On Tuesday the 17th of July I will be re-visiting my good friends and fairly local group of Northants Amateur Astronomers to give them a presentation on Mars – The Red Planet.

This is nicely timed just before the planet comes to opposition on the 27th of this month.

I will talk about past observations, the frustrations of observing the planet as an amateur, (especially with the global dust storm currently blocking out the features). I will also review of some of the unmanned missions, failures and successes, that have visited the planet and a look forward at future possibilities for manned flights.

The meeting starts at 7:45pm.

Venue:
The Lounge.
Geddington Village Hall.
Queen Street.
Geddington.
NN14 1AZ

 

Comet C/2017 S3 PANSTARRS has had an outburst and has rapidly brightened.

UPDATE – 8th August 2018. The comet has suddenly faded rapidly, so it looks like it has broken up.

The comet was reported to suddenly jump at least 2 magnitudes, extremely quickly.
It is currently around 9th magnitude and visible in the early morning sky, high up in the north east before the sky starts brightening (although, of course twilight lasts all night at this time of the year, so the skies do not really get dark).
It is actually a circumpolar object, never setting from the UK.

Click here to download a free pdf of this information.
Please feel free to pass around.

The full path of the comet for this apparition. (Click on the maps for a closer view).

The comet is currently in the constellation of Cassiopeia, but quickly moves into Camelopardalis as it heads south, gathering pace and brightening all the time.

Towards the end of July, the comet will be just north of the top of Auriga, not far from the first magnitude star Capella.

Path of the comet during July.

By the beginning of August, the comet will be in Gemini, passing Castor & Pollux between the 4th & 6th. By this time the comet will be very low to the horizon, just before dawn breaks in the north-eastern sky as it approaches the Sun. It COULD give a great display at this point as the comet starts getting extremely hot as it approaches the Sun. Unfortunately, the comet will rapidly slip into the Sun’s glare and be quickly lost from view.

Path of comet during August.

When the comet reaches perihelion in August, despite potentially being a naked eye object, it will still be hopelessly lost in the Sun’s glare. Unfortunately, this will be the case for many weeks to come.

Path of comet during September (Not visible from the UK).

We in the UK are unlikely to spot the comet again until the beginning of October, as it starts to move away from the Sun. At this time it will once again be visible in the morning sky, low down in the eastern sky before dawn. As the comet gets higher in the darker morning skies, it approaches Coma Berenices, so will pass quite a few galaxies, including a number of Messier objects. It will, of course be fading by this point, but how bright the comet will be by then is anyone’s guess, as comets are extremely unpredictable. But isn’t that what makes these enigmatic objects so very fascinating?

Path of comet during October.

Maps produced using C2A Planetarium Software.

 

My free monthly sky diary for July 2018 showing the events of the night sky visible from the UK is now available in pdf form to download and print.
Click here, or on the image below to download the pdf.

It is also available to share on Google calendars.
Click here to go to my Google calendar.

More sky events will be added to the live Google calendar as more information becomes available.

Astronomically, Summer in the UK is always fraught with frustrations.
It doesn’t really get dark, astronomical twilight persists throughout the night and you have to stay up so late to see anything at all.
But unlike Eddie Cochran’s classic, there is a cure? Oh yes there is!
Well, actually if you read on, you’ll see that there’s been quite a few…

Cure No. 1.
Since giving up work two months ago, things have taken off much quicker than I expected.
My astrophotography guides have been selling really well and my workshops have been
Thank you to everyone who has purchased them and sent me some great feedback.
Lots of new opportunities have also started coming my way, so very exciting times ahead indeed. 🙂

Cure No. 2.
Taking up solar Hydrogen Alpha imaging 3 years ago, really helped me to really enjoy summers astronomically. I also found that I got totally hooked on solar observing and imaging. You just never know what you’re going to see the next time you point your equipment at our nearest star. It’s flipping awesome! So that has kept me entertained very nicely over the past few weeks.

Cure No. 3.
A real downer for me this year, should have been the removal of my beloved dome. Marking the end of Eagleseye Observatory as I knew it. Fortunately, the impending move had enabled Sue and I to make this complete life change, making more time for ourselves and my astronomical interests. I am really looking forward very much to designing and building to get Eagleseye Observatory Version 2, back up and running. This time it will be a roll-off roof design, which should give me a bit more space to do dome of my other hobbies in the “man-shed”.

Cure No. 4.
Of course, the other added bonus this last week has been a display of noctilucent clouds. This seems to have happened over the course of a number of evenings. I managed to capture the end of a display on the 19th of June after a planetary session. They looked really bright when I spotted them out of the study window, but by the time I had gathered my camera gear and tripod, and walked down to where I could see the northern sky, they had faded considerably.

Cure No. 5.
Of course, this summer is all about the planets. Jupiter, Saturn and Mars coming to opposition one after the other over the last few months. Jupiter is past its best, but still big, bold and interesting. Saturn is at opposition today, and Mars is approaching opposition next month, although a global dust storm looks like it might spoil our chances of getting decent images of surface features.

