Category Archives: Weather

Clear nights 2011

As 2011 is now done and dusted I went back through the Excel spreadsheet I have been compiling of clear nights and cloudy ones in my area of the UK (central South Coast of England) and, because I now have two years’ worth of data I could compare 2010 and 2011. I have separated the partly clear nights from the completely clear ones but ‘partly cloudy’ does not mean sucker holes, it means that the sky is at least 50% clear and observing is still possible. Sucker holes mean the scope stays tucked up in the shed and I remain watching tv or surfing the net, unless there is a comet or another event.

The winter of 2010/2011 was exceptionally cloudy and, according to reports, the UK received only 40% of the sunlight it should have during that winter. October 2010 had 10 completely clear nights and 2 partly cloudy ones, November only 2 clear nights and 2 partly clear ones and December 4 clear nights and 1 partly cloudy one. January 2011 had 3 clear nights and 1 partly clear, February was exactly the same and it wasn’t until March that the skies cleared substantially.

The current winter, 2011/12 is slightly better so far; except October 2011 which was worse than October 2010, with 7 clear nights and 1 partly clear one, while November had 1 clear night and 7 partly clear ones and December had 6 clear nights and 2 partly clear ones.

2010 in total had 116 completely clear nights (32% of nights) and 54 partly clear (15%) ones – a total of 170 usable nights (47%)

2011 had 104 clear nights (28%) and 52 partly clear (14%) ones – a total 156 observationally usable nights (43%).

2011 was, as suspected, a cloudier year than 2010 was. However, I’ll carry on doing this over the years and see whether the years get worse, improve or – as most likely – they vary.

We do get more clear nights than we think but I wish it were possible to use all of them…!

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2012 means I’ve been involved in astronomy for 20 years. I got into the hobby seriously in 1992, when I left the Royal Navy, and began deep sky observing in 1993 and, if you’re interested, I wrote about it here. I was 22 and knew nothing. I still don’t…!

It’s been all positive and the best thing I ever done was get into this hobby – actually, no, more ‘way of life’ than hobby. Apart from the wonders of the universe, the fabulous people I have met make me regret absolutely nothing about joining the ranks of amateur astronomers. Ok, I do have one regret and that’s why did I not get into this sooner?! Yes, I live in a country with a questionable climate but I still get enough observing in to keep me (reasonably) happy, augmented with trips to sunnier climes and star parties. I am going to celebrate 20 years of the best of hobbies with a trip to the 2012 Texas Star Party (my 4th TSP – please, no volcanoes or other hassles to disrupt flights!) and I have my 18 inch Dob which I am hoping to make serious inroads into the Herschel 2500 and galaxy groups and clusters with over the coming years.

So far (copied and pasted from Astronomy and Me pt 2 on here) – “…on going back through the old notebooks and sketchbooks (unfortunately I have two or three missing) I find I have visually observed best part of a thousand NGC/IC objects and non-NGC/IC objects such as anonymous galaxies and galaxy clusters. On top of that, there’s all the planets (including ex-planet Pluto), double and multiple stars, the Moon(!), asteroids, a comet crashing into Jupiter, comets, lunar eclipses, partial solar eclipses with one cloud obstructed total in 1999, a transit of Venus, the Sun, occultations, meteor showers, noctilucent clouds, Mir, the ISS, the Space Shuttle and other satellites…but, sadly, no UFOs! All these with equipment ranging from my unaided eyes to a 48 inch dobsonian.”

Here’s to the next 20 years and more…Happy New Year everyone!

Observing, 24th September 2011

 

The clouds magically cleared earlier in the evening and the sky was predicted to remain clear until around 2200, so I wheeled the Big One out and set it up for its second look at the sky.

The sky wasn’t the best last night, both the seeing and the transparency were poor as fog arrived in the middle of the session and the humidity was 80%. I know that McDonald Observatory close their domes when the humidity gets to something like 7% there, as does my friend Jimi Lowrey with his 48inch, but their West Texas skies are mostly clear, unlike over here in the UK where we have to take what we can get. As the summer was cool and damp, the ground hasn’t had a chance to dry out, so we’re getting lots of fog and mist which hampers observations, especially of faint objects.

