The Green Comet - C2022/E3 (ZTF)

 Well, barely.

So it was above the horizon only after February 7th (Tues).  I had busy evenings until Saturday the 11th, and it was a beautiful clear day... right up until 2130 just as it got dark enough to get outside and have a look!  Curse you Melbourne skies!!!

Sunday was also cloudy. 

Finally Monday night (the 13th) was clear enough to see that part of the sky, and I just made the time to go out and have a look.

After a study of Stellarium, I confirmed it should be about 2/3rds between Antares and Mars, just a fraction higher than a line between the two.

It took a while... and another look at Stellarium to check... I finally saw a smear, a faint blur, the barest wisp of light only just brighter than the sky behind it.  Almost lost in the light pollution of the sky above Lalor.

I first found it in the 25mm, and then worked up through the 17mm and the 13mm.

This wasn't a moment of "Yay! A majestic comet!", this was "Hey, I found it! That was ridiculous!"

There was no hope of trying to image it with my simple mobile phone setup, so I'll just have to remember the thrill of finding that smudgy, faint, blur.   

Dark sky evening plans...

dichotomy

dʌɪˈkɒtəmi,dɪˈkɒtəmi/

noun

noun: dichotomy; plural noun: dichotomies

1.

a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.

Such as, for instance, how Winter provides beautiful long dark nights, with some interesting constellations and objects to check out ... but Melbourne provides nothing but bloody clouds whenever you want to try to get out to a dark sky on a particular Saturday evening.

Dammit.

Here's what it could have looked like...

Moon occults Regulus

I managed to get out and check out some of the occultation of Regulus last night.
I missed it disappearing behind the dark limb unfortunately, but was ready for its re-emergence just over a hour later.

I was looking right at the moon through my 25mm ep, allowing me to keep an eye on the entire disk. The sudden "switching on" of the tiny intense blue light of Regulus was really striking! I took a few photos and videos after watching it for a short while, so the photos show the star not right on the edge any more.












I also took some other photos as well...

Eta Carina

Tonight is a full moon, or nearly, and finally a clear night after a few warm evenings that were still clouded over.  I was curious how clear the Carina Nebula would be when the moon was so bright, and it would also be good practice to try to locate it again in more difficult circumstances.

It did take a while to find again, even though I had a fairly good idea of where to start.  I initially tried to start with the star at the bottom (or right when it is rotated) of the False Cross asterism that makes the end of Carina and then move down from there.  I did get a small distraction from NGC xxxx which is a nice open cluster, and then I moved down from there but I started to feel lost, as it proved to be a long way down.  I then tried jumping to where I thought I remembered it being but ended up in a relatively featureless bit of sky - or so I thought until I stumbled across what I think was the centre of a tight globular cluster that showed as a very interesting small blurry patch.  I'll have to look that up on Stellarium.  Unfortunately, I knocked the scope when changing an eye piece and lost track of the object before I could even try to memorise where on the sky I was looking.

I then noticed that my averted vision was picking up some faint spots halfway between Crux and the False Cross that looked intruiging, so I swung the scope around to the best of those and immediately landed on NGC xxxx, which is another open cluster.  Recognising that from last time, I was then able to track the scope a bit higher, and finally landed on the Carina Nebula with Eta Carina shining bright orange in the middle of it.  The nebula was almost impossible to see, and without the memory of last evening observing it I would have had a hard time identifying it.  The nebulosity was very faint, and I could only just make out the structure of the lobes and the dust lanes across the middle of it.

I spent most of my time here switching between my 30mm looking at the big picture, and then zooming in with my 13mm and 6mm and then added the Barlow for 2x magnification.  I think the best results this evening were with the 13mm plus the Barlow, which allowed very nice viewing of the faint nebula and Eta Carina in the middle, with the lobes of its nova event just discernable.  I also spent a lot of time just staring at the sky and double checking through the finder-scope the location of th the nebula, so I will be able to find it much easier next time.  

