So, the Moon’s back once again!
Yes, so the Moon is nice to look at on the odd occasion, but boy, does it so regularly interfere with everything else.
And it always seems to be a clear sky when the Moon is at its brightest.
Up until about 10 years ago this was my main attitude towards the Moon.
So, when the Moon comes out, should I sit inside sulking, complaining about its bright light flooding out and hiding all those lovely deep sky objects and comets I love to chase down and image? After, would make a lot of sense as I am now starting to approach that Victor Meldrew stage of life! I know, I know, I can hear you saying “I Don’t Believe It!”.
But I have found as I have got older, I have started to re-discover the joys of that highly detailed lunar surface.
After all, it is the one celestial body that we can observe and image in unprecedented detail.
The changing angle of sunlight, bringing sharply into view different features each day, even changing significantly over a span of just a few hours, constantly gives us a new perspectives.
Features close to the terminator, the transition between night and day, (sunrise or sunset), create impressively long shadows that accentuate those features, making them look much more exaggerated than they really are and extremely dramatic.
Most of the features do get washed out close to full moon, looking a bit flat and lifeless, but bright crater rays show up really well at this phase. (If I was really that desperate to do some deep-sky imaging when the Moon is bright, I could always use a Hydrogen Alpha filter).
So, as I have re-embraced the Moon, I have learnt some very effective lunar image processing techniques and now understand how best to use my equipment to get the very best images. As a result my lunar images are now probably as good as my equipment will allow. If only I had a C11! We’re never satisfied with our equipment, are we? 🙂
Since starting proper visual astronomy at the age of 9, I am very proud of all I have achieved over those 47 years. The changes in the hobby and the equipment and knowledge available to amateurs these days is absolutely sensational. What else lies just around the corner?
Long may I be fit enough to keep pursuing and enjoying the hobby to its fullest.
If I can also help others to achieve their full potential in the hobby in the coming years, all the better.
So get out there, enjoy the Moon and Keep Looking Up!
Comet C/2017 T1 (Heinze). This fast moving comet is rapidly moving south.
Here’s an image I captured on Friday the 5th of January.
Over 10 minutes during which these CCD images were taken it has shifted considerably.
Left image stacked on stars, right image stacked on the comet. This comet was really shifting.
It will reach perihelion at the end of February, but it passes very close to the Sun, so like the infamous Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) before it, is unlikely to survive its close encounter with the Sun. It is about 12th magnitude and is unlikely to get much brighter. But don’t forget, predicting a comets brightness is hugely unreliable.
The map below shows the path of the comet as it dashes to the west of Pegasus as it approaches the Sun.
(Click on the image for a larger version). Map created using C2A planetarium software.
It passes to the east of the Globular Cluster Messier 15 between the 25th & 27th of February shown in this map.
(Click on the image for a larger version). Map created using C2A planetarium software.
Comet C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS). This comet is becoming a lot more interesting. It is currently around magnitude 13, so quite faint.
It reaches perihelion in late May, but as the comet gets further away from Earth, it gets fainter and is likely to fade to about 14th magnitude by then.
I first caught the comet on the 8th of December 2017.
At that time, as you can see from my image below, it looked like many other comets, as faint smudge of light, but it showed a hint of two tails (Pointing towards 10 and 2 O’clock).
On the evening of the 7th of January, I was testing out a CCD camera that someone has loaned me.
I have had to enhance the image somewhat, but the tail/s look very intricately detailed.
There’s a heck of a lot happening with this comet.
I got another shot on the comet on the evening of the 19th of January.
Using the CCD camera, I was monitoring the images coming off the camera, they appeared to be ever so slightly different in each image. The image below shows the quick process I did on each set of images as they came off the camera.
The changes can clearly be seen. I’m working on all the 297 subs taken that night to try and produce an animation.
I may be a while.
The comet reaches perihelion in early May, but is not predicted to reach more than magnitude 13. But with that amount of activity going on already, who knows what might happen.
The map below shows the comet as it heads northwards away from Taurus, past the leg of Perseus and up into Auriga.
