Hawksmoor

Another lovely autumnal night here on the east coast. Took a few snaps of the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus with a tripod mounted DSLR. Quick spin around the sky with my binoculars and so to bed.

Reckon I could see Comet W2 ARICANO with my big bins close to Gamma Persei but could be my old chum ' wishful thinking' kicking in.

Night all

Stood in my backyard in Lowestoft and showed the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy to my granddaughter Maisy. Then did a trip around the night sky pointing out the constellations and asterisms. She was really pleased and interested. Living on a main road near the seafront in Southend with so much light pollution has meant that much of the night sky has been lost to her. Realised how lucky I was to live in relatively dark Suffolk.

Beautiful night sky over Lowestoft tonight. Spent 45 minutes with my big bins in the backyard looking for comet 2018 W2 (AFRICANO) in and around Camelopardalis. Think I spotted it with averted vision above and to the right of Kemble's Cascade (towards the Double Cluster). If so very faint but quite large (in my 11x80 bins bigger than M13). Does this sound about right or is this the wishful thinking  of a stargazer who has been too long without a comet to observe?

George now in bed in Lowestoft.

Heavy dew, that's what could and did go wrong!

I need to build a couple of 'dew zappers' for my 18-55mm EFS camera lenses. Where did I put that bag of resistors?

Th rain has stopped, the gale force winds have abated and the Moon has dropped below my neighbour's roof, so I have put out my meteor rig to see if I can catch some. What can possibly go wrong?

Even though the sky is full of clouds, I'm In an excellent mood:

• The second hand 18-55mm efs  camera lens which I ordered  on-line has been delivered and works fine (completing my home made dual camera meteor imaging rig set up).  Tremendous value at less than -£40 including delivery.
• I completed the conversion of my garden barbecue into a wood fired bread oven, and it works. Tasty bread with a proper crust.
• Today, my garden was full of butterflies and they were beautiful.

Now I'm off to sleep, night all.

Watched the ISS go over my backyard tonight. It almost occulted Vega. Never tire of watching it free falling it's way silently across my patch of sky.

Night night stargazers.

Lovely hot day here in Lowestoft. Sea like a mill pond. Spent an hour swimming and the caught some rays and doughnuts on the beach!  Clear night, so tried out my home made meteor catcher rig. Seemed to work ok and managed to capture a couple of meteors (sporadic or Capricornids) -- not sure which.

So many bright satellites in the sky nowadays it's hard to take a widefield photograph without acquiring an image of one. Was using two cameras and two intervaluometers so not outside when the ISS went over but got several images with a very thick bright white line. Guess that was it!

Now happily in my sleeping chariot awaiting the onset of Zeds.

Night all.

Just poked my head outside and its raining. Looks like February which this year looked strangely like July. Weird!

Night all.

First nice night in quite a while. Spent some time in my backyard with bins. Nice to see the Summer Triangle. Saturn and Jupiter so low and just visible over neighbour's roof. Noticed a very bright satellite travelling more or less north to south and a little to the east of directly overhead. Not noticed that one before. The sky is becoming very busy.

Nighty night all

Have now published my speculations regarding the 2016 Perseid Shower after 'graphing the life out' of my sdr radio meteor reflection data. This is what happens when you let an old artist loose in a shed with wires and concepts he barely understands.

Probably a lot of 'balderdash' but I enjoyed playing with the data whilst it was raining outside. If you are interested please follow the link to my LVST (Lowestoft Very Small Telescope) site .

LVST Perseids 04 Aug to 16 Aug  2016

Please excuse my references to Jodrell Plank Observatory staff - I get a bit silly when I'm bored and make things up!  Comet the Observatory Cat exists but she or he does not belong to us or to Mr Schrodinger, who does not actually live next door.😉

Unless God or the police move me on, I hope to do similar stuff on a comparative basis with 2017, 2018 and 2019 data (and  also for different meteor showers). ~On the other hand I might just get out more!

I attach my favourite data plot for those that like graphs!

Just about finished analysing my first batch of data from The LVST  sdr meteor catcher. Have been looking in detail at the Perseid Shower 2016. Now I know this is not cutting edge and that 3 years is a bit of a delay between receipt of signals and doing something with the data but I am a bit old and defocussed since giving up regular employment. Anyway I'm quite pleased with myself even if I've got the math wrong and jumped to the wrong conclusions in interpreting the data.  I will be publishing my findings on my LVST (Lowestoft Very Small Telscope) Google Site tomorrow. (subject to distractions too numerous to mention)

George drowning in numbers in Lowestoft.

Nice night with a few wisps of cloud. Full moon with Jupiter in close proximity - quite beautiful.

Just admired the view for 30 minutes before reaching for a camera. 