The evening closed after midnight with some faint whispy clouds moving in from the South West, so it was time to pack it in.

Oh! *That* faint dot of light!

Bingo! Spotted Neptune last night!
With the help of the laptop and Stellarium next to the telescope, and the assurance that it had to be one of these spots close to Venus - I finally identified the right stars around Venus to be able to star-hop to the right small bluish dot.
Even better, I was able to capture the moment using my new phone holder thingy. The thingy still needs some work to improve the view port, the centering of the camera, the securing of the phone and the stability of the unit over the eyepiece barrel. However, it did make lining it up and holding it still easier, so that is a good start.
The pictures are not well exposed, and the stars are streaking a bit, but given the dodgy seeing conditions near the horizon and the amateur equipment I'm pretty happy with the fact that I still managed to capture the spirit of the moment - having Venus and Neptune visible in the same eyepiece. They were close too, as these images were taken through my 17mm ep.

So that's a big TICK for another planet spotted.

Actually, that's all of them. Wow!

(although I'm still not 100% about Uranus through my own telescope, but I have seen it through an old refractor up at Mt Stromlo observatory about 30 years ago)

The search for Neptune

Last night I started the search for planet 8.

On Jan 12 Neptune and Venus are going to be in very close proximity, hopefully visible in the same eyepiece.
So last night I decided to take advantage of a nice evening to drag Dobby out to the back yard and check out Venus, Mars and then see if I could pick out Neptune in the sky between.
Unfortunately, the transparency was not great. It is low on the horizon, so there is a lot of bad air, plus there was a big grass fire during the day which didn't help either. Therefore, I'm unable to report with any certainty that I spotted it. I did see a number of objects, including a faint one that may have had a faint bluish hue. I'll try again tonight to spot Neptune before the big moment on Thursday.
I also took a couple of pictures of Venus and Mars. The Venus one is using the yellow filter on the EP, but has still flared out a bit. You can still see the half lit phase of the planet. The photo of Mars is a fairly accurate representation of the size and lack of detail visible.

International Observe the Moon Night

October 8th is International Observe the Moon Night, so although unable to make it international - I did observe the Moon from near the front gate this evening.

Despite days of cloud cover, we actually had a fine day today and I was able to see a lovely quarter moon this evening once it got dark, with clear skys directly above.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the telescope outside until later in the evening, by which time another cloud bank was starting to drift over the horizon, and the whispy leading edge of it was already starting to obscure the Moon.

Undaunted, I still spent some time observing using my 30mm, 17mm, 8mm and 6mm eyepieces and the Lunar filter.  Once the cloud started thickening up, I no longer required the filter.

I also snapped a few pictures with the phone held to the EP, which are displayed here...

This is my first official observation of the Moon where I've started crossing off items from the Lunar 100.  This evening accounted for :

Map #34 - Lacus Mortis - A strange crater with rille and ridge
Map #72 - Atlas dark-halo craters - Explosive volcanic pits on the floor of Atlas
Map #20 - Posidonius - Floor-fractured crater
Map #10 - Mare Crisium - Mare contained in large circular basin
Map #28 -Hipparchus - First drawing of a single crater

 

Details taken through the 6mm eyepiece.  Looked great, but was loosing detail due to the thin cloud drifting in.  These craters don't feature on the L100 list.

Then the cloud really rolled in and that was it for IOtMN.

Getting cold out there

Friday, 8 April.  2230-0030

A cold cloudy day fined up during the evening and the sky was too clear to pass up, so another few hours on the front step was called for.

The transparency and seeing were great, I'd say about a 8/10 for both.

The obvious first target for the night was Jupiter.  At its highest point on the ecliptic in the North at the time.  These are some of the best views of Jupiter I have ever enjoyed, tonight the air was clear enough that the image in the 6mm ep was nice and still.  There was no GRS visible, but I could easily make out four bands across the face of the planet - one smaller and one larger in the North and South hemispheres.  As always the planet and moons make a spectacular image - tonight two on the left in close and two on the right out further, at about a 30 degree tilt.

