Hawksmoor

No stars tonight in Lowestoft. So off to bed.

Nighty night space cadets.

Another clear night until  23.00 when according to Lowestoft BBC Weather "The Fog" will come rolling in off the sea by 'Spivey Point'.

Well I think I captured an image on the 20th Jan 2017 of the asteroid Vesta with my Canon DSLR at  f=45mm mounted on my Star Adventurer, but it is one small dot amongst many!  I will collect a few more images towards the end of the month to see if it has moved against the fixed starry background.

Anyway it didn't rain so I caught some photons arriving from the general direction of Gemini.  High level cloud kept coming and going and as I was feeling tired and old I didn't await the street lights being extinguished at midnight - so I captured plenty of atmospheric sodium into the bargain. Must save up for a light pollution clip filter for the Canon.

Did take some nicely composed widefield frames of the Hyades and Pleiades. Finished the evening in the backyard by snapping some shots of everyone's best mate Orion.

Now nicely warm tucked up in bed. Back to decorating tomorrow. Hopefully will get to stack and play about with tonight's images tomorrow night.

 Nighty8 night Stargazers.

Well the BBC Weather forecast for Lowestoft tonight is set faiir and at the moment I can see stars through light cloud.  I've set up my DSLR on my Star Adventurer and after I've had a bit of tea I'm going for imaging the asteroid Vesta which is currently tracking through Gemini.  I have never knowingly imaged an asteroid so thought I would go for it.  If I get some wide-field  frames of the constellation tonight and a few more towards the end of the month I can hunt for the star-like/asteroid that has moved.

Spent a happy fifty minutes in our backyard before the clouds rolled in. Used my 66mm Altair Lightwave refractor on a camera tripod. When it cools down its a great little scope. When you spend most of your time messing about with your kit to obtain an alright image you can easily miss the beauty of the night sky which straight through the lens observing delivers.  I enjoyed some wonderful widefield views of Auriga's open clusters, the Hyades, Perseus, the Andromeda Galaxy, Orion's Dagger and best of alll the Pleiades.  I reckon I could clearly see nebulosity around several of the larger stars in the Seven Sisters group.  Not too shabby for a small scope with some light pollution and all done and dusted inside an hour.

Snowed here today. Too cold for astronomising - if you are a wuss!  So I've had a lot of warm bread, molten cheese and the best part of a bottle of Chardonnay for dinner. Now sitting happily twixt sleep, a bar of chocolate and TV.

Well the BBC Weather site turn out to be correct after all.  After a day of wall to wall cloud, rain, rain and a bit more rain, it cleared up and I saw stars the moon and astro stuff like that. Tried out spectrometer Mark 2 with mixed failure. Far too many reflections off chromed tubing so today has incluided corrective 'flocking'.

Anyway to cheer myself up I took a quick video of the terminator on a waxing gibbous moon. Quite pleased with the result, bearing in mind the Altair Lightwave Doublet refractor has only 66mm of aperture!

Widefield gives a nice overview, without 'stitching ', of Copernicus, Kepler, Aristarchus and Gassendi.

Weather wise today we have had a tiny bit of snow, some rain and sunshine.  Plus, one of the most striking rainbows I can recall in Lowestoft.  At least a double bow and at best and momentarily a triple bow. Physics can be breathtakingly beautiful!

Nearest I've been to 'imaging' for some time. Balancing my little Canon compact camera on top of my barbecue and getting a shakey mov. video clip - converted to avi and then Registaxed and manipulated to remove any direct relationship with reality.  I give you my technicolor version of last night's Moon Venus conjunction, which was a very pretty thing to witness!

Eaten too much!

Lovely starry night in Lowestoft tonight!

Ho. Ho, Ho !

When I went for a walk this evening I actually saw some stars!  It had clouded over by midnight but I did get to gaze upon my mate Orion and all the other mid winter culprits.  As I walked home I was able to watch Cygnus sinking into the horizon with Vega just keeping its head above the trees.  