(Click on map for bigger version). Map created using C2A planetarium software.
My first presentation of the year will be entitled “The Voyager Missions; 40 Years and Counting” Nicely timed to fit in with the anniversary and the recent activation of Voyager 1’s thruster after 37 years.
I am looking forward to the evening and meeting everyone again.
The Society meet at 7:30pm at the Cranfield Student’s Association Lounge every Tuesday evening.
All will be welcome, so contact them for more details:
cranfieldastronomy@cranfield.ac.uk
On the 7th January, early hours beckoned me from my nice warm bed.
Time to grab some lunar images before catching the conjunction of Jupiter and Mars before dawn.
Then later in the evening, the second comet of the year C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS) showing some very nice structure in the tail (Oooh Kinky!).
Now does that feel good!
A clear night and nothing to get on with, plus the Moon won’t be up for a while.
So why not let myself loose under the stars and do some imaging?
I was also recently loaned a CCD camera to try, so I was really keen to test this out.
I had a very basic CCD camera many years ago, but didn’t really gel with it. It used to cause me much frustration and the results always seemed to leave a hell of a lot to be desired. Since then I have concentrated mainly on DSLR imaging, which I found much easier, selling the CCD for a give-away price many years ago at Kelling.
As time has gone by, I really want to start capturing objects a bit closer up and reveal a bit more detail than the DSLR can usually manage. So when the offer of using the CCD came my way, I snapped it up willingly.
First Target, the good old favourite M42, The Great Orion nebula.
This image was taken using the 190 Mak-Newt. 40 second subs.
Towards the end of the evening, as the Moon was appearing above the neighbours house, I used the ED80 to take a wider field of M42. Also 40 second subs.
Here’s Comet C/2017 T1 (Heinze), (Its out-gassing has nothing to do with the Beanz).
This comet is really shifting. First image stacked on the stars, so comet has moved to produce a streak during the 10 minutes time of all the sub exposures. Had to keep the exposures down to 15 seconds to avoid the comet trailing in each sub. Second image was stacked on the comet so the stars are trailed.
With care, I feel this CCD could produce some really fabulous results. Bring on the clear skies in 2018.
@Flat_Tim, Buzz and I will be out once again for what will now be my last presentation of the year.
This time we will be visiting Chipping Norton Amateur Astronomy Group on Monday the 18th of December.
For their Christmas Party I will be presenting my extremely popular audience-participation evening: “Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.
I am looking forward to meeting a new astronomy group.
I wonder how they will be in having selfies taken with Tim in his Father Christmas hat.
(Yes, @Flat_Tim is so much into the Christmas spirit now, I hope he can stand up on the night).
Like all my other visits out with this presentation, I’m really looking forward to having a lot of fun with them during the audience participation bits.
I’m sure that, like the other groups I have done this with, they will really enjoy the evening I have planned for them.
All are very welcome, so if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.
The meeting starts at 8:00pm.
Venue:
Methodist Church Hall (use the side entrance to lower back room ),
5 West St,
Chipping Norton
OX7 5LH
Next week sees the maximum of the Geminid meteors. This fairly active shower is one of the richest showers of the year.
This shower is active from the 8th and goes on until the 17th of December.
Maximum activity occurs on the 14th at 02:00hrs.
It has a predicted Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of 100 meteors per hour.
Don’t forget though, you are very unlikely to see quite that amount of meteors per hour.
But it should put on a great show.
Observing conditions for the meteors themselves are extremely favourable.
The Moon is just approaching New, so will be well out of the way and will not interfere with observing.
It rises as a very thin crescent, which should also have strong Earthshine, rising after 4am in the ESE sky, so should be worth waiting up for if you have a clear horizon.
Most meteor showers are produced by the Earth moving through debris left in the orbits of comet, where the Earths and comets orbits intersect.
The BAA are even suggesting imagers webcam the Moon regularly during the shower to see if any lunar impacts from these meteors can be detected by amateurs on the side of the Moon in shadow.
With the Geminids, the parent body, known as 3200 Phaethon, is classified as an asteroid.
