The “37” Cluster in Orion.

To finish the night before dashing off to the airport, there were a couple of comets beckoning:

Comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson).

Comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák

All in all it was a great all-nighter. Boy did I suffer with being flipping tired the next day.
Now that’s probably why I do very a rare all-nighters. Almost like suffering from jet-lag.

But it was fantastic seeing my daughter face-to-face again after she left to live for four years in South Africa last September.
Skypeing just isn’t the same. 🙁

On Wednesday the 5th of April I will be taking Bedford Wine and Social Club on a wild ride touring out to the very edge of our observable universe.

I will be giving my Whistle-Stop Tour of the Universe (Hitch-Hiking on a Ray of Light) presentation to them.

So let’s hope that they all strap themselves in and get ready for a journey that really is out of this world.
(Of course, it’s really just a fantastic excuse to show some beautiful images of our wonderful universe).

Hic!!! Pass the glass.

My monthly sky diary for April showing the events of the night sky and space activities now available in pdf form to download and print. It is also available to share on Google calendars. More sky events will be added to the live calendar as more information becomes available.

Click here to go to my Google calendar.

Click here or on the image below to download the printable pdf.

Let’s hope we get some clear skies to enjoy it all and let’s hope the lighter evenings don’t put us off observing.

Dave

On the day of Venus at Inferior conjunction, I was hoping to catch the very thin crescent of the planet just over 8 degrees from the Sun.

It was always going to be a challenge in the bright daytime sky, but as the Sun (and Venus) got higher, high wispy clouds crept across the sky, producing a very “nice” solar halo.

This was going to make the sky around the planet extremely bright, making contrast between planet and sky very difficult.

I used a 120 mm refractor for safety purposes. I didn’t want to risk using the Mak-Newt that close to the Sun.

All lined up and projecting the Sun’s image, I then told the scope to go up to Venus.
It loyally obliged and I was pointed at a very bright patch of sky.

Luckily the scopes were positioned in a way that the main scope, with it’s cover safely on, shaded the end of the refractor and finder scope.

Looking through the finder, I moved the scope slowly around, making sure I didn’t go towards the Sun. The contrails and cloud could be seen easily, but no sign of the planet.

With my usual perseverance, I  kept at my vigil and the whiteness started to look a little more blue. It was still very wishy-washy, but it had cleared a little.

Then I spotted the thin crescent planet in the finder. Once found, it was a case of moving the scope so the planet was centred then looking through the main scope. It was there!

It looked absolutely amazing. So thin and bright. How had I missed it before I found it?
I cranked up the magnification by changing eyepiece. The crescent was wildly dancing about from atmospheric turbulence.

Now to get the webcam on it and focused. Now that’s easily said than done! Especially trying to work on a computer screen in the sunlight. I faffed about for ages, but finally I could see the small out of focus crescent on the screen. A few adjustments and I took my avi to capture the moment.

I then decided to go live on Facebook.

Once this was done I put in the 2x Barlow Lens to magnify the image.
Then after a lot of messing around (again!) I finally got a bigger image back on the screen.

I took my avi to capture the moment and then went live once again.

Thank fully the image was a bit better focussed this time.

Objective achieved, I was a very happy man.

It was clear that night as well, but I was so tired, I gave it a miss.

No dedication!

 

After I got back from work, the rains had cleared to leave a clear sky.

Venus, just 5 days from conjunction was very low after dark, so I shot out there as soon as I got home to catch it before the Sun set. It was easily found, very bright and extremely thin. A great view in the scope, and phase easily visible in the finder scope. I took some colour webcams, and broadcast a live video on Facebook, before switching to the Venus filter and monochrome. The atmosphere was extremely turbulent, but the filter helped enormously.

The lower picture shows just how much the planet has changed over the last couple of weeks as it approaches inferior conjunction. This occurs on the 25th.

After dinner, the sky was dark enough for some comet hunting.
Comet 41P which is located close to The Plough was first. About 8th magnitude but brightening as it approaches perihelion. It will be close to M108 and The Owl Nebula on the evening of the 22nd.

After that, my next target was Comet 45P, definitely fading and looking very diffuse now.

Rising in the north eastern sky, and just clearing the neighbours house, was Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson. Now this is what a comet SHOULD look like.

 Last but not least, Big Jupiter was rising in the eastern sky. So, the colour Webcam came out. A quick Live feed on Facebook before capturing an image. Now that is a VERY tasty Comet Sandwich.

