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Astronomy is contagious!

April 29, 2013

by yaska77

The great thing about astronomy is that anyone with a sky over their heads can get involved. You don’t need a truckload of expensive gear, just an interest and a modicum of patience will get you a long way!

Soon after I got my camera and started posting images on this blog, Mick Judd (a talented photographer who I happen to work with) also began skywatching, and he has captured some great shots with limited “astro-specific” equipment.

After we recently discussed the upcoming penumbral eclipse on 25th April (see our images here) Mick went home and over the course of a few evenings has produced the following short video, which we hope you enjoy.

We think it’s great, and just the sort of thing we hope will help others catch the astronomy bug! But how did he do it?  I’ll let him explain that himself!

“To capture the images I used two different eyepieces on a D=60mm F=700mm telescope; an H20 to fit the whole of the moon in the frame and an HF6 for the close-ups of the lunar surface and for Saturn. To attach the camera (a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S mobile phone) I drilled a hole in the middle of a plastic lid from a can of hair mousse, and glued it around the lens hole on the phone’s protective case.

Slotting the plastic lid over the eyepiece housing on the telescope and pushing it into place, it’s then a bit of hit and miss with lining up what I can see in the finder scope with what I can see on the phone’s display. The Xperia Arc S has a lot of camera settings so it’s just a matter of adjusting EV levels and using a bit of digital zoom to fill the frame to avoid seeing the round edge of the eyepiece.

To try and make sure that I capture something that is sharp I slightly tweak the scope’s focus every now and then between shots. The Sunspots were viewed through an additionally fitted Solar filter.  All the footage in the video was captured between 15th and 27th April 2013.”

Top work Judd bloke, and an ingenious set up!

You can see more of Mick’s photos on his Flickr page here

Now everyone get outdoors and enjoy the night sky! :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Eclipse, Moon, Saturn, Sun, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Penumbral eclipse, full moon, no clouds!?

April 25, 2013

by yaska77

It’s been a very slow couple of months of late. The British weather is infamous the world over, and not only have we just experienced the first real warmth of spring, but an abundance of evening clouds have kept many a garden astro indoors.

The signs were good this evening however, there was a penumbral eclipse on the April Full Moon (as noted in our April Astro Guide), and not a cloud in the sky! What madness was this!?

Penumbral Eclipse 25042013 21.07 BST Sky-Watching.co.uk

Taken with a Canon Eos 550D and a 250mm lens mounted to a fixed tripod, the penumbral eclipse is visible over the top left edge of the full Moon (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Some time ago the spotter scope on my telescope was knocked out of alignment, so combined with the clouds it’s been a shamefully long time since I used it.

Looking on this evening as a chance to at least re-align the spotter scope (even if the Moon would not rise high enough to see any of the partial eclipse), I set up and found my fence was just low enough for the scope to catch it before the shadow passed!

Penumbral Eclipse 25042013 21.22 BST Sky-Watching.co.uk

Now mounted to my Sky-Watcher 200P Telescope, the partial eclipse is still a visible shadow over the northern edge of the Full Moon (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

So finally we’ve had an astronomical event that the clouds missed. But not by much I can tell you, an hour after these photos were taken the Moon was enveloped behind a blanket of cloud.

So we do get a break once in a while after all :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Eclipse, Moon, Night sky, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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Perseid Meteor Shower – 12th August 2012

August 12, 2012

by yaksa77

After the dress rehearsal for this morning’s Perseid meteor shower peak provided so many sightings on Friday I had hight hopes. Never one to conform to expectations though, the run up to the peak was decidely slow starting and a bit lacklustre!

Undeterred by this, or the stubborn refusal of evening cloud to move on, I still set out just gone midnight to the Wye Downs in mid-Kent. Despite only capturing a few flashes with the camera eventually the show sparked into life, and in just over an hour I saw 33 meteors!

Taken using a Canon EOS 550D at 18mm focal length, f/3.5, 20 second exposure at ISO-1600 – 12th August 2012 (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

This is probably the best of the photos I got while out in the countryside, I love the way the meteor flashed into view right in the middle of a gap in the clouds.

The Pleiades cluster is also nice and bright, and you can see Jupiter is just rising at the base of the fence post directly below the meteor!

