Author Archives: FJA

Volcanic sunset

Here in the UK, the big news of the day (discounting the, frankly boring, General Election and the various political parties trying to outdo each other with the various packs of lies and promises they have no intention of keeping) is the huge cloud of volcanic ash that has covered the country, and most of Europe, from Eyjafjallajökull volcano in south west Iceland, which is currently erupting. The eruption has grounded all flights into and out of the UK and most of Europe and this is set to continue into the weekend.
However, with the ash covering the UK, it has provided the potential for decent sunsets. This evening’s sunset was a little redder and darker than usual.

More practically, I sincerely hope the eruption has died down, or the eruptive material is blowing away from us, in three weeks’ time, as I will not be best pleased if my flight to the US is disrupted or cancelled. The trouble is, with nature, you never know

Observing 14th April 2010

Conditions:
Seeing II
Transparency III-IV – pretty ‘milky’ with some light scatter
Still, with no wind., although the slightest of breezes sprang up later.
Instrument: 12 inch f5 Dobsonian, 22mm Televue Panoptic (69x), 15mm Televue Plossl (101x), 8mm Televue Radian (190x), Lumicon OIII filter.
As the skies were really murky, and Virgo was washed out by the murk and a lot of light scatter in that direction, I decided to go to Draco for the Herschel 400 objects (and others) there instead. Things were a little awkward as Ursa Major was upside down and the charts difficult to relate to the sky without turning them upside down.
NGC 5866: Bright, fairly small. Elongated n-s, brightens gradually towards a diffuse centre. Bright star on one end and a slightly dimmer star on western edge. Dust lane? 190x
NGC 5907: Very thin, edge-on galaxy. Not much of a nuclear bulge, if any. Fairly faint, elongated n-s, quite large, stretching across field of view at 101x. 69x, 101x
NGC 5985: Very small and bright. Oval. Bright core, elongated n-s. 190x
NGC 5982: Very large oval galaxy, evenly bright, no brightening to middle. Slightly elongated, not face on. Looks like smudge or thumbprint. Very faint, not much brighter than background sky. 190x.
NGC 6543: Very bright and blue planetary nebula, even without the OIII filter. This was fairly easy to find, although at first I thought it would be too low, as the stars I was using to hop to it weren’t that far above the trees in next door’s garden. The OIII filter really brings it out. Small and round. Slightly fuzzy and definitely non-stellar at 69x.
At 190x it is uniformly bright with the middle being no brighter than the surrounding halo. No darkening anywhere within the nebula. 69x, 190x, OIII filter.
NGC 3147: This took a bit of finding, I had to star hop to it, using galaxies, rather than stars. I began with the easy to find M81/82 and went from there. 
Bright, round, with bright nucleus. 190x.

Because of work the next morning, I packed up at midnight BST. For a short session, it was a pretty good one, and I don’t have to return to Draco for any Herschel 400 objects.

Observing April 11th and 12th 2010

At last! A clear night – or was it? It certainly began promisingly enough with the skies clearing off so I set up just before sunset in the hope that I’d get some observing done.
Unfortunately this state of affairs didn’t last long and after the session began drifting clouds appeared and, as if in a devious conspiracy, they sat right where I aimed my scope. It seemed that when I moved to a different part of the sky they followed!
However, despite this, I managed to see the grand total of three objects on my H400 list.
Conditions:
Chilly +4C
Seeing III, Trans IV – Drifting clouds interfereing with observing, plus some high cirrus stuff
NELM 6.0
Instrument: 12 inch f5 Dobsonian; 22mm Televue Panoptic (69x), 15mm Televue Plossl (101x), 8mm Televue Radian (190x), Lumicon OIII filter
NGC 2392 – planetary nebula in Gemini: Easy to find. At 69x it’s round, fuzzy with bright middle. It’s a greenish-blue colour. OIII brings it out well. At 190x it looks very fuzzy with a very bright centre and a dark area between outer parts and centre. 69x, 190x OIII
NGC 2420 – open cluster in Gemini: Nice, fairly small o.c. Very rich and moderately bright. Irregular shape with c. 30 bright stars on a nebulous background which is many many unresolved stars. The brighter stars are all the same, or similar, brightnesses. 69x, 101x
NGC 5194 and NGC 5195 – galaxies in Canes Venatici: Fantastic. NGC 5194 (aka M51) is a large, face-on spiral. Spiral structure is easily seen and it has a big, bright nucleus.
The companion, NGC 5195, is much smaller. Round with a halo surrounding a bright core. 69x, 101x.

At this point, the clouds were becoming more than just an irritation, they were becoming a damned nuisance, so I packed in. As I came back outside to pick up the scope base, the clouds had filled the sky.