As I was setting up I looked at the primary mirror and…’What the f***? Scratches??!’…I knew it couldn’t be scratches, as the mirror was fine the other day, so I got a large rocket blower I use for cleaning my cameras and lenses, used it to blow on the mirror and the ‘scratches’ vanished. They were fibres from the tissue paper and, inexplicably, a dog hair had also found its way in there. ‘Inexplicably’ because the dogs (long-haired dachshunds) have been nowhere near the scope apart from Joe deciding to cock his leg on it the evening I brought it home (fortunately, being a dachshund, albeit a standard one [largeish], his legs are too short to allow any damage to be done!), although a dog hair could have fallen from my jacket or the shroud, as I take that in the house to dry off when it gets wet with dew.

Date: 24th September 2011
Conditions: Cloudless but murky, fog later. 80% humidity – normally inconspicuous light domes were visible
Seeing: IV
Transparency: III (for seeing and transparency scales used, click here)
NELM: Not checked but probably no better than 6.0, if that
Equipment: 18 inch f/4.3 dob with 35mm Televue Panoptic (56x), 22mm Televue Panoptic (90x) and 8mm Televue Radian (247x).

I began with a general look round and decided on a couple of bits of eye candy to look at first. I aimed at the Ring Nebula, M57, and I am sure I detected some colour in it, green with hints of pink. Subtle but I don’t think I was imagining it. The last time I saw colour in M57 was in Texas in 2008 and that was with Jimi’s 48 inch. I decided to try some high magnifications, 395x (5mm Radian) and 658x (3mm Radian) but, thanks to the poor seeing, it was as mushy as hell (especially at 658x) so I put those eyepieces away. Also, the big mirror needs more cooling down time than I’ve given it. It is still fairly warm during the day and, although the mirror is not especially thick at 40mm (1.5 inches), it still needs over an hour, probably more, to cool.

Then I headed over to M27, the Dumbell Nebula, which was very bright and also with a hint of colour, this time green. Although the conditions weren’t good, M27 was incredibly bright and detailed. Knock-your-socks-off bright and detailed, too. 18 inches is the largest aperture I have looked at M27 with, so it’ll be nice to have a look on a much better night.

I was thinking of selling my 35mm Panoptic and, indeed, I’ve advertised it in our astronomy society’s monthly newsletter, mainly because the exit pupil would be too large for use with the 18 inch, thanks to the focal ratio of the scope, and £250 would come in handy at the moment. However, I decided to give it a try in the big scope and, judging by what I saw, I won’t be parting with it after all and I will withdraw it from sale. NGC 7000 and the Milky Way through Cygnus was spectacular. The exit pupil is a tad too big but not by much, so but it actually doesn’t matter. I will definitely need a Paracorr with this one, though.

Using a stepladder takes a bit of getting used to. At one point, I’d forgotten that I was standing on the second step and stepped off, landing on my bad ankle harder than I’d expected.

So much for the messing around with eye candy. I’d brought some galaxy group information out with me (one of the free downloadable guides from my friend Alvin Huey’s website – follow the links to Downloadable Observing Guides) and went for some galaxy groups in Pegasus. The NGC 7436 group was well placed so I went for that. The notes are sparse.

NGC 7436 – Bright and round with very slight brightening towards the centre. NGC 7433 is right next to 7436 and together at lower power the two galaxies look like an elongated glow east-west. 90x, 247x

NGC 7433 – Reasonably bright elongated glow right next to NGC 7436. 247x

NGC 7435 – Fairly bright, oval, brighter middle. 247x

NGC 7431 – Barely seen elongated glow. 247x

By this time, the transparency had got so bad I decided to pack up, go in and watch Match of the Day. Car lights coming down the hill were huge beams and the kitchen light coming on was a dim glow through fog. A look at NGC 7331 confirmed the transparency had deteriorated, although it wasn’t great to begin with and an hour later the clouds were back.

