180 Degrees

August 9, 2015 by grahamrob in Comments, General Astronomy, Viewing, Widefield Imaging and tagged Photography | 2 Comments

Viewing from Fairvale Observatory is far from ideal but I have no choice and need to make the most of it:

(i) Without going down the garden (which is not practical and would then totally obscure the southerly view) my house blocks the entire northern sky, critically including Polaris;

(ii) We have very high +/-12ft hedges surrounding the garden;

(iii) Directly east is a large house that completely obscures the horizon;

(iv) South east and south are very large trees;

(v) To the west is a wooded hill, thus blocking the horizon in that direction, and

(vi) Some 7-miles to the south is Gatwick Airport which produces significant light pollution, as well as aircraft that regularly fly through my images as well as others from Heathrow, also not far away.

It’s a miracle I am able to undertake any astrophotography and I long for the day I live somewhere with better conditions.

In the meantime I have to make do with the 180^o I have available. For the record and with great skies and good weather, this week I compiled a photo mosaic of the aforesaid view – which illustrates some of the aforementioned problems and is in itself an interesting picture. The scene is stitched together from six DSLR shots that encompass most of the east to west panorama but in order to achieve this, the resulting photograph becomes severely distorted.

The principal view is directly south, with the Meridian pretty much straight ahead. Low angle viewing and imaging is almost completely impossible but depending on the timing and some crafty shooting, the mid-angle objects can be accessed as they pass between the trees. The best imaging is therefore mostly restricted to a 20^o range between about 65^o and 85^o and within +/- 20^o of the Meridian; high angle east and west views are feasible but seeing in these directions is impacted by the greater atmospheric distance through which the light has to travel.

For now this is my night time playground: it is challenging and can be frustrating but with clear skies, preparation and patience it’s good fun and much can still be achieved.

Night sky panorama from Fairvale Observatory + obstacles: the tree on the left is very large +200 year-old copper beech, the coniferous trees due south are closer to the property boundary - thus increasing their impact on seeing. The red line on the left approximately marks the East and the central red line is the Meridian.

180 degree night sky panorama from Fairvale Observatory + obstacles: the tree on the left is a very large +200 year-old copper beech, the coniferous trees due south are closer to the property boundary – thus increasing their impact on seeing. The red line on the left approximately marks the East and the central red line is the Meridian.

Equivalent Cartes du Ceil planetarium view at the same time.

Looking Up

August 3, 2015 by grahamrob in Uncategorized, Widefield Imaging and tagged Cassiopeia, ISS, Ursa Minor | Leave a comment

Having been unable to set-up Fairvale Observatory since April, it has been frustrating with almost no hands-on astronomy taking place. However, last night the march of time and serendipity played their part; by chance I glanced out of the window and lo and behold saw the International Space Station (ISS), which was then scheduled to pass almost directly overhead again 90-minutes later at 11.17 p.m. Now six weeks past the Summer Equinox sunset is coming increasing earlier, currently 8.45pm and by the time the ISS would be back the night sky was almost at astronomical darkness. This would provide a favourable setting for viewing and imaging – furthermore, the sky was almost clear and the temperature a comfortable 18⁰C, far from the sub-zero conditions back in February.

I have just purchased a second-hand EFS 55 – 250mm Canon IS telephoto lens, so what else was there to do but get outside and get ready to image the ISS next time round, thereafter one thing led to another! Being a more mobile set-up I was able to venture further from the house than usual and thereby obtain images of some constellations and asterisms which I cannot usually achieve from the Observatory.

Though not as spectacular as the Planets and DSO images, I found the simple sky photographs satisfying to shoot and enjoyable to look at. The beguiling night environment, exciting subjects, improving darkness conditions and my increased mobility, suggests things are looking up – in more than one way.

ISS Western view: 6 minute transit from West to East at 850

ISS Western view: 6 minutes total transit time from West to East at 85 degrees elevation.

ISS Overhead view

ISS Eastern view

Summer Triangle – signature asterism of the summer night sky: clockwise from top left: Deneb – Vega – Altair.

