Star Berries

A sunny but windy morning and I saw a female blackbird in our Elderflower Tree.

I didn’t get a photo of this bird but this is what she was after:

Elderflower Berries

I set myself up in our bedroom and waited.  The female blackbird didn’t return but this male blackbird helped himself to some berries.

Male Blackbird in Elderflower Tree

As did this Starling:

Starling in Elderflower Tree

This was all I saw in half-an-hour of watching.

This afternoon I was at Monkton Nature Reserve with SEKAS (South East Kent Astronomy Society) where we were observing our nearest Star,  the Sun – of course (but you knew that!).

Above are members of SEKAS with their Solar Scopes showing visitors to the Reserve the Sun and an ordinary telescope used to reflect an image of the sun onto a piece of photographic paper and the third image is the Sun. You will have to click on the image to see it full size and to see the Sun Spot. Yes, the little black spot that is at 6-o-clock in the lower half of the image. This Sun Spot is 8,000 miles in wide!

The Daily Mail has an image of this Sun Spot.

Never, Never, Ever look at the sun with the naked eye or through anything but the correct equipment.

I saw these two resting during their walk round the Reserve:

The clouds started getting more intrusive, larger and blacker so it was time to pack-up. A good afternoons viewing session though.

When I got home Mae didn’t object to me sitting down to watch the Qualifying session of the Belgium Grand Prix.

Not a bad day all in all

An Evening of ‘Fuzzies’

Last night was SEKAS (South East Kent Astronomy Society) observing session at Monkton Observatory.

The evening did not look too promising before I left home. I kept an eye on the weather as clouds and rain was forecast. It was a toss-up between ‘Children in Need’ on TV or a ‘Night with the Stars’. The latter were appearing in the sky so Astronomy won. And I am pleased it did! What an excellent observing session we had.

I keep an Observing Log on all my star gazing session.
I have a little ‘app’ on my ITouch and record everything on it.

ITouch and Observing Log

This ‘app’ also shows the night sky with all the Deep Sky Objects shown. I record all the DSO’s we observe and later transfer them into my paper log.

This what we saw:
1955hrs – Double Cluster in Persius
2000hrs – Plieades Cluster
2010hrs – M1 Crab Nebula (very faint but still a pleasing sight)
2015hrs – M26 Open Cluster (a nice clear view)
2020hrs – M37 Cluster
2025hrs – M38 Cluster (the shape of a cross made by the stars in this cluster could be clearly seen)
2030hrs – M31 Andomeda Spiral galaxy (always a pleasing object to observe)
2035hrs – NGC205 Galaxy
2040hrs – NGC185 Galaxy
2050hrs – M15 Globular Cluster in Pegasus – I missed observing this as cloud came over and obscured my view.
2115hrs – M57 Ring Nebula in Lyre
2130hrs – M71 Globular Cluster
2150hrs – Session ended due to excessive cloud cover (not thick cloud but the light wispy stuff – still enough to spoil the view)

A good evening’s viewing session I think you will agree.

Why do we call them ‘fuzzies’? – because they are that distant from us they look ‘fuzzy’!

I got home in time to see the second part of Children in Need. And that was also a good evenings viewing!

Venus and the Moon

Yesterday (Friday) saw Venus and the Moon in close proximity to each other.

The Moon and Venus in close proximity

This is a not too frequent occurrence as it was an opportunity to see Venus during daylight and a thin slither of a waxing new moon.

This shot was taken though as was getting dark.

Astronomy Workshop Day

Saturday saw me at a ‘Back to Basics’ Workshop at Canterbury University. It was run by the British Astronomy Association and the hosts were South East Kent Astronomy Society – to which I belong but I went as a participant in the workshops. The day was about learning how to set up a telescope and how and what to observe in the night sky.

There were telescopes on display owned by members of SEKAS;

A large Telescope on display

The Telescope of my dreams was this though;

A very, very nice Telescope

We had the opportunity to do some ‘solar’ observing.

Solar Observing Session

I found out what I was doing wrong in setting up my Telescope and also what I thought I was doing wrong but was actually doing right!

Lots of questions were asked and information given about the care of equipment and setting it up for a night’s observing.

I asked “How do you clean the eye-pieces?” expecting a long explanation of specialized cleaning fluid and cloths etc. “Huff and a freshly laundered handkerchief” came the reply!

A good day.

I am now going to branch into Solar Observing as it is something one can do during the day (I know, pointless at night but you get my meaning).
I have ordered a special filter that goes in front of the telescope – NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN WITHOUT PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT.

An image of a sun spot is one of my next objectives.

The Orion Nebula and Street Lighting

I was out in the garden last night. It was such a clear, still evening with no moon that I decided to get my telescope out and have a look at the Constellation Orion and it’s fabulous Nebula (M42). This Nebula can be seen with the naked eye from a dark site. It is almost at it’s best for early evening viewing this time of year.
I spent a while looking at it and made notes and a sketch in my Astronomy Log.

