First Contact

Mars hasn't disappointed

2010-02-01T10:50:00.002Z

January 2010, and Mars is at opposition. Mars is such a beguiling object for the amateur astronomer - it doesn't give up its secrets easily, demanding a lot of patience coupled with good sky conditions and a pretty decent telescope to observe any real surface details. Most of the time Mars is just too small for my equipment, but right now it's at its closest to Earth for a couple of years and so its apparent size is much larger - about 14 arcseconds on January 29th.

Luckily, Jan 29th was a great night in terms of the weather so I took the opportunity to go and spend some quality time with the Red Planet. For the first time ever I was able to see real surface details through my 6" SCT....polar ice caps, dark patches and bands. I made a sketch and later tarted it up in Photoshop to try and give a good impression of what it looked like. Not going to win Image of the Month anywhere, but I think it gives a good idea of what I saw.

Hooray - first proper look at Mars

2010-01-26T21:43:00.001Z

Despite some pretty misty skies, I got my first positive observations of surface features on Mars tonight. Very happy!

I was using my 4" Startravel-102 scope with a 7mm ortho eyepiece plus a x2 Barlow (giving 142x magnification). I also have a Baader fringe killer filter, which works wonders with this scope (makes the colour go a bit yellow, but removes the "purple haze" and also gives a much clearer focus).

Even a fairly cursory glance revealed the north polar cap pretty clearly. Over the course of about 30 mins observing I got a few good glimpses of further detail - a prominent dark patch adjoining the north polar cap, plus a fainter band of dark across the S hemisphere. Having just looked at Stellarium, plus an albedo map of the surface, I reckon these features were Mare Acidalium in the north, and Mare Erythreum and Sinus Sebeus in the south. I made a very crappy sketch at the eyepiece to help id the features now I'm inside!

Very pleased to have seen Mars properly - it's notoriously hard to observe, so very happy to have been able to take advantage of this opposition.

New life into old gear

2010-01-23T15:42:00.002Z

Last year I got hold of a Skywatcher Startravel-102 achromatic refractor (4" f/4.9). It came on an AZ-3 mount. I'd read good things about the OTA (given that it is a short focus achromat you don't expect amazing performance - especially for under £160 - but many people said that it is a surprisingly good scope for all that). However, I've barely used it thus far, and that is entirely the fault of the mount. Basically, it's not man enough for the job, and suffers from the maddening habit of slipping towards the zenith under the weight of the tube. Hopeless.

Anyway, for a long while I'd been toying with getting a manual equatorial mount to complement my CG-5 GOTO mount and to give the Startravel a decent chance of getting used. And the other day, I finally did so thanks to a bit of an eBay bargain. I'm now the proud owner of an EQ3-2 mount, and the Startravel looks much happier on that than it ever did on the AZ-3.

Now all I need is a clear night to test the scope out and see whether it matches with the good news stories I read all those months ago. Armed with a Baader Fringe Killer filter to help reduce the chromatic abberation you get in such instruments, I'm hoping to get some good wide-field views and maybe some decent views of solar system objects too. More news when I have it...

A change of tack

2010-01-11T17:56:00.002Z

Getting back into the swing of things indeed - ha! I wrote my last post in September, and here we are in January before I get round to writing anything else. Shame, I hear you cry! It's a fair cop. It's been a hectic time though - we finally moved house on December 11th and since then I've been gainfully employed in decorating the house, building flat-pack furniture etc etc. Couple that with the generally poor weather, and you get something akin to a decent excuse as to why I've been so lax at keeping this blog going.

Anyway, now we're safely ensconced in our new place and 2010 is upon us, I reckon it's time to redouble my efforts. I'm going to start using this blog as a more formal observations logbook (such posts will be recognisable by their "logbook" label) - I've got lots of good stuff written down in hardcopy, but it strikes me that it would be a sensible plan to commit some of that stuff to the computer in case the notebook gets lost / trashed / whatever. Also, whilst I'm unlikely to get thousands of people reading the latest observations from my work on here, it's infinitely more accessible than keeping everything in a little black book in my desk.

So, with a bit of luck there'll be some more activity on here in the coming weeks. No promises, mind!

Logbook entry 4-5 Jan 2010 1935-2030UT

2010-01-05T20:54:00.003Z

Location: Cheltenham
Conditions: Very clear night, extremely cold, somewhat unsteady air
Instruments: 6" SCT
Targets: Unplanned session - just seeing what I could see with the 6".

Object: M103
Description: Pretty open star cluster, plenty of dimmer stars apparent in the group.

Object: M33
Description: Very faint disc, but certainly visible with averted vision.

Object: eta Cas
Description: Very nice double, easily resolved. Fainter red companion star, yellowish main component.

Object: eta Pisc
Description: Very tight double - may just about have split it but poorish seeing made it tough.

Object: M74
Description: Too faint to see.

Object: Kemble's Cascade
Description: Couldn't locate.

Getting back into the swing of things

2009-09-13T19:11:00.003+01:00

After what seems like an eternity, this week I've been able to get out - twice! - to do a bit of observing, and dust off my somewhat neglected and rusty astronomy skills.

On Wednesday, on my way home from choral rehearsal (another passion of mine - classical music!), I noticed that the skies were looking very clear and that Jupiter was nicely placed in the south. Until recently, the view of that part of the sky from my garden was obscured by a lot of very big and generally unattractive trees, but fortunately they've been chopped down this summer. Hey presto - an uninterrupted view of the southern sky from my lawn! Out came the telescope, complete with lovely new eyepieces I bought at AstroFest back in February, and after a bit of faffing around trying to remember how to align it I got a decent view of Jupiter at about x60. Three of the four Galilean satellites clearly visible, and the two main equatorial belt on the main disk very prominent. No sign of the GRS, but it could well have been on the other side of the planet - I haven't checked yet! After a couple of quick squizzes at the Ring Nebula and Albireo (always lovely), I stopped for the night feeling satisfied that even after a whole summer off, I've still got the bug!

Then, this Saturday, I got along to the first CAS meeting I've managed since about April. What with work, holidays, weddings, christenings and assorted other (frequently unwelcome) distractions, I've been conspicuously absent from the society for a while - so it was great to get back and see some of the familiar faces again. Mike Hapgood from Rutherford Appleton Labs gave a very interesting talk about space weather and its likely effects on future lunar exploration (note - turns out the Apollo guys were just lucky not to get fried by bursts of solar radiation when they were up there!). After coffee, we went outside and did a spot of observing - in just a short time we saw the ISS passing overhead, and managed to see Io passing in front of the Jovian disk.

All in all, not a bad start to the "season"!

Astronomy article on BBC

2009-08-28T15:26:00.002+01:00

Nice to see the Beeb doing a bit on amateur astronomy, complete with a nice little video by amateur astronomer Julia Gaudelli.

Been a while, eh?

2009-08-04T21:02:00.003+01:00

Well, it's been a proper long time since I posted anything up here. And not surprising really, given the utterly shocking summer weather we're enduring here in the UK. I'm afraid the telescope hasn't ventured out from the shed for at least three months now...a combination of the short summer nights, sure, but even if we'd had 24hr darkness these last few weeks there'd have been nothing but cloud and drizzle to look at. Very disappointing!!