So I wanted to get myself all set up for planets.
In a blog entry a few months ago, I mentioned that I would like a planetary scope, possibly a Celestron C11 SCT.
A friend of mine, upon reading my blog, mentioned that he might be selling his at some point. So a few weeks ago, I went and looked at the scope and, seeing a bargain to be had, bought it home.

The collimation of the scope was atrocious, and although I could get it reasonably close, it wasn’t quite good enough. I could see flaring to one side of the image either side of focus, things also seemed a little bit loose. When I panned around from Jupiter in the south west and onto Saturn in the south east, the collimation changed from being OK, to being well out again.

Visually, the images looked quite good though. I could see some nice detail on Jupiter and Europa was easily visible in transit against the planets disk, its dark shadow standing out really well as that crept on too. The lunar surface looked amazing, so the potential was there, but this collimation really did need properly sorting out.

It was time to get the big guns out for this one. I contacted Es Reid in Cambridgeshire, a well-respected optical engineer. He agreed to have a look at the telescope for me and on a glorious sunny Monday morning, I drove over to his house for him to give the scope a once-over and see what he could do  with it. After a quick optical test, it soon developed into open-heart surgery. I can tell you that my heart was certainly beating a lot faster as the scope was rapidly stripped down further and further. Soon there was just an array of components spread out on Es’ dining room floor.

 

I was beginning to wonder if I would ever have a functioning telescope.

But, having placed my trust in Es, he continued to tweak things, tightening the focuser, removing as much mirror-flop as possible. He placed spaces between the mirror and the focuser bracket to remove a bit of play there. The secondary mirror also rotated on the corrector plate, so a strategically placed piece of cement locked that. Then it was a case of cleaning the corrector plate, and methodically putting it all back together. My heart rate slowly went back to normal, heaving a big sigh of relief when it once again it looked like a piece of equipment that might just about be able to function as a telescope. Now all we needed to do was get it collimated.

Just to add, the day visiting Ed was also a very pleasant experience. As well as the hard work, he took a bit of time off with us sitting chatting astronomy in his garden supping tea. An absolutely marvellous way to spend the day.

Es then put the scope back on his optical bench ready for collimation. After quite a few nervous tweaks of the secondary, it was done! Es was confident that the scope should now be as good as, if not better, than when it left the factory. So I drove home very expectantly, but it was another day before I got the chance to test it out.

So the result now in is that this is a great scope. Lots of detail visible on Jupiter. Great lunar imaging, although the turbulent atmosphere during this hot weather is trying its best to stop me getting real quality images.

It is also going to take me a while to get the work flow right for imaging using this scope and camera. The images below were taken with my ZWO ASI120 MC camera at prime focus on the 24th of June. This is showing lots of promise and as soon as I can get on Mars (At my current address, it is still behind the neighbours house) I hope to be able to get some images of that as well.

Cure No. 6.
And the money I saved on the C11 for my observatory budget, I have just invested in an Altair Hypercam camera. But I think I’ll leave that for another blog entry later, once I’ve had a proper chance to test it out properly when we’ve moved.

Summer Time Blues?
With this flipping lot going on, not on your Nelly!!

Three images of Jupiter, showing transit of Io and shadow.

Jupiter And Saturn.

 

 

 

 

@Flat_Tim, Buzz and I will be out presenting once again on Monday the 25th of June
This time it’s a re-visit to Kings Lynn and District Astronomical Society.

Once again, it will be our ever popular audience-participation evening:
“Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.

I am looking forward to meeting up with them again and 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 taken this presentation to, that they will really enjoy the fun evening I have got planned for them.

I wonder how keen they will be compared to the other groups about having their selfies taken with @Flat_Tim at the end of the evening.

All are very welcome, especially kids, as this presentation is aimed at any age group from 10 to 110.

So if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.

Meeting starts at 7:30pm.

Venue:
Tottenhill & Wormegay Village Hall,
57 Whin Common Road
Tottenhill,
Norfolk
PE33 0RS

 

Click this link for details about Kings Lynn Astronomical Society.

On Thursday the 7th of June I will be re-visiting my old friends
Peterborough Astronomical Society on an emergency visit to give them my new presentation,  Why The Universe Doesn’t give a Fig About You.
This talks about the unlikely circumstances of life on Earth developing and the prevalent conditions in the universe that make our very existence extremely precarious.

I am looking forward to catching up with them all again and showing them just how insignificant we all are and how totally irrelevant our puny existence is to our Universe.

Meeting starts at 7:30pm.

Venue:
Sacrewell Farm & Country Center,
Thornhaugh,
Peterborough,
PE8 6HJ

 
On the 27th of June Saturn reaches opposition, adding to the plethora of planets and asteroids currently at their best. Pity most of them are so low down.
Unfortunately, this will be the case for a good number of years yet.

