nightone

2am is late for stargazing i know but when i saw the sky was clear i had to have a look and wow its all changed again! pegasus has risen in the east and seems to be dominating the sky there. havent seen it since about january it feels like wow. found it very difficult to make out saggitarius in the deep south sky stars not very bright at all. it was worth venturing out on to the slug covered lawn to seen jupiter for my first time this summer. so bright he shone :D Sky was dark enough also to make out the milky way and i followed it from cygnus down to sagittarius :D think ill have a go at sag when antares is still up next time so that i can work out exactly where the stars are.

just come in from a not quite dark sky even at this time! never seen antares look so bright before. not dark enough for coma.. totally off topic saw two hedgehogs close up!!

Just come back in from almost an hour viewing the night sky :D Went out at 11.40 and back in at 12.35 Isnt it amazing how when you are enthralled with the sky the coldness disappears and the fact that you are standing on a lawn full of dew with slippers on means nothing. I dont know if there was a concert going on nearby but all i could hear the whole time was different kinds of music and also fireworks (didnt see any though but they certainly scared my cat who was also out with me). To be fair though the music kept me company whilst out in the darkness as i mentioned before i can get kind of anxious..(ok scared) being out in the silence. First of all, yes i saw antares...ok it was not the ruby in the sky that i thought it would be but still excellent to see the obvious red colour. wow its so low down in the south though i didnt think it appeared brighter than spica (i read previously that it was brighter). I had with me some 8x25 bins and also had my glasses on which i cannot believe how much difference they make to what i can see, i must be blind lol somehow its better for me to take them off to look through the bins though. I saw the three stars to the right of antares first and about 11.45 there it was! I have to say i envy the people in the southern hemisphere being able to see the whole of scorpius and so high in the sky, in the hour i was out it had moved accross so much and i guess in another hour it would have set to the west. To only have this glimpse of it for a few summer months is not enough. At 12.15 approx really bright and slow moving (over a second) meteor/shooting star to the left of antares! wow i could not believe my luck!!! I hope others saw this as it was so bright! I was glad i took my bins with me asfor the first time i saw the coma cluster! wow! everyone has to see this, to think there is 5000 (is it??) galaxies there. had to turn my head 90 degrees to see the "V":D Managed to trace out draco and heurcules finally! thats most of the sky puzzled mapped out in my brain now! I feel like i have "solved the puzzle". At around 12.25 i saw a satallite moving from the NW towards cygnus...wonder what that was??!!! Im feeling very satisfied after my night observing... oh also.. not to forget i thought seeing castor and pollox and capella setting in the north west so bright against the fading twilight there was beautiful. wow fantastic night. well worth the two weeks of waiting for a clear night.

tonight is the first clear night since i last posted and i am hoping to have my first EVER proper sighting of antares. im feeling very excited about this. vega and arcturus already visible in the darkening sky....

What a wonderful clear night it was here in south wales due to some very brisk easterly winds. I am very excited about all the things i saw tonight. Three main non star sightings were 1. Moon rising 2. Shooting Star (possible lyrid) 3. Unidentified sattalite. Also some new stars for me. I went out at about 12.30am Saw antares in the south for the 1st time ever! Moon rose about 10 seconds later though so off it went! Long lasting shooting star near vega always makes me smile. Strange sattalie going south to north right over head at around 12.35-40. just using my eyes (with glasses, really helping my astigmatism) i could see many spring constellations. Some firsts were, the diamond shape of lyra, the tail of scorpius and hercules which i may have got wrong.