Ah well - as August draws along we might start to get some better weather, and of course the nights will begin to lengthen again. With any luck I'll have a reason to start writing this blog a bit more frequently again soon. That's if I can squeeze it in amongst the chaos of trying to move house - that's another reason why my spare time has been spent on things other than astronomy!

Until the next time, friends - hope you're all having a nice summer :-)

Stargazers Lounge Star Party, 24-25 April

2009-04-15T21:11:00.002+01:00

I'm going to go to the Stargazers Lounge Spring Star Party in a couple of weeks' time - it's being held in Herefordshire, not too far from where I live. Sarah (my lovely lady) is going to come along as well. Should be great, looking forward to meeting some of the astronomers off the forum - and hopefully getting to see some great sights through some big scopes!

I'll be sure to post a report....

All quiet on the astro front

2009-04-08T21:42:00.002+01:00

I've been quiet on here of late - mainly due to not being around much (been all over with work, not to mention a nice weekend in Paris!) Haven't got the scope out since the thing at Stroud - and now the clocks have gone forward we're into that time of the year when observing and having to go to work start to come into direct conflict! Hopefully will get some good dark skies this weekend though, as I'm off to Dartmoor. So any clear skies should be a good sight. I'll take the telescope just in case...!

More anon.

Fun night showing the kids the stars

2009-03-20T18:15:00.003Z

I found myself unexpectedly leading a star party for Stroud High School last night - the Cotswold AS had arranged to show a group of kids (and their parents) a few celestial sights as part of IYA 2009, but our Coordinator couldn't make it at short notice so yours truly stepped up to the mark. It was a great night (despite me being rather strung out after a tough day at the office!) We got my scope set up alongside the school's telescope up on Rodborough Common, just outside Stroud. The kids showed up at about 7.30, and with parents in tow we had a crowd of about 20 people keen to see what they could see.

I kicked things off with an ad-libbed spiel about astronomy, what you can see in the sky, where the North Star is and why it doesn't move etc etc. Having got them interested, we then proceeded to hunt down some showpiece objects - M42, Saturn, M44, The Pleiades etc. All were very well received, with Saturn generating the expected chorus of "wow!"s.

We were also treated to a spectacular transit of the International Space Station at around 2000UT - really nice and bright, and extra special as the Space Shuttle Discovery was docked at the time. That really helped fire the kids' imaginations!

We closed up at about 8.45pm - everyone seemed to have really enjoyed it, including the parents! One guy asked if we could do a similar event for the Cirencester Science and Technology Society, so hopefully they'll be in touch soon. All in all a great night, I think we might have converted a few new folks to astronomy, and I can definitely claim to have firmly done my bit for IYA2009 :-)

Bit too murky really

2009-03-16T21:51:00.004Z

Just popped out for a bit of an astronomy fix - set up the scope and set myself to the task of making a few variable star observations and a hunt for M97 (the Owl Nebula in Ursa Major). Unfortunately the sky really wasn't transparent enough for M97 - I think I was pointed in the right place but I could see no hint of a planetary nebula in the vicinity. It was pretty murky up there though. Managed to get magnitude estimates for Epsilon Aurigae and Zeta Geminorum (a couple of naked-eye variables), and also Z Ursae Majoris, although the latter might be a bit flaky due to its faintness and the aforementioned murk.

Incidentally, Epsilon Aurigae is a good variable star to be watching out for at the moment...it's a somewhat mysterious beast, which appears to be eclipsed every 27 years by a very odd object. No-one's quite sure what it is, but the current theory appears to be that it's a disk-shaped dust cloud with a hole in the middle. Luckily, Epsilon Aurigae goes into eclipse this year, so there's a great opportunity to make some naked-eye magnitude estimates and submit them to either the AAVSO or the British Society for Popular Astronomy, who are pushing for amateur observations of this star. More details can be found here. Give it a go, and do some real science!

Spreading the word

2009-03-14T17:58:00.002Z

A bit off-topic, this one, but it's something I feel quite strongly about and Ben Goldacre does a better job than I can of expressing the annoyance and anger I feel when confronted with the misinformation and poorly argued pseudo-science that so often passes for populist scientific journalism in this country.

Take five minutes and watch this clip - it's well worth it.

I shall now get off my soap-box!

Quick lunar fix

2009-03-08T21:12:00.003Z

Despite a fair amount of cloud around here tonight, I just managed to get a good half an hour at the eyepiece looking at the Moon. I concentrated on the crater Schickard, which was nicely positioned on the terminator tonight. The seeing was only average at best - had to be patient to get nice, steady views - but even so, there was plenty to see and the Televue eyepiece / Barlow combination I recently bought really does deliver the goods. You could even make out the very tiniest tips of sunlight just beginning to illuminate some of the mountains around the dark edge of the crater. Seeing things like that from such a colossal distance reminds you why you enjoy astronomy...it's almost unbelievable.

Needless to say the old grey and fluffy stuff showed up after around 35 minutes and curtailed the fun, but it was well worth getting out there for the time I had. You have to take your opportunities when they present themselves, or you'd never see anything from here!

Successful IYA2009 event

2009-03-04T21:43:00.004Z

Just got back from the final Cotswold AS Moonwatch event - the third of a series of short talks and observing sessions open to the public at Cheltenham College. Tonight was the only night we had clear skies, but it was worth the wait - got to show a load of people some good views of the Moon and Saturn using my lowly 4" f/5 refractor. Quite gratifying to see what you can do with such modest gear! Plenty of "oohs" and "aahs" as people got their first look at Saturn's rings and lunar craters - always a nice feeling to give someone their first astronomy experience.

Meanwhile, in other news, looks like the professionals have found the best evidence yet for a binary black hole. Well done chaps. Almost as impressive as our exploits this evening!

Close shave

2009-03-03T21:18:00.003Z

Whoa! What was that? Oh, it's OK - just a rock the size of a ten storey building flying past Earth at an uncomfortably close distance. And it seems that we only knew it was coming 2 days before it whizzed past. If it had hit, we'd have been looking at another Tunguska-sized event.

Makes you think, dunnit?

At last!

2009-03-02T20:19:00.005Z

Well, it finally happened - a clear night in Gloucestershire, and I wasn't elsewhere. It wasn't perfect - there was a fair amount of moonglow around, it wasn't as transparent as it could have been, and the seeing was decidedly dodgy - but there weren't any clouds in the way. Hooray.

So, what did I get up to? First target was clearly Comet Lulin, which can now lay claim to the honour of being the first object to be viewed through my new Televue eyepiece. Wow. Very impressed with the gear, but more so with the comet itself - pretty bright, competing well with the less-than-ideal conditions and sporting a definite tail running W-E. There was a clear, condensed nucleus and a hint of green about the coma. Nice.

Next up was Saturn, which was skulking around in the vicinity (albeit only just over the rooftops, which again didn't help on the 'steady air' front). Lovely view using the x2 Barlow (around x120 with my 6" f/10 scope) - rings approaching edge-on, and a few satellites in the plane of the rings. Couldn't see any banding on the disk, but as I say it was bouncing around a fair bit.

Then I decided to just cut loose and bag a few Messiers - M51, M44, M65 and M66. Cheated and used GOTO - sorry to all the purists out there! All were nicely visible, although again the moonglow was a bit of an impediment. M44, being a nice, bright star cluster, fared the best - a really immersive view.