The rings at this time are widely presented towards the Earth, making a spectacular sight in any size telescope. The two webcam images above I took in 2004 and 2007, show the tilt of the rings as they were starting to close.
The rings were last edge-on in 2009.
Since last year, the rings have started to slowly close again and they will once-again be edge-on in 2025.

While looking at the rings, also have a look for some of Saturn’s many Moons.
Titan will be the most obvious to see as it is so bright.

I took the image below in July 2015.
The moons as identified are labelled with their magnitude given for the day of opposition:
T – Titan. Mag. +8.5.
I – Iapetus. Mag. +11.3.
R – Rhea. Mag. +9.9.
Te – Tethys. +10.4
E – Enceladus. +11.9
D- Dione. Mag. +10.6
Mimas (Not Captured). Mag.+13.1

Don’t forget to also look out for any cloud features on the planet.
Saturn has a system of bright zones and dark belts just like Jupiter, but a haze at the top of the atmosphere tends to soften this, making them more difficult to see. Keep a look out for any white spots (Storms) that may be visible amongst the clouds.

One notable effect that happens as opposition approaches, the rings of Saturn start to become much brighter. This Seeliger Effect is caused by the ring particles not casting shadows on one another, due to the angle of the Sun to us on Earth viewing the planet. The brightness increase should occur a couple of weeks either side of the date of opposition.

This is shown quite nicely by Christopher Go’s images of Saturn shown below.
Click here or on the image below for more details about this effect.

 

This phenomena is so pronounced at times that the brightening of the planet can even be quite obvious to the naked eye observer.

So, while it is still at its best, get out and have a look at the glorious Lord Of The Rings.

The excitement is definitely building.
Mars, the red planet, is coming to opposition on the 27th of July.
And who doesn’t love looking at Mars?

Due to its close proximity to Earth, one more planet away from the Sun, it only comes to opposition every two years. This is the time when Mars (and all the other outer planets) are seen at their best, as they are then at their closest to Earth.

Unfortunately, for those of us in the UK, (or anywhere further north) although this is one of the best oppositions for quite a while, when Mars is even closer than recent previous encounters, therefore its apparent size being much bigger, it is going to be very low down in the southern sky at this time. This means that the Earth’s atmosphere will do its very best to prevent us from seeing some of the smallest detail on the disk.

This isn’t helped by Mars being quite small anyway. As Earth and Mars app approach one another over the next few weeks, the apparent size of the disk grow very quickly as shown in the diagram below. The date in yellow is the day of opposition. Diagram created using Stellarium.

Below is Damien Peach’s spectacular images taken over the past few weeks showing how much Mars has already grown so far this year. Just WOW!!!
Click here or on the image to see his well-deserved APOD entry.

Make the most of any opportunity to observe the planet for a few weeks either side of opposition as possible, to see as much of the disk as you can, while it is big, bold and easier to view.

At opposition the planet will look very bright at magnitude -2.8 and will look extremely red to the naked eye.

See if you can spot the two moos, Phobos and Deimos at this time. Theoretically, they “should” be relatively easy to spot at magnitudes 10.5 and 11.5 respectively. However, as they are orbiting very close to their bright parent, they are often lost in the bright glare.
Click here to read a Sky & Telescope article for more details about how this can be achieved.

Don’t forget Mars’ rotation period is very similar to the Earth’s, so don’t think you can go out at the same time the next night and see a different part of the disk, as only very small  different portion of the disk will have rotated into view.

Have Fun.

The map below shows the retrograde loop performed by Mars in Capricornus from now until the end of October. Click on the map for a bigger view.

The asteroid Vesta reaches opposition in Ophiuchus on the 19th of June.

This asteroid was explored by the Dawn Spacecraft between 2011 and 2012, before going on to explore Ceres.

Its current eastwards retrograde movement takes it just south of the open star cluster M23 on the 14th of June.

Its maximum magnitude is about +5.3 at it’s brightest means that it is (theoretically, at least) a naked eye object.

Failing that, binoculars or a small telescope should help you identify this asteroid against the background stars. Its movement over a day or so should reveal its non-stellar nature.

Make a sketch of the star field or take a picture of its position a day or so either side of each other to reveal the asteroids movement.

Happy Hunting.

The map below shows the path during June and July.
Position shown at 1 day intervals.
(Click on map for bigger version).

Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner is now starting to approach Earth.

Click here to download this Observing Guide as a free PDF.

Discovered in 1990, this comet has a 6.5 year period.

The comet is currently moving through the stars of Cygnus and is currently a faint 11th magnitude, but could potentially reach naked eye visibility in September. It also passes a few bright deep sky objects in its travels.

On the 21st of June it’s the turn of The North American Nebula, also passing the open star cluster M39 towards the end of June.

All maps show the position of the comet at 0h UT on the dates shown.
Click on the maps to enlarge.

Through July, 21P moved into Cepheus, so will be a circumpolar object, always above the horizon, increasing in brightness all the time.

By August, the comet moves past Cassiopeia and Camelopardalis, as it continues to brighten. The comets apparent speed is now picking up as it approaches the Earth.