The W-shaped asterism of the Cassiopeia straddles the Milky Way in the northern sky and is made of 5-stars: Segin, Ksora, Cih, Schedar and Caph. The constellation contains a number of star clusters, most notable being M52 and close to Ksora, M103.

Cassiopeia

Ursa Minor – Like the Plough in Ursa Major, Ursa Minor has a ‘dipper-like’ shape and they are therefore respectively known as the Big and Little Dippers. Ursa Minor’s main significance is the North or Pole Star, AKA Polaris. Situated very close to the Celestial Pole, alignment of the telescope mount with Polaris is essential to achieve accurate tracking; unfortunately Polaris is obscured from Fairvale Observatory but can be seen from the garden.

Ursa Minor – Polaris star indicated by red arrow, with the ‘dipper’ to the right.

By Jove

July 27, 2015 by grahamrob in Imaging, Solar system, Uncategorized, Widefield Imaging and tagged Jupiter, Planetary Imaging, Solar system | Leave a comment

As a visual and photographic spectacle, in my opinion Jupiter comes a close second to Saturn among the planets. The so-called ‘King of the Planets’, Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all the others combined. Notwithstanding its size, Jupiter has the shortest ‘day’ of any planet, rotating fully in just 9-hours and 50 minutes – as a result creating a significant equatorial bulge that measures 88,760 miles in diameter and 83,082 miles from pole-to-pole. However, as a gas giant the planet does not rotate en masse, with the outer regions moving slower than the equatorial region leading to a series of distinctive belts and zones, most notable of which is the Great Red Spot – a massive storm on the edge of the South Equatorial Belt.

Partly because of its vast size and resulting gravitational field, Jupiter is thought to have played a dominant role in shaping the present Solar System. The planet we see today is not alone, with 67 moons so far identified, the four largest discovered by Galileo 400 years ago being easily visible from Earth. In order of distance from Jupiter the moons of Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are extremely diverse in nature – ranging from the highly volcanic Io to the frozen world of Europa, whilst Ganymede and Callisto may have sub-surface oceans and are bigger than the planet Mercury.

Despite being by far the largest planet in the Solar System and the fourth brightest object after the Sun, Moon and Venus, my attempts to image Jupiter and its Jovian neighbours have so far met with only mixed success.

Most people’s first view of Jupiter is likely to be through binoculars or a basic telescope, which will show the very bright planet accompanied by a number of its Gallilean moons, depending on their orbital position i.e. when located behind the planet they will, of course, not be visible. Having viewed Jupiter a few times like this, my first attempt to image the planet and its moons was just such a view simply using the William Optics 81mm refractor, a x2 Barlow and my Canon 700D DSLR. Compared to Jupiter the moons are not as bright and to capture their presence it is necessary to boost either the ISO or exposure time, which then overexposes the bright planet resulting in loss of detail – in this case the distinctive coloured gas bands. Conversely, with a lower ISO or exposure this detail once again becomes apparent but some or all of the moons are then lost in the image. The way round is to combine two sets of images taken at different camera settings, thus obtaining the best of both worlds, literally. For the moment however this remains work in progress.

January 2014, Jupiter – overexposed but shows all four Gallilean moons | 1 sec @ ISO 400

Jupiter – lower exposure shows the gas belts but the moons, though there, are now very difficult to see. 1/3rd sec @ ISO 800

Personally I like the wider view of Jupiter and its moons but inevitably the holy grail has to be a close-up image showing details of the planet’s characteristic gas belts, which requires the use of a CCD video, in my case a ZWO ASI 120MC camera. Having mostly concentrated on DSO photography to-date using a DSLR, my use of the ZWO camera is limited and with mixed success. Using this camera and the Skywatcher 150PL reflector telescope I have previously managed images of Saturn, Mars and the Moon but this time I used the William Optics refractor instead.