So, that was it - a nice session, a little unplanned and random perhaps, but I had got to the stage where I didn't expect to ever see a star again from the UK. Clouds have returned tonight unfortunately, but my habit has been at least somewhat sated for another week or so.

Briefest of glimpses of Comet Lulin

2009-02-28T08:07:00.003Z

Thursday night provided the best - only? - opportunity so far from where I am to see Comet Lulin - about 80% cloud but a few clear breaks. Patience was required, but eventually there was a gap in the right place, and I got about 20 seconds' worth of binocular view of the comet. Slightly elongated patch of light, maybe 0.5 degrees across - reminded me of M31 in a way. Anyway, the cloud obliterated it again before I had a chance to study it properly.

Given recent conditions, that was considerably better than I was expecting!

Frustrating times on the astro front

2009-02-24T20:12:00.004Z

Well folks, I've not had much to say on here of late, which is most frustrating because there's plenty going on up in the sky right now. But the grotty UK weather has ensured that yours truly hasn't had an opportunity to see anything all month. And that, I believe, is some kind of grim record, even for Gloucestershire.

Among the many glorious celestial sights playing out on the other side of the cumulonimbus we have the visit of Comet Lulin (apparently putting on a good show this week), the binary asteroid occultation last Thursday (see earlier post) and Saturn, with rings almost edge-on, being repeatedly occulted by its various moons. All top targets for my lovely new eyepieces - but lost in the February murk.

It's got so bad here that the UK-based web forum Stargazers Lounge has seen a spoof thread started called "Cloudgazers Lounge" where frustrated astro imagers have started posting photographs of the clouds from their observatories. Talk about trying to make the best of a bad job!

Hey ho. It can't last much longer. I'm off to write a piece for the Cotswold AS newsletter now - all about the various diverting activities you can get up to in astronomy when the fundamentals - i.e. looking at the sky - are denied to you. Writing this blog will doubtless feature therein!

Galaxy Zoo - do you?

2009-02-19T19:09:00.003Z

In case you've not heard about this yet, you should take a look at Galaxy Zoo - an online project to use the power of many human brains to classify the myriad galaxies imaged by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. There are so many images to classify that it's entirely possible - likely even - that the galaxies you're asked to look at have never been seen by human eyes before! So you might be the first person to come across something truly unusual. Pretty cool, non?

Do your bit for galactic astronomy!

Rare occultation alert

2009-02-17T20:02:00.003Z

Well, this sounds good. I got an email from the BAA yesterday tipping us UK astronomers off to the fact of an extremely rare occultation of a star by a binary asteroid this coming Thursday (19th Feb). It appears that asteroid (90) Antiope will pass in front of the 12th magnitude star TYC 0849-01304-1 in Leo (catchy name eh?!) at 2307UT. According to the BAA:

"The maximum duration of the occultation for observers in the actual
shadow path will be ~5.5 seconds *for each body*, and the visual
brightness will drop by 1.6 magnitudes. The shadow tracks of the two
components overlap and, according to the latest prediction, observers
in the middle third of the combined track should see two separate
occultations 5-7 seconds apart. There will be no interference
from the moon or twilight."

There's a Google Maps rendering of the shadow track here, and some more detailed info on the prediction here.

Amazingly, my house is pretty much smack bang in the middle of the predicted shadow! Unfortunately the weather forecast is poor (just for a change), but if the weather gremlins lay off for a night there's a chance I might be able to see this. I'll post details of my escapades as they unfold!

Exoplanets on BBC

2009-02-15T20:09:00.005Z

Just noticed that this story is currently the "most emailed" on the BBC News website. I can almost hear the rumours of Little Green Men spreading through cyberspace...

Planetary Nebulae vs Romantic Night In - guess which won

2009-02-15T13:16:00.005Z

Cotswold AS meeting last night was very good indeed - Nick Hewitt, former Director of the BAA Deep Sky section gave a talk on planetary nebulae. Cue lots of spectacular Hubble images (Cat's Eye Nebula, Helix Nebula etc), a fascinating insight into how our own Sun will evolve over the coming 20 billion years or so, and some very handy observing tips for us mere mortals without the use of a space telescope. All in all an extremely well-judged talk which went down very well.

I had to run off pretty quickly afterwards though - it being February 14th and all my attendance was required back at Davies Towers as a matter of urgency :-)

Incidentally, the terrific web forum StarGazers Lounge has just undergone a facelift, and a port onto new software (vBulletin, I think). Looks like being a fantastic improvement to an already essential astronomy website. Good work and congrats to all involved.

Meanwhile, the wait for a clear night goes on...and on....and on....and on....

(PS welcome to my new Followers - listed on the right hand side of this page - lovely to see you here!)

a quiet week

2009-02-14T16:36:00.002Z

Well, not been much to report on the astronomy front this week - not a peep of clear sky for days now. Doubly annoying as I've yet to test-drive all my lovely new gear (eyepieces, diagonal etc). Hey ho.

Never mind - got a CAS meeting this evening, the Director of the BAA Deep Sky Section is giving a talk on planetary nebulae so that should be pretty decent. Will only be along for the first half of the meeting though - it being Valentine's night and all, certain romantic commitments with the lovely Mrs D must take precedence!

She should think herself lucky that it's cloudy again tonight :-)

Google Mars

2009-02-10T18:20:00.002Z

OK, this is extremely cool - take a tour round the Martian surface using Google Mars.

What won't those Google dudes think of next?!

Astrofest 2009

2009-02-08T10:26:00.002Z

Went to the 2009 European AstroFest yesterday, in Kensington Town Hall, London. This annual event combines a number of astronomy lectures and talks with a large exhibition of astronomical equipment laid on by a number of the main UK stockists of gear.

I only made it along to the second day of the event, which is probably just as well considering the amount of money I spent...But before I reveal what goodies I came away with, I should say a few words about the lectures themselves. These were really excellent - they covered a wide range of subjects including the use of adaptive optics to improve the resolution of Earth-based telescopes and a superb talk on the anthropic principle and the big questions of cosmology.

A big highlight, though, was the opportunity to see and hear Sir Patrick Moore, Reg Turnill and Garry Hunt discussing their memories of the Apollo 11 mission, whose 40th anniversary is celebrated this year. Even better (for me at least) was that I got to meet Sir Patrick at a book signing afterwards. Standing in the queue (which was very long!) it reminded me a bit of waiting to see Santa in his grotto in a department store... Really terrific to get to say hi to the great man though, I'll remember that for a long time. Got my copy of "Patrick Moore on Mars" signed for posterity!

The range of exhibits, and the amount of drool-inducing equipment for sale, was truly astounding. So many telescopes, eyepieces, CCDs, filters, books, mounts and miscellanea that it was a bit overwhelming - not to say very busy! As predicted, I succumbed to temptation and came away with a Televue x2 Barlow, a Televue 24mm Panoptic eyepiece, and a book - "Hidden Treasures" by Stephen James O'Meara. (I've also just ordered a 2" diagonal and a 7mm ortho eyepiece online this morning. Must. Stop. Spending. :-))

Overall it was a terrific event, well worth the early start to get there. I will definitely be back next year. If I'm not bankrupt by then. Credit Crunch? What Credit Crunch?!

