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Hawksmoor

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  1. Funny sort of day in Lowestoft. Had sunshine and rain and thought there was little chance of stargazing. Anyway, coming to bed just after the the street lights go out, I always out of habit check out the sky over the old backyard and low and behold tonight there were stars:hello2:

    So I grab my big bins and managed 15 minutes before the clouds started forming. What a great 15 minutes too. Sky was proper dark :happy6:The milky way was visible from horizon to horizon. I managed to see The Veil and M27, not always a given through bins from my backyard and I think the globular M58 (if so a first for me with bins). Best of all ,just before cloud o' clock , an absolutely splendid slow moving white and very bright meteor travelling  from east to west and from my perspective at the same Dec as Altair.  I'm now in bed happy and ready for sleep.

    Astronomy is great even in small discrete parcels, much like photons in fact.:happy7:

    Nighty-night stargazers where ever you are.

    George under starry skies tonight in Suffolk.

  2. The Observatory is looking good Jim! Nice kit too!

    George

  3. Been busy during the day with DIY and the evening cloud cover has been a bit patchy, so have not had the scopes out - but instead I have used my bins when the sky has cleared. Thought the sky at dusk  on the 15th June looked like there was a possibility of Noctiluscent Clouds - so I set up my DSLR on a photo tripod and waited. Sadly no high level blue clouds appeared so I took a few random photos of the sky. As it turns out I captured one of the brightest satellite flares I've ever seen.  It was moving across the sky from South to North.

     

    Flare_2 copy.png

  4. Lowestoft Pier Construction (aka George's Column): First concrete pour accomplished and all covered up prior to the arrival of rain. Hopefully,tomorrow will be fine and I will be able to complete the concrete work with the second pour. Gave the steel levelling plate a coat of Hammerite - literally watching paint dry. Too jiggered to do more work on Spectrometer 3 Project - having a sit down before dinner.

    George 'tired but happy' in an overcast and rainy Lowestoft

  5. According to th BBC weather site, the weather last night in Lowestoft should have been good to midnight. It started well so out came my mini imaging rig and off I go with some video clips of the Moon. Waxing fibrous so I thought I would go for a mosaic composite using my 90mm ETX at about F13.8.  All was going well until the clouds rolled in. They began to clear and high level ice crystals took over. Nice 40 degree ring around the Moon but as for the video clips, there on in - blurry.  Astronomy must be one of the coldest and most frustrating of all hobbies. I'm just too obstinate to give up. :happy7:

  6. The crescent Moon with earthshine and bright Venus were so pretty last night!  Even the intermittent fine hazy cloud added rather than detracted from the beauty of the scene.  No need for any kit, two eyes were quite sufficient to take in the simple grandeur of this wide visual solar system pairing.

  7. Purchased some mild steel reinforcement bar today for my concrete astro pier. Getting quite excited. Over my professional lifetime I have designed quite a lot of rc columns etc but his is the first one I will have built myself. If it turns out well I might name it George's Column, if it turns out badly I might have to hire a Jack hammer. My good natured partner is beginning to give me funny looks as I squirrel the pillar construction materials away in my shed. She has agreed the pier's location but I'm not convinced she is fully aware of its size relative to the rather minimal dimensions of our backyard. :happy7:

    Sleepless in Suffolk

  8. Today  Suffolk County Council swapped an all new LED lamp for the old high pressure sodium lamp outside our house. Looks very bright but luckily our house is in between the lamp and our backyard from which I stargaze. Let's hope in my lifetime, the Council continues to turn the street lights off at midnight.  I will let you know how I and the new lamp get on!

    George from Lumenstoft.

    1. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      Hooray it's just gone off!:hello2::hello2::hello2:

      So I'm off to bed.

      George

    2. (See 10 other replies to this status update)

  9. Today  Suffolk County Council swapped an all new LED lamp for the old high pressure sodium lamp outside our house. Looks very bright but luckily our house is in between the lamp and our backyard from which I stargaze. Let's hope in my lifetime, the Council continues to turn the street lights off at midnight.  I will let you know how I and the new lamp get on!