On the 3rd of September, the comet will pass very close to the 1st magnitude star Capella in Auriga, making it easier to find as it heads into the Winter constellations.

Now visible in the morning sky, it passes the following objects on the following dates:

8th September – Open Cluster M38.
9th September – Open Cluster M36.
10th September – Open Cluster M37.
15th September – Open Cluster M35 (Passing Right across the cluster).

The comet will be closest to Earth and at perihelion around this time and should be at its brightest around 6th or 7th magnitude. Don’t forget, comets are notoriously unpredictable and can often surprise us, by being brighter than expected, or let us down (yet again!).
The comet then heads southwards, passing through Monoceros.

24th /25th September – Hubbles Variable Nebula (NGC2261) and The Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264.
26th / 27th September – The Rosette Nebula.

By October, the comet is now getting low down in the morning sky and fading, but as a final curtain call it passes the bright open cluster M50 on the 7th/8th of October. At this time it will only be 30° above the southern horizon just before dawn. If you are up that early to catch the comet on that morning, watch for the very thin crescent Moon rising in the eastern sky as dawn approaches.

By the middle of October the comet has faded even more, passing to the east of Sirius and slowing down as the distance from Earth increases. How long can you keep watching Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner as it fades?

My free monthly sky diary for June 2018 showing the events of the night sky visible from the UK is now available in pdf form to download and print.
Click here, or on the image below to download the pdf.

It is also available to share on Google calendars.
Click here to go to my Google calendar.

More sky events will be added to the live Google calendar as more information becomes available.

@Flat_Tim, Buzz and I will be out presenting once again on Monday the 4th of June
This time it’s a visit to a new society Aylesbury Astronomical Society
Once again, it will be our ever popular audience-participation evening:
“Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.

I am looking forward to meeting up with a new group of astronomy enthusiasts.

Like all 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.
I’m sure that, like the other groups I have taken this presentation to, that they will really enjoy the fun evening I have got planned for them.

I wonder how keen they will be compared to the other groups about having their selfies taken with @Flat_Tim at the end of the evening.

All are very welcome, especially kids, as this presentation is aimed at any age group.

So if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.

Meeting starts at 7:30pm.

Venue: 9th Aylesbury Scout Hut, Oakfield Rd, Aylesbury HP20 1LL, UK

For details about Aylesbury Astronomical Society, click this link.
http://www.aylesbury-astronomy.org.uk/index.htmlhttp://www.shindles.co.uk/ouastro/Where.htm

On Sunday the 20th of April, I set the scope up to do some solar imaging.

There was a nice trio of prominences on edge of the disk the day before, so I thought these may have shown some nice changes since then.

One had faded completely, but there appeared to be quite a bit of detail in the remaining two. As I started to take images, I could see some rapid changes in their shapes, even during the short duration of the video capture. It immediately struck me that these features might make a nice solar animation if a series of images were taken over a period of time. The quick process shown below bore that assumption out, showing quite a lot of detail.

So starting at 07:23 am GMT I captured a 60 second avi.
I then re-centred the image and repeated the process over and over again.
I finally finished at 10:06 am GMT, a mega two and a half hour marathon.

As a result I ended up with saving 109 videos.

Then the fun really began.
I processed each captured avi with Autostakkert! to create a single image from each one.
I then sharpened each image, using Registax.
Using Photoshop I sharpened each one again, with further processing to reveal some of the fainter details.

Once this was accomplished, I loaded all the images into a single stack.
I then painstakingly aligned each layer with the one below.
One I was happy this was achieved as well as possible, I created a timeline to scroll through the images to create the time-lapse.
A few more tweaks were required to make sure that this was as smooth as possible.

When I was happy, I then exported the layers as an animated GIF.
This whole process took me more-or-less the whole day.
I’m never going to get that day back.

But BOY, as you can see below, it was definitely worthwhile making the effort.
The seeing was a bit iffy in a few of the images, but the activity can easily be seen.

Following on from the success of Photoshop hands-on workshops, my full guide to Photoshop image processing techniques is now available to order.

Star-Gazing Guide to Photoshop Astrophotography Image Processing.

My step-by-step guide covers the following Photoshop Tools:
Curves, Levels, Light Pollution Removal, Layers, Colour Saturation, as well as Layer Masking and Unsharp Masking.

£8:50, plus £1:50 Postage and packing.

Click the Paypal Button below to order your printed copy.

(Please contact me before ordering if out of the UK for postage costs).

Or click here to buy on Kindle from Amazon.

My guide shows, in easy to follow step-by-step workflows, how to use Photoshop in as simple a way as possible to get the best out of your astrophotos.

The workflows shown include:

Curves. – To stretch the image to reveal the faint data.

Levels. – Similar to the above, and to help balance the image.

Layers. – Using layers to build up an image, and the use of luminosity Layers.

Saturation. – Revealing colour from within images.

Plug-ins. – Some free and paid for plug-ins that are definitely worth-while investing in and will help get the very best out of astronomy images.