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The following night, 12th April, wasn’t totally clear, so I didn’t even bother carrying the scope out but, instead, decided to bag Melotte 111, the Coma Star Cluster, with my 8×42 binoculars. Mel 111 is on the AL Binocular Deep Sky list, which, apart from four objects in Cepheus and Lacerta, I have just about finished.
Easily seen with the naked eye, this huge open cluster is pretty spectacular in binoculars. It is harp-shaped, with 15 bright stars outlining the shape of the harp. There are many more fainter stars in among the brighter ones. The stars are all blue-white and the brightest ones all the same magnitude. Nice.

Forecasters’ idea of a ‘clear sky’ vs my idea of a clear sky!

Just recently, I have got more than a little annoyed and frustrated with the weather forecasters’ less-than-accurate definition of “clear skies”. To me, as to any other amateur astronomer, a clear sky DOES NOT mean murk, high cloud and other general crap obscuring the view of all but the brightest stars and planets. I am so fed up with reading on the forecasters’ web sites (including the BBC) and hearing and seeing the weather bulletins on TV and radio promising “clear skies” only for it to be haze and murk with only a few bloated, bright stars and planets visible and all but the very brightest star clusters wiped out.
Okay, I understand that Joe and Jane Public don’t give a toss about astronomy and that, as long as shadows are cast during the day and they see the odd star or two or the Moon (when around) at night then, to them, that constitutes “clear” but, can we have a bit more accuracy in the forecasting please? If it’s going to be hazy, tell us. Don’t fib and say it’s going to be clear when there’s actually going to be a load of high thin cloud around.
Yes, we do get contrails from jets passing overhead, but these dissapate quite quickly and the high thin rubbish is not all contrails in any case.
To this end, I have emailed the Mess Met Office. It most likely won’t change anything but it’s always good to let these sort of organisations know that people are taking notice of what they do and say and, if it’s inaccurate, then they should know.
“I am an amateur astronomer and I am increasingly annoyed and frustrated, as are other amateurs, by the forecasters’ definition of “clear skies”. To us “clear skies” do not mean high haze and murk with only a few bright stars visible as this is NOT clear and is totally useless for doing any astronomy.  Can we please have forecasts which more accurately reflect this and not misleading (from an astronomical point of view) ones that do not take into account high thin clouds? Several times recently clear skies have been forecast, only for those so-called “clear skies” to turn out to be murk and high cloud – and on checking the on-line forecast it still says “clear skies” when it obviously isn’t!

I understand that the forecasts are aimed at the general public, a lot of whom consider a bit of hazy sunshine or a few bright, bloated stars and a murky Moon to be “clear” and who have no interest in, or understanding of, astronomy, but amateur astronomers are also members of the public and we’d like more accurate forecasts, please, taking into account haze and high thin clouds. “

It’ll be interesting to see what sort of a reply I get – if, indeed, I get one.

Observing, April 8th 2010

The first clear night in April so far that I was able to observe. While I am a deep sky observer, I do like to look at the planets now and then and it would be a shame to ignore Mercury when it is favourably placed as it is at present. Both Venus and Mercury are low in the western sky just after sunset and, through my birdwatching spotting scope, I saw Mercury as a disk. I also took a couple of – bad – photos with my Canon 40D and 400mm lens, one of which is this one. I labeled it as Mercury doesn’t show up that well (click for larger picture):