Just missed it...

2009-02-06T19:54:00.002Z

Dashed outside in double-quick time just now on the offchance I might see the Moon occulting a mag 3 star in Gemini (thanks Will Gater for the tip-off via Twitter!) Unfortunately I think I was too late...no sign of said star. Still, the Moon looked pretty and the general impression of moonlight reflecting off all the snow was pretty cool.

Cool being the operative word - it's cold out there, folks!

Weather does it again

2009-02-06T10:25:00.003Z

By now, I'm pretty much used to my long-planned astronomy observing sessions being scuppered by the weather. However, it's fair to say that I wasn't expecting my visit to Astrofest to also be put at risk by the elements. It's snowing hard here - must have 5 inches by now - and forecast is for it all to freeze overnight.

Chances of the National Express bus running OK tomorrow? Slim.

The British weather - whichever way you look at it, it has it in for astronomers. :-)

Cheeky 1/2hr of lunar observing

2009-02-02T19:05:00.004Z

Those of you who "follow" me on Twitter will know that I gamely battled the elements last night to grab a brief session of lunar observing in-between snow showers. (Incidentally, the snow has arrived with a vengeance now and it's likely to freeze over tonight....cycling to work tomorrow will be a mission, no doubt!)

Anyway, in the short time I had I was able to get the 6" scope out and got some very nice views of the Aristoteles / Eudoxus / Montes Caucasus region of the Moon. Using a 9mm eyepiece I could clearly see the dramatic shadows being cast by the mountaintops, and also the peaks of the mountain range just coming into sunlight. Both Aristoteles and Eudoxus were impressive, as was the crater Calippus at the base of the Montes Caucasus range.

Unfortunately, after just 25 minutes the cloud rolled back in and the snow started falling again - prompting a rapid packing-away session and a subsequent dram of whisky to warm up. The cold weather does have its good side...

BTW am hoping to get to Astrofest this Saturday - more on that to follow.

BAA Back to Basics workshop, Canterbury

2009-02-01T14:50:00.003Z

Having been a member of the British Astronomical Association for a whole year without yet making it to any meetings, I thought I needed to get along to an event and see what's what. So, your intrepid reporter set out from the sleepy Cotswolds at 6.30am yesterday to drive to Canterbury, for the BAA Back to Basics workshop. Not exactly on my doorstep, but I had a free day...so what the heck?!

These workshops are billed as opportunities for new (or propsective) BAA members to find out a bit more about astronomy, and to participate in some practical activities to get a better feel for what's what. The day started out with an address from Roger Pickard, the Director of the BAA, and then launched in to a morning's full of talks from a variety of people - some of whom were associated with the South East Kent Astronomical Society (SEKAS), the local group hosting the event. To be honest, the talks in the morning were of variable quality - some very good (particularly the talk on observing Jupiter and Saturn given by Mike Foulkes, who directs the Saturn section of the BAA) and some, well, not so good.

Given that the point of the event was to encourage newbies to astronomy, there was far too much emphasis on just how "difficult" practical astronomy is. At least two speakers appeared to go out of their way to make even setting up a basic telescope sound like rocket science, sucking their teeth every time some poor bemused audience member asked a perfectly reasonable question. Although there are some things you need to get your head around when first presented with an equatorial mount, as long as you understand the basic principles of why you need one, and what advantages it brings, then setting the thing up - at least well enough for visual observing - is actually pretty easy. Point it north, tilt it to your latitude - Bob's yer uncle. Listening to some of the morning sessions, it did make me feel like we need more people out there, who are good communicators, trying to de-mystify the basics of practical astronomy - as opposed to making matters worse!

Anyway...after lunch things picked up, with some interesting sessions with a more practical flavour. Again, Mike Foulkes did a really good talk on how to find the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, and Roger Pickard ran through how to make visual magnitude estimates for variable star observing. Bob Mizon made a really good pitch on supporting the Campaign for Dark Skies which went down very well.

The meeting finished up with a spell of observing out near the car park, with the Moon and Venus well placed. Cue the very satisfying sound of "oooh!"s and "aaah!"s as some people got their first view of the lunar surface through a telescope. Always good to see!

And so, after a 360 mile round trip, I returned home and flaked out almost immediately. This morning I was moved to contact the BAA to offer my services as a regional point of contact for newcomers to astronomy, and also to put my name forward to do some "outreach" stuff - so I can put my money where my mouth is, so to speak.

Overall, a good day out with some interesting talks and some nice people. I'll certainly try to make an effort to get along to some more BAA meetings in future. For all I know, I might get asked to present at one :-)

Facelift

2009-02-01T12:23:00.001Z

Thought I'd have a tinker with the appearance of the blog - looks a bit more modern, I hope!

Moon and Venus

2009-01-30T18:01:00.004Z

As reported yesterday, the Moon and Venus are currently putting on quite a show in the early evening in the UK. Managed to grab a snap of the two of them when I got home from work - hope you like it!

A brief glimpse...

2009-01-29T20:41:00.003Z

Whilst battling my way home through the rush hour traffic on my humble bicycle (a twice-daily dance with death I have to undertake) I caught a brief glimpse, through the clouds, of a young crescent Moon and Venus just a few degrees apart. Very beautiful.

Mind you, staring up at the sky whilst cycling in the dark is probably not generally recommended on health and safety grounds....don't try this at home, kids :-)

BTW, off to Canterbury to the British Astronomical Society's "Back to Basics" workshop on Saturday - should be a great opportunity to meet some really experienced observers, and hopefully learn something new. Will blog how that goes!

That's next Christmas sorted

2009-01-27T20:52:00.002Z

What do you get the ex-high energy physicist who's got it all? Answer: cuddly quantum fields, of course.

Another one bites the dust

2009-01-27T18:53:00.002Z

Have had to postpone the Cotswold AS observing evening tonight - pouring with rain. Bah. And it looked so nice last night and this morning.

Daft country to be an astronomer in.

Quick look at Venus & Uranus

2009-01-26T18:14:00.004Z

Despite the lurgy I dashed out just now for a quick look at Venus and Uranus - very nice they were too. You can read my observing report on StarGazersLounge.

Pass the Strepsils.

Under the weather

2009-01-26T12:52:00.003Z

I've been suffering with the old "man-flu" good and proper for the last few days, so I find myself at home again with a hacking cough and time on my hands. I've been working on a new set of Messier observing notes for the Cotswold AS - quite a big job to do properly, but I'm making progress. Will post on the CAS website when fit for public consumption...!

I've also just signed up to Twitter and noticed there's quite a network of astronomers on there - might be a good way of keeping up with what's occurring.

Off to AstroFest 2009 in a few weeks too, which should be good - got a funny feeling I'll end up spending cash while I'm there though...the new Skywatcher Black Diamond 100ED apo refractor keeps winking at me! Watch this space :-)

Some new bits

2009-01-11T14:59:00.004Z

Got my new Barlow lens and tripod adapter plate the other day in the post, and spent a few hours playing around with them on Friday. The 6" SCT is still a bit heavy for the AZ3 mount but it's useable - especially if I tighten the altitude friction bolt a bit (to stop it heading for the zenith!) Barlow was filthy when it arrived, so a bit of clean is in order. Also need to buy a set of Allen keys, and still waiting for the fringe-killer filter.