This latest edition has also been updated to include details of:

Layer Masking. – Using a layer mask to prevent the bright areas of objects from becoming over-exposed as the image is stretched.

Unsharp Masking. – Using an unsharp mask to reveal more detail within the objects captured.

All the images that have been used in this guide can be downloaded from my Web site.

Following the instructions within this guide will soon get the keen astrophotographer on their way to producing stunning astrophotos.

Learn how to manipulate a stacked image that looks something like this:

…into something that looks more like this:

£8:50, plus £1:50 Postage and packing.

Click the Paypal Button below to order your printed copy.

On Tuesday the 15th of May I will making my very first visit to
Solent Amateur Astronomers to present:

Rosetta & Philae: From Concept To Reality

My second favourite presentation includes the conclusion of this spectacular mission to Comet 67P – Churyumov-Gerasimenko, right down to its final image and some of the latest findings to be published.

There is also, courtesy of Dr Colin Snodgrass from the Open University, a chance for the audience to sniff Comet 67P.  I will collecting opinions on what the audience think it smells like.

So, if you’re in the area, come along, say “Hello” and enjoy my presentation.

I’m really looking forward to meeting up with a new group.

Meeting starts at 7:30pm.

Venue:
Oasis Academy,
Romsey Rd,
Southampton.
SO16 8FA

…one of these crazy old nights.

Yes, so Jupiter is just reaching opposition.
That’s fantastic, because it’s the best the planet will look all year, but, Oh Yes, there’s always a but! It is at its highest in the sky at midnight, so you have to stay up that late to capture it at its best.

Dear readers, last night all started out so well. As it got dark, I set the scope up and was ready to catch Venus before that got too low. It was a blazing beacon shining above the neighbours tree (Thankfully), so I was able to capture it. I used my monochrome DMK41 camera and a Venus UV filter which has just about captured some faint cloud details.

So Venus very soon became too low and was gone.
So I set up the CCD camera to capture some deep sky objects while waiting for Jupiter to rise from behind the neighbours house.

First target was spiral galaxy M100. I chose this as it was well up and its spiral arm structure is spectacular. Finding the damned thing was the first real challenge. Since the observatory has been dismantled, the mount is no longer computer controlled. Luckily, I know my way around the sky and can star-hop… Or so I thought. Ha!
After a lot going of backwards and forwards, I finally got the galaxy close to the centre of the chip. The tracking wasn’t going too well. The galaxy was gradually drifting towards the top of the frame (I know, I know, Check the polar alignment…). Lots of subs were slightly trailed. Nightmare!! But in the end I got enough subs something that was recognisable, albeit a little noisy.

Then my fun night really began. I thought I’d try and go over to capture M87, or Virgo A, the super Giant Mega Galaxy. It’s not too far way from M100, so a quick whizz across to that one will quickly bag me that one.
How wrong I was. Backwards and forwards went the scope, pointing it at the place the galaxy should be, nothing! The odd random galaxy popped into view as I moved the scope methodically, but could I identify any of them on the planetarium program? NO! It took me the best part of an hour to finally get the galaxy in the frame. Again, I had the same issues with these images as M100, but I was there now and I was determined to at least just get an identifiable image. Focus also seemed to be an issue once I stacked the subs. The jet coming off the core isn’t visible.

But no sweat… The main event was just starting.
The mighty Jupiter had now cleared the neighbours roof, so I put the CCD away and got out the colour ZWO camera. Ha Ha!! Now we’ll see some real action!

Jupiter looked fabulous, I had a few nice views through the eyepiece then connected everything up to the laptop. Now we’ll get something decent! I centred the large bright blob on the screen and started to adjust the settings and focus to get a good image for capturing. It didn’t take long before I realised that the changes I made were making any difference. In fact, the image had completely frozen. I closed the Sharpcap image capturing program and connected back to the camera. Same problem. So frustrating, when it’s worked so many times before now on the same laptop. I re-booted the laptop twice (just in case), but it made no difference. After 40 minutes of faffing around and deep frustration, I swapped over to the DMK41 camera I used earlier that night. That too kept freezing. I also tried both cameras using Firecapture software, but same result all round.

At that point it was almost quarter to one. I decided enough was enough and gave it all up as a bad job, packed everything away and went to bed in a real sulk…

Next morning I tried the ZWO camera and even more frustratingly it still wasn’t working. I downloaded and flashed the new Firmware into the camera, then re-installed the camera software. Finally things now seem to be working as expected.

If it stays clear after my talk tonight, maybe I’ll try again later. If it’s not too windy, that is.

Dave

 

Tonight. (Tuesday the 8th of May) I will be presenting to Rushden And District Photographic Society.

I will be giving them my Finding your way around the night sky and starting out in Astrophotography presentation.

Hopefully, we’ll get more people out there, enjoying and imaging the night sky.

The Society meets at 8:00pm.