By the time I’d finished messing around with planets and finished setting up the scope and gathering all the observing bits and pieces together it was time to observe. Unfortunately it wasn’t as clear as it promised, with a very thin haze which scattered light around, making the naked eye limiting magnitude a very poor 5.8 to 6.0.
Conditions:
Clear, but with a very high thin haze.
Cool: +6C, down to +2C later.
Very slight breeze now and then
Seeing: Ant II; Transparency: III
NELM: 5.8 to 6.0 due to light scatter caused by haze – poor for here.
Instrument: 12 inch f5 Dob, 22mm Televue Panoptic (69x), 15mm Televue Plossl (101x), 11mm Televue Plossl (138x), conditions not good enough for higher magnifications.
I spent most of the session in and around Ursa Major which is rich in galaxies but no so rich that you’re overwhelmed by sheer numbers of the things, which is the case once you get into Virgo and Coma B. All these observations are of galaxies.
NGC 3613 UMa: roundish, fainter than 3619 (which is in same f.o.v at 69x) with a much fainter core. Well defined against the sky.
NGC 3619 UMa: Bright, oval, small. Well defined. Bright core.
NGC 3610 UMa: Small, bright and round. Bright core.
NGC 3556 (M108) UMa: Yep, a Messier, but this has shown up on the H400 list, so here it is – Large, almost edge-on. Can see dust lane. Star superimposed on top of galaxy; it looks like a stellar core, but isn’t.
NGC 3982 UMa: Not quite round. Bright. Bright core surrounded by halo.
NGC 3972 UMa. In same field of view as 3982, but much fainter. Elongated. brightens somewhat towards centre.
NGC 3998 UMa: Much larger than previous two galaxies. Round with some brightening towards centre.
NGC 3992 (M109) UMa: Large, oval and featureless. Uniformly bright with three foreground stars superimposed on it. Quite boring, really.
NGC 3953 UMa: This one is very nice. It is large, elongated north-south and is bright. It also has a large nucleus which is brighter than the surrounding galaxy.
NGC 4026 UMa: Bright, elongated NE-SW. Lovely edge-on spiral with a very bright nuclear bulge.
NGC 3729 and NGC 3718 UMa: These make a nice pair. Both are oval and pretty faint, although easy to find. Both are uniformly bright with no hint of a nucleus. 3729 is the larger one of the two galaxies. Hickson 56 is nearby but the crap hazy conditions made this invisible.
NGC 3631 UMa: Round with bright compact core. Pretty large and pretty bright. Bit of a bugger to find though, due to its location out on its own, just below the Dipper bowl. Hint of spiral structure with averted vision.
NGC 4565 Com: A perennial favourite! This is an edge-on spiral and is spectacular to look at. At 138x it stretches right across the field of view. Very bright with very bright nuclear bulge and a very prominent dust lane which cuts it in two.
NGC 4494 Com: Near 4565 this is another bright galaxy. Round with bright core.
NGC 4448 Com: Located just off the apex of Mel 111 (the Coma Berenices Star Cluster) this is a bright not-quite-edge-on galaxy. Nice bright compact core. Elongated east-west.
NGC 4559 Com: Large spindle-shaped even glow. Well defined against background sky.
NGC 4278 Com: In same f.o.v at 69x as NGC 4283. One is elongated and brightens towards its centre and the other is smaller, brighter, rounder and has a more compact core.
NGC 4274 Com: Bright oval. Almost edge on. Brighter middle.
By this time it was getting late, thanks to that thief of observing time BST. As I had to be up at 6am for work, it was time to pack up and head in.

At the Isle of Wight Star Party back last month, Owen Brazell was selling off a few spare eyepieces, which he’d replaced with Televue Ethoses and I bought a very nice 22mm Panoptic from him, which has now become my main ‘searching’ eyepiece. The barrel is scratched but the e.p. is in otherwise excellent condition and it has replaced the 20mm and 25mm Televue Plossls in my collection – now I have two redundant eyepieces!

Frustrating!

All this afternoon it has been looking good for a clear evening. Until just now when it clouded over – the satellite pic does not look good either, with the system out to the west turning round and dragging crap up from France. How annoying.
Above: Satellite image, from Sat24.com, showing the crud moving up from the south/south-west. There’s a clear spot to the south west, but that, unfortunately, will miss us. The latest view shows it filling in, in any case.

Below: The view from the garden, looking south west, and an upstairs window, also looking south west, aren’t any better.
It might clear off in the early hours but as I have to be at work tomorrow morning, that’s not a lot of good. Hopefully, it’ll be better later in the week. I have only managed five observing sessions since January, so this is all a bit depressing, especially as I want to get among the spring galaxies before the days lengthen so much that observing will become awkward. I think I’d like to emigrate to a clearer climate at a lower latitude. I’m glad winter’s over but I hate the light nights.

British Summer Time

It’s that time of year again, and time for my (and other astronomers’) annual moan about the clocks going forward.
If I could go on BBC2’s Room 101 BST would be the third item in, after light pollution and clouds. It’s stupid, pointless and a waste of time (pun not intended). It’s also a thief of observing time, especially in the late spring and summer, when you can’t get out to observe until late anyway and it’s worse when you have work the next morning.
I don’t like taking this blog away from astronomy but Southampton FC are at Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paints Trophy Final (the proper title is the Football League Trophy, but it is always known by the sponsor’s name). People have accused it of being a ‘mickey mouse’ cup but that’s a load of rubbish. A trophy is a trophy and it’s high time we won one, having won nothing since the 1976 Final when Bobby Stokes’ goal was enough to beat Manchester United. I was only six at the time and do remember it, especially as my late uncle was a big Saints fan. I couldn’t go to the game at Wembley (although I did go to some of the games in the competition) as I am keeping all my disposable income for TSP, but I will be listening to Radio Solent, in a state of extreme nerves, and mentally kicking every ball!
We’ve had finals since, and lost every blooming one of ’em! So…

COME ON YOU SAINTS!!!

