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cotterless45

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cotterless45 last won the day on August 9 2019

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    gardening.travelling.
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    Swadlincote,Derbyshire

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  1. It’s an enticing quandary. Visual Astro . Our urban skies have declined in quality. Led lighting and the proliferation of new houses have crushed contrast . Past times included views of the Milky Way through Cygnus . Now we’re lucky on the poorest of nights to get 12 stars by eye before the moon gets going . I used to happily sit and draw the whale galaxy using a 10” Dob . Now I can hardly see M82. The lust for faint fuzzies definitely exists ! Aperture and dark skies cry out ! But for most of us ; Solution to get results ! Forget the big aperture . A 4” achromatic refractor . You’ll catch open clusters , globular clusters , planetary clusters, el moon , planets and binary stars . Just upgrade to a 5” or 6” if your mount will manage . You’ll find that 4” will cope with poor atmospheric conditions and outshoot bigger Newts and Cats ( yikes) if the going gets tough. Ignore apos and ed scopes .for the visual amateur user just enjoy what your budget will accept . Remember , you want it , but do you need it ? There’s the advantage of reasonable cost , easy of handling and sheer pleasure with fracs . There’s little benefit in dreaming of the unreachable in poor skies . Best advice I can give , adapt and adjust ! Clearer skies ! Nick.
  2. Two Saturns ! Put the C6r through its paces . Certainly appreciated the new Baader Steeltrack focuser . At least you don’t miss the target when rotating it ( previous was the swinging SW Crayford ) A balmy 13 degrees out there with a light sky . Some great clusters in Cassiopeia, got the binaries of iota ( triple) eta and sigma. Saturn just coming over the roof tops and a narrow ring with a difficult Cassini as it was bouncing with thermals over the town. After midnight the seeing settled to give a1.1” split to 36 Andromedae. Had a look around at what was up. Andromeda gave a high mag view of the blue snowball (NGC7662) . M15 off Enif looked great . Don’t forget NGC 752 another of Caroline’s finds. Caught M11 ( flying ducks) in Scutum, not much definition as being in the bright south . Saw that Aquarius was up which gave M22. Then turned to NGC 7009, the “Saturn nebula”. Quite as shock , very bright at +8 and I could see the spheroid shape . I had caught M17 earlier , just a glimpse of the Swan. Decent from the edge of town. Quite a few targets , lovely to get M13 and M92 when the Summer Triangle is next door ! After battling the security lights from the house up the way , repeatedly coming in on a bizarre cycle , returned to Saturn and Jupiter . Luckily he wasn’t out with his nightly bonfire , perhaps the lights hypnotised the beggar. Nice early kick off and winter is coming , under clear skies . Nick.
  3. All over light sky even past midnight , only the brightest targets on view. Lovely 15C night with no dew and the lightest of breeze. “Yard Cannon “C6r on parade. Saturn first up , rings fairly closed but a really dark band across the planet surface . Then Jupiter and transit of the GRS. The southern belt again looked very light . Caught the blue disc of Neptune . Then had a look around . The Summer Triangle was just past zenith , Andromeda and Pegasus dominated the east . Cassiopeia and Perseus riding the north . A long gaze at the double cluster , never fails ! Up to the “blue snowball” NGC7662 and a lovely view , give it x200. Then “blue flash “in Delphinus. NGC 6905 and it does flash . M2 (Aquarius)was low in the south , but gave a lot of granulation . As did M15 hanging off the end of Pegasus. last time out , I had a stunning early view of M11 and a glimpse of HD140283 ( the Methuselah star) in Libra. Had a drift through the clusters of Cassiopeia, kept retuning to the planets . so much noise in the early hours from town . Yelling , car and motorbike racing etc. don’t know what pleasure they get . Not as much as from a warm night with great bright things . Just a single Perseid, clearer skies . Nick.
  4. Easy to find half way between Altair and Vegan ! old Nick
  5. Sixpenny Handley used to be good , http://www.swindonstargazers.com/members/starparties.htm nick
  6. On north west Skye for two weeks , 22 miles from town . Up at 2am. OMG , the sky was pristine . Binoculars showed a brown fov as there were so many stars . The Milky Way was a bright delight through Cygnus and the sky glowed with clusters . Found UMa , followed the pointers , just couldn’t get Polaris or UMi ! The stunner was Coma Berenices and Melotte 111 , what brightness ! wherever you live and whatever your circumstances, get to see dark sky! clearer skies , Nick.
  7. I made a few notes and then waited a few hours until the strong easterly wind dropped a bit . Stars of Bootes. Follow the handle of the "Plough " down and you'll find the bright star Arcturus in the constellation Bootes.This is a huge orange giant with a diameter of 27 suns and is the fourth brightest star in the sky . "Izar " ε (epsilon ) Bootis, a stunning orange and blue pair at x100. "Alkalurops " μ (mu) gives afaint faint distant from the primary , making this a lovely triple star. ξ (Xi) gives a yellow and deep orange pair . Stars of Hercules . α. Ras Algethi (alpha Herculis) is a giant red star. It has a diameter of 1.9 AU ( astronomical units : distance from earth to the Sun). It's 475 times brighter than the sun . It's a lovely double star.In a small scope you'll spot a blue green companion to this orange red star. κ kappa. "Marsic" (yellow giant and orange giant )are optical doubles. γ gamma "Eltanin" very faint companion , optical double. δ delta. "Sarin " a wonderful binary with a very delicate companion. ρ rho white and green at x50. 95 Herculis, a golden near identical pair at x50. 100 Herculis , as above , white. caught these for colour and contrast . Both the seeing and transparency were great . Got M102 in Draco , now that’s a forgotten one ! Very pleased to get a streak from town . Then back to Hercules and the “Turtle” planetary nebula. Again another surprise and it blinks well ! Had a shot at M53 , but once again NGC 5053 didn’t show , anyone seen it ?! Sky was very light and a pan through the spring galaxies only got M64 (black eye) and M63 (sunflower). I’ll Sarin a firm favourite , under clear skies ! Nick.
