Tues July 5th 1130
Exciting! Juno has started rotating getting ready to fire engines to begin orbital insert.
I've got my twitter feed pinging me messages every minute or so now, it's great being right in the loop on these great achievements these days!
Woo! Go Juno!
Monday, July 4, 2016
Monday, June 27, 2016
Nearly the end of June
Well, it's nearly the end of June and the few clear skies we've had have been when I've been busy that evening.
Winter is here. It's bloody freezing out there.
Managed to look up one clear evening and Mars is still looking great, I must get Dobby on to it again soon before it drifts further away.
Getting excited about 4th of July when Juno enters orbit around Jupiter. Heard recently on a podcast that we can not expect to see pictures from it soon, though.
Winter is here. It's bloody freezing out there.
Managed to look up one clear evening and Mars is still looking great, I must get Dobby on to it again soon before it drifts further away.
Getting excited about 4th of July when Juno enters orbit around Jupiter. Heard recently on a podcast that we can not expect to see pictures from it soon, though.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Quick look with the kids
Friday, 27 May.
Taking the opportunity of a break in the near-Winter weather that left the sky surprisingly clear, I dragged Dobby and the kids out onto the front step.
First I showed them Mars, which bus looking amazing. I still can't see pale poles, but definitely can make out the dark patches of the plains. The kids seemed impressed.
Then we moved on to Saturn, which got a couple of "wows".
The a small relocation to the other side of the pine tree to view Jupiter.
After that, the kids interest and cold tolerance had worn thin, so we all came back inside.
Only a short session, but worth it to share with the kids.
Taking the opportunity of a break in the near-Winter weather that left the sky surprisingly clear, I dragged Dobby and the kids out onto the front step.
First I showed them Mars, which bus looking amazing. I still can't see pale poles, but definitely can make out the dark patches of the plains. The kids seemed impressed.
Then we moved on to Saturn, which got a couple of "wows".
The a small relocation to the other side of the pine tree to view Jupiter.
After that, the kids interest and cold tolerance had worn thin, so we all came back inside.
Only a short session, but worth it to share with the kids.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Mars at opposition
Took Dobby out last night and had a real nice look at Mars, one of the best views of the red planet I've ever seen.
Will attach a sketch
Used a few filters and actually they seemed to help!
Also checked out Saturn.
Thought about checking out the Moon, but it was too low and it was too cold to hang around any longer.
Will attach a sketch
Used a few filters and actually they seemed to help!
Also checked out Saturn.
Thought about checking out the Moon, but it was too low and it was too cold to hang around any longer.
Curry and clouds - the Dark Sky night that wasn't
Saturday 7, May 2016
*placeholder entry*
We tried for a nice dark sky night, but the weather had other ideas - clouded in, for the rest... of... the...week!
Sheesh
Glimpsed a couple of stars in some small breaks in the cloud - but they went so fast I barely had time to slew the telescope around.
Had a nice chicken curry though, and enjoyed the hospitality of T's in-laws, who are such nice people for letting us invade.
More details later.
*placeholder entry*
We tried for a nice dark sky night, but the weather had other ideas - clouded in, for the rest... of... the...week!
Sheesh
Glimpsed a couple of stars in some small breaks in the cloud - but they went so fast I barely had time to slew the telescope around.
Had a nice chicken curry though, and enjoyed the hospitality of T's in-laws, who are such nice people for letting us invade.
More details later.
Friday, April 29, 2016
The Caldwell Catalogue
Here's something I didn't know ... there exists a list of objects similar to the Messier Catalogue, but made with the amateur astronomer in mind. (As opposed to just being a list of fuzzies that are "not-comets")
This list is called the Caldwell Catalogue, and is named after its creator - Sir Patrick Moore (huh? What-the?) He used his other surname 'Caldwell', since the M for Messier was already taken.
This list consists of a better mix of interesting objects that are achievable for the amateur astronomer with moderate equipment, and deliberately includes an even mix of Southern as well as Northern hemisphere objects. There are 109 of them, to give it the same flavour, with a mix of planetary nebulae, open and globular clusters, galaxies and nebulae.
I found this when I was downloading the Messier Catalogue from AstronomyLogs.com. There was this other PDF there for the Caldwell Catalogue, and a quick trip to wikipedia cleared up the question.
So now I have a new list of objects to start collecting, well - the more Southern ones, anyway.
This list is called the Caldwell Catalogue, and is named after its creator - Sir Patrick Moore (huh? What-the?) He used his other surname 'Caldwell', since the M for Messier was already taken.
This list consists of a better mix of interesting objects that are achievable for the amateur astronomer with moderate equipment, and deliberately includes an even mix of Southern as well as Northern hemisphere objects. There are 109 of them, to give it the same flavour, with a mix of planetary nebulae, open and globular clusters, galaxies and nebulae.
I found this when I was downloading the Messier Catalogue from AstronomyLogs.com. There was this other PDF there for the Caldwell Catalogue, and a quick trip to wikipedia cleared up the question.
So now I have a new list of objects to start collecting, well - the more Southern ones, anyway.
Friday, April 8, 2016
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.
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.
It was getting colder, so I went inside finally at about 12:30am.
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