I had a quick look around Leo for M95, M96, M105, M65 and M66 but couldn't find anything standing out easily so I'll park those as targets for the Dark Sky night planned for May.

Took a moment to check the collimation of Dobby by pushing the focus way out while looking at a star - the dark circle of the secondary within the blur of the primary mirror looked about dead centre so I'm thinking that it is fine.  The blur of the primary mirror seems to show some marks that could do with a clean.

Mars was next, as it stood out so clearly in the Eastern sky.  The 17mm ep showed a bright orange disk, but no detail was evident.  I then tried the 6mm ep and in the moments of stillness there seemed to be some shadows on the disk that hinted at surface detail.  Awesome.  No white on the poles evident, but I think they are small at the moment due to it being summer in the facing hemisphere.

 

Tried some of the filters; numbers #21, #12, #58A didn't do much other than alter the colour.  #80A made it worse, losing what detail there was, and #25 is way too red.  #56 turned the image green, but did seem to bring out a little more detail.

 

Hey, what is that brighter star a bit further down? OH!  That's Saturn!  I forgot that was going to be there.  What a beautiful view!  The 6mm ep gave an amazing view when the air settled down.  Although no bands are visible, the rings look fantastic and I love being able to see the dark line on the right of the image as the shadow of the planet falls across the ring where it goes behind the disc.  There was a faint line visible on the left of the rings that may have been the Casini division, but it was not that clear tonight.  

 

The final target for the night was M4, selected on the basis of being close by in Scorpio to where I was already looking at Mars and Saturn.  Another chance to work on my star-hopping skills, I did a bit of research out on the step on my phone checking out GoogleSky and FreeCharts.com to find the right series of stars.  It turned out to be quite dim in tonights sky, but I could make out the central bar structure as described in the star maps.  I found it first in my 30mm ep as a small faint group of stars, and then I zoomed in progressively with the 17mm, 13mm and 6mm eps.  All were still faint, but I could resolve the cluster of stars and the structure.  The 13mm seemed the best balance of seeing the whole cluster and best brightness. 

It was getting colder, so I went inside finally at about 12:30am.

Jupiter quickie

Tuesday, 15 March
With Jupiter in opposition I grabbed another chance to drag Dobby out on the front step at about 2200 for another look.

I couldn't spot the GRS tonight (get it?), just didn't time it right. Tried a couple of the filters to try to improve the contrast and enjoyed a long look at the bands.  87A seems to get the best results for my eye.

Wrapped up when clouds rapidly rolled in.   

Jupiter in opposition

A hot Autumn night! It's the 9th of March, and yet it is still 30℃ out there at 1:30am!

Jupiter is in opposition, it is a beautiful night with great transparency, but the seeing leaves a lot to be desired. There is a lot of shimmer going on.
However, as I stared at Jupiter the seeing occasionally cleared enough to focus on the main bands and see some other cloud detail. I also was able to make out the Great Red Spot, which is great - I'm very happy with that. You get spoilt by the photos of the GRS, it doesn't as great or red from here.  But I'm still sure I found it and am calling that a tick!
Started with the 30mm to dial in the finder scope, the progressed to the 17mm and then settled on the 2x Barlow and the 6mm EP.
Also tried filters 89A, 86, and 22 with some success. I think 86 was the best at showing some extra cloud detail tonight.
The four moons were clear, one on the left of the FOV and the other three making a flat triangle to the right.
Mars was up, but lower on the horizon where the seeing was even worse due to the hot air.

Clear summer night

A beautiful clear night tonight after a nice dinner, so dragged Dobby out the back for a look.
Orion is above the house so checked out the nebulae (it's the name of the blog ya know) Used the 30mm ep with the barlow and enjoyed the view. Tried all the filters, just to see the effect. Nothing really special, perhaps the blue helped define a bit... Maybe
Played with the indirect mode on my mobile
Looked for ngc1617
Bed time

Back to basics with the iBall 1.0

Tim came over this evening for some assistance with an exercise that is part of his BSc.
He had to identify three known stars and estimate their magnitude and colour by eye and then compare that to the known values in the literature.  He then has to calculate their actual magnitude.
This was an interesting exercise for me, as I've managed to get this far without having a hard think about magnitudes, and tonight helped straighten out a few points in my mind.

