The sky in March was obscured by cloud, although we did go down to the castle.
April's night, while looking just as bad in the early evening, did clear up, allowing us to view the brightest objects in the hazy sky. My attempt at finding the Beehive Cluster was thwarted, however.
A good number of people attended, much to my surprise given the initial conditions.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
January and February 2009
Needless to say the meeting itself was a washout- at least it didnt rain.
A few night before however Nick and I managed some good viewing from a "local" back garden. Always entertaining there with lots of small creatures keeping us company.
Nick was very patient with my attempts to webcam a variety of objects through the 8inch scope. Two photos are shown here
- one of venus ( actaully this one is with my ETX a few nights later).
- the other is actually some stars in the Orion Nebula taken that night - goodness knows which ones though.
Mercury Jupiter and finally Venus were quite spectacular over these Months. Even last night (21st Feb) people were finally noticing that "bright star" in the evening sky.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
December 30th 2008
The weather finally allowed us a viewing, although the lawn at the castle proved to be unavailable to us.
However, we set up further down the bluff and had a somewhat surprisingly good attendance.
Thanks Nick, Ive been a bit tardy of late updating the logs-, Your comments are very understated! We arrived at Pedros on the night BEFORE New Years Eve with a huge light show rehersal about to start. After some negociating I lost completley - being offered a bill of around $200 and hour for the lighting crew to postpone their tests. So we upped and went up the dirt track further past the castle onto the bluff (cliff) itself . I cant actually remember what we saw that night but it was an excellent evening especially from the point if visibility, and of course no light show Certainly we saw the Andromeda Nebula as Richard and I had a debate on the actual distance in light years!
Some meteors were spotted as well as a couple of satellites. The Orion Nebula was very spectacular I remember too.
Self imposed note - Must try harder to record the events of the night!
However, we set up further down the bluff and had a somewhat surprisingly good attendance.
Thanks Nick, Ive been a bit tardy of late updating the logs-, Your comments are very understated! We arrived at Pedros on the night BEFORE New Years Eve with a huge light show rehersal about to start. After some negociating I lost completley - being offered a bill of around $200 and hour for the lighting crew to postpone their tests. So we upped and went up the dirt track further past the castle onto the bluff (cliff) itself . I cant actually remember what we saw that night but it was an excellent evening especially from the point if visibility, and of course no light show Certainly we saw the Andromeda Nebula as Richard and I had a debate on the actual distance in light years!
Some meteors were spotted as well as a couple of satellites. The Orion Nebula was very spectacular I remember too.
Self imposed note - Must try harder to record the events of the night!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Wednesday 3rd September 2008
The meeting started at 7:30 PM - The sky wasnt promising showing a lot of haze. After comparing this session with last years - there was a lot of objects to beat!
Nick wasnt able to make the evening either but around 5 people turned up in the end including Richard who seemed to say he wasnt going to stay.. We were also joined at close proximity by the Mosqueto Plane, so close infact I actually covered up the Scope to stop unpleasent precipitation on the mirror!!
The early Evening allowed us to see Venus and Mars but no Mercury. Mars was very small (Subsequent evenings were a lot clearer and there was a nice "triangle" of Mercury , Mars and Venus seen for several days)
As the sky grew darker and inspite of the haze the Milky Way became quickly visible and the sky was especially clear in Sagittarius- allowing us to see the Steam from the "Teapot" very clearly
Next up was Jupiter and we were lucky to see Europa appear from "no where".
The Septembers edition of Sky and Telescope shows this as Sept 4 0:43 II.Ec.R.
The 0:43 is easy as its GMT, so - 5 hours gives us 7:43 PM
II stands for Europa
Ec is the object is in Eclipse by Jupiters Shadow
R stands for Reappears!
Also seen was the Red Spot, seen with a good high powered eyepiece and averted vision- but clearly seen all the same! The sky although hazy was obviuolsy giving us very stable viewing conditions
Our viewing then turned to Sagittarius, objects M22 , The Lagoon Nebula M8 were seen, including the Dust lane in M8. A quick trip to the Scorpians tail gave us and the Ptolomys Cluster (M7) and the Butterfly Nebula (M6)
After this we saw The Ring Nebula in Lyra and of course Alberio the famous double star in Cygnus.
A number of sparodic meteors were seen (September Perseids or from Auriga ? ) as were a few satellites waited for and observed.
However the prize of the evening was right at the end- an Iridium Flare at 20:24 PM - at Mag -2 although it seemed brighter. A nice end to the Evening
Nick wasnt able to make the evening either but around 5 people turned up in the end including Richard who seemed to say he wasnt going to stay.. We were also joined at close proximity by the Mosqueto Plane, so close infact I actually covered up the Scope to stop unpleasent precipitation on the mirror!!
The early Evening allowed us to see Venus and Mars but no Mercury. Mars was very small (Subsequent evenings were a lot clearer and there was a nice "triangle" of Mercury , Mars and Venus seen for several days)
As the sky grew darker and inspite of the haze the Milky Way became quickly visible and the sky was especially clear in Sagittarius- allowing us to see the Steam from the "Teapot" very clearly
Next up was Jupiter and we were lucky to see Europa appear from "no where".
The Septembers edition of Sky and Telescope shows this as Sept 4 0:43 II.Ec.R.
The 0:43 is easy as its GMT, so - 5 hours gives us 7:43 PM
II stands for Europa
Ec is the object is in Eclipse by Jupiters Shadow
R stands for Reappears!
Also seen was the Red Spot, seen with a good high powered eyepiece and averted vision- but clearly seen all the same! The sky although hazy was obviuolsy giving us very stable viewing conditions
Our viewing then turned to Sagittarius, objects M22 , The Lagoon Nebula M8 were seen, including the Dust lane in M8. A quick trip to the Scorpians tail gave us and the Ptolomys Cluster (M7) and the Butterfly Nebula (M6)
After this we saw The Ring Nebula in Lyra and of course Alberio the famous double star in Cygnus.
A number of sparodic meteors were seen (September Perseids or from Auriga ? ) as were a few satellites waited for and observed.
However the prize of the evening was right at the end- an Iridium Flare at 20:24 PM - at Mag -2 although it seemed brighter. A nice end to the Evening
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday 4th August - Pedros
I was off Island (Chris) but Nick went down as usual. Inspite of the hazy hot weather good crowd turned up many of them visitors to the Island and a good range of ages too
A successful but dry evening!
A successful but dry evening!
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