Venue:
Irchester Village Hall,
School Road,
Irchester,
Northants,
NN29 7AW

My free monthly sky diary for May 2018 showing the events of the night sky visible from the UK is now available in pdf form to download and print.
Click here, or on the image below to download the pdf.

It is also available to share on Google calendars.
Click here to go to my Google calendar.

More sky events will be added to the live Google calendar as more information becomes available.

So, no observatory. Back to the good old days of slumming it, having to set the scope up each time you want to observe or image. Luckily the base is the ideal location for setting up the scope.

I had already missed two clear nights in a row, I wasn’t going to miss another. So on the 20th of April, I set the scope up. Once it got dark I was able to get polar alignment quite quickly. The image left shows the initial placement, but I could see that luckily there were still three marks left on the base where the tripod had stood before I got the pier. So as long as I put the scope on the marks each time now in the centre of the base, the mount will be just about be polar aligned once carried into place.

 

 

First problem, a slight breeze shakes the damned thing. I haven’t had that for quite a while…

Venus was visible over in the West, so captured that first. The almost first quarter Moon was out so I took a number of webcam images. I decided not to try doing any deep sky or comet images that night.

Amazingly, the 22nd of April was also clear with a first quarter Moon. The Lunar X and V clearly visible as the sky darkened. Shadows from Montes Caucasus looked extremely dramatic.

Pictures from that evening are at the bottom of the page.

In fact, despite the hassle of now having to set everything up each night, I really enjoyed standing out under a wide expanse of sky.

Onwards and Upwards! 🙂

More of my Lunar images can be viewed on my Flickr page:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eagleseyeonthesky

 

 

So Eagleseye Observatory is no more.

The dome was taken away on Wednesday and will be re-sited in a friends house.
The day it was removed ended with clear dark skies and followed again last night as well.
But with no observatory, I just couldn’t take advantage of them.

However, much as I am slightly saddened to see my beloved observatory go, I’m not going to shed too many tears over it.

This week marks a whole new chapter in our lives. We are currently trying to move house.
When we do eventually move, I have made the decision not to take the dome with me.
But, as you can probably guess, I’m not giving up astronomy.
Once we get settled, the new garden will eventually sport a nice new shed that has a roll-off roof.

As well as being an observatory, the extra length and extra corners will give me a lot more space to “work” in. It will become a multi-functional Man Shed. I’ll be able to tinker away in there to my hearts content (Sue allowing! 😉 to indulge in all my other various hobbies.
So that’s the plan.

As well as the dome going, it was a very traumatic week. Our main switch failing at work on Tuesday lead to a very frantic, stressful and extremely long day (and night) trying to get everything back up and running again. What happened to that gradual slow-down I was expecting on my last week at work? Hey Ho!

“Last Week At Work?”. Well, Yes, you really did hear that correctly. This move is a downsize. It releases some equity and (just about) enables me to leave work at the relatively young age of 56.

This will enable Sue and I to spend a lot more quality time together. Last year we saw too many of our friends taken away from us and denied any other opportunities. So, towards the tail end of last year we grabbed the nettles firmly by the balls, and made the decision to “just gone for it”. It will also enable me to concentrate more on the astronomy side of things, doing a bit more writing, presentations and public outreach. From what I hear from other retired people, I may wonder how I ever had time for a job.

So there we are. A new and exciting chapter in our lives dawns. There are going to be some really busy, but very rewarding times ahead as we make preparations to make our “new” home ours. So watch this space.

In the meantime, enjoy the video of the dismantling of the dome.

Dave (Retired, but certainly not out).

This weekend I started to clear and de-commission Eagleseye Observatory. As you can imagine, this has given me very mixed emotions. On the one hand, it’s very sad to see it go, but with all these new adventures lying ahead for Sue and I, it marks the start of a brand new chapter in our lives, especially when I retire from work this Thursday. So tonight the strip down is finally complete and the dome is empty.

To finish 13 years of the observatories fantastic service, I was longing to get out and do some observing or imaging this weekend. There was an alert that some very nice detailed prominences were visible, which prompted me get all my solar gear set up. As you can probably predict, yes, of course, as soon as I got everything focussed, the Sun obligingly did a runner behind the cloud and was never seen again that day. Same old, same old!

Luckily after dark, at the very last gasp of the day (or night), the skies were sufficiently clear to get the CCD camera attached and get my very last imaging fix from within the dome.

After all, it is galaxy season, so I decided to capture photons from some nicely detailed galaxies to produce some mono images. 

First object was M64, The Black Eye Galaxy. I realised as I started stacking the images that I used the wrong camera settings after focusing, resulting in a smaller image size and resolution. (Left on 2×2. Sigh!).

I was already set onto the beautiful edge-on Galaxy NGC 4565, The Needle Galaxy, so I quickly changed the settings so this image wasn’t affected by the same problem.

Lastly I captured NGC 4631, The Whale Galaxy. It shows a lot of structure within it, and the calf “swimming” just above its back.