The weather forecasters are predicting an ‘Indian Summer’ for the next week into October, so I am hoping we get a few more clear nights – preferably with no fog. The actual summer was dismal, so an Indian one will be very nice indeed.

Joe

Armageddon

The sunset tonight was one of the most dramatic I have ever seen, the sky looked as if it was on fire. It looked apocalyptic. Maybe it’s a sign of things to come…thunderstorms, torrential rain and localised flooding are forecast for the next 24 hours. No observing tonight.

I grabbed my Canon 7D, stuck my cruddy wide-angle on it and took the following photos. Apart from cropping and a bit of sharpening, I have not doctored them in any way to make them more dramatic (but they are underexposed by a stop, to prevent the highlights burning out). The dead tree at top left adds to the apocalyptic feel.

A mixed bag

This summer has been a bit of a weird one. One day it is sunny and 32C/90F, while the next day it’s cloudy, raining and cold. It’s not just been a typically varied English summer, it’s been strange with the temperature variations – I wish the Jet Stream would sort itself out and get north of Scotland, where it is supposed to be and not lurking over the south of England! Observing opportunities have been quite rare. This time last year, I’d had 4 observing sessions in August but, this year, it’s been one. Not all the nights have been cloudy, there have been 5 clear nights so far (still, a pretty crappy return nonetheless) but most have been around the gibbous Moon. August is never a good month, traditionally it is a mixed bag so I’m hoping that as autumn sets in, the percentage of clear nights will rise – this is usually the case.

Our local astronomy society, Vectis AS, has a Unihedron Sky Quality Meter for members to use. I have currently got it, having picked it up at last week’s Perseid Party, and have only played with it so far as the Moon is in the sky. Under a 95% gibbous Moon last week, the reading was 19.45 which equates to 5.1 limiting visual magnitude. Last night, with a rising 75% gibbous Moon in the sky, the reading was 20.60, which is a naked eye visual magnitude of 5.9. I’m looking forward to using it under a really dark, Moonless autumn or winter night. I might get myself one of these, they’re expensive at around £145 each but it will give a more objective reading of the sky quality than just looking up, hunting for the faintest star visible and saying ‘Oh, that’s 6.0’ or whatever – it’s easier, too. My friend Stephen, who owns the site where we had our Perseid gathering last week, has one permanently fixed to his roof and gets readings in the high 21s. My home site is not as dark as that one (I am located just outside the ‘Bay Area’ of Sandown and Shanklin, although it’s not as bad as it could be) as he’s in a blue zone while I am in a green zone, but I should get readings in the high 20s at least, and the 21s on very good nights.

I did get a short session in last night, 19th August, and it was a short one, too. I got 50 minutes before the Moon and clouds interfered, which I’ll put in a separate post.

You what?

*I had made a post under this title yesterday, but I accidentally deleted it when trying to delete something else! So here it is again, or what I can remember of it*

Being less than mobile recently, thanks to a knee injury, I have been doing a bit more reading than usual. I have been looking through my collection of Deep Sky Magazine and an article by Jeffrey Corder in DSM #6 Spring 1984, titled ‘Observing Low Surface Brightness Objects’, contained a sentence that caught my eye. The sentence in question read: “The reason old Reverend Webb described M33 as “Large, faint, and ill-defined” was more because his notoriously damp homeland of England is a generally poor site than because M33 is especially difficult“.
Er, “…generally poor site”? That’s a sweeping statement if ever I saw one and, like all sweeping statements, is actually not entirely true. Okay, England isn’t great, but neither is it a ‘generally poor site’ and, apart from the north-west, a lot of it isn’t ‘notoriously damp’ either, especially in the south.
Arizona is ‘great’, West Texas is ‘great’ (when it isn’t on fire), the outback of Australia is ‘great’, Chile’s Atacama Desert is ‘great’ and so on, but most observers – most people – don’t live in these observational nirvanas, they live in areas that are as cloudy and as light polluted as England, so it does kind of annoy me when I hear and read remarks such as Jeffrey’s and ‘Soggy little Britain’, which an American friend said to me on Facebook recently.