Then as I tried to accommodate the huge dynamic range of luminance between the two objects, I wondered at the complexity of the human eye and brain combination that can accomplish the feat with consumate ease.  Improvement by Darwinian selection may be wasteful,  brutal and incredibly slow but it sure delivers on performance.

I will post an image tomorrow.

Nighty night stargazers

Well knock me over with a tripod I can actually see the Moon and Jupiter through and between the clouds. A few stars as well! Took some widefield DSLR snaps as it looked quite pretty. Jupiter is too low for me this year. Too many roofs on the way!

Discovered my Funcube Dongle on the LVST had thrown a wobbly so had to reboot. Now working ok but sadly have lost a lot of data since the beginning of the year. On a more positive note I have been trying to develop a methodology for analysing data using Excel and INZite software (a relatively painless interface with R). Have been using Perseid data from 2016. Will stick a few graphs on once I've finished playing with the data. So don't laugh at an old bloke trying to do science-lite.

George by moonlight in Lowestoft

First full on summer's day here in Lowestoft. We went for a walk across the marsh. Lots of butterflies - Orange tip, peacock and one variety we didn't recognise. Walked through a full on swarm of bees. Heard them first and then suddenly they were all around us. Saw a snipe, a marsh harrier, swifts, marsh tits and a white egret. Surprised a roe deer by the railway track or did it surprise us? Great day in warm sunshine.

Nighty night stargazers

George tired but not stung in Lowestoft.

Clear sky over Lowestoft tonight. Hercules almost directly overhead and Vega higher in the east. Nice crescent moon setting in the North-West. 

Night all.

Excellent data outcome. Having grasped the basics of INZight data analysis software, thanks to OU free course and Department of Statistics Auckland University, I managed to load Spectrum Lab event logs for August 2016 and started compiling relationship graphs relating to various aspects of radar reflections from Perseid meteors. Next step : to filter out data outliers, but I probably need to finish the course first and attain the required skill set!  At least I can do something with the data stream generated by the LVST (The Lowestoft Very Small Telescope).

Now retiring to the slumber pit. Last night I fell out of bed only to be  rudely awakened at 3am as I collided with the Cyril Lord. 

Nighty night stargazers from George in Lowestoft.

Completed the free OU 'Moons' short course. Very much enjoyed it! Thanks to the SGL member who gave the 'heads up on this'. Have now embarked on a free Data Analysis course - Auckland University via OU. Thought this might help me make sense of the copious amounts of data being produced by the LVST meteor detection software defined radio.

Another clear night here on the coast but windy and the Moon is becoming gibbous and quite bright.

Night night stargazers.

Last night I put out the 127mm refractor to image M 87 at approx f=750 mm. Very cold, a tad windy , lots of low-level cloud and too much moonlight but otherwise just what the old amateur astronomer dreams of! At least I managed to get a snap. Used my homemade Batinov mask for the first time - worked effectively so well pleased. 

George now in bed - Nighty night all.

Nice night here in Lowestoft. Been out with my big bins. Regulus a very nice multiple star system worth a look through binoculars. Lots of galaxies in Leo, Virgo and Coma Berenices. All just visible with averted vision through my handheld bins as small interesting fuzzies. Nice to see Vega visible and rising in the east just above my neighbour's hedge. Summer is on the way troops!

Night night stargazers everywhere.

After an extended period of being 'uncle dick', during which I totally forgot that I had registered my interest in taking part , I finally got around to starting the OU-Moons free distance learning package that had been lurking in my Yahoo inbox.  Had an enjoyable day catching up the first week of studies. Week two - tomorrow, if all goes to plan.  Here in Lowestoft it looks set cloudy for awhile.?

Earlier this evening I watched a large moon rise over the end of our street. Just a bit of cloud about to add some perspective and reflect some of the deep warm yellow moonlight. A real pretty thing to see.

More cloud now so off to bed after a day spent on new woodcut print.

Nighty night stargazers.

After a grey and cloudy day the sky cleared for a quick look at the Moon. The crater Aristarchus was well clear of the terminator and shining brilliant white against the darker mare lava.

Nighty night stargazers

George the old man by the sea.

A pretty thing:

Turned my bins towards the terminator on the waxing gibbous Moon tonight and watched sunlight kiss the peaks of the Jura Mountains behind the Bay of Rainbows still cloaked in the darkness of lunar night. 

Craters Tycho and Copernicus were very bright and clearly defined. The rays of projects from Tycho were very obvious. The dark lava of Plato stood out as a tiny oval against the lighter uplands.

Nighty night stargazers.

George in bed in Lowestoft

Went for a walk in Norfolk today and came face to face with a hare. Completely mad of course and it isn't even March!

Night all.

George in Lowestoft