My next object was meant to be M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. However, the sky background was rapidly increasing as the clouds started to re-fomr. So I transferred all the images to my Study PC before shutting up the dome for very the last time.

Tonight, everything else was taken out and has been packed away ready for when we finally get the go-ahead to move. Tomorrow, they are coming to start dismantling it to move it to its new home in Bedford.

Much as I am really hating taking my beloved observatory apart, once we settle in the “new” house, I’m really looking forward to starting to resurrect Eagleseye Observatory from scratch once again. So watch this space.

And, If I really miss the dome that much, I can always go down to Bedford and pay it a little visit… I wonder if it will remember me with as much fondness as I will it?

 

Next Saturday (21st April) I am pleased to have been asked to do a Photoshop Essentials Workshop for http://astrophotographycourses.co.uk

This full day hands-on workshop is being held in Tooley’s Boatyard in Banbury and is available for booking.

So get yourself booked on, bring your laptop and learn how to get the best out of your pre-stacked images using the full version of Photoshop and some plug-ins I consider essential tools.

Full details are given on their Web site:
http://astrophotographycourses.co.uk/dave.html

Astronomy is one of those hobbies that can, if you let it, very quickly get out of hand (but I hear you say, so can many hobbies). The price of equipment can at times be astronomical, so the reigns have to be pulled on so many times to try and prevent pulling the trigger on a new “toy”, that will, when it arrives, inevitably attract clouds for many weeks before it gets “first light”.

As you start your own journey into the hobby, aperture fever soon kicks in. The logic follows thus: If I get a bigger scope, I’ll see fainter things and in much more detail. Of course, with the digital revolution, cameras becoming much more sensitive, and image processing skills ensuring that every photon is captured and used, that argument is now very much redundant. Amateurs are producing wonderful images of faint, delicate deep sky objects with little more than an 80mm refractor.

But your astronomy journey results in you coming up against quite a number of stumbling blocks along the way. You get everything you think you need, then once the clouds do clear and you get to do some observing and imaging, you suddenly realise that there is yet another hurdle to get over, so a look on the forums or a quick Google, shows you that there is yet another accessory, that promises to get you over your present dilemma. Great! But very soon as that is breached you very soon find yourself smack bang up to your next barrier, requiring another browse of the goodies to source yet another gizmo to get you over that. So what seemed a pretty cheap start into the hobby very soon racks up in expense. Only strong willpower, an empty bank account or an unsympathetic partner prevents you from spending much, much more.

So after all my years, where am I? I have currently got an observatory in the garden. It has an EQ6 mount on a pier. In the past my willpower has not been the strongest, but it means that I have collected a wide range of equipment (when I could afford to). I have 3 telescopes, amongst which are an ED80 (used for wide-angle imaging and guiding) and an Evostar 120mm refractor (Mainly used for solar imaging with a Quark). I have far too many eyepieces, Barlow lenses, Webcams and other paraphernalia. In the last few months a friend of mine has loaned me a CCD camera. Initial results look extremely good, so I will be purchasing this as it can image deep sky objects in incredible detail.
My main scope is a 190 Mak-Newt. It has been a revelation using this, with a wide field of view, the images are stunning and the images are fantastic. Its design produces star images without those nasty spikes (I’m not going to argue with you on this, they’re nasty!). With this I realise that my 10″ Meade LX200 held me back on deep sky imaging for many years, its long focal length giving such a small field of view (even with a field reducer), resulting in faint images, which required longer exposures, etc, etc. Thank goodness I sold it on and plumped for the Mak-Newt.

So my imaging of both Deep Sky Objects, Solar and Lunar are probably as top rate as they can be now.

So you would think that I would be extremely happy, Yes?
Well, not quite!!

In 13 days time I am leaving my job, and semi-retiring.
My observatory dome is being sold and being dismantled that very same day.
So as I get to spend more time in it, I’m losing it. Go figure?

But it’s all part of our longer term strategy.
Sue and I are downsizing. We are moving about 5 miles away, so not too far.
This enables me to retire early so Sue and I can spend more time together.

But, I’m not giving up my beloved astronomy, no way!
The “new” house has a bit of a bigger garden, and Eagleseye Observatory will be re-born.
Skies are also a bit darker than our current location and as the neighbouring houses are a bit further away, I will have access to even more sky. 🙂
When the resurrection happens, this time I will be going for something a little less obvious.

So although the Sun may be setting on it now, the New Eagleseye Observatory will be a shed with a roll-off roof.
I will be installing my current equipment within that (once I get time to get the new observatory built while doing all the jobs that will need doing in the house).

Will I be happy then? You (Or mostly Sue) would hope so. Unfortunately not!
Looking back, the one thing I do miss about the old LX200 is the very long focal length.
This was ideal for planetary webcam imaging. None of my present scopes can get the image scale required to get decent planet images, without using Barlow lenses. These degrade the image enormously due to the extra glass between the object and the Webcam, so I currently find this aspect of imaging a real struggle.