(I think that the boundaries between what is classed as an asteroid and a comet are going to get even more seriously muddled as we explore more of these minor solar system bodies).
Phaethon is an Apollo-type asteroid. It’s orbit reaches aphelion (furthest point from the Sun) well out beyond Mars (223 million miles), reaching perihelion (Closest point to the Sun) well inside Mercury’s orbit (13 million miles).
During the meteor shower, Phaethon makes one of its close passes to the Earth on the 16th of December.
It will reach at least magnitude 12, so should be visible and will be well placed for observing from the UK.
This map Generated using the free C2A Planetarium Software shows the full path of the asteroid, moving left to right from the 14th to the 18th of the month.
It passes from Perseus into Andromeda and onto Pegasus over this time.
More detailed maps are shown below.
Click on the maps for bigger versions.
On the 14th – 15th, the asteroid passes just below the open cluster M34 as it moves from Perseus towards Andromeda.
It passes just above NGC 752 in daylight hours on the 15th.
After dark on the evening of the 15th, it is approaching Beta Andromedae (Mirach), which it passes due south of in the early hours of the 16th.
During daylight hours the asteroid moves towards the constellation of Pegasus.
As dark falls on the 16th Phaephon is moving below Delta Andromedae, and doesn’t quite reach The Square of Pegasus before daylight hits.
When darkness falls on the 17th of December, Phaephon is now well into the southern part of The Square of Pegasus.
Daylight hits once again before it starts to move out.
On the evening of the 18th, Phaephon is slowing down and fading as it moves southwards, its path running almost parallel to the Flying Horses neck.
@Flat_Tim, Buzz and I will be out once again for what will now be my penultimate presentation of the year.
This time we will be visiting Knowle Astronomical Societyon Monday the 4th of December.
Once again I will be presenting my extremely popular audience-participation evening: “Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.
I am looking forward to meeting a new astronomy group.
I wonder how they will be in having selfies taken with Tim in his Father Christmas hat.
(Yes, @Flat_Tim has now started to get very excited about Christmas).
Like all my other visits out with this presentation, I’m really looking forward to having a lot of fun with them during the audience participation bits.
I’m sure that, like the other groups I have done this with, they will really enjoy the evening I have planned for them.
All are very welcome, so if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.
The meeting starts at 8:00pm.
Venue: Dorridge Village Hall,
Grange Road,
Dorridge,
SOLIHULL,
B93 8QA.
On the way home from work a strange sight beheld me. Looking towards the north-east, it looked like the shutters were being rolled back.
A clear night, with no Moon looked to be promised.
It’s been quite a while since I did some serious deep-sky imaging (Good grief, was it really the 20th of January!).
As I didn’t have work the next day, I decided I just had to get out and give it a go.
So early evening I got some of my next astrophotography workshop written, before venturing out into the dome.
I also took time throughout the night to stand out to see if I could see any Leonids.
Fat chance!
Didn’t even see a faint one.
The first target was NGC 891, a beautiful edge-on galaxy. The dark dust lane and a hint of structure.
A bit lower in the sky was comet C/2015 ER61 PANSTARRS.
The colour image wasn’t that good, but making it mono and inverting the image shows quite a long dust tail, going off the the right hand side of the image .
Next, I went over to visit an old favourite, The Pleiades Star Cluster.
The initial image looked good, but while I was processing this, more subs were being taken.
The image is definitely improved with the extra data.
While I was on the bright stuff, I thought I’d try the core of M31.
The galaxy was almost overhead, so the auto-guiding was struggling.
I gave up, but got 4 subs to make an image.
Some dust lanes can be clearly seen, so I moved on to a fainter Messier object.
M1 is the much studied supernova remnant, the Crab Nebula.
This is the remains of a star that was observed by Chinese astronomers to go supernova in 1054.
From there, it was adventure down south into Orion.
M78 was my first target.
A challenge in the light pollution, but the lack of stars visible due to the presence of dark obscuring dust shows quite well.
Further South, the Horsehead Nebula and Flaming nebula close to the left hand belt star Alnitak.