Tomorrow evening Flightsuit_Tim and I will be presenting to a number of school children for a Science Week event for Luton Astronomical Society.

I am looking forward to what should be an enjoyable audience interactive evening.

On the evening of the 3rd of March, I went out to try and catch Venus in the western sky that evening as it approached inferior conjunction on the 25th. I wanted to see how much the size and phase of the planet had changed since I last imaged it just a week ago on the 2nd of March. Despite the evening looking very murky and the planet constantly moving behind cloud, here’s the result with the DMK21 camera.

Then it was onto the bright gibbous Moon over in the eastern sky.
I rattled off a number of images with the DMK41 camera.

Venus and Moon.

On Monday the 6th of March I will be taking Hannington Vintage Tractor Club on a wild ride touring out to the very edge of our observable universe.

I will be giving my Whistle-Stop Tour of the Universe (Hitch-Hiking on a Ray of Light) (Or should that be Tractor Beam?) presentation to them.

So let’s hope that they strap themselves in and get ready for a journey that really is out of this world.
(Of course, it’s really just a good excuse to show some beautiful images of our wonderful universe).

On the evening of the 2nd it started off looking nice and clear.
A nice crescent Moon and Venus, both extremely bright plus Mars were shining down.
As soon as it started to get dark, I was determined to get a decent crack at Comet 2P (Encke).
It is located just below Venus and sets really quickly as it approaches perihelion.
I got the scope first centred onto Venus, then quickly about 10° down to the comet. It was just visible as a greeny-blue smudge on my subs, but the brightness of the sky overwhelmed everything. I took 20 15 second subs, but as the sky darkened, the comet sank below the level of my fence and was soon lost. I soon found out that I couldn’t stack the images in the usual way as there were not enough stars.
So here’s the result of removing the bright background and stretching a single sub.

The Newton’s rings reminds me of the Loony Tunes ending. Just waiting for Porky Pig, to pop up and say “Th, th, th, th, that’s all Folks!… Hopefully more from this comet after perihelion?

So onwards and upwards!
Venus next. So in goes the UV filter. No cloud detail visible, but considering the phase is a only 0.15, I’m not really surprised. This brilliant planet will soon be starting to get lower in the western sky as it approaches the Sun, reaching inferior conjunction on the 25th of March.

Downwards again. Mars was a little higher that Venus, so UV filter out and try and tease out a disk.

OK, I just managed to get a small disk and perhaps a hint of the polar cap. But I’m not 100% convinced. It is such a small diddy disk.

At this point the sky was now getting a lot hazier, clouds were thickening.
So my next target was of course The Moon.
DSLR first.

Monochrome Webcam four pane mosaic.

Much greater detail captured using the Webcam.
Then I settled down to capture some more detailed features with the webcam before the sky became totally unusable once again. 🙁

Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova is now easily visible in late evening / morning sky (When the clouds allow us to view it).
Moving rapidly northwards the comet has lost the tail it had prior to perihelion, which occurred on New Years Eve 2016.
It passed closest to Earth  on the 11th of February, passing less than 12.5 million kilometres away.

Despite losing the tail, its post perihelion appearance has swollen markedly, showing a large bright green coma.
Its close proximity to the Earth means its apparent movement is very rapid. If you are taking images, they will have to be fairly short to stop the comet blurring, unless you can guide on the comet nucleus itself.

45P’s magnitude hasn’t quite reached predictions, but it is still a healthy 7th magnitude, so is easily followed in binoculars or a small telescope. Some recent images show that it may be starting to develop a straight ion tail.

This stunning Image by F. H. Hemmerich shows the tail really well and was Astronomy Picture of the Day on the 12th of February.

Use the map below to find the comet as it passes through Coma Berenices and into Leo.
Its magnitude will quickly fade as it recedes from the Sun and Earth.
Let’s hope for some clear skies now…

Click here for a bigger map.

After a day of storm Doris battering the country, it cleared to a reasonable evening.
I got out ready for Comet 5P Encke, but by the time the clouds cleared, it was far too low in the western sky.

Once properly clear, I slewed the scope over to capture P45 Honda-Mrkos-Pajduáková.
It was in the constellation of Coma Berenices and heading towards Leo.

It is huge! I had to use my 80mm refractor to get most of it in.

I then went across to Comet C/2015 V2  Johnson.

This is a much smaller compact comet, with a slightly curved tail. This cropped image was taken using the 190 Mak-Newt.