CCD imaging is a very different technique to DSLR and it’s fair to say that I still have much to learn. Notwithstanding, using Registax for processing I obtained some reasonable first-time Jupiter images but will need more practice to improve the detail; the quality might also be improved using WinJUPOS software during processing, which applies a de-rotational programme to the fast moving planet thus reducing blur – however, I have yet to understand let alone master this software. Also, whilst the quality of the William Optics telescope is far superior to the Skywatcher 150PL, it is obvious that its relatively short focal length is not really adequate for good planetary imaging.

21st February 2015. Jupiter up close
WO 81GT81 | ZWO 120 MC

So far this year Jupiter had already provided a number of different opportunities for imaging. Between February and April the planet moved across the southern sky in all its glory, whilst more recently it moved into close conjunction with Venus at the end of June and there’s more to come.

On 26^th August from our vantage point on the Earth, Jupiter will appear very close to the Sun in the sky as it passes around the far side of the solar system from the Earth. At closest approach, Jupiter and the Sun will appear at a separation of only 0°52′, making Jupiter totally unobservable for several weeks while it is lost in the Sun’s glare. At around the same time, Jupiter will also be at its most distant from the Earth – receding to a distance of 6.40 AU – since the two planets will lie on opposite sides of the solar system. Over following weeks and months, Jupiter will re-emerge to the west of the Sun, gradually becoming visible for ever-longer periods in the pre-dawn sky. After around six months, it will reach opposition, when it will be visible for virtually the whole night, by which time I have hopefully mastered some new techniques for imaging this Jovian King of the Planets.

Canon Koppernigk’s Conjunction

July 3, 2015 by grahamrob in General Astronomy, Solar system, Viewing, Widefield Imaging | 5 Comments

This time of the year is something of a fallow period for astronomers: short nights combined by with the complete absence of astronomical darkness and fewer DSOs. I have personally found this year more difficult than usual as since April 25^th, following an operation to replace my left knee, I have been physically unable to set-up Fairvale Observatory and undertake astronomy of any sort. Notwithstanding, once over the initial few weeks of pain, I have tried to use the extra time afforded me usefully.

I have been reading Arthur Koestler’s excellent book The Sleepwalkers, which charts the history of man’s understanding of the universe and astronomy. Speaking of fallow periods, in the book I’m just past the very long period of inactivity and general superstition regarding the cosmos that occurred during the Middle Ages, which followed the more enlightened thinking of the Greeks, particularly Pythagoras; taking account of the Greek’s progress in understanding the Universe, our astronomical knowledge might have been 1,500 years more advanced today were it not for this prolonged medieval hiatus! Fortunately Copernicus (his better known Latin name) finally initiated what has become today’s heliocentric model of the Solar System, although his seminal work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was only published just a few hours before his death after a delay of 30-years, such was his reluctance to put forwards such thoughts at that time.

Next, I have just completed the 6-week AstroTech MOOC course organised by Edinburgh University, which covered the scientific logic behind astronomical discoveries and the technology that lies behind them. This was my third astronomy MOOC and provided some interesting insight into telescope and imaging technology, as well as filling time during my recovery.

Finally, as my (limited) mobility has slowly started to improve, the night sky has recently provided a fascinating show of its own that did not require the observatory’s paraphernalia and, furthermore, beautifully demonstrated the principles originally outlined by Copernicus in 1543.

During the latter part of June Venus and Jupiter moved inexorably towards very close conjunction by the end of the month. Reaching just under ¾ of a degree separation on 30^th June and 1^st July this is a rare event, which with a clear sky could be easily viewed with the naked eye. Better still, I set out to photograph the two planet’s journey during the preceding 12 days, thus illustrating Copernicus’ revolutions around the sun of these two heavenly spheres. Whilst any school child will today understand this process, it is a frightening thought that belief in such a mechanism could once have led to the death penalty!