To rectify this “problem”, I would love to get hold of a Celestron C11.
This big aperture, long focal length beast will certainly up the anti on the capabilities of the Eagleseye Observatory Phoenix. With a great near perihelic opposition of Mars later this summer, despite being low down in Sagittarius, with its fairly large image size it will be fantastic to try and get some really decent images for a change. Plus it’s within my budget.

So, if you know anyone who’s selling a C11, please point them in my direction so my willpower is tested to the very limit.
But I know, it’s certainly not that strong…

Dave

On Friday the 6th of April, I will be re-visiting my very good friends Stanion Astronomers.

This time I will be bring them my presentation about:
“The Voyager Missions; 40 Years and Counting”

I am really looking forward to the evening and seeing everyone at this very friendly club once again.

Meeting starts at 8pm, and there will be observing after my presentation (if clear).

So if you’re in the area, come along and say “Hi”.

The club meet at:
Stanion Village Hall,
Old Brigstock Road,
Stanion,
Northamptonshire,
NN141BX
Email: stanionastro@hotmail.com

 

My free monthly sky diary for April 2018 showing the events of the night sky visible from the UK is now available in pdf form to download and print.
Click here, or on the image below to download the pdf.

It is also available to share on Google calendars.
Click here to go to my Google calendar.

More sky events will be added to the live Google calendar as more information becomes available.

After a short rest, @Flat_Tim, Buzz and I will be out presenting once again.
This time it’s a re-visit to my friends at  The Open University Astronomy Club on Tuesday the 3rd of April.
Once again, it will be our ever popular audience-participation evening:
“Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.

I am looking forward to seeing my old friends once again and a meet up and chat in the pub beforehand.

Like all 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.
I’m sure that, like the other groups I have taken this presentation to, that they will really enjoy the fun evening I have got planned for them.

I wonder how keen they will be compared to the other groups about having their selfies taken with @Flat_Tim at the end of the evening.

All are very welcome, especially kids, as this presentation is aimed at any age group.

So if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.

Meeting starts at 7:30pm and will be held in the Robert Hooke Seminar Room at The Open University, Milton Keynes.
For details how to find the meeting room, click this link.
http://www.shindles.co.uk/ouastro/Where.htm

My monthly sky diary for March 2018 showing the events of the night sky visible from the UK is now available in pdf form to download and print.
Click here, or on the image below to download the pdf.

It is also available to share on Google calendars.
Click here to go to my Google calendar.

More sky events will be added to the live Google calendar as more information becomes available.

On Monday the 26th of February, I will be presenting to Retford & District Photographic Society

I will be giving them my Finding your way around the night sky and starting out in Astrophotography presentation.

Hopefully, we’ll get more people out there, enjoying and imaging the night sky.

The Society meets at 7.30pm.

Venue:
St Joseph’s R.C. Church Hall,
Babworth Road,
Retford,
Notts.
DN22 7BP

After a short rest, @Flat_Tim, Buzz and I will be out presenting once again.
This time we will be visiting my closest astronomy group, Nene Valley Astronomical Society, on Monday the 19th of February.
I will be presenting my ever popular audience-participation evening:
“Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission”.

I am looking forward to seeing my old friends once again.

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 taken this presentation to, that they will really enjoy the evening we have got planned for them.

I wonder how keen they will be compared to the other groups about having their selfies taken with @Flat_Tim.

All are very welcome, especially kids above 10 years old (That includes me!).

So if you are in the area, come along and say “Hello”.

The meeting starts at 8:00pm.

Cost £3:00 per person.

Venue:
Chelveston Village Hall,
Caldecott Road,
Chelveston,
Northamptonshire.
NN9 5AT

After the media frenzy about the Super Blood Blue Moon on Wednesday, I thought I’d look through my collection to see if I have any full Moon images to directly compare lunar disk sizes. I found an image I took of the Full Moon just before the lunar eclipse started on the 28th of September 2015 with the same telescope and camera to see if I could compare them.

There isn’t actually that much in it, but can you make out which one is the so-called Super-Moon? No neither can I.

Out of interest, the 2015 eclipse was also when the Moon was fairly close to perigee, so the difference isn’t that much anyway.
But the media never went on then quite as much as they did this week about it being a super blood moon, did they?
Of course a much better comparison full moon image would be one taken close to apogee, when the Moon will be at its furthest.
One to try and capture later in the year perhaps.

However, when I posted the comparison image, a social media friend pointed out that there was a bit of a difference in libration, (The slight “wobbling” of the Moon) and that it could possibly make a great 3D image if they were scaled and positioned correctly.

So, given that the clouds are still about, I’ve got time to have a play.

First I had resize one image to exactly the same size as the other.
Next I had to work out which way each image needed to be rotated to give the best impression.
Hopefully once aligned that way side by side, when you go cross-eyed in the correct direction, the images are exactly registered.

The difference in the images seen by each eye should then trick the brain into perceiving a 3D image floating in the middle.

So here’s the result. Go Cross-eyed. Does it work for you?