Last night's CAS meeting was OK (quite a short talk on solar physics by a grad student from Bristol) but some tw@t blocked the car in the car park so had to walk home and run back there this morning to get the car back. Grrrr...

A chap from the society has offered to help run an imaging session at one of the observing evenings, so that sounds promising. Will try to get that organised soon...

Finally, here's a nice pic of the Moon I took last week using the new refractor!

Fantastic night's work!

2009-01-04T10:11:00.004Z

For a while now I've been thinking of trying to use my equatorial mount manually - that is, not use the computerized database but navigate entirely using the finderscope, manual setting circles, and maps. Last night provided a great opportunity to have a go - really clear, but extremely cold!!
I set myself an observing plan which included a few variables (I'm using the SPA programme as the basis for my observing), a few nice multiple stars in Orion and Monoceros, and the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini.
I've also started storing the SCT with the finder permanently attached, which makes getting set up much more convenient. After polar aligning OK, I pointed at something recognizable (Pollux) and dialled up the coordinates. From there I moved to where Sigma Orionis was supposed to be - and bingo! I continued in this vein, and got views of all the targets I'd planned for. Very pleased with myself - I'll earn my astronomy stripes yet!!

New Year, New Gear

2009-01-02T17:49:00.004Z

Santa was very kind to me (with a bit of help from my own bank account!) - I got a new 102mm f/4.9 refractor (Skywatcher Startravel - not an expensive one!) and an AZ3 mount. This is now my "grab and go" setup, for when you just want to look at stuff without the nause of doing polar alignment etc. Had some really quite impressive views of the Moon, Venus and the Pleiades already. I've also ordered a Baader fringe-killer to help improve the chromatic aberration a bit, an extra mounting plate so I can mount the SCT on the altaz mount, and a x2 barlow. Phew!

I've also been sorting out our big shed, which now doubles as an observatory. All I need now is some better weather - planning on resurrecting the variable star work this year!

A long hiatus

2008-11-16T14:06:00.003Z

OK, it's been a ludicrously long time since I last wrote a post on this blog - not because I've not been doing any astronomy particularly, but because I am a lazy wotsit. So, to get us back up to speed, here's a 10 second summary of what's been going on since March.

Weather - rubbish. Only managed to start observing again really in the last month or so, it's been a terrible summer.
CAS - ticking along. I'm now the Observing Director, and am trying to set up a Messier Observing Programme. Not had many takers yet. Went along and showed off the telescope at an Astronomy Evening run by the society at Slimbridge (although it was pouring with rain all night - see above)
Gear - all good, still working really well. Dead pleased with the scope. Of course, would be nice to have a bigger one, and a nice 80mm refractor would also be quite pleasant...
Distractions - one major one, the addition of a cat to the family. She's great.

Got another CAS observing night at Bredon on Tuesday, weather permitting. Doesn't look promising though :-(

first foray into variable star observing

2008-03-28T18:30:00.000Z

Finally - a clear(ish) night last night! I've been intending to have a go at making variable star observations, and managed to do my first one last night.

I've been doing my homework, and have compiled a list of about 20 variables that should be visible from my location at various times of the year. I thought I should start with an "easy" one - Z UMa - and boy, am I glad I started simple...this business is not straightforward!!

I started by trying to locate Z UMa without using the digital setting circles on my scope (the purist in me coming through again!), but to no avail. I've still got some basic orientation issues to sort out, I think - figuring out which way is north or east down a star diagonal, and matching that up with a finder chart, is causing me some issues still! Also, I'm not convinced that I'm using my finderscope properly - the image seems very blurry to me, and hard to use as a way to star-hop. But I will persevere. In the end last night, though, I decided to cut my losses and cheat a bit in the end - dialled up the coordinates and away to go.

Even after that, it took me a good while to convince myself that I was indeed looking at the right star! I might have to revisit the calculations I did to work out the FOV of the eyepiece I was using...not convinced it quite matches what I expected. Anyway, with a bit of searching around I was able to locate the comparison stars, and made my estimate (8.2, if you're interested!!)

The good news is that after I got back inside, I logged onto the AAVSO website and compared my estimate with other recent observations, and it was in good agreement - so I think I did it right in the end!!

This kind of astronomy certainly forces you to get to know both your gear and the sky - not to mention improving your star-hopping skills! But it's also nice to know that the observations you make are of value to the wider astronomical community, so I will certainly be submitting them to the AAVSO and BAAVSS.

All I need now is another clear night!!

Waiting in vain for a gap in the cloud...

2008-03-27T17:10:00.002Z

Well, I've had precious little to write about on here for ages because the weather has been completely hopeless - last properly cloudless night was 4th March!! So in the meantime I've been planning a foray into the world of variable star observation. I've put together a programme of stars that I will try to make magnitude estimates on, and am busy downloading the finder charts etc from the AAVSO website (which is very good!). I've done just about all I can without getting any clear skies now though...!

Also been spending some cash - got a new camera (Canon EOS 400D), a new Moon atlas, and an excellent DVD of Apollo 11 - all the original mission footage from NASA (all 10hrs worth!) Fascinating stuff - and I've only seen the first 40mins!

Here's waiting for clear skies...good job I've got something to watch, I guess!

Quick session in-between the clouds

2008-03-19T21:27:00.003Z

Well, it's been pretty useless for observing for the past couple of weeks which has been a right pain. So, when the slightest hint of some clear skies presented themselves tonight I took a chance and got the gear out (despite a lot of high, milky cloud and the beginnings of a stinking cold, I fear!)

Managed to get some nice views of the Moon, although very wobbly seeing in patches made it a bit tricky. I'm waiting to get hold of a decent lunar atlas to start properly identifying what I'm looking at, but I'm fairly sure that I got some good looks at major features like Tycho, Plato, Copernicus and the big Maria. Unfortunately, the cloud obliterated things pretty quickly, so I had to hang about until the next break.

It came (eventually), and I decided to take a look at Saturn, just a few degrees north of the Moon in Leo. Again, despite some rubbish seeing, I got an occasional good look at the planet and a couple of bright satellites (Titan and Rhea). I also saw what looked like a darkish band across the southern hemisphere of the planet, which was a first for me...and I thought I could see the Cassini division on a couple of occasions, but again the seeing was so variable that as soon as I thought I'd seen it, it was gone again - so inconclusive at best.

Did try to take a photo of Saturn, for a laugh - just pointed my point-and-click camera down the eyepiece and snapped. The results are better than I expected, to be fair!

CAS Meeting, 8th March

2008-03-09T14:21:00.003Z

Another interesting and enjoyable CAS meeting last night. Prof. Iwan Williams from QMU London gave a talk on comets ("When Hairy Stars Go Bald", the reference being to the literal translation of the word comet!) which was very good - I was particularly impressed by the plans for the ROSETTA and CONSERT experiments, which plan to land a small craft onto the surface of a comet and use radar to determine the composition of the nucleus...sounds crazy, but they think it'll work!

After the coffee break Kevin showed off some of his excellent photos - some from the observing evening the other night, and a few more taken from his back yard (a beautiful shot of the Pleiades, complete with nebulosity surrounding many of the brightest stars, and a very well resolved image of M31).