Obscured from view at Fairvale Observatory as Venus was just 17 ½^o above the western horizon, I had to travel to a nearby location which provided a clearer westerly viewpoint of both planets at their low attitude. In order to obtain a series of comparable images and thus show the real spatial changes occurring up to conjunction, all pictures were taken from exactly the same location. With my Canon EOS 700D fixed on a photographic tripod I shot a series of images over a 50 minute period using either the 18mm or 55mm telephoto settings, playing with ISO and speed settings as darkness progressed; this was roughly the time the two planets took to disappear below the Earth’s horizon after achieving Civil Darkness.

The resulting photographs show Jupiter apparently advancing on Venus before at conjunction ‘passing’ close by on the aforementioned days. Whilst Jupiter is the third brightest object in the night sky (after the Moon & Venus) and nearly 12 times the size of Venus or 1,400 times by volume, the planet looks very small by comparison to Venus. This of course is the effect of perspective, with Jupiter currently some 565 million miles distance from Earth, whereas Venus is only 48 million miles; furthermore although at -1.8 the apparent magnitude (brightness) of Jupiter is high, at -4.4 Venus is much brighter.

18th June 2015: Jupiter left, Venus right – trees on the horizon provide a reference scale as the planets move towards each other during the month in subsequent photographs.

25th June 2015 + 7-days

30th June 2015 + 5 days. Nothing – dark thunder clouds completely obscure the western sky during conjunction!!!

1st July 2015. Bingo = conjunction; though one day later Jupiter has now moved to the right of Venus.

1st July 2015. Close-up of the conjunction using 55mm telephoto setting and ISO 400 - Venus now left & Jupiter right.

1st July 2015. Conjunction close-up using 55mm telephoto setting and ISO 400 – Venus now left & Jupiter right.

Unfortunately I am expecting it will be at least another month before I have recovered sufficiently to consider setting-up Fairvale Observatory again, by which time Astronomical Darkness will thankfully be slowly returning. In the meantime I’m looking forwards to the next section of The Sleepwalkers which covers Kepler and Galileo and hopefully exciting developments from the New Horizon Pluto fly-by and more from the Rosetta Mission and the re-awakening of its Philea lander. Given clear skies there should also still be plenty to see without the observatory: The Perseids, Saturn and of course at the centre of our Solar System as determined by Copernicus, the Sun, which will be at aphelion on 6^th July – though you wouldn’t think so judging by the high temperatures currently prevailing in the UK and Europe!

Spring’s Playground

May 12, 2015 by grahamrob in Deep Sky Objects and tagged Coma Berenices, Galaxies, Leo, Virgo | 1 Comment

The night sky has been full of surprises for me this Spring, in particular the very extensive presence of galaxies. Their occurrence has been mostly associated with the constellations of Leo and Virgo but also less well known (to me) Coma Berenices, located between the two aforementioned constellations. Despite being the 42^nd constellation by size and relatively small with few bright stars, Coma Berenices is nonetheless something of a little gem and every bit as interesting as it’s more famous neighbours.

Previously part of the Leo Constellation, Coma Berenices was promoted to a constellation in the 16^th Century and named after Queen Berenice II of Egypt; the asterism was previously considered to be the tuft of hair at the end of the lion’s (Leo) tail, which has now become the ‘Queens Hair’. Though small, Coma Berenices contains eight Messier objects, several globular clusters and is rich in galaxies – including the northern part of the Virgo cluster – also with the North Galactic Pole located within its boundaries. All-in-all the constellation forms an impressive and interesting part of the sky at this time of the year.

Notable objects are: M53 (NGC 5024), M85 (NGC 4382), M88 (NGC 4501), M91 (NGC 4548), M98 (NGC 4192), M99 (NGC 4254), and M100 (NGC 4321). Whilst amongst the more famous features of the Coma Berenices is the Black Eye Galaxy (M64), the Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565) and the Coma Cluster of galaxies.

M64, AKA Black Eye Galaxy, Evil Eye Galaxy or the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy is the brightest in Coma Berenices and gets its name from the dark (black) dust band that obscures the stars in its bright core.