Page from Astronomy Log Book for Monday 26th Jan. 2009

The sketch shows how much of the Nebula I could see, which was not as much as could be seen in a darker sky.

Light Pollution is a bit of a problem in our back garden.
This is an image taken from our back garden looking into the garden of our next-door neighbour. It is from a street lamp.

Light from street lamp filtering through trees into our garden.

I think I will have to invest in a filter that will diminish this type of light.

A good evening of viewing though while Mae watched the ‘soaps’. Then it was a hot drink and into a nice warm (electric blanket) bed. Heaven!

An Evening’s Observation at Monkton

The second Friday of every month is SEKAS’s (South East Kent Astronomy Society) club meeting in the Observatory at Monkton Nature Reserve. That was where I could be found yesterday evening.

The evening started off well with a clear sky and only patchy clouds to hinder the view.
The moon was almost due south and looking good at 62%. It was still fairly light so there was not a lot else to look at. We searched for Saturn and Mars but concluded that they were too low down in the West and hidden by hazy clouds that were starting to form. I did take this image though:

I also took this image of the Telescope and some members taking advantage to view the moon through it:

Then the sky started looking ominous with thick clouds approaching slowly from the West:

We waited a while but the clouds were over to stay so it was pack-up and an early night.
Mae was surprised to see me and I comforted myself with a warming glass of Brandy – so the evening ended quite well I think!

A Chilly Evening Stargazing

Friday Night was a brilliant night for Stargazing. I had my best night’s viewing for a long while.

SEKAS (South East Kent Astronomy Society) had it’s monthly viewing session at Blean near Canterbury. It was a clear sky, no clouds but with very chilly high winds. About a dozen members turned up and those who didn’t bring their telescopes had plenty of opportunity to look through the telescopes available.

A great variety of deep sky objects were observed.

I always keep a log of my observing sessions. (No, I cannot blame cold fingers, darkness or watering eyes caused by the wind – this is my normal writing!!).

My Observing Log shows the following:

M81 and M82 (Messier Catalogue) Spiral Galaxy and the ‘Cigar’ Galaxy respectively.

Mars. (the high wind stopped using a higher magnification as it was causing the Telescope to wobble too much so not a lot of detail was seen.)

M45 Pleiades Cluster (also known as The Seven Sisters)

Orion and M42 Great Orion Nebular (enhanced when using an Ultra High Contrast Filter)

Betelgeuse (Giant Red Star)

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

Saturn (with it’s rings very near to edge on) plus one of it’s moons -Titan?

M31 Andromeda Galaxy (the most distant from us).

The wind got a bit too much and too chilly so many members packed up early, so not wanting to be left on my own I packed up as well.

Still, a good evening viewing and some more deep sky objects to cross off my ‘must see’ list.

‘Your Thanet’ Interview

A couple of weeks ago I  submitted an article on my interest in Astronomy to ‘Your Thanet‘ newspaper.

Their copyright statement informs me that I am not allowed to publish this article on my blog (or any website – so please do not mention an earlier blog!), which is a shame.

So I thought I would show you this  – again!

I know, I know, you have seen this image before but at least it is Astronomy related – and it is not a bad image!

Follow this link  and navigate to page 8 to see the full interview.

‘Your Thanet’ Article

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to submit a short interview on Astronomy in Thanet for a local paper “Your Thanet”

The interview has not been printed but a quote I made concerning light pollution has. It can be found on page 4. Click on the image to access the website.

I am still hoping that the full interview will be published but I am pleased with my little quote.

Now, if I could only get Tesco’s to turn down their lighting every evening…………!

My acknowledgements go to the publishers of “Your Thanet “.

The Pirate Patch

Mars is at opposition at the moment, (the Sun, Earth and Mars in a line) and is at its best for viewing. It reached opposition on Christmas Eve and I have been itching to get my Telescope out to view it since the end of the festivities (I got a new Barlow Lens for Christmas). So, I look at the night sky about 7pm earlier this week and it was clear. The weather forecast was for a clear, cloudless sky. I excitedly got dressed and as the telescope has to be out half and hour before viewing and your eyes have to become ‘dark adapted’ in no time I was dressed and ready to go, just like this:

The pirate eye patch was a present from my grandchildren Joseph and Henry and is used to ensure that your good ‘seeing eye’ remains dark adapted when working with lights. (click on the image to see it full screen – it’s worth it). Out I went into the night to find a 100% cloud cover had materialized and there was no chance of seeing Mars. It has been like that ever since – the night sky, I mean! It is going to be another two years before we see Mars in it’s full glory again in this hemisphere.

I was on night duty once with an ex-soldier who was driving the Police Area Response Car. I noticed that he had one eye closed (while driving) and I asked him “Why?” “To protect my night vision” He said. I used a straight forward expletive to describe his behaviour- he didn’t do it again!