In summary:
Low magnitude number = brighter / High magnitde number = dimmer
Aparent magnitude is the brightness as it appears in the sky compared to other stars
Absolute magnitude is the brightnes if the star was only 10 parsecs away
Absolute magnitude is calculated using a formula I'll try to understand in the morining.

Nice to get out and stargaze with Tim again, even without scopes and under the regular city sky.

Dark skies and good wine

This weekend Tim, Alisdair and I went out into the country to find a dark sky.
However, being gentlemen of refinement... we found it at a warm, welcoming, winery.
This wonderful winery that so comfortably accommodated our amateur stargazing was Tim's brother-in-laws place.  Wonderful hospitality and food and drink!

Determined to see more than the light polluted skies of Melbourne could offer, we journeyed out West.  The diagram below taken from Dark Site Finder shows how suitable the spot is.  Both to protect the innocent, and due to my not paying attention as we drove out, the location of the winery is only approximate. 

This dark-sky excursion educated us in a few ways.  One resource we discovered was Skippy-Sky, a website where we can find predictions of cloud cover for the weekend.  Amazing how accurate it was!  It was predicting clear skies by 1am, and although there were multiple patches of cloud roll over, even some rain - come 12.30am the skies cleared and we had hours of beautiful clear sky.


With us we had Dobby the 8", Tim's 6" Equatorial mount ("Eckie"?), and Alisdair's brand new 10" collapsible dob (Aperture envy!)

More to come...

Cloudy skies, but breaks make observing possible
7pm Looked at Moon, Saturn
Used 35mm ep, 2x barlow, lunar filter
1/2 moon waxing, terminator awesome!
Saturn at a distance, didn't make time to try the full x400 magnification

Clouded up - curry dinner.  Some rain!

Break in the clouds, so out again to observe
Look at Carina (no nebula spotted)
Moon, Barlow and 6mm ep showing amazing detail on craters
Swung over to Rigel Kent to separate binary - used full mag - got it!

Clouds. Cards. Stellarium.

1am
Differentiate Rigil Kent using full mag again
M28
M22
open cluster above Scorpio (?)
Tried for Andromeda - too low?  Not recognised?
Tried for Uranus - couldn't make it out, although had a strong suspect
M69
M70
M54

Tired, nearly 3am.  Went to bed!

Winter Solstice 2015

Enjoyed a beautiful warm bonfire on a cold Saturday evening. Then on Sunday evening we stoked up the brazier and enjoyed a nice fire (and marshmallows!) in the front yard.
The Moon, Venus and Jupiter put on a nice show in a clear sky on both nights, and on Sunday I dragged out Dobby for a look at them. Beautiful craters on the terminator on the crescent moon, Venus showed a strong crescent, and Jupiter was just great as always - all four moons visible in a clear line.
Saturn came over the trees later in the evening (after marshmallows) and looked very pretty. Tried to take a few photos but didn't have much success this time.

Incoming!

... run to the bunkers!

February, 2013 and the buzz was about a smallish chunk-o-rock fashionably named "Asteroid 2012 DA14" that was about to skim past Earth at only about 27,700 km distant (below Geo-stationary satellite orbit 36,000km).  It is about 30 meters across and weighs an estimated 40,000 tonnes.

Since Australia was going to be in the right place at the right time as it passed by on the 16th, I decided to set the alarm to 'blerk'-in-the-morning and get out and try to spot it. 
So at 'blerk'-o-clock that Saturday morning, I rushed out into the pre-dawn gloom with Dobby and a printout of a skymap sourced from the web and started making fairly wild guesses at where it might be at that time.  Using the 25mm eyepiece I hoped that there would be enough field of view to catch a glimpse.