M64 Black Eye Galaxy
WO GT81 & Canon 550D (modded) + FF | 10 x 180 secs @ ISO 1,600 | 11th April 2015

NGC 4565 or the Needle Eye Galaxy is considered one of the finest examples of an edge-on galaxy, thus producing a slender, needle-like profile. Located 40 million light years away, almost directly above the North Galactic Pol, this giant barred spiral galaxy is about one third larger than the Milky Way and is more luminous that Andromeda.

NGC 4565 Needle Eye Galaxy
WO GT81 & Canon 550D (modded) + FF | 10 x 180 secs @ ISO 1,600 | 11th April 2015

Some 60 million light-years away, M88 is located in the lower area of Coma Berenices, is over 100,000 light years diameter and one of the brightest galaxies of the Virgo Cluster.

M88 with other galaxies of the Virgo Cluster nearby.
WO GT81 + Canon 550D (modded) + FF | 20 x 180 secs @ ISO 1,600 | 25th March 2015

Apart from a few occasional opportunities since obtaining my new equipment last Summer, I have been yearning for more galaxies to image and have thoroughly enjoyed Spring’s veritable playground of galaxies that have filled the sky in their hundreds and sometimes thousands since February. Notwithstanding, my 81mm refractor though good struggles to obtain the detail of these magnificent, mind-blowing Deep Sky Objects and I can only look forward to the day of owning a larger aperture telescope and have mastered the art of long-exposure tracking, which I am still working on. In the meantime, I now await the development of the Summer sky and another crack at objects first encountered last year.

All in a spin

April 23, 2015 by grahamrob in Deep Sky Objects and tagged Coma Berenices, DSO Imaging, Galaxies, Star Clusters, Virgo | 1 Comment

It is now just over six months since acquiring my new astronomy equipment and therefore the first time I have experienced imaging DSO objects of the Spring night sky. Following the passage of Leo, the main show has now well and truly arrived as the constellations of first Coma Berenices and then Virgo pass overhead, bringing with them a virtual fireworks type display of spectacular stellar features. To DSO fans Spring means one thing – galaxies – too many to comprehend, making it difficult to know where to start. In my case the detailed beauty of these galaxies will need to wait until I have a substantially larger telescope and can achieve much, much longer exposures. In the meantime I just marvel at the spectacle and have been trying to image some of the more iconic of these springtime beauties. Both constellations seem abound with galaxies but two groups are particularly exciting: the Coma Cluster and Virgo Cluster, within which there a large number of fine examples to choose from.

Just the tip of the iceberg: part of the Virgo Cluster that is crowded by galaxies.

Just the tip of the iceberg: part of the Virgo Cluster crowded with thousands of galaxies.

I was first drawn to Markarain’s Chain in the Virgo Cluster, a string of galaxies that form a gentle curve. Stretched over some x ly the chain includes two Messier Objects – M86 & M84, together with NGC 4438, NGC 4435, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4473 & NGC 4477 amongst many others. In fact this entire part of the sky contains literally thousands of galaxies, of which Markarain’s Chain is just a small but interesting part.

Markarain's Chain WO GT81 & Canon 550D + FF | 15 x 180 secs @ ISO 1,600 | 26th March 2015

Markarian’s Chain
WO GT81 & Canon 550D + FF | 15 x 180 secs @ ISO 1,600 | 26th March 2015

Markarian’s Chain (red) & some other galaxies (green) – inverted image.

The one that got away

April 14, 2015 by grahamrob in Deep Sky Objects and tagged DSO Imaging, Galaxies, Leo | Leave a comment

At the end of February the appearance of the Leo constellation marks the end of the winter sky and the transition to Spring. After previously succeeding in imaging the Leo Triplet and M96 group, there remained one feature I still wanted to capture and, after a long period of difficult seeing conditions, I finally got my chance much later in March.