This one shows a nice long clear Perseid tail with more definition to the shape at the end of the streak, heading away from Andromeda – 12th August 2012 (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

After a few hours I packed up and headed home to find the skies had cleared over my house. Not wanting to miss the opportunity I set up again and caught a few more (the best of which are above and below). In the image above the Perseid can be seen streaking away from an oval smudge that is the Andromeda galaxy.

I’m so pleased that after my disappointment with the faint efforts I got last year, over the last two nights I’ve caught some nice clear examples of one of nature’s most beautiful free displays!

Another clear Perseid streak, this time with a faint green tint to the tail! 12th August 2012 (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

I’m not sure what the weather forecast is for this evening but the shower should still be fairly strong, and I feel on a bit of a roll at the moment so may just set the camera up again tonight.

Well, I wouldn’t want to miss anything would I!? :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Meteor, Night sky, Space, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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Warming up to the Perseid show

August 11, 2012

by yaska77

As you probably know, the annual Perseid meteor shower peaks this evening (check our monthly guide for some more info) but because it was clear last night I set up my camera in the garden, more out of hope than expectation.

My history of trying to photograph meteors has been sketchy at best (see last years attempt here) but last night I was left grinning like a cheshire cat!

18mm focal length, f/3.5, 15 sec exposure at ISO1600 – This is easily the best meteor photo i’ve taken (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

I approach photography with a “try lots of settings and see” kind of attitude, and I’ve found what works initially may not look as good an hour later (light pollution quite often gives me orange skies if I don’t pay attention). Normally I wouldn’t have the ISO as high as 1600 for long exposure star shots, but anything lower was producing too much of an orange tint.

Still, I’m very pleased with the shot above, lots of stars, a bright Perseid meteor flash and it’s not too faded.  The other shots I caught weren’t as clear, but one did stand out as the meteor flashed by a cool little cluster that you can’t usually see with the naked eye (unless you’re lucky enough to have dark skies!)

Another Perseid meteor flashes past Brocchi’s Cluster (the upside down coat hanger!) in this cropped image from early on 11th August 2012 (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Brocchi’s Cluster can be found within the imagined lines of the “Summer Triangle“, about a third of the way from Altair in a straight line to Vega.  It’s also known as the “Coathanger” for obvious reasons!

And so on to this evening.  My camera’s batteries are charging, the tripod is ready and the weather forecast is (currently) still favourable, so I’m planning a little trip out of town tonight to slightly darker skies. It’s building up to be a good show, and if I get any more images I’ll post them here!

And if you capture any photos of your own, please feel free to tweet them to us as we’d love to see them!

Enjoy the show :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Meteor, Night sky, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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Transit of Venus 2012 – My “last in our lifetime” washout (but with a silver lining…)

June 6, 2012

by yaska77

The alarm went off just after 4am this morning. Dragging myself to the window in the hope last night’s rain had passed and the sky would allow unrestricted access to the transit of Venus, I drew back the curtains to find a dull cloudy grey blanket with occasional downpours of rain.

On June 5 2012, SDO captured this image of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/SDO, HMI

I waited up for half an hour to see if there was any sign of improvement, and if anything it rained more.

While the images already being posted online in their hundreds provide a great catalogue of this special event, I personally lucked out again thanks to the British weather.

Typically, when I got up later the clouds were breaking and the Sun could be seen.  I’m prepared to admit I spent rather a lot of time making a homemade solar filter for my camera using Baader AstroSolar Safety Film, so I was certainly not going to waste a chance to at least test it.

By cutting a hole of equal size in two squares of card, you can then fix the solar film between them, then make a collar for your lens by wrapping strips of card around it and then fixing it to the filter square (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The next image that follows is bittersweet for me. Sweet in the fact that I’ve been able to image the Sun using a standard zoom lens on my Canon Eos 550D for the first time, but bitter because is shows I could clearly have captured the Venus transit this morning if only the weather had played ball.

C’est la vie.

Shot from my own back garden, the sunspots match those in the SDO image at the top, so I could have captured my own bit of history (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Sadly my image is missing the very important detail of the planet Venus during transit, as the sunspots match those seen in the SDO image released by NASA.  If only it could have held out for a few more hours (ha!) I’d have got it, and with some degree of clarity too. Not to be seen again until 2117…

Using this solar filter however has sparked an idea, one which will require some more sunspot activity but also a week of good weather with clear skies at about the same time of the day for several days in a row.

I’d like to show the relative movement of similar massive sunspots over a short period of time.

So should this come to fruition the transit blocking clouds may well have had a silver lining :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Space, Sun, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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