A visit to Orion must involve a look at M42, the great Orion Nebula.
The colour didn’t look too good, but the image itself contained a lot of detail.
So I overlaid the image taken tonight as a luminosity layer on top of a much more grainy image that captured the colour much better.
The result was finally very pleasing.
Last object in northern Orion was NGC 2174, The Monkey Head Nebula.
By this time I was getting cold and tired. So my last two objects were M81 & M82.
It was getting a little bit murky by this time, so I did as best I could and used the two images to build a wider field mosaic.
You can see how there are less stars in the M82 half of the image as the sky was getting worse.
On Friday the 10th of November, after meeting the real thing a couple of weeks ago @Flat_Tim and Buzz will be taking me out once again for my penultimate presentation of the year.
This time we will be re-visiting Coventry & Warwickshire Astronomical Society.
Once again I will be presenting my extremely popular audience-participation evening: “Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.
I am looking forward to being made very welcome once again as they did on my two previous visits to them.
I wonder how keen this group will be in having selfies taken with Tim.
Like all my other visits out with this presentation, I’m really looking forward to having a lot of fun with them during the audience participation bits.
I’m sure that, like the other groups I have done this with, they will really enjoy the evening I have planned for them.
All are very welcome, so if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.
On Monday the 6th of November, after meeting the real thing a couple of weeks ago @Flat_Tim and Buzz will be taking me out once again. This time we will be re-visiting Wolverhampton Astronomical Society.
Once again I will be presenting my popular audience-participation evening: “Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.
I am looking forward to being made very welcome once again as they did on my previous visit to them.
But I wonder how keen this group will be in having selfies taken with Tim.
Like all my other visits out with this presentation, I’m really looking forward to having a lot of fun with them during the audience participation bits. But I’m sure that they will really enjoy the evening I have planned for them.
All are very welcome, so if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.
Their meeting starts at 7:30pm.
Venue:
Highfields Environmental Centre, Boundary Way,
Penn Wolverhampton, WV4 4NT
+ Google Map
On Wednesday the 25th of October, @Flat_Tim will be taking me out once again.
This time we will be visiting my home astronomical society in Bedford.
I will be presenting my audience-participation evening: “Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.
I am looking forward to presenting on home territory amongst good friends.
Like my other visits out with this presentation, I’m really looking forward to having a lot of fun with them all during the audience participation bits.
Little do they know what to expect, but as this talk is going down so well, I’m sure that they will really enjoy the evening I have got planned for them.
All are very welcome, so if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.
Over the next few weeks Comet ASAS-SN01 gets brighter and moves further northwards.
This fresh comet from the Oort cloud was discovered on the 19th of July 2017, from Cerro Tololo, Chile
It passed close to the Pleiades around the middle of September and is currently in the constellation of Perseus.
The comet reaches perihelion (closest to the Sun) on the 14th and passes 67 million miles from Earth 4 days later.
It should reach a maximum magnitude of around +8, so should be visible in binoculars or a small telescope at this time.
By the end of October it will be found in the constellation of Camelopardalis, heading almost directly towards Polaris.
What it’s brightness will be at this time is difficult to say, as comets are notoriously difficult to accurately predict.
By the end of November the comet will be close to Polaris and its motion would have slowed down as the distance from Earth increases. It should be very faint by this time.
A small asteroid (Do they still call them that these days?) is due to buzz past the Earth over the next few days. It is likely to reach the giddy heights of magnitude 12.5 (or there-about), so will be a real challenge to spot as it passes us, moving south west as it goes.
It will not hit the Earth and will pass by at about 30,000 miles above the Earth’s surface at closest approach on the 12th.
On the 10th it will be in Aquarius a little below the Water Jar asterism.
On the 11th it will be in Capricornus, within the main body of the constellation when dark in the UK.
On the 12th it will be in Sagittarius and virtually lost in the multitude faint milky Way stars and very low down in the south western evening sky after dark.
We will be presenting my audience-participation evening: “Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.