So, did I see it?  I don't know...

I did catch a fleeting (about 2 second) sighting of a small, not overly bright, point of light move across the field of view.  It was about what I expected, but I would have to allow for the possibility that I caught a satellite instead of the asteroid.

But, it was fun trying and I like to think that it probably was a success.

Here's a NASATelevision clip with some flyby footage.

Then I got inside and heard about Chelyabinsk in Russia... hol...lee... cow!

Partial solar eclipse

Wednesday, 14 November.  0730 - 0900

A beautiful clear morning dawned for the 54% partial solar eclipse that we were to enjoy today.  We had decided at short notice to take the telescope and light box to the school again.  
As the show was going to be over by 0845 there was going to be a fair opportunity for the kids and teachers to see what was going on if they wanted.
By the time we were set up the eclipse had started and there was about an eighth of the moon already over the face of the sun.  
We took a couple of photos and the kids started arriving soon after that.  

 Setting up at the school.

 Just in time - the moons moving in now.

 Almost as good as it is going to get.  A good amount of sunspot activity to be seen as well.

 That's the max for today!

 Some of the kids checking it out.
Again, like for the transit of Venus, it is so much fun sharing this with the kids (and teachers!) at the school.  Lots of questions kept me on my toes, and it was clear they were thinking about what was going on.

Will have to find an excuse to do this again next year somehow.

Northern lights?

Just back from holidays in Singapore and Hong Kong.  Would have been nice to record some thoughts about the night sky in the Northern hemisphere... but unfortunately the atmospheric haze and the light pollution from these major cities meant the most stars I saw was one night in Disneyland, when they dropped all the lights in the park just before the fireworks.
Four.  I saw four stars.  Not even in the same constellation.
Nice to be home and see so many more stars from my front steps last night.

A quick look around

Friday, 15th June
2045-2100
Melbourne suburbia

A clear night after a cloudy, drizzley day.  Moonless.

Had a quick look at Scorpio and enjoyed a couple of clusters found there.

The Transit of Venus

June 6 2012
Suburbian Melbourne Primary School - one of the most satisfying days I ever had

After nearly a whole week of overcast and mostly rainy days, Wednesday 6 June 2012 dawned clear and bright.  Fantastic!

We made it to the school and set up in time to see Venus just complete its entry onto the disc of the Sun.

We were soon swamped by kids wondering what was going on,and the interest they showed was wonderful!

The rest of the morning went fast as a couple of the 5/6 grades and some 1/2 cycled through, listening with interest to my little blurb about the telescope (a 'reflector', bouncing light around), the history (Captain Cook in 1769), the significance (measuring the solar system), and how long it would be until this ever happened again.
The afternoon clouded over, but was patchy enough that we still managed to grab short views of the transition, right up to the end - when the clouds finally parted again at the last minute to let us see Venus move off the disc of the Sun.

My home made light box, allowing the projection of the Sun to be seen by the audience beside the scope.

Venus and sunspots were clearly visible.

Another shot of Venus and some sunspots.

Dark Skies - Mk 1 Eyeball

14 March, 2012. 2230.
At Apollo Bay, Victoria.
Fantastic to see a proper dark sky again. Wasn't able to fit Dobby the scope into the car along with all the luggage, so had to just enjoy the.night sky (on the clear nights) with the Mk1 eyeball - standard issue. The first night we were still surrounded by some street and house lights, but it was still about a 2 on the dark sky index. Spotted Mars, Crux, Orion, a fantastic Milky Way, the large Magellanic Cloud, a few meteors (just short streaks), and a sky full of stars I hadn't seen in a long time. The next night we stopped out of town on a rise beside the road and enjoyed an even darker sky. Fortunately the Moon was not up at this time. Additionally spotted the small Magellanic Cloud, the Pleiades, and was generally overwhelmed by the majesty of it all. Soon to be added to the equipment list, a set of binoculars.