Just west of the lion’s head, south of the star Alterf (Lambda Leonis) is the 10^th magnitude barred spiral galaxy NGC 2903, discovered by no less than William Herschel in 1784. At 12.6’ x 6.0’ (80,000 ly) NGC 2903 is a little smaller than the Milky Way and too small for my equipment to show much detail but it is possible to see the spiral arms and the bright core, which is known to exhibit an exceptional rate of star formation. However, the galaxy’s main notoriety is that this significant feature should have been overlooked by Messier though, to be fair, he did well with 103 other wonderful objects that I’m still working through.

NGC 2903
WO GT81 + Canon 550D & FF | 10 x 180 sec @ ISO 1,600 | 25th March 2015

Spring Skies

April 12, 2015 by grahamrob in Deep Sky Objects, Imaging, Solar system, Widefield Imaging and tagged Pleiades, Taurus, Venus | Leave a comment

It’s three weeks since the Spring Equinox and two weeks since moving to British Summer Time (BST or daylight saving, GMT+1 hour), the result is that the night sky starts much later in the evening and is rapidly decreasing in length; it is just about six weeks before Astronomical Darkness completely ceases and will not come back until the end of July. In addition, through a combination of European pollution and fine sand from the Sahara drifting over South East England this week, otherwise clear skies were badly obscured by the resulting haze. As a result, since shortly before the full Moon on April 4^th astronomy has not been possible – until last night.

The march of time and annual movements of the Solar System inevitably lead to a significant loss of quantity and quality of darkness at this time of the year.

Taken this morning, the contrails over Fairvale Observatory make a striking picture but together with other pollution are having a significant impact on seeing conditions here at the moment.

In the early evening twilight sky for a brief period between sunset and astronomical darkness, at the moment Venus is low on the western horizon. Last night its apparent position was also close to the Pleiades star cluster, making an attractive widefield photograph. Furthermore, shortly before Venus moved below the horizon and the sky had nearly reached Civil Darkness, the constellation Taurus also became visible to the south west with the bull’s ‘eye’ star Alderbaran and the v-shaped Hyades star cluster clearly evident.

Venus at sunset last night: the Pleiades can only just be seen at 2-o’clock to Venus with Taurus on the far left.

Twenty minutes after sunset shortly before reaching Civil Darkness, the Pleiades and Taurus constellation are now quite clear.

Such a picture is a reminder that it is important to consider photography other than telescopic based planetary and deep sky imaging, especially as viewing and imaging conditions become more limited over the forthcoming Summer period.

Alternative Eclipse

March 20, 2015 by grahamrob in Imaging, Solar system, Viewing and tagged Eclipse, Solar system, Sun | Leave a comment

With astronomy preparation is everything and so with the prospect of a solar eclipse here today I have been getting ready during the past week. I looked at and imaged the Sun using my Skywatcher 150PL and a bespoke solar filter last year. Whilst I was pleased with the results, such is the field-of-view of the 150PL that the resulting image only covers sections of the Sun and a full picture needs to be created using a mosaic; the upside of this is high magnification and therefore better detail of the Sun’s surface. With the prospect of an eclipse I wanted to try and image the entire spectacle this time and therefore constructed a new solar filter to fit my William Optics GT81 refractor telescope, which has a wider field-of-view and all together better optics that would comfortably image the entire Sun.

Using Baader AstroSolar ND 5.00 safety film and some cardboard, I constructed a tube which fits exactly over the end of the telescope, with the film across the front but not stretched. By restricting wavelengths the film removes about 99% of the Sun’s light and allows safe viewing but is very difficult to work with and must be treated carefully to ensure it is not damaged; birds can be attracted to the film’s silver finish and may peck holes in it when fitted, it is therefore important to be aware of such threats and, in my case, I also constructed a cardboard slip to cover the filter when the telescope is left unattended during use. It is also very important to either block off or remove the guidescope and / or finder from the telescope, which without a filter could otherwise also focus on the Sun and either burn out or even worse, cause personal injury.

Home-made solar filter on the William Optics GT81. When used I blocked-off the red dot finder and removed the finder scope in order to attach another home-made Sun finder.