I used to be under the impression that people in the US, especially, had pristine home skies and spent all their spare evenings observing, so I was a little jealous! My visits to the Texas Star Party, and also reading forums such as Cloudy Nights, actually proved otherwise as most people live in areas which are cloudy and/or light polluted. People have to live in or near towns and cities for work, unless they happen to be rich or retired, and really only get dark sky observing opportunities around new Moon if the weather co-operates and they can get out of town for a night or two.

While 300+ clear nights a year would be nice, we don’t do too badly here, with over 100 nights a year, give or take a few, that are observationally usable – if we ignore the Moon’s phase – most particularly here on the South Coast where high sunshine levels translate into a decent amount of clear nights. I’ve been keeping a record of nights that are usuable for observing (partly clear as well as 100% clear) and, so far, in 2011, we’ve had 69 nights out of 155 that have been clear or partly clear, despite the coldest and cloudiest winter for 40 years. That’s 44%, not too shabby for a ‘generally poor site’. Out of those 69 nights, 52 have been totally clear. 2010 was 46% clear or partly clear (33% totally clear). Anything less than 50% clear goes down as cloudy! 50% clear is usable and I often observe on partly clear nights, as long as the Moon isn’t in the way. I have to admit that even I don’t observe as much as I could, as it isn’t always possible, particularly in the summer when nights are very short and in mid-winter when sub-zero temperatures make it a test of endurance, and at the age of 41 I’m beginning to find that several nights in a row is hard going, particularly when I am also working during the day.

That said, the weather does have a habit of being inclement when there’s an astronomical event on. Planning a public session to view an eclipse? You can bet it will probably be cloudy! However, the same goes for the USA, outside the dry and clear south west, and other countries, too. If you plan your observing around weekends because of work, particular dates or events, then there is a risk it will be cloudy or wet, as such a narrow window of opportunity means the perspective will be skewed. It doesn’t mean that it’s always or even mostly cloudy and wet.
Even the Texas Star Party this year wasn’t an observational success, as they were clouded out for all except two-and-a-half nights. Nearby range fires, caused by lighting strikes, haven’t helped either. A few past TSPs have been a bit hit-and-miss, too with 1992, 2005 and 2007 being pretty bad.

It’s a bit of a ramble but what I am trying to say here is that people tend to criticise England (and Britain in general) rather unfairly, when the truth isn’t as bad and it does annoy me, particularly when it often comes from people who are no better off than we are. It’s true that we British do love to complain about the weather but as whingeing is a national pastime here (and, yes, I can moan with the best of ’em!), that doesn’t mean much, as sunshine and 90 degree temperatures here bring as many complaints from people as any other type of weather! In short, while we don’t have the best observing conditions here by no means do we have the worst either. England is probably about average in the grand scheme of things.

Light pollution is more of a menace than clouds. The UK, especially England, is overcrowded and, as such, is quite badly light polluted and we have a big problem here in that respect. Public ignorance is a major factor in this as they tend to think that turning night into day is somehow a ‘good thing’ and prevents crime. It isn’t and doesn’t. It’s wasteful, adds to carbon emissions and isn’t proven to reduce crime – and criminals need light to see, they don’t have superior night vision compared to the rest of us!
Local council street light switch-offs, due to austerity measures, have been greated with bleating about ‘blackouts’ and claims of increased crime (although that’s not supported by facts) and one woman in Northamptonshire claimed she fell over in the dark and injured herself. You don’t just ‘fall over’ in the dark unless you’re not taking adequate care and using a torch, unless you have a problem. It’s the same with pedestrians walking along unlit roads at night – if they wear light or reflective clothing then they have far less chance of being run over, unless they do something really stupid.