Next observing evening is planned for April 1st, and the AGM is hot on its heels on April 12th.

Cotswold AS observing evening, 4th March

2008-03-05T20:15:00.001Z

The Cotswold AS held an observing evening at Bredon Cricket Club last night - here's a brief run-down of what I had a chance to look at with the 6" SCT.

First up - Orion Nebula, which was high enough above the light pollution murk to the S at about 2045 to be worth a peek. The Trapezium was easy to make out using a low power EP, as were the tenuous "arms" of gas extending away from it and the lane of dust separating M42 from M43. First time I'd seen that with my own eyes, so that was good

I set myself a bit of a challenge - could I see M76 (the "Little Dumbell" in Perseus), apparently the faintest of the Messier objects. Thanks to the wonders of GOTO I nailed it prettyt much straight away - just visible as a patch of faint light using a 32mm EP, with the star psi Per in the same FOV. Couldn't make out the dumbell shape particularly, although using a nebula filter (thanks Callum!) did improve the contrast a fair bit. Another M to check off the list!!

At this point some of the other guys at the observing evening were gathered around, marvelling at the magic of a properly aligned GOTO scope...I confessed to feeling a bit guilty about how easy things were to find ("like dialling a pizza", I think I said)... In any case, it was a good opportunity to do a quick whip round some famous bits and pieces including M1 (Crab Nebula) and M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy). M1 appeared as a fairly non-descript elongated patch of light covering a relatively large area; M51 looked really good though, the faintest impression of spiral arms was definitely there, and the accompanying NGC 5195 was also clearly visible at the edge of the main object. One of those objects that makes you wonder if you could get a decent photo of it one day....!!

Talking of photos, Kevin (aka BeyondVision on Stargazers Lounge) took a few really nice wide field pictures during the evening, which he's posted on the forum (link opposite) - well worth a look.

And big thanks to Callum Potter who organised the event!

Random comet hunt

2008-03-03T21:12:00.003Z

Just popped outside on the off-chance that I might be able to spot Comet 46P/Wirtanen, which is currently making its way through the Taurus / Aries region and is supposed to be a mag 9 object. Bit of a murky old night, though, and the region in question is a bit low in the sky...had a scout around with binoculars but no obvious trace. Should be better later in the month, when it gets up amongst Auriga.

However, I did get a nice view of Mars and M35 in the same FOV! Not a good enough evening to warrant getting The Beast (= the telescope) out, but always worth a quick scan about with the binoculars...

26th Feb - galaxies, double star and Saturn

2008-02-28T19:58:00.002Z

Starting to get the hang of my new telescope now, and had a really good night's observing the other night.

After getting myself polar aligned using the polar finderscope (seem to have that sorted now!) I was ready to start hunting for some small and fuzzies. Began by locating M81 and M82 in Ursa Major - two spiral galaxies which are quite close in the sky, but very different to look at. M81 appeared as a distinct patch of light at around x60 magnification, with M82 just about in the same field of view but looking like a pencil-shaped object (we see this object edge-on, hence the odd appearance). Very nice to be able to squeeze them both into the same FOV.

Next I took a look at the open cluster M67 in Cancer. A few weeks ago (in my pre-telescope days) I just about found this one - just a faint blob in binoculars. But with a 20mm eyepiece (-> x75) I could clearly resolve it into at least two dozen individual stars, surrounded by a faint glow (presumably more fainter stars). A particularly bright one stood out off to one side of the cluster.

After that, I had a quick look at M45 (Pleiades) at low power (x47) - amazing to see this familiar object so close up! The sharp blueish colour of the stars was very apparent, and I thought I could make out some slight nebulosity around a couple of them (but it was a bit low in the sky, so could just as easily have been atmospheric murk I suppose!)

Finally, on the galactic hunt, I found M65 and M66 in Leo - another nice pair of galaxies, a bit like M81 / M82 but fainter and closer together. Easy to get into one view at low power, with M66 appearing the slightly brighter of the two, to the east of M65.

I then took a look at a famous double star - Cor Caroli (Alpha Canum Venaticorum). This was a really good sight using a 15mm EP (-> x100) - the two stars were very easily separated, the primary being a blue / white colour and the companion star a definite orangey-brown colour. It was actually quite spooky to think that these two points of light are actually massive stars orbiting around each other. I think I might become a bit of a double star hunter!

Last of all, I couldn't resist another peek at Saturn, which looked fab as ever. I was able to resolve four moons (Titan, Dione, Rhea and Tethys), which was a definite record for me!

Still need to sort out a couple of things with the kit (e.g. get the finderscope better aligned!), but all in all another great evening.

New gear - successful first light!

2008-02-23T22:53:00.003Z

Proper excitement at ian_d towers yesterday...my new telescope arrived! You can read a brief report on how things went here - suffice to say that all was well, and I bagged a couple of planets and M42 within 12hrs of opening the boxes!

Got to be a record, surely?!

More on this, no doubt, as I get to grips with the gear properly and start to do some proper observing...

Lunar eclipse - a masterclass in observational astronomy

2008-02-21T22:02:00.006Z

The Great British weather conspired against us all last night, pretty much obliterating any real chance of observing the lunar eclipse.

Mind you, I hadn't really helped myself much...being a buffoon of the first magnitude I had mis-read the calendar and thought it was due to occur tonight. So, cloud or no cloud, I stood precious little chance of seeing anything by being a) indoors, b) asleep, and c) recovering from an impromptu session in a pub in Bristol. As luck would have it, mind, I did wake up at about 3am (my wife had pointed out my error as I stumbled in from the pub earlier in the evening) and so poked my head out from behind the curtains - but no sign of the Moon, eclipsing or otherwise. So I went back to bed.

Ah yes, Galileo himself would be proud. Roll on 2010 - the next chance we'll have in the UK to see a total eclipse of the Moon - and next time I'll try to actually get the time right.
What a tool.

On the plus side, though - isn't that a beautiful photograph of the eclipse? It was taken in Iran by a chap called Mohammad Taher Pilevar - excellent stuff.

Galaxy Zoo

2008-02-18T21:12:00.002Z

I read about the Galaxy Zoo project in this month's Sky at Night magazine, so thought I'd pay the website a visit. It's a project where members of the public are asked to classify images of galaxies taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It's pretty simple to take part (not to mention fun - it's worth noting that many of the images you're classifying have never been seen by human eyes before!), and the guys running the project are currently preparing some papers based on the results. A second stage of the project is planned soon, so now's a good time to sign up!

New kit on the way

2008-02-16T13:44:00.003Z

OK, I'm officially excited / broke... I've ordered a telescope!

After much deliberation, conversation and internet research I've gone for the Celestron C6-SGT (XLT) - a 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain type, which comes with Celestron's CG-5 GOTO German equatorial mount. I've also gone for a set of six eyepieces and filters, and a polar alignment scope. And, while my credit card was in meltdown, I got a dewcap, power supply and red LED torch too!

So, within a week or so I should finally be the proud owner of some proper astronomical gear. No doubt there will be plenty of tales of misadventure and confusion on these pages as I try to get to grips with things...but it should be fun!

