Two weeks of holiday, and one night at home

[george7378]

Hi again - here are some reports of what I saw on holiday. I noticed that, although we were only just on the outskirts of the built-up areas, the skies were nicely dark, with naked-eye views of the Milky Way in some areas.

The first few nights of 8X30 observing were very pleasing, with M13 showing up as a faint, bloated blob among the stars of Hercules. It's nice to see it in a wider field of view, and it lived up to the previous telescopic views I've had of it. I also saw M31 quite regularly, with this favourute of mine appearing as an elongated smudge quite low on the horizon - I will be looking again with binoculars under darker skies back here in the UK. Mainly, I just laid back in the warmth and looked at the sky framed by the top of the balcony. This also allowed me to do some nice exploring, and I found the 'Coathanger' asterism for the first time (by accident) while exploring the Milky Way. It really does look weird - it's a very improbable alignment, and it's also improbable that all the stars are of similar brightness - it really looks out of place and artificial. I tried a few double stars, but the 8X30s couldn't make a discrenible split on any. It was still worth it, as Albireo is in such a fantastic area with so many stars to see.

I also got some nice views of flashing Perseids, with approx. 3/4 per night making some nice impressions on the evenings. There was one very bright Iridium flare above my head too, and many other satellite passes, including two of similar placement, speed and brightness which made for an interesting experience.

Venus was the predominant planet, with bright, white appearances every night (I usually watched it while out having a meal), and Jupiter was in a great place as it rose above a tree-lined hill (with the Moon in the earlier days). I didn't spot any moons though, probably because of the hazy horizon and low altitude.

As well as the lovely nights, every evening gave some amazing naked eye sunsets because of the haze. The Sun underwent a fantastic transformation into a large orange sphere hanging above the houses, and I even spotted some naked eye sunspots on the disk (see photos below). I have never seen anything like it, and the sunsets were definitely one of the highlights of the astronomy.

I also got some nice filtered views of the Sun, with various sunspots crossing the disk (the Sun is becoming very active now!) through the 8X30s. I watched them move from day to day, and sunbathing while sunwatching is a must-try for astronomers .

So, overall, it was well worth going to see some amazing new things, and the pleasant weather and general absence of intrusive cloud made for great nights every night.

Also, my first night home made me stay up later than I should, as I could see the naked eye Milky Way so clearly that I could pick out the shape of the Cygnus Rift, and I could visually trace the outlines of the blobs and streams of light - wow! You can imagine the stars that went with that, and I spent ages watching Perseids cut into the sky and satellites which I often lost among the vistas of stars. I'm so glad to have a dark sky at home, and I just love being able to have something like that to mull over when the house is quiet - I just feel so much passion when I am laying back looking at such a pure view of the sky. Maybe I had withdrawal symptoms from my scope while on holiday! I was lucky to get a photo of a satellite flare (Rosat, I think):

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-widefield-special-events-comets/110699-iridium-flare.html

Here are some of the photos:

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-widefield-special-events-comets/110676-lyra-turkey.html

[bish]

Nice pics George, especially 2,5,7 and 9. Sounds like some good relaxing observing whilst on holiday.

Seen your pic in Sky at Night - nice one.

[george7378]

Thanks bish - it was great to be outside at midnight in shorts and a T-shirt! The skies were nice too, but they were no where near as good as the view I got on the first night home. Thanks for looking at my picture in the mag too!