I am looking forward to being made very welcome once again as they did on my previous visit to them. I know that they will probably be surprised to see Tim, as I don’t think they are expecting him (Unless they read this blog, of course!). But, I’ll bet you this for nothing, they’ll all be wanting to take selfies with him at the end of the evening.
Like my other visits out with this presentation, I’m really looking forward to having a lot of fun with them during the audience participation bits. But I’m sure that they will really enjoy the evening we have planned for them.
All are very welcome, so if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.
Their meeting starts at 8:00pm.
They meet at:
Rushall Olympic FC,
Dales Lane,
Rushall,
Walsall,
West Midlands
WS4 1LJ
Dates for my astronomy workshops for next year have now been confirmed.
Although I have had people travel as far afield as Sheffield and Hampshire, if these workshops are too far for you to travel, if your club or society would like me to organise an astronomy workshop closer to your location, do get in touch.
So below is my list of workshops currently available for booking.
On Friday the 29th of September I will be taking Milton Keynes Astronomical Society on a wild ride touring out from Earth 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).
So if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.
MK AS meet at 8:00pm at the following venue:
Rectory Cottages. Church Green Road, Bletchley, Milton Keynes. MK3 6BJ.
This annual pilgrimage is made by hundreds of like-minded astronomy devotees, who love nothing more that standing out under the cloudy sky and socialising. Well, we do get some clear skies quite frequently, but the event is always eagerly anticipated and definitely sociable. Clear skies are a bonus.
We are on the Red Field this year, and will be there from the Thursday until Sunday.
If you haven’t booked a pitch, you’re far too late, but some spare pitches have recently been advertised, so have a look round to see if you can catch one. It might also be worthwhile ringing Kelling directly and seeing if they have had any cancellations. I know some people have picked up pitches at short notice this way.
So, today’s task in hand? Get myself out in the garage and get sorting out all that camping gear.
Next job: Decide what astronomy equipment to bring along. Do I go along with all guns blazing, or just take it easy with the Dob?
On Friday the 15th of September I will be re-visiting Cambridge Astronomical Association to give them a presentation on Mars – The Red Planet.This coincides with their recent observing evening celebrating 140 years of Mars observing since Schiaparelli drew his infamous Canali and Asaph Hall discovered the two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.
I will talk about past observations, the frustrations of observing the planet as an amateur, and review of some of the unmanned missions, both failures and successes that have visited the planet and a look at future possibilities of manned flights.
On Tuesday the 12th of September I will be re-visiting Little Stanion WI group.
I will be taking @Flat_Tim and Buzz along to tell them all about the History of Manned Space Flight, notably The Space Race, which resulted in the Apollo lunar landings.
Looking forward to seeing them all again.
Meeting starts at 7:45pm.
Meeting is held at:
Corby Conservative Club, Cottingham Rd, Corby NN17 1SZ
There has been one thing on my bucket list that thought I never witness, a total eclipse of the Sun. I have only attempted one viewing and that was in Totnes, Devon on August the 11th 1999. Typically for the UK, I witnessed clouds going dark! This wasn’t knocked off my bucket list then (Did bucket lists actually exist then?), so I had to do it soon.
It was many years later before another chance to view an eclipse finally came on August the 21st 2017. The central line passed within a two hour drive from Yellowstone National park, a fantastic volcanic geological wonder. This is a place I have always wanted to visit, so this was an opportunity to tick off two from my bucket list in one holiday. The urge to go was also bolstered by discussions with a few other members of Northampton Natural History Society, Astronomy Section who also suggested they would be going. We decided to book our holiday and meet in up in Jackson Wyoming for the eclipse and then onto Yellowstone.
Our accommodation and flights were booked as soon as possible, the rooms more than a year in advance.
Sue and I flew out on Saturday the 19th, the eclipse was on the Monday (21st) and was visible from the western coast of The USA, right the way across to the east coast, along a narrow strip of totality. Of course, you only get a total along a very narrow strip, which lies within the Moons umbra.
Meeting up with everyone, which was extremely sociable, and unexpectedly bumping into a couple of other familiar astronomy faces while we were there. Nick Hewitt had found a suitable spot, just north of Jackson alongside the road.