Observing, March 15th 2010

Skies were looking good the other evening, so I dragged out the 12 inch for a Herschel session. On setting it up, though, I found the alignment was out, way out in fact, which was annoying and a problem that the new collimation springs I’d bought for it was supposed to prevent. However, I put the problem down to the fact that I’d resorted to transporting the heavy and awkward tube into the garden with a sack trolley which must have knocked the mirror and cell.
Once I’d sorted that out, I left it to cool and went inside to help my aunt with some sorting out of stuff she wanted done (the house is being re-arranged and a massive chuck-out is going on), badly slashing my thumb in the process, while trying to take down a burnt-out light fitting, and having to get it bandaged up – with my aunt on crutches after a foot operation the kitchen looked like A&E – but once this was done, the observing began.
Date 15th March 2010
Time: 2045 – 2300 UT
Conditions: chilly (around 1C), misty, no wind
Seeing: I-II
Transparency: III
NELM: 5.8-6.0 (mist causing light scatter)
Equipment: 12 inch f5 Dobsonian, 22mm Televue Panoptic (69x), 11mm Televue Plossl (138x), 8mm Televue Radian (190x) and OIII filter
First up, into Leo where NGCs 3607 and 3608 made a nice pair in the same field of view of the 22mm Panoptic. Also in the f.o.v. was NGC 3599 which is a lot fainter.
NGC 3607, galaxy in Leo – bright, oval suddenly brightens to a very bright nucleus. 69x, 138x.
NGC 3608, galaxy in Leo – slightly fainter than 3607. Also oval with slightly brighter centre. 69x, 138x.

NGC 3955, galaxy in Leo – considerably fainter than the other two, oval. Non-Herschel.  69x, 138x.
NGC 3626, galaxy in Leo – smaller than 3607/8, fainter, elongated north-south. Brightens towards centre to a bright nucleus. 69x, 138x.
NGC 3655, galaxy in Leo – elongated north-south. Brightens gradually to non-stellar core. Fairly bright, small, oval. Well defined against background sky. 69x, 138x
NGC 2903, galaxy in Leo – very bright and easy to find. Elongated north-south, oval. Slight hint of spiral structure. Brightens to very bright, almost stellar, nucleus. Nice! One I want to return to on a better night. 69x, 138x.
NGC 3344, galaxy in Leo Minor – round, almost even glow, brightening slightly towards middle. Two bright foreground stars are in the eastern half of the galaxy. 69x. 138x.
NGC 2859, galaxy in Leo Minor – small, round, with quite faint outer halo. Brightens considerably to very bright core. 69x, 138x.
NGC 2782, galaxy in Lynx – round. Not bright. Brightens gradually towards a compact core. 69x, 138x.
NGC 2371/2, planetary nebulae in Gemini – at 69x looks elongated with a distinctly ‘figure of 8’ look about it, or looking like a peanut. At medium power (138x) the two lobes are very obvious and one lobe (the western one) is much brighter than it’s neighbour. At higher power (190x – highest I could go to on such a crummy night and with my collimation a bit out) the appearance is of two ovals adjacent to each other, each elongated approx. north-south. 69x, 138x, 190x + OIII filter.
NGC 2419, globular cluster in Lynx – round, even glow with no condensation. Nicely marked out by three bright stars in an arc pointing straight at it. Moderately bright, well defined against background sky. No stars resolved. although with averted vision some granulation (hinting at stars) appears.  69x, 138x, 190x.

Reluctantly packed up at 2300 UT; I would have gone on for a lot longer, only I had to be up at 0600 for work the following morning. It was a good session, better than I expected, despite the crummy conditions and my poor throbbing, massacred, thumb. I have now crept up to 11% of Herschels observed in the initial 400 list.

Aperture fever strikes!

