Without doubt Venus has dominated the evening sky for most of this month and this was particulary so on the evening of April 19th at the Societies Meeting at Pedro Castle.
On this evening the 2 day old Moon and Venus were quite close together. Aldebaran appeared much less brighter than expected and the Plieides were even harder to pick out .
The evening was well attended with ages from 7 to 70+! Over 20 people were present at one point . A blanket also turned up but this was for lying down on rather than for warmth!
After the evening grew darker there was still a fair amount of haze which limited how faint we could see.
The Moon was a pleasent suprise in that the meeting is usually held on the 3rd day after full Moon. This time we saw three bright craters semi illuminated , particulary Vendilus which has a central elevation.
Other objects which were seen easily tonight were the Orion Nebula and of course the M41 Globular Cluster near Sirius
Saturn proved a challenge due to its very high elevation. The Societies 10 inch Donsianain struggled a little not only to keep the planet in th eyepiece but also to keep pace with the sky's movement. Nick deserves a gold star for effort in finding Saturn !
However inspite of these difficulties the queue to see the planet was very long and Saturn was to many the highlight of the evening . Two of Saturns moons were also seen
Richard pointed out the False Southern Cross, we may just see the real one next Month!
One unknown faint satellite (mag 3?) was observerd, initially overhead then fading into Earth Shadow in the West
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Observations March 2007
Firstly on March 3rd was a spectacular Lunar Eclipse. The moon rose at around 6:30 PM Local time but due to the haze close to the horizon wasnt seen untill some 20 minutes later. The reason was that at moonrise the moon was in total eclipse and was dark ruddy brown in colour. At the meeting (22 March see below) there followed a discussion on how the disk became brighter at the point closest to the horizon and not as intuatively expected from the top down
On March 22nd to Meeting At Pedro Castle attacted a good crowd (20+?) all evening inspite of poor cloudy conditions at the start of the session
Observing started with the Moon and Venus, this time trying to pick out the phase of the planet which was possible using a dark blue filter. A bright meteor was spotted at around 7:30 PM heading South West and below the moon. It may have been a Leonid
As the cloud cover lifted the Orion Nebula (M42) and the M41 Globular Cluster were observed
Richards satellite predictions came up trumps when we saw a Mag -3 flash from an Iridium Satellite (Iridium 53). The flash laster for several seconds.
Saturn finally became visible, Using the Societies 8 inch scope as well as Saturns rings, several faint bands were seen on the planets disk as well
A good evening including a fine musical rendition of "Come Take a Trip On My Airship" by Charles Lindbergh Eden
On March 22nd to Meeting At Pedro Castle attacted a good crowd (20+?) all evening inspite of poor cloudy conditions at the start of the session
Observing started with the Moon and Venus, this time trying to pick out the phase of the planet which was possible using a dark blue filter. A bright meteor was spotted at around 7:30 PM heading South West and below the moon. It may have been a Leonid
As the cloud cover lifted the Orion Nebula (M42) and the M41 Globular Cluster were observed
Richards satellite predictions came up trumps when we saw a Mag -3 flash from an Iridium Satellite (Iridium 53). The flash laster for several seconds.
Saturn finally became visible, Using the Societies 8 inch scope as well as Saturns rings, several faint bands were seen on the planets disk as well
A good evening including a fine musical rendition of "Come Take a Trip On My Airship" by Charles Lindbergh Eden
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Observations February 2007
This Months meeting was held on Tuesday 20th Feb 7:00-9:00 PM
The sky was about 40 perecent cloudy but cleared slowly, however the sky still remained quite hazy.
The only telescope involved tonight was the Societys 10 inch Dobsonian - a pair of binoculars were also used
Objects seen tonight were in order
A 3 day old Moon
Saturn with 4 satellite moonsOrion Nebula (M42),
M41 a nice Globular Cluster near Sirius
The Crab Nebula (M1)
Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
The Beehive Cluster (M44)
Scinitillation Of Canopus close to the Southern Horizon
and for a finale another look at the Moon
No artifical satellites were seen , most likely due to the hazy conditions.
In particular however Saturn looked spectacular, 4 Moons being clearly visible.It would be worthwhile next month to attempt to name them and possibly observe any changes between the start and the end of the evening
The most challenging object was the Crab Nebula almost directly overhead in the Sky.
We found the object by using a small personal organiser program and a set of azimuth and elevation markings which were fixed around the base of the 10 inch scope.
Once the object was found we dared not move the Scope!
The object appeared as a very small faint ellipitcal blob at 30x maginification
The Andromeda Nebulaa was quite hard to find, it was well to the West and hidden in the haze of lights from George Town. This time it was spotted ( just) in binoculars and the 10 inch scope was "steered" by following the paths of the laser pens pointed in the rough direction.
For the record the information I used to create the templates for the scope are available at http://www.startrak.co.uk/
Chris
The sky was about 40 perecent cloudy but cleared slowly, however the sky still remained quite hazy.
The only telescope involved tonight was the Societys 10 inch Dobsonian - a pair of binoculars were also used
Objects seen tonight were in order
A 3 day old Moon
Saturn with 4 satellite moonsOrion Nebula (M42),
M41 a nice Globular Cluster near Sirius
The Crab Nebula (M1)
Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
The Beehive Cluster (M44)
Scinitillation Of Canopus close to the Southern Horizon
and for a finale another look at the Moon
No artifical satellites were seen , most likely due to the hazy conditions.