  8. Well here’s the question. In middle England we’ve been subject to clouds . The forecasters give favourable south and dire north . We are caught in the middle . Awaiting a clean cold front for stable air and clear skies . Last year I managed 25 observing sessions as compared to +100 up to 10 years ago . Anyone else caught in a trap ? Nick.
  9. Lovely show , great to see so many pilgrims . As we were driving off … spotted Brian May . Managed to barter down a 5 mm Nagler . Avoided by inches the Vixen 105M. Next on the wish list (lust !) clear skies , Nick
  10. Will be coming with LeeB. I’ll be more than pleased to meet and chat with anyone , Nick
  11. Clear skies ! Gripped , sorted and set up .Lets astronomise ! After two hours I managed to count 48 stars by eye , in the whole sky . The dew became horrendous, everything dripping and steaming up , apart from the 6" optics , dew heated . At 6pm , Jupiter and Venus were bright in the west . The sky views at 9pm were : South : Orion with Sirius and Monoceros to the east . Zenith : Capella , below to the south , Mars over Adebaran with the Pleiades to the west . West : Cassiopeia. Still not too late to catch these summer clusters ! North : Polaris and UMinor ,Kochab at 4 o'clock Polaris time in its anti-clockwise dance around Polaris. UMa was upright on it's tail with just a glimpse of Chara ( Canes Venatici) . East : Leo risen with Gemini high above . A great sky for beginners to find our late winter gems . I kicked off with the comet C/2022 E3. (ZTF) in Taurus , up by Aldebaran. It was both dimmer and smaller than previous views. Still exciting to spot this rare visitor. I gave some multiples and binaries a shot , just to test out seeing . Σ1831 in UMa is a gem . The tiny triple element is a tiny smokeball picked up at x216. The triple Tegmine ( Zeta Cancri) fell wide open with a 1.1" split . As did ΟΣ215 in Leo. 54 Leonis gave a lovely sapphire blue companion , best seen with a bit of aperture closed off . Then sat back and looked at the sky . Just for fun decided to sketch a few Messier's and favourites,to see what anyone could see from the edge of town . Transparency must have been good . Bode's gave a superb view . As did the "Eskimo nebula ", NGC 2392 in Gemini . Here a big of magnification gave the central hot white dwarf causing the halo . M35 gave a dazzling fov again in Gemini. Then M67 in Cancer . Not much to look at under town skies . But , a little digging shows this to be one of the oldest M clusters at 4 billion years . It's so old that it's 1500 light years off the plane of the Milky Way .Most open clusters sitting with the spiral arms. 12 light years across and 2,600 light years away . Sometimes , just looking isn't enough ! I include some simple sketches of what is possible from the edge of the urban jungle , Get out there ! Under Clear skies ! Nick,
  12. Wow , it’s bad out there . Every year we go to north Skye , 30 miles from town . It’s pristine dark sky with the arms of M33 an easy view . When I return , some nights I can’t see more than 8stars instead of about 3000. Here , I’ve heard blackbirds singing at 2am it’s so light . As with so many things nowadays , nobody with the power to change things , cares . Nick
  13. Our local Astro club is holding some outreach events . Last night we had the company of 60 children aged 9-10. Many had never been away from home as they stayed at a local yh and enjoyed the national space centre . I took them in groups to sit and draw a projected view of the moon and Jupiter . As they were drawing , I told them a few bits of interest on what they were looking at . Other members gladly gave up their time and took groups in turn to our obsy and presentation room, Cloudy skies had stopped any chance of a sky tour . It was amazing to see their interest and such questions ! " Why is Jupiter so big ?' " Is that the Great Red Spot ?" " The moon was chipped off the earth ". Certainly made a change from the usual boring carry on of endless youtube presentations and deep science talks , usually when the skies were clear ! So please support outreach , it broadens young minds to a Universe that we can see and respond to . It also helps more senior in years to take stock of what we've learnt and how to pass it on enthusiastically . For knowledge has no purpose if not passed on . It's no earthly use me knowing something interesting and squirrelling it away to be forgotten later . If you can share the views with friends , family and clubs , please do so . Stargazers should be coming out of the cupboard and letting folk know that there are wonderful things up there ! Under clear skies. Nick.
  14. I was looking through some notebooks and came across observations from 10 years ago . These were galaxies observed using a 10” Lightbridge Dob. I remember chasing galaxies as being quite easy starhops using the PSA. I recall the “whale “ and posting a couple of times to “ Tha’ she blows!”. Now , from the same garden at the edge of town I can just about get Bodes. A recent survey has indicated light pollution getting 10% worse each year over the last ten years. It is hardly worthwhile getting out my 8” Newt , except for bright planetary nebulae , planets and comets. A new 600 unit housing development is being completed a mile away. We have a ski centre with lights pointing into the sky, to track ski jumpers ? We have a new golf driving range with lights that point upwards. Presumably to track moon shots. Those who know me , will know that I’m the last to moan or complain (!) , but these skies are bleached and they’ve stolen our galaxies. Led and people lighting up their houses have stolen views that youngsters and oldsters should be free to enjoy . Anyone else notice ? Clear skies ! Nick.
  15. Just spotted it low in Draco , phew it’s a night target ! Saves those crack of dawn sessions ! clear skies ! Nick
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