The battle against light pollution is slowly gaining some ground with a lot of councils, including the Isle of Wight, beginning to put new LED lamps in. Apparently, these shine downwards and little or no light actually goes into the sky. I have read reports where amateur astronomers in areas where these have already been installed say that there is a big improvement. It’s a step in the right direction and, if these lights shine where they are supposed to but the sky remains dark, then everyone will be happy. Light trespass is now an offence, so badly shielded and directed security lights have to be adjusted if a complaint is made.

Returning to Jeffrey Corder’s article, as for M33 itself from here it’s certainly large but it’s not a hard object to see. It’s a naked-eye object on a good night from here and is not that faint or ill-defined, being a nice sight in binoculars. Telescopically there’s lots to see such as HII areas and, with a large enough scope, globular clusters.
Rev. Webb’s impression of it was more likely down to the quality – or lack of it – of his scopes rather than any shortcomings in the quality of his sky. I daresay that telescopes back in 1984 were superior to those of the 1800s, which was Webb’s era.

Deja vu

Volcanic ash. Again. At least, this year, I don’t have any travel plans to be potentially disrupted but if I was going to TSP, I think I’d be a bit worried, as it starts on Sunday. I was lucky last year, I dodged the ash as the winds changed direction the day before my flight left and the worst thing that happened then was that we got rerouted north of the Arctic Circle, which turned an 8 hour flight into a 12 hour flight. Who’d have bet on lightning – or, rather, ash – striking twice in the space of 13 months when there’s been hitherto years of no disruption despite plenty of Icelandic volcanic activity?

On a lighter note, I am hoping to do some travelling next year, whether the TSP or something else. I am thinking of doing something different and going on an astronomy trip to Arizona. Arizona has a fabulous climate for observers, being dry and transparent with over 300 clear nights a year (which is a lot better than us!), there are observatories you can visit – Lowell certainly has a public visitor centre – and there are, as you’d imagine, lots of amateur astronomers and astronomy clubs there. Also, while I have been to the States three times, all of these visits have been to Texas and I’d like to see a bit more of the place. It’s a big country and there is plenty to see. Should I make it out to Arizona, I am hoping I can meet with other observers and clubs. Funds permitting, I would also be hoping to make a side-trip to California.
I’d like to take a little travel scope with me as my 8×42 binoculars don’t quite cut it, although they are great for widefield views and I have seen most of the Messiers and quite a few brighter non-Messier DSOs with them. I have a Vixen 70mm guidescope that came in a box of bits given to me a few years ago and that should fit the bill quite nicely. I have found a suitable 1.25 inch diagonal and my Televue 25mm, 15mm and 11mm Plossls plus the 8mm Radian (which give magnifications of 16.8x, 28x, 38x and 52.5x respectively) and it gives nice views of bright deep sky objects and the Milky Way. I am not sure I’d take all four eyepieces with me but it’s nice to have a variety.

I tried it out last night, on M4, M57, M81, M82 and the globulars in Ophiuchus and it worked very well indeed.

I also had a fairly unsuccessful session with the 12″. Unsuccessful? Simply because the sky was a bit too light (it was 2330 local time) to find much, there was a fair bit of drifting cloud around and there was a stiff breeze (it has been pretty stormy just recently). I was after galaxies in Hercules, knowing full well it wouldn’t be that successful. Hercules is best placed for viewing in June but that’s precisely the wrong time of year to see it properly from these latitudes, thanks to light nights.
I did, however, find NGC 5970, a galaxy in Serpens (Caput) – it was reasonably bright and stood out well against the background sky. There wasn’t much brightening towards the core, it was very slight. Core non-stellar and the edges of the galaxy were diffuse, not sharp. Elongated 2:1 NW-SE. 69x, 190x
I then had a look round some of the brighter Messier globulars in Ophiuchus before putting the 12″ away and getting out the little 70mm Vixen.

Clear skies 2010

As some of you might recall, I’ve been keeping a (admittedly probably unscientific) spreadsheet of clear skies vs cloudy ones (I’ve had friends and relatives keep a note of sky conditions when I have been away, such as at TSP). I’ve made a note of clear skies, partly cloudy ones, and totally cloudy ones. Clear and partly clear both mean observationally usable ones as, even when partly clear you can still do some observing, even if it’s with a pair of binoculars or half an hour with the scope.

