…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?

My monthly sky diary for February 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, 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!

Below are a selection of my lunar images.

If you want to see all my other images (Astronomy and Wildlife), click here to visit my Flickr Site 

Finally finished my animation of Comet C/2016 R2 from Friday the 19th of January.

Phew! That was some effort teasing that out.

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.

On Tuesday the 23rd of January, I will be re-visiting Cranfield Astronomical Society.

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.

Now where did I put my filter wheel?

My monthly sky diary for January 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 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.

Have fun hunting down this asteroid.

Let me know how you get on.

My monthly sky diary for December 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.

A very late booking.

@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 Society on 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”.

Their meeting starts at 7:15pm.

Venue:
Earlsdon Methodist Church Hall,
Earlsdon Road South,
Earlsdon,
Coventry,
CV5 6NF

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 
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