Star gazing

A Kitchen is ideal for temporary DIY, Gail, as it's in easy reach of a Mug of Tea, and it's warm, dry and within re

Yes, hopefully, it will be, Gail. I like Leather suites and this 3 piece suite is hand made to order by a firm in Wales. Of course the cats like them too, but cats are not good for that kind of furniture so I've got some throw overs to give some protection to the cats using them as a short cut to somewhere. I've just bought a British made Gas Cooker and never again will a Chinese made cooker pass my door step as they just don't do the job. The carpet will come in June when the Shineyland Open Day is past and things have started to, hopefully, quieten down. Hopefully, by then the Telescope will be operating properly, the garden will be running itself and I will be sitting in the Arbour, with Jenny the Cat, and a Mug of Tea.

 

@ARMANDII my friend,don't forget tomorrow

This week stargazers will look up to the night skies to see the July full moon glow a deep red to orange colour.

The so-called Blood Moon will appear in the afternoon hours of Friday, July 27 during the total lunar eclipse.

The lunar eclipse is the second of two this year and comes hot on the heels of the January 31 Super Blue Blood Moon.

Clocking in at one hour and 43 minutes, astronomers are touting this Blood Moon eclipse as the longest one of the 21st century.

 

Hi Woo, thanks for the reminder. It's not something most Astronomers actually get too excited about a Blood Moon as there are at least 2 Red Moons at year. It's caused by a Lunar Eclipse where the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon when it comes between the Sun and the Moon. Full Moons are not really good for looking at from my point of view as there is so much light, in a ordinary full Moon, that viewing it through a scope feels like looking at a Searchlight and leaves big black spots in your vision after viewing I prefer all the stages of the Moon's waxing and waning, bar the full Moon, as they cast shadows on the surface of the Moon from the craters and mountains.

Despite some cloud drifting along the night skies last night I managed some shots of the Moon mostly through the veils of cloud.

 

The Moon has been too low on the horizon and is also not showing until the early hours of the morning so it's not been a good candidate for imaging. I've been trying to find the correct focal length between the telescope and the camera and so have been taking some test shots without knowing how they would turn out.


A one minute exposure of Altair [16.8 Light Years [around 100 trillion miles] away]



A 20 second exposure


A 5 second exposure

 

No, you're exactly right, Gail, and well spotted. I thought I'd show you what a camera see's without proper tracking.....so it's not blurred but has recorded the stars movement.

 

Well, you would think so, wouldn't you, Mike. But, there's a lot of amateur astronomers in London and there's a firm in London called the Widescreen Center that sponsors a bunch of London Astronomers called, I think, the Irregulars who meet in different parts of London for observing. There's also filters called Broadband


which while not getting rid of all sky glow light pollution certainly gets rid of a major part of it. I use a Meade 2" Broadband filter on my telescope for visual and imaging and they do work. Like I said there are lots of City astronomers in the UK and the USA [the latter being even worse for light pollution that the UK]. There's a book by Rod Mollise called the "Urban Astronomers Guide" and one called the "Backyard Astronomers Guide" by Terence Dickinson and Allan Dyer which are really good in explaining how easy and good it is to use a scope in a city. I got both when I first started in astronomy and they gave me the encouragement to observe in light polluted conditions.

 

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are on view at the moment, Mike. All 3 are low on the horizon and awkward to see unless the low horizon is clear. You're also looking at them through the thickest part of the atmosphere, the thinnest being directly above you, so seeing detail is a bit hit and miss. You're mostly likely looking at Jupiter which is the biggest and brightest planet in the skies, although Mars in not far behind.