We eventually settled on a grassy area, just down from there, within walking distance from our hotels, right beside Flat Creek.
This was a few miles south of the central line, and we lost just over 2 seconds of totality. But that saved the hassles of getting stuck in possible traffic jams. These never materialised around the Jackson area. We got talking to a couple from Yorkshire in Yellowstone after the eclipse. They had travelled down and got 30 seconds of totality as they were a bit further north. Surely if you’ve gone all that way, you’d go a little bit further south to get a bit more?
There were no vacancies in Jackson at all the hotels we passed.
Some people had driven down the night before and could be seen sleeping in their cars.
On the morning of the eclipse a few of us arrived at our chosen viewing site a few hours before the eclipse started, to bag our spot.
We thought the field would be heaving for the eclipse, but although a few people joined us, it didn’t get very crowded at all.
There was some light cloud which looked like it might spoil the view.
These rapidly moved southwards and disappeared behind the mountains, leaving a clear blue sky well before 10am.
With the mountains south of Jackson in view, it was almost the perfect spot, with what now looked like perfect conditions.
The excitement was definitely building.
The cold 250,000 mile long finger of darkness had already touched the earth out in the Pacific Ocean and was now racing towards the west coast of America, and was making its way towards us.
By this time, the rest of our group had joined us, we set up our cameras with filters and safety specs and awaited first contact.
A nervous tension set up within our group as time ticked by and kept checking our settings.
Bang on time, a small bite was seen to be taken out of the edge of the Sun as the Moons penumbral shadow reached us.
Our long awaited event was now starting to unfold before our very eyes, and we watched with eager anticipation.
It was then a slow progression as the Moon gradually hid the Sun, we were now well in the Moons penumbra, first half and then three quarters of the Sun was hidden. I’d seen this many a time, but I knew now that the grandest of events was ahead of us.
By this time, you could see the dimming in the ambient light and the cold could now be felt as the Moons ice-cold dark shadowy finger raced towards us from the west-north-west at well over 1,700 mph. People started to go very quiet as the tension built up further.
A few minutes before totality, I started a GoPro to record video of people’s reactions and my mobile phone to record a time-lapse of the event.
These can be viewed at the bottom of this page.
The bright crescent Sun slowly got slimmer and thinner, Venus was spotted very high up in the darkening sky. As the Suns crescent now rapidly thinned, someone pointed out the dancing shadow bands on a piece of paper. It was totally memorising.
Suddenly, as quick as a flash, totality hit as the umbra finally caught up with us and the last direct rays of the Sun were obliterated from reaching Earth. The Suns light was gone. Claps, cheers and gasps went up as the light dropped.
With the sky as dark as it was going to get, the Suns outer atmosphere, the corona, came brightly into view, showing three distinct spikes and so much fine beautiful detail, it was absolutely gorgeous.
Nothing, but nothing, had prepared me for what I was viewing. It was completely surreal.
The bright star Regulus was easily visible towards the 8 o’clock position close to the darkened Sun.
The brighter inner corona formed a bright ring around the Moons dark silhouette. Mars could also be faintly seen.
Long exposure showing the outer corona.
We quickly took the solar filters off the front of the lenses to capture the moment as best we could. Varying the exposure to bring out different features. The two minutes and 15 seconds that we had ticked away extremely quickly.
Nick Hewitt, an old hand at eclipses pointed out the eerie glow around the horizon where sunlight filtered in beyond the umbras reach.
I didn’t want to spend my first eclipse viewing through the camera, I wanted to experience it, not just view it through a camera viewfinder.
So I stopped taking photographs, grabbed my binoculars and removed the filters to grab a direct view of the eclipse.
It was totally worth it, absolutely breathtaking. The fine detail in the corona was incredible.
Three beautiful pink prominences, of which I have viewed a few through Ha filters, were amazingly detailed, looping out and superimposed onto the bright inner corona. The view at home using Ha filters will never be quite the same.
Short exposure showing the inner corona and the prominences.