Lunar observations - and a sketch

2008-02-15T20:50:00.002Z

I took the opportunity of a clear (but very cold!) night to have a look at the Moon through my trusty 10x50 binoculars, and to try and make a bit of a sketch. The results are here for you to see. Hardly a masterpiece I know, but it seemed to be good enough to allow me to identify the various features once I got back in the warm.

Using binoculars without a tripod is a right pain in the wotsits though - the image jumps about all over the place, making it really hard to pick out the finer (and more interesting) detail. It also makes it difficult to draw, as you have to keep picking them up, putting them down, grabbing the pencil, finding the sketchbook (by which time you can't remember what the bloody thing looked like!) Still, all part of the learning process.

And there's no denying the aesthetic appeal of the Moon - barren it may be, but it's far from dull to look at. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who thinks my identification of features is obviously wrong...I think I've got it, but it is surprisingly hard to tell!

Joined the BAA

2008-02-13T20:32:00.002Z

I decided to join the British Astronomical Association (BAA) - got my set of back-issues of the BAA Journal through today, so that'll keep me busy with reading material for a while. The observing guide and handbook they send you look pretty handy. Might think about joining one of the Sections (specialising in various different aspects of astronomy) - would be really interesting to get involved in making specific observations and contributing to a wider programme...

CAS Observing Evening, 12th Feb 2008

2008-02-13T20:14:00.003Z

Just a quick observing report on last night's CAS observing evening, held at Bredon Cricket Club.

Reasonably good skies (if a little misty, cold and damp!) meant that we were able to get a good look at a number of objects. Saturn was a great sight in the 5" reflector that one of the chaps brought along - could clearly make out the gap between the planet and the rings, and even Titan was visible as a bright dot about 200 arcseconds west of the rings. If I thought the glimpse through the 'scope on Saturday was good, then this was absolutely breathtaking!

The Moon was obviously washing out a fair proportion of the sky, but this presented a nice opportunity to have a close-up look at the terminator through no less than a 10" SCT. Felt close enough to touch!

I set one of the guys a challenge with his LX90 - could he split Castor? We reckon he did indeed manage it, although it was a close-run thing...just about able to make out two blueish-white stars.

Also spent some time talking some of the less experienced members through some good stuff to find with binoculars (Praesepe, Orion Nebula, Perseus double cluster) - that was a bit of a laugh. It was actually quite amusing...I was one of the few people there without my own telescope, but I seemed to know my way round the sky better than most!

Anyway, overall it was a really good night with plenty of nice stuff to see. Could have done with a little less dampness in the air, but other than that it was fine. The view of Saturn was worth the drive to Bredon alone!

Looking good...

2008-02-11T19:22:00.000Z

Right, at the time of writing the weather forecast for tomorrow night says clear skies, 3 ∘and 5mph winds- so the CAS observing evening is on.

If the weather scuppers this one, I shall begin to suspect some kind of conspiracy.

And that is the LAST time I post about the weather on here - promise!

Saturn's rings - at last!!!

2008-02-09T22:37:00.000Z

Friends, tonight represents a momentous occasion for me - my first view of Saturn's rings.

After a meeting of the Cotswold Astronomical Society a few of us went outside to see what we could see; one of the organisers had brought along a telescope (a fairly modest refractor from what I could see, maybe 80mm or so?) and he trained it on Saturn.

Despite a fairly wobbly tripod, I took a look and - no mistake! - there was Saturn plus rings. Not quite clear enough to make out the "gap" between the planet and the rings themselves, but the extent of the rings was definitely there. No "averted imagination" required.

At the risk of sounding like Mr Very Easily Pleased, I was genuinely thrilled to see this - and it's made me want to see so, so much more.

In the grand scheme of things, a small victory no doubt - but to coin a phrase, that's one giant leap for my astronomy habit.

The Beehive Cluster, and other treats

2008-02-08T22:10:00.001Z

I spent about an hour out observing tonight, once again with the trusty 10x50WA binoculars. My main aim tonight was to get a look at M44, also known as the Beehive Cluster or Praesepe, which is situated in the constellation of Cancer. From my back garden on a decent night (notwithstanding the usual light pollution from the town nearby, which blatts out a lot of the Northern sky) M44 was visible with the naked eye - looked about 1-2 degrees across. In binoculars it was a great spectacle - I could resolve at least 30 individual stars, and in the 6.5 degree field of view I have with the bins you could get a view of M44 plus the stars γ and δ Cnc (also known as Asellus Borealis and Asellus Australis, the southern and northern donkeys!)

Scanning along through Cancer I spotted M67, apparently the oldest of the Messier objects at around 3.2 billion years (this is actually younger than the solar system - but open star clusters don't hang around very long in comparison, so M67 is doing well to still be with us!) It looked like a faint grey patch in the binoculars, slightly cylindrical in appearance (but that's just due to the fact that it is faint, I believe).

Moving on to Leo, then, which had risen above the house nicely by this time. Saturn was clearly visible as a bright cream-yellow object about 4 degrees west of Regulus. I could have sworn that I could make out a bit of a bulge around its middle....but to be honest I think that might just be wishful thinking!! Is it possible to make out the existence of rings through binoculars, I wonder....? Anyway, without a tripod the image was bouncing around all over the place, so it was very hard to tell for sure. One nice feature of the stars in Leo is the contrast between Regulus (blue-white) and Algieba (red) - this distinction was really clear tonight.

Finally, I turned my head uncomfortably upwards to take a look in Auriga, and the fine collection of Messier objects therein - M36, M37 and M38, a trio of open clusters. Of the three, M38 appeared to be the largest, and I could just about make out some stars in the centre. M36 was just a shade brighter and more concentrated than the other two, although M37 was the best-looking of the bunch through the binoculars. That whole area of sky is just great for bins in general.

So, from a starting point of wanting to bag one Messier (M44), I came away with a bonus four plus a view of Saturn and some nice contrasting stellar views in Leo. Another successful evening!!

STFC statement

2008-02-08T17:52:00.000Z

I received an email from 10 Downing Street the other day (ooohh!) informing me that the STFC have issued a statement regarding the current funding crisis - you can read the statement in full here.

To be honest, this is something of a content-free announcement as far as I can tell... it certainly confirms a number of UK withdrawals from important astronomy projects (e.g. reducing investment in Gemini). But to be honest this is nothing more than a confirmation of what we all feared - UK astronomy and particle physics ain't getting the cash they need, and that's that. Future consultation on these matters will apparently be much more apparent, but that's not much of a silver lining.

The Royal Astronomical Society have given this announcement a "cautious welcome" - but as they say, they remain unhappy at the bottom line decision that has been taken.

It remains, I'm afraid, a disgrace.

Ridiculous weather

2008-02-05T21:50:00.001Z

As predicted, the weather bested the CAS's attempt at an observing evening tonight. Indeed, the elements saw fit to give me an absolute soaking as I cycled home from work, with some hailstones to boot. Thanks v much.

There's a distinct danger that this blog will turn into a rant about the British weather if I'm not careful, so I'll try to desist from now on! Suffice to say that we're going to have another go next Tuesday, so (once again) here's hoping for clear skies...