According to my spreadsheet, 2010 had 111 totally clear nights, which is 30% of the total nights of the year. That’s nearly one third which, considering a lot of people think the UK has a largely unfavourable climate is better than you’d think, and that’s despite the horrible harsh and cloudy winter we’ve just had.
Clear and partly clear, added together, comes to 169 nights or 46%. That’s getting on for HALF of the nights here in this part of England being usable for astronomy during 2010. Quite a surprise. Unfortunately, as ever, there’s a caveat – the clearest time is May, June and July when all-night astronomical twilight keeps deep sky observing to a minimum. However, I will make a resolution to use those nights to observe and sketch the brighter DSOs, such as the Messier and brighter NGC nebulae and clusters, rather than just waste them. Maybe I will observe the planets, if any are around, as well. It will be a nice throw back to the time, 19 years ago, when I first got into observing and observed all through the summer twilight – my observing notes throughout the 1990s and early 2000s go right through June and July, no complaints about the twilit nights there!

So far in 2011, 24% of nights have been clear and 29% have been clear or partly clear, mostly during March. I will admit to not taking full advantage of them, mostly because they have coincided with the Moon’s gibbous and full phases.

Looking at all the clear skies we’ve had – and I hope 2011 and beyond follow suit – I am going to make more of an effort to make use of them. It’s not always possible to use every clear night, of course, as life tends to get in the way, as does tiredness and – let’s be honest – laziness, but using half or more would be great.

Yep, Britain has got a reputation for being fairly useless astronomy-wise but – and it does depend on where you live, as we have a varied climate for such a small archipelago – it’s not quite as bad as some people think. Most people work the usual 9am-5pm Monday to Friday routine and, as such, can only observe at weekends and on vacations, so they tend only to look at the sky then. That tends to give the impression that it’s semi-permanently cloudy, as they are only looking through a small window of time so, statistically it’s bound to give a skewed impression.
I am lucky though, in that I live in one of the clearest areas of Britain. The Isle of Wight, just off the south coast, has got one of the highest sunshine totals of anywhere in the country and this also means more clear nights. No, the UK isn’t brilliant and we’d all like 300+ clear nights a year but you’d have to move to somewhere like Arizona for that – although I don’t deny that if the opportunity presented itself I’d be off like a shot!

Still here

I am still here, although I have done absolutely zero observing since 11th October, due mainly to near-endless clouds and rain. We’ve had a month’s rain alone this past week and force 9 gales, gusting to storm force 10 on Tuesday and Thursday but, luckily, my observing shed has held up well in the face of the violent weather, it’s still standing and has let in no water, despite the combination of force 10 gusts and horizontal, torrential rain.

The only astronomy-related thing I have done recently is, with a fellow member of VAS, a talk at a primary school about astronomy. Children are not my favourite demographic as I don’t really have any real rapport with them, but it was an enjoyable evening, nonetheless, with a good turnout despite the atrocious weather and the kids, although they could fidget for England (one was totally hyperactive and slightly annoying) were interested, surprisingly knowledgeable – except one who said that loads of security lights and street lamps were a good thing! – and asked some good questions. Even their parents didn’t ask stupid questions! It had originally been planned to be an observing session but conditions were downright dangerous outside with severe gales and flying debris, so it was downscaled to a presentation istead.
The reason I was there was that, during a committee meeting of VAS (the first after the AGM) they needed what is rather grandly titled ‘Outreach and events liason officer’ and asked for volunteers. None were forthcoming and I – reluctantly, it has to be said as I am not into outreach whatsoever; I can see the value of it, but it is not for me because on a clear night, I’d rather be doing my own thing – agreed to take on the role. So, I have to be seen to go to the events.