After catching this fleeting view, the main event was very close to finishing.
I moved back to the camera to adjust the exposure to try and capture the end of the eclipse and the fabulous diamond ring.
But I’d left it far too late!
Before I could change the camera settings, the sudden appearance of an extremely bright shaft of light flooded through the Moons valleys, creating the beautiful diamond ring, signalling the end of the eclipse as the umbra swept away and onward across the US. We were all completely awestruck and totally dazed.
I dithered and gasped as the Suns crescent thickened, before re-composing myself to get my photographs back on track.
We took a quick glimpse of crescent Suns dancing under the trees and then a progression of photographs showing the gradual withdrawal of the Moon from off the Suns face to finish off the sequence.
The whole thing was absolutely incredible. It was also fabulous sharing it with some very good friends.
That makes it even more amazing.
We will reminisce and talk about this fabulous experience for a very long time to come.
The build up to the event, the emotional experience and the come down from the huge adrenaline rush meant I felt completely drained.
I made a few mistakes in the imaging as I just got caught up in the moment. But what I did get was better than I expected, so I’m not upset I didn’t get a good diamond ring image. (Maybe at the next one?).
I can see why people become addicted and follow eclipses around the globe. I would definitely love to see another (or more!).
If you fancy seeing an eclipse, get planning for the next one now. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that you will not regret it.
You’ll only regret it if you don’t.
We broke open some locally brewed Eclipse beer and a bottle of Celeste wine to celebrate a very successful eclipse, before packing all our kit up and retiring to the local hostelry for further celebrations.
What a day that was.
Oh, and Yellowstone? That also surpassed our wildest expectations, as did Grand Teton.
So that was two very big ticks on what now seems to be an ever increasing bucket list…
Passing almost south to north, this close-pass asteroid will be 4.4 million miles from Earth at about 1pm tomorrow.
It will be bright enough (~9th magnitude) to be easily visible in a small telescope over the next few nights.
The maps below should help you find it.
(Click on the images for a bigger version).
It is not far from the globular cluster M2 (NGC 7089) this evening, visible reasonably high up in the southern sky about 11pm.
It moves through Equuleus, past globulr M15 on towards Cygnus.
It will be close to the Veil Nebula on the 3rd, but its closest pass to that is during daylight in the UK.
Path of Florence over the next few days. (Position marked at 5h intervals).
Path of Florence Today (31st August). Not far from globular Cluster M2. (Position marked at 2h intervals).
Path of Florence on the 1st of September. Not far from globular Cluster M15. (Position marked at 2h intervals).
Path of Florence on the 2nd of September, not far from head of Delphinus. (Position marked at 2h intervals).
Path of Florence on the 3rd of September, Just approaching The Veil Nebula. (Position marked at 2h intervals).
My monthly sky diary for September showing the events of the night sky visible from the UK is now available in pdf form to download and print.
This includes some details of the asteroid 3122 Florence which makes a close pass of the Earth on the 1st.
It should be bright enough to be seen with a small telescope.
The beauty of doing solar observing and imaging is that you never know what the Sun is going to do and what you’re going to see.
So with a bit of spare time this morning I decide to get out and have a look at our Sun before getting on with the rest of the day.
Active region 2671 was developing very nicely, so I decided to do that first in white light first.
Image below taken through a 120mm Evostar refractor.
Lunt Herschel Wedge, Baader Continuum filter and DMK41 camera.
Active region 2671 in Ha Light. 120mm Evostar refractor.
Quark Chromosphere with 1.5 focal reducer and DMK41 camera.
The magnetic fields around the sunspots showing extremely nicely.
The star of the morning however was this huge prominence on the limb.
Same setup as above.
The prominence changed very quickly.
Just over an hour later, I thought it looked like a ghostly outstretched hand.
Maybe it was a welcoming gesture to the Moon, as it approached for the total solar eclipse across the US on Monday.
But it didn’t last long. An hour and half later it became unstable and could no longer be supported.
It had started to collapse and faded considerably as shown below.
That’s what I love about the Sun. So unpredictable.