Having caught a dose of aperture fever just recently – starting with a mild attack a couple of weeks ago and steadily getting worse with a couple of sessions on Owen Brazell’s 20-inch Dob at IWSP last weekend – I have decided to get myself a large Dob. I am looking to get something in the range of 18 to 20 inches (preferably 20 inches), probably a David Lukehurst 20 inch. I am also looking at the Obsession scopes, but they have to be imported from the US, are more expensive and, quite apart from the shipping costs, I don’t see why I should pay HM Revenue and Customs (who already take £70 a week in taxes off me) over £500 for the privilege of importing the thing. I was also thinking about a 16 inch Meade Lightbridge, but by the time I’ve saved for one, currently priced at £1839.12, I’d be halfway to affording a David Lukehurst 20 inch and I want something larger anyway – and besides, I think that a custom-built scope is a much higher quality product than a mass-produced item (good though LBs are). 
However, whatever I go for, I am going to have to save and, as I have calculated it and if the temp jobs keep steadily coming, I should be able to save the money for a 20 inch within 7 to 12 months. I hope David is still making them by the time I can afford one if it takes me longer than that!
But, in the meantime, I have TSP to save for (the flight’s paid, but there’s the accommodation and spending money to save for – and it will definitely make the aperture fever worse!) and also my car’s MOT test in June will also set me back a fair amount as I know I need a new exhaust, brake linings and shock absorbers (although I might sell the car, and get an older, bigger, one for not much money as I am not sure my car, a little Citroën C3, is big enough to carry a 20 inch scope – and money left over will help pay for the new scope). However, after that, I can start to save and, all being well, I will be able to get a new scope by the end of the year.

IWSP – observing

Here on the Isle of Wight we are fortunate in that we have a southerly aspect with unobstructed and un-lightpolluted views out over the English Channel, from the island’s south coast where the star party is held. The only source of light pollution are passing ships and the light houses at St Catherines Point and Portland Bill (unlike the north east part of the island which is as light polluted as anywhere on the UK mainland).
This year’s IW Star Party had a mix of cloud and clear spells, on the nights I was there, Friday and Saturday. Friday night was clear for an hour, then the weather closed in again and it rained for the rest of the night. Saturday was a lot better, giving us a good couple of hours and what I hear about Sunday was that it was clear for the most part, but I had to miss it because of having to be at work on Monday morning.
I was fortunate enough to share Owen Brazell’s 20 inch Obsession, as well as take peeks though other people’s scopes including a rather nice Orion Optics UK 14 inch Dob (which has a same length, but lighter, tube than my 12″), here are the observations all made with the 20 inch. These aren’t in order, as I was scribbling the notes down on Post-it notes, a pad of which happened to be in my pocket – unlike a notebook – and they got mixed up.

Date: 13th March 2010
Conditions: chilly, cold breeze, some high cloud. No Moon.
NELM: 6.3
Seeing: Ant I-II
Instrument: 20 inch f5 Obsession Dobsonian, 21mm Televue Ethos, 13mm Televue Ethos, 8mm Televue Ethos and OIII filter.
M42 in Orion: I’ve seen this in every instrument I have looked through but this was the best view I have ever had. So much detail, wisps, tendrils, dark areas…and the Trapezium was as detailed as ever I’ve seen it. You could clearly see the hole, caused by the young stars blowing the gas away from their surroundings. The E and F components were easily seen, as were much fainter stars in the nebulosity immediately surrounding the Trapezium.
Jonckheere 900, planetary nebula in Gemini: Small, round and fuzzy. Quite bright. 318x + OIII
Jonckheere 320, planetary nebula in Orion: I have tried for this with my 12 inch from home without success. In the 20 inch it is small, not quite stellar, round and has a fuzzy appearance, this fuzziness preventing it appearing stellar. 318x + OIII
B33/IC 434 (Horsehead Nebula) in Orion: At last! I have made numerous attempts to see this, with no success. However, I suggested to Owen that we have a crack at this, so he put the 13mm Ethos and a HBeta filter in and we saw it comparatively easily. B33 (the Horsehead) stood out against IC434, as a large, dark, semicircular area cutting into the ribbon of IC434. With averted vision, we could just make out the horse’s nose. For me, this was the observation – and the highlight – of the weekend. 120x
Abell 21 (aka Medusa Nebula) planetary nebula in Gemini: Eastern side is the brighter and is crescent shaped, in fact almost triangular. There is also some nebulosity on the western side. (Magnification unknown) + OIII
NGC 2022, planetary nebula in Orion: Oval, bright and slightly darker in middle. 318x + OIII.
NGC 2683, galaxy in Lynx: Large, bright edge-on spiral. Brightens beautifully towards centre.
NGC 2371-2, planetary nebula in Gemini. This is a very interesting planetary, consisting of two lobes, the western lobe being the brighter of the two. It does look like its nickname of the ‘peanut’ nebula, especially at low power. 318x + OIII
NGC 3242, (nickname Ghost of Jupiter) planetary nebula in Hydra: Very bright, oval with brighter middle. 318x + OIII
The clouds rolled in again just after midnight, so after a talk, I headed back to my tent (although I ended up abandoning it due to the cold!). It was a short, but good, session and the undoubted highlight was seeing the Horsehead Nebula for the first time as well as M42 in such incredible detail.