It’s Remembrance Sunday and I’m watching the Cenotaph coverage on BBC1. The sheer scale of death and destruction caused by war just goes to show how pointlessly stupid war is, and how insanely destructive the human species can be. We trash the environment, we kill other species and we fight endlessly over ridiculous things such as religion, land and one country looking at another the wrong way. It’s politicians who are stupid, not the sailors, soldiers and airmen who have to fight the wars; the armed forces are, as someone once said, “lions led by donkeys”.
Not only that, we’re in constant danger, if the goverment and media are to be believed, of being blown up by brainwashed morons and lunatics with a warped view of Islam. How can a species – us – that does fantastic things such as space travel, science (when it is not abused), astronomy, make music and build great ships, etc, also be such a stupid one? We are obviously not as advanced or as civilised as we like to think we are. Maybe one day, we’ll grow up a bit.
And that’s my ‘deep’ bit for this year. And I’m not usually as misanthropic as this either! Oh, and the ‘Last Post‘ gets you *right there* doesn’t it?

On a more cheerful note, after the largely downbeat nature of this post, I am tentatively planning a trip to the southern hemisphere at the end of next year or beginning of 2012. I want to see the southern sky again and, as the 20″ plans are unlikely to happen for a long time for various reasons, I have decided to do the cheaper option. I’m considering Australia again and I’d like to go during their summer (our winter) for two reasons. Firstly, I’d like to see the southern summer skies, which I have not done and, secondly, escaping least one crappy, dismal UK winter is an appealing prospect if only for three or four weeks. The Aussie weather should, at least, be better in November-February than it was in May last year and, in any case, will be far better than the cold, wind and rain of north-western Europe.

Also, I am giving a talk at the Webb Deep Sky Society AGM in Cambridge on 4th December. Owen Brazell emailed me and asked if I’d be prepared to give a talk about the Texas Star Party so I thought ‘why not?’ and agreed. I’ll do it as a Power Point presentation with loads of pictures of big scopes, scenery and night skies. Getting to Cambridge is a pain from the Isle of Wight but, hopefully, I can get a lift up there. I’m looking forward to it, actually, because I have not been to a Webb meeting since 2005 and it will be nice to catch up with people again.

Parapher…parerfern…observing stuff

While I like to keep observing simple, none of that fiddly imaging stuff for me(!), I do still end up taking quite a bit of observing paraphernalia with me every observing session. I keep my eyepieces in the house, as well as my notebooks, etc, for security and also so they don’t get damp. My Star Atlas 2000.0 stays in a box in the shed, it’s already got damp on numerous occasions, is a bit mouldy in places and is eminently un-nickable.

Here are the items – apart from my scope – that I use each time I go observing:

A bag to put everything (excluding eyepieces) in:

A ring-binder for my observing lists and printed MegaStar charts:

Sketchbook:

Notebook (for those times where I don’t do sketches although it comes every session as it’s also a logbook for each session):

Sketching/writing stuff. Pens, pencils – mechanical pencils and graphite sticks – chamois for smudging nebulae, etc), tortillon, clip-on red torch, round template for sketches (plastic lid off coffee cup), putty eraser and eraser shield, all stored in a handy artist’s case which I got from a local art shop:

The Night Sky Observers Guide; if I do take them out I usually only take one out at a time and I use them for checking observations afterwards, although normally I wait until I get back indoors. Before I had the shed, I would never take them outside, too expensive to ruin!

The all-important dim red torch. This one has adjustable LEDs.

And my case of eyepieces and other scope bits and pieces:

The bits and pieces, except the Night Sky Observer’s Guides which stay on my bookshelf, are kept in the bag and it, the case and a flask of tea or coffee, get carried up the garden in one go; I can carry all that lot at once, because the bag has a shoulder strap, so unless I’ve forgotten something, I don’t need to return to the house.

The weather is currently atrocious and I’ve not been observing for a while. I did get out last week, around full Moon when it was (typically!) clear and looked at Jupiter and Uranus with my 3.5″ refractor; with enough magnification I managed to see Uranus as a disk, which was good. That was an interesting diversion but I’ve done no deep sky since the early morning of September 17th.