    George from Lumenstoft.

    1. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      Yes Jim,  I'm a bit worried  as they have left a lot of sodiums all around me but changed the one outside my house to LEDs.  As LED lamps are cheaper to run I'm hoping they dont leave mine on over night whilst turning out the rest. It did go out at midnight last night but you never know what they have planned.  I dont think it would affect my astrophotography much but it would stop my wife from getting a good nights sleep. The  lamp is virtually in line with our bedroom window.  She  is a very poor sleeper anyway and  is very light sensitive.  Keeping my fingers crossed that after midnight it will remain astronomically dark in our bit of  Oulton Broad.

      George

    2. (See 10 other replies to this status update)

  10. Today  Suffolk County Council swapped an all new LED lamp for the old high pressure sodium lamp outside our house. Looks very bright but luckily our house is in between the lamp and our backyard from which I stargaze. Let's hope in my lifetime, the Council continues to turn the street lights off at midnight.  I will let you know how I and the new lamp get on!

    George from Lumenstoft.

    1. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      I'm afraid Suffolk leave the lights on all night on major roads. We are fortunate that they only leave a couple on overnight on our estate distributor road and neither are near enough to us to cause much trouble. Hope things improve for you and don't deteriorate for us. :icon_biggrin:

      George

    2. (See 10 other replies to this status update)

  11. 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.

     

    VESTA20012017enlargeanno.png

  12. 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.

     

    VESTA20012017enlargeanno.png

    1. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      No Jim I think you are right, that is what I thought was Vesta on your image and I think that is one and the same as I indicated on my widefield image. I was going to take some frames tonight to check for movement, Vesta should be the other side of the pair of bright stars by now, but BBC Lowestoft Weather says fog for us tonight but better by Thursday.

      George

    2. (See 7 other replies to this status update)

  13. 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.

     

    VESTA20012017enlargeanno.png

    1. Hawksmoor

      Hawksmoor

      Yes that seems to work depending upon the comparative scales and orientation of the two images. Your Vesta appears just above and to the right of a pair of stars and mine below and to the left of a pair of stars. Relative mag seems about right too. On the other hand I could be lost in space. :happy8:

      Night George.

    2. (See 7 other replies to this status update)

  14. 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.:happy7:

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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!

    Double Bow.png

  19. Lovely starry night in Lowestoft tonight!

  20. 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! :icon_biggrin:

  21. Moon tonight looked beautiful through my 11x80mm. binoculars!

  22. Last night was a beautiful night in Lowestoft. I didn't crack out any of my imaging rigs as some of my children and grandchildren are staying with us this weekend. Did however, watch the ISS sail across the sky in its own majestic way. It always cheers me up. However much the news is full of grim stuff about our species, it remains such an inpiring symbol of what Homo Sapiens can achieve when we cooperate,  collaborate and celebrate our intelligence rather than our prejudices.

    After midnight, I also 'snuck in' an hour observing with the naked eye and my big Bins. The Milky Way was truly magnificent stretching from almost horizon to horizon.  I also believe that with averted vision I could just make out the misty patch that is the Andromeda Galaxy. If I did, its the first time with the naked eye from our backyard. The sky was pretty transparent as I could see quite a lot of stars within the square of Pegasus.

    I finished the night in my shed monitoring my laptop screen as my homemade SDR radar meteor set up captured some pretty hefty pings. I know interpreting this information is quite difficult, but I presume the duration of a ping is in some way proportional to a meteor's momentum and that if meteors from a shower share a common velocity, then these meteors had a greater mass than many of the others my set up has recorded over the past two days.

  23. Spent an hour messing about with the perspective of of one of my images of the Moon to try and give an astronauts's view towards the Lunar South Pole  from over the crater Moretus. Clearly I have too much time on my hands.

    Moon South Pole distort.png

  24. Batteries charged, mount polar aligned,white light solar filters made and fitted and laptop clock synchronised with atomic clock. Come on Mercury!  I'm up for it and prepared.

     

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