Mind your head

2008-02-04T22:08:00.000Z

Just spotted this story on Sky and Telescope - apparently a US spy satellite has gone out of control and is expected to hit Earth some time later this month. Details are shrouded in secrecy as you might expect; but it sounds a bit like the owners of this errant piece of machinery aren't sure where it will come down. So - probably best to wear a hard hat until further notice :-)

Fingers crossed for Tuesday

2008-02-03T17:38:00.000Z

The Cotswold Astronomical Society has planned an observing evening for this coming Tuesday, which I plan to attend... Up until today the forecast was for clear skies that night, but now they're predicting light rain showers. Aaargh!! The endless frustrations of weather-dependent hobbies.... (as you'll see here, astronomy isn't the only pastime of mine which gets a regular kicking from the elements!)

New experimental test of string theory proposed

2008-02-01T19:15:00.000Z

A new paper (Cosmic (super)string constraints from 21cm radiation", Khatri and Wandelt) claims to have discovered a new way to constrain some of the parameters of string theory experimentally. The idea is that effects due to "cosmic strings" could be detected in future experiments which measure the spectrum of certain wavelengths in the background radio radiation we observe in the sky. Current radio telescopes aren't up to the task, but a much larger array could perhaps constrain the possible values of the string tension to within a range of a few hundred GeV.

Doing my bit

2008-01-29T20:22:00.000Z

As you'll have seen by the link on the right hand side of this page, I'm as concerned as many other people are about the shortfall in UK Government funding for particle physics and astronomy research, which is threatening the viability of many physics departments at universities up and down the country, as well as drastically impacting the UK's involvement in some of the most important astronomical projects around the world.

So, I thought I should do the decent thing and express my concerns to those who have a fighting chance of doing something about it. One easy thing I did (and I'd encourage everyone to do!) is to sign this petition, which at the time of writing had 14,848 signatures. On top of that, however, I also decided to write to my local MP (Martin Horwood) to register my concerns and see if he would be prepared to add his voice to the campaign. I quote the response I got from his PA:

"Thank you for your email to Martin raising the issue of the constraints on UK physics funding through the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Martin shares your disappointment. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the UK are dependent on physics based technology and the government needs to ensure that the UK remains a world leader in this field. Such funding constraints also undermine the government's attempts in recent years to encourage more people to study physics and other scientific subjects at university. Martin will certainly be happy to support a campaign seeking to oppose these cuts. Thanks again for getting in touch and please don't hesitate to do so again about this or any other issue.

Claire Wilson

Personal Assistant to Martin Horwood, MP for Cheltenham"

Nice to get a response, I guess! Anyway, I've forwarded this letter to the good folks at saveastronomy.org.uk, so with any luck they'll start badgering Mr Horwood too!

Patrick Moore on Mars

2008-01-28T21:06:00.000Z

I've just finished reading Patrick Moore's excellent book on Mars, so thought I'd post a very brief "review".

Basically, this book is a collection of the estimable Sir Patrick's thoughts and essays on all aspects of the Red Planet, from the earliest telescopic observations (including the now discredited Martian "canals", as championed by greats such as Lovell and Schiaparelli) right up to the current antics of the rovers Opportunity and Spirit. The text is conversational throughout, and a very easy read - you certainly feel in safe hands as he talks about the various stages of Martian exploration, as he's played a fairly significant part in it all himself. There are several colour plates with some fantastic photographs of Mars (the snaps taken by Mariner 9 are particularly impressive, as are the photos taken from the surface by the famous Viking landers).

The subject of life on Mars naturally takes centre stage in the book, and it's fascinating to hear how the received wisdom a hundred or so years ago was that there obviously was life on the planet. And with the continuing exploration of Mars it seems likely that we'll settle the question one way or the other fairly soon. One interesting prediction made at the end of the book is that humanity will have colonised Mars by the end of the current century...let's hope the politicians are enlightened enough to fund something as ambitious (not to mention scientifically and culturally valuable) as that. When counted in "Iraq days", I bet it's peanuts! :-)

All in all a highly recommended book, and one which deserves its place in any astronomer's library.

Incidentally, I've just started Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" - a pop-sci elucidation of superstring and M-theory (subjects I have some knowledge of, as I did a Ph.D. in string theory)....no doubt I'll post a short review of that one too when it's finished!

Great night's observing

2008-01-24T22:26:00.000Z

Before I get going, you'll note that I've moved blog hosts....I was finding that astronomyblogs was a bit flaky (lost a couple of my posts for no obvious reason), and so I thought I'd use blogger.com instead. So, for previous posts you can take a look at the old First Contact site, but from now on it'll all be on here.

Well, at last - a decent clear night! With the Moon just past full tonight, the plan was definitely a game of two halves...try to get some stellar / deep sky things bagged first, before the Moon rose and washed the sky out too much. At that point, time to try and make a sketch of the Moon itself.

Perseus - in particular, alpha Per (Mirphak) and beta Per (Algol), two stars that are both well known for quite different reasons. Mirphak sits in the middle of a beautiful cluster of stars, appearing as the brightest in a chain of stars which snake around the field of view in binoculars. This cluster actually has a name (Melotte 20). Tonight I thought Mirphak looked fairly blue-white in appearance, although the books say that it's actually a yellow-white supergiant. Beta Per (Algol) is famous for being a prototypical variable star of the eclipsing binary type, varying its magnitude from between +2.1 to +3.4 every 2.87 days. In the binoculars tonight it appeared as a definitely blue-coloured star. Would be a good idea for me to try and observe this star regularly, and to try and detect the change in magnitude...will need some consecutive clear nights for that though!!

While in Perseus I tracked down the open cluster M34 (NGC 1039), lying a degree or so ENE of Algol. It was quite hard to make out individual stars, although with averted vision this was possible. I couldn't make out any stars of a distinct colour; all looked white. I expect this would look really good on a darker night (i.e. no moon), and with a telescope! Good to have found it though, they all count.

Next, I took a look at the Hyades open cluster in Taurus, one of the most recognisable asterisms in the sky. Aldebaran's red colour really stands out against the background of this cluster (interesting to note that Aldebaran is not actually part of the cluster; it just happens to lie between us and it). Through binoculars it was quite possible to make out the group of four double stars which are the most distinctive parts of Hyades - especially theta-1 and theta-2 Tau, which are the brightest in the group. This cluster just looks great in binoculars.

At this point (around 7.55pm) the light from the rising Moon was getting in the way a bit, so took a rain check for a few hours until I could see the Moon properly. In fact, I took the chance to take a quick drive in the country to see if I could find a better site than my garden for observing - and I think I found a great spot, not too far away and with unobstructed views of the whole sky. And no lights around!!

The Moon - by 10pm the Moon had risen sufficiently to be able to see it very well from the front of the house to the East. As an extra bonus, Saturn was close by too (about 4 degrees away), and was a distinct cream-yellow colour. No sign of rings, obviously! The Moon itself was another great sight in binoculars, and it was possible to make a sketch of some of the main features (the Maria, and some of the more prominent craters such as Tycho and its rays, Langrenus, and Byrgius). Being just past full, Langrenus appeared right on the NE limb as a very prominent feature, highlighted against the dark shadow.

All in all, a really good and varied night tonight - some interesting stars, some nice clusters, a Messier, a planet and the Moon. I really must get on and get myself a telescope - that will really take me on to the next level, I'm sure.