This was the dismal view from the kitchen window this afternoon, and there’s at least another week of this crap to come, due to deep lows in the Atlantic (sometimes I find myself wishing the damn thing would dry up!). Fortunately my observing shed, in the far distance in the photo, appears to be holding up in the face of the gales and rain. Touch wood!

Observing 12/13th September 2010

‘I got the poison, I got the remedy, I got the pulsating rhythmical remedy‘

…so goes the lyric of Prodigy’s song Poison, and fairly appropriate as they were coming down the valley loud and clear from the ‘Bestival’ last night – also appropriate as I found a Death Cap toadstool in the garden yesterday, which I promptly threw in the bin out of reach of the dogs (DCs are the most poisonous toadstools known). I like the Prodigy, but I don’t like the light pollution from the festival that was wiping out the north western, and most of the western, sky or Rob da Bank’s DJ set of bad music that went on to almost 4am this morning (1am’s fine, but later than that is not. I bet they’ve pissed off the entire Arreton valley). At least that’s over for another year.

The weather forecast called for it to clear at sunset, the BBC (Met Office) said it would be clear all night but the others (Accuweather, Metcheck and The Weather Outlook) disagreed, forecasting it to be partly clear, and, in the end, they were right and the BBC were wrong.

Would this clear? Btw, the tree is dead but the birds like it so it stays

Conditions: Cool, but not cold, some drifting clouds at first, becoming murkier later. Slight dew.
Seeing: Ant II, very good
Transparency: III to IV later (III. Clear, some haze visible. Milky Way still visible but not detailed; IV. Milky skies, moderately hazy but observing of brighter NGCs doable/drifting cloud).
Equipment: 12″ f/5 dob, 22mm Televue Panoptic (69x), 15mm Televue Plossl (101x), 8mm Televue Radian (190x), OIII filter. MegaStar 5 chart printouts, Sky Atlas 2000.0, Pocket Sky Atlas and NSOG Vols I and II

NGC 6996, open cluster in Cygnus – Located within NGC 7000 (the North America Nebula). Spiral shaped cluster of 30+ fairly faint stars. Spiral is anti-clockwise. Fainter stars among the brighter ones. Chain loops off to north before turning west. Quite large. Moderately rich. Observation interfered with by drifting clouds. 69x.

NGC 6824, galaxy in Cygnus – People think of Cygnus as a realm of open clusters, PNes and nebulae, but galaxies lurk here too. Fairly bright and easy to find as it stands out against the background sky. Almost round. Brightens gradually towards the core. Core diffuse, not bright. 69x, 190x.

NGC 6894, planetary nebula in Cygnus – A bit of a sod to find, faint and quite small. Not helped by milky sky. At low power, there is a hint of something fuzzy and oval. An OIII filter brings it out as a filled-in oval. At high power, and with the OIII,  it has a darker middle and looks annular. 69x, 190x, OIII filter.

The latter observation was being affected by the fireworks from the festival, I could see the flashes in the eyepiece while looking at NGC 6894, which was hard enough to see as it was. So I abandoned Cygnus and moved over to Triangulum and Aries, which were just clearing next door’s oak trees from my position.

NGC 772, galaxy in Aries – Round, quite faint (low), condenses to non-stellar, but obvious, core. 69x, 101x.

NGC 672, galaxy in Triangulum – Quite faint, elongated west-east. No brightening in centre. Faint halo around bar. IC 1727 nearby but very faint that I want another look at it on a better night. 69x, 101x, 190x.

NGC 925, galaxy in Triangulum – Elongated, faint. Evenly bright with halo. Some foreground stars. 69x, 190x

NGC 890, galaxy in Triangulum – Round, bright. Bright non-stellar core. 69x, 190x.

By now, just before 0100 BST (midnight GMT/UT), the sky was getting progressively worse, with a lot of murk scattering light about so I packed in. There were a few other objects I hunted for, among them NGC 1156 and NGC 1012, both in Aries, as well as NGC 6857 in Cygnus and the infamous NGC 6772 in Aquila but these were all wiped out by murk and will have to wait until a better night.