The Players: having constructed the filter and with a clear sky on Wednesday I therefore tried it out and furthermore experimented with exposure settings, with good results. Earlier in the month I had captured an excellent image of the quarter Moon too. So I was ready to go, right? Wrong!

The Moon @ First Quarter | WO GT81 & Canon 700D + FF| 1/100th sec @ ISO 100 | 24th February 2015

GT81 + Canon 700D & Baader ND 5.00 Solar Filter
1/500th sec @ ISO 100 | 18th March 2015

The Sun 1/20th Sec @ ISO 100 | 18th March 2015

The Sun
1/250th Sec @ ISO 100 | 18th March 2015

Despite my best planning it was cloudy here at Fairvale Observatory this morning, something that has been proving a major obstacle to any astronomy all this month. Notwithstanding, I have instead experienced an ‘alternative eclipse’.

First, I recorded the change in light during the eclipse. Though ‘only’ an 85% eclipse here the deterioration in light was very noticeable as well as other features: it got colder and the birds became quieter.

20th March 2015 Eclipse - the sky just after contact at 9.50 a.m.

20th March 2015 Eclipse – the sky at 9.50 a.m. sky just after contact.

Contact + 15 minutes

At maximum 85% eclipse, 9.30 a.m.

Next I ‘looked’ at the progress of the eclipse using Google Sky, which seemed to be very accurate. It was fascinating to note that four other planets were lined up alongside the Sun at the same time, though of course would not be visible in the daytime sky even if it had been clear.

Eclipse as ‘seen’ by Google Sky

Google Sky screenshot.

In between my own real time experience, I watched the BBC coverage of the event which provided some excellent images from the UK and especially from the air off the Faroe Islands where totality occurred.

UK eclipse courtesy if the BBC.

Eclipse totality at 28,000 ft from the Faroe Islands.

Baily's beads in hydrogen-alpha image. Faroe Islands March 2015.

Baily’s beads hydrogen-alpha image. Faroe Islands March 2015.

Diamond Ring hydrogen-alpha image.
Faroe Islands March 2015

An eclipse is astronomy in action and inevitably I’m disappointed not to see and image the actual eclipse here but my alternative eclipse was still interesting and good fun. I was lucky to witness a total eclipse in France in August 1999 so that’s a 50% success rate so far. The next partial eclipse in the UK will be on 12^th August 2026 so I have time to prepare but, of course, will be unable to do anything about the weather again. Fingers crossed then I suppose!

Another perspective. Eclipse 2006, taken from the ISS the Moon’s shadow passes over Turkey at 2,000 kph.

Moons

March 4, 2015 by grahamrob in Solar system and tagged Moon, Solar system | Leave a comment

I am currently halfway through an Open University course on moons. Truth be told, after a less than satisfactory OU course on Orion (actually more a beginner’s guide to the Universe) recently, I had not intended to enrol for the moons course but at the last moment signed up. In comparison, the experience this time has been outstanding: the quality, content and organisation of the course has been exceptional and moons have turned out to be much more interesting than I had expected.

The combination of space travel and much improved earth-based astronomy, has recently led to an explosion in our knowledge of and about moons. As a result there are now at least 176 known moons in the Solar System, with every possibility that this will continue to grow. I have been surprised to learn that the largest moons even exceed the size of some planets. Numerous space missions have provided amazing close-up pictures which show that many of these moons are far more interesting than previously thought, often with the presence of liquid which may even host life and in some cases volcanic activity is evident, including so-called cryo-volcanism – which is a new term to me.

Geological History of the Moon

Since starting DSO imaging in August I have somewhat neglected the Solar System but as last week we eventually started to study The Moon itself, it seemed like a good time to image our nearest neighbour once again. Being just one day before reaching First Quarter, the detail along the Lunar terminator remains very good and I believe has made a beautiful picture. With the Moon now in its waxing gibbous phase, DSO photography will be ruled out for at least another week, so it’s time to catch up with other matters of astronomy and the like and just enjoy our Moon, clear skies permitting.