In particular however Saturn looked spectacular, 4 Moons being clearly visible.It would be worthwhile next month to attempt to name them and possibly observe any changes between the start and the end of the evening
The most challenging object was the Crab Nebula almost directly overhead in the Sky.
We found the object by using a small personal organiser program and a set of azimuth and elevation markings which were fixed around the base of the 10 inch scope.
Once the object was found we dared not move the Scope!
The object appeared as a very small faint ellipitcal blob at 30x maginification
The Andromeda Nebulaa was quite hard to find, it was well to the West and hidden in the haze of lights from George Town. This time it was spotted ( just) in binoculars and the 10 inch scope was "steered" by following the paths of the laser pens pointed in the rough direction.
For the record the information I used to create the templates for the scope are available at http://www.startrak.co.uk/
Chris
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Observations Jan 2007
Mondays Meeting on Monday 23 January (Heros Day- Bank Holiday) was well attended. The day had been particualry clear but by 7:30PM significant cloud cover had appeared.
If the cloud present at 7:30 had been the same at 6:00 PM the meeting would have probably been scrubbed.In any case we were lucky that night as seen on the objects we saw below.
Equipment Used
Societys 10 inch Dobsonian
1 set of equatorially mounted binoculars supplied by Mike
1 set of binoculars on tripod Mark
Sateliite Predictions by Richard
Objects Seen- More or less in order
3 Day Old Moon
Venus
Orion Nebula (M42)
The Pleiades star cluster, (also known as the Seven Sisters and M45)
2 Meteors
Various Sateliites but especially the TRMM i.e the Tropical Rain Monitoring Mission.
Andromedia Galaxy (M31 or NGC224)
M41 A Nice Globuar Cluster nor far from Sirius
Canopus light refraction patterns low on the Southern Horizon.
Saturn ( rising just before 9 PM)
Comments
The Meteors were interesting in that they were bright - the one I saw was travelling West towards Cassiopia, Any ideas? I thought perhaps it might be a "Alpha Hydrid", there are no significant showers in January that are visible to us at that time .
Canopus is not visible from more Northern Latitudes so it is of some interest to vistors from those latitudes, eg UK, Canada and Northern US
One question raised at the meeting was that light seen that night from M31 took 2.5 million years to arrive so just what did the earth look like then?
Well hold your beath, (literally) because the Earth was at the start of the Proterozoic Era . The only life (?!!) at this time was algae slime, some of which had started to photosynthesize, thus only just beginning to add oxygen into the atmosphere,
If the cloud present at 7:30 had been the same at 6:00 PM the meeting would have probably been scrubbed.In any case we were lucky that night as seen on the objects we saw below.
Equipment Used
Societys 10 inch Dobsonian
1 set of equatorially mounted binoculars supplied by Mike
1 set of binoculars on tripod Mark
Sateliite Predictions by Richard
Objects Seen- More or less in order
3 Day Old Moon
Venus
Orion Nebula (M42)
The Pleiades star cluster, (also known as the Seven Sisters and M45)
2 Meteors
Various Sateliites but especially the TRMM i.e the Tropical Rain Monitoring Mission.
Andromedia Galaxy (M31 or NGC224)
M41 A Nice Globuar Cluster nor far from Sirius
Canopus light refraction patterns low on the Southern Horizon.
Saturn ( rising just before 9 PM)
Comments
The Meteors were interesting in that they were bright - the one I saw was travelling West towards Cassiopia, Any ideas? I thought perhaps it might be a "Alpha Hydrid", there are no significant showers in January that are visible to us at that time .
Canopus is not visible from more Northern Latitudes so it is of some interest to vistors from those latitudes, eg UK, Canada and Northern US
One question raised at the meeting was that light seen that night from M31 took 2.5 million years to arrive so just what did the earth look like then?
Well hold your beath, (literally) because the Earth was at the start of the Proterozoic Era . The only life (?!!) at this time was algae slime, some of which had started to photosynthesize, thus only just beginning to add oxygen into the atmosphere,
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Observations Dec 2006
The Meeting at Pedros Castle on the 27th of Decemeber was Cloudy .
However December wasnt all bad news!
On the 13th the CUC kindly provided a lights out moment which coincided with the Gemind Meteor Maximum. I saw 6 in all but its possible some people could have seen many more.
Chris Cooke
However December wasnt all bad news!
On the 13th the CUC kindly provided a lights out moment which coincided with the Gemind Meteor Maximum. I saw 6 in all but its possible some people could have seen many more.
Chris Cooke
Observations Nov 2006
From the AGM held for the first time since Hurricane Ivan, It was decided to start a record of past observations made at our Monthly meetings– this may be helpful in deciding what to look out for in future years! True to form November’s meeting at Pedro Castle on the 26th was cloudy – but a one event this Month is worth a mention to get things started.On November the 8th a rare transit of Mercury occurred, a day time event which was based at Smiths Cove on the Iron shore. Visibly was very good with only some partial cloud cover. Both Mike and I bought telescopes with suitable solar filters – Mike Whiteman also bought his small Coronado PST with H Alpha (Hydrogen) filter. A toy worthy of any on an Astronomers Santa list! The scope showed a large prominence which was not visible in the other scopes. Mercury was in fact a very small object dwarfed by Sunspots.
Here is a photo I took on the day, very poor quality yet quite remarkable what a simple digital camera can do – taken straight through the eyepiece. There is a sunspot visible upper right in the picture. Mercury is hard to find! Can you see it?
Chris
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