Let's hope we've all been  good girls and boys and Santa brings us clear skies in 2017.

Nighty night Stargazers where ever you are.

Horrid, damp and cloudy night in Lowestoft. Only improved by a glimpse of the ISS passing overhead and by watching the Martin Scorsese Bob Dylan film biographies on BBC Four. Got a new preowned/loved acoustic guitar from my eldest son on my birthday. Have put on a set of new extra light weight strings and have lowered the action. Tomorrow, in our living room and to an audience of one, I will perform  'A hard rain' with nostalgia and uncomfortable contemporary relevance.

I have retired to my bed and await the arrival of Morpheus or Aurora, whichever comes first.

Nighty night everyone.

Fireball-meteor: 02-12-2016 between 20:30 and 21:00 GMT. Over Darsham, Suffolk travelling west to east seen from the A12.  Went by car to pick up grandchildren from Southend on the way back both my wife and I saw a very bright ball of a meteor pass over the road infront of our car. No noticeable colour. Quite spectacular, quite slow moving and curved down towards the ground at the end of its trajectory before we lost sight of it. Did anyone else see this?

Visited the Berlin Zeiss Planetarium on Sunday. Recent renovation and new projection kit when coupled with a 25 metre diameter dome provides a stunning visual experience. Just as well as my understanding of the German language is zero and the presentation was in German without translation. Would recommend this 8 Euro ticket for a fifty minute show as serious value for money particularly if you are fluent in German. Nice health food cafe almost opposite that does great coffee and a proper cheesecake. Nice! 

Today I stood in front of and looked at the fossil bird Archaeoptetyx from the Solhofen Jurassic lithographic limestone.  A lot like the first time I looked at Saturn through the eyepiece. Jaw dropping stuff!

Cheered myself up by designing a permanent pier and removable cover.  My partner seems to have given it the tick in the box. Probably will start the build in the spring.

Wall to wall cloud last night in less than sunny Lowestoft, so no chance of imaging the NEO whizzing past Polaris.......... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Spent some time today in the shed  - nice ! -  getting on with Spectrometer Mark2,  Going to have a coffee then back in 'Shedland' to do a bit of non cloud dependant, oil painting.  Having said that, its a landscape and guess what are in the sky- Ironic or what?

Winters arrived. Frost predicted for tonight and Orion and Gemini visible over my backyard fence before 23:00. A bit of cloud about so didn't get the telescope out. Content with 30 mins with my bins.Quick look at Orion' s Sword, M35 in Gemini, the Double Cluster almost straight up, the Andromeda  Galaxy riding high in the sky, M36 and M38 in Auriga the Pleiades and the Hyades in Taurus. Might try a bit of astro photography tomorrow night if the clouds take a night off!

Nighty night stargazers.

Nice bright aurora over Lerwick. Cliff cam One on Shetland.org worth a look at the moment.

Went out to the dustbin, looked up and watched the ISS pass overhead. An unexpected treat on a cold and then rainy night.

If you are a fossil collector, one day you realise that once you know what you're looking for, that is how big they are - what colour they are - how shiny they are, you find lots more of them. Tonight I had a similar Eureka moment with the veil nebula. I've never been able to see it through my 11x80 binoculars before tonight.

Having photographed the eastern veil for the first time a few nights ago, l had a feel for how big and how feint it was in the sky. So tonight when I turned my big bins towards Cygnus, there it was feint but with averted vision clear as day, a broken ring of nebulosity in the sky.

I finished an hour's viewing catching glimpses between fast moving clouds of: the Ms in Auriga and Cassiopeia, the Andromeda Galaxy group, the Double Cluster, the Pleiades, Aldebaran and friends and what I took to be Neptune.

Astronomy rocks!

Heads up. Friends in the Shetlands have indicated that the aurora is visible and getting stronger. Have just seen on Shetland.org webcam - Cliffcam 1.