Fire! Fire! Fire!

It was to be a night of star gazing and discovery...
A galatic Adventure.
A Journey in space and time...
A shed caught fire instead.

Tonight was a tad random, as we were set to head out tomorrow (tomorrow being a Tuesday.) A quick check on Metcheck revealed that tonight (tonight being a Monday) was to be the only good night for at least a week, maybe even two, for my region at least.

Without any foreward planning we setup, tonight later than normal (Wayne didnt phone me til gone six, and didnt get here to gone seven, so we didnt set up til gone 8). But, unplanned, rather than concetrate on a single spot or constellation like we have been, or trying! We decided to aim at an area of space that was nice and dark, plug in the 25mm, and simply enjoy.

We where looking at stars we wouldnt see via the naked eye, maybe for the first time (for me at least) and as said above, it was random spotting, so I simply moved the mount controls and had a good search, and enjoyed the splender and beauty of the universe. I now think its a good thing to sometimes do this, unaided, unplanned and just sit back and enjoy what the universe wants to show you.

This moment of joy and glory was brought to a rather sudden tonight, about 22:00, just gone Wayne said, "I can smell a bonfire, whos having a bonfire at this time of night?". "That can't be a bonfire," Said me, smelling it myself, "It way to late."

Thats when we saw the flames, and then the explosion, lucky not a huge one, but enought to get me and Wayne dialing 999. (This was seconds after smelling it.)

A second "pop" or small explosion, captured on phone camera.

Wayne had more phone charge, and gave the fire brigade directions, as it was quite a remote spot. With what battery I had left took two pictures, (one is above, the other, below!)
I watched in horror as two people went right up to and it gave off another explosion, lucky no one was hurt and the people soon got the message and left alone, Wayne told me it was his next neighbours shed, lucky the houses and gardens were divded by a driveway and small parking area, otherwise I wouldnt have been watching. Wayne quicky dashed over to the telescope and fitted the lens caps and then moving it to a safer spot!

The fire in full swing, I caught this picture just before my phone's battery ran out.

The fire caught on very quickly, the fence which the shed backed onto was soon ablaze, wayne pointed out, if the whole fence was to go and the fire was to edge its way towards the house, the neighbours had a shoddly built extension made of wood and plastic, not great in the situation I thought. But, out inital quick thinking dialing 999 the fire brigade were soon there and not long after I found out how lucky I was to not be hurt, the fire brigade guys pulled out two large gas canisters, they soon drowned them in water. Soon the police were there, myself and Wayne did our civic duty and reported to them what we saw/heard, as we pretty much saw it from the start, we got a thank you for calling 999 and the nice chap from the police said they found aerosoles around the area, with the notion that charming teens we're playing with more than they should.

The main thing is, no one is hurt, I think Waynes neighbour is not going to be impressed with the mess their garden is now in, but at least everyone is safe.

Night of the Living Deadplanes

Strange title huh? There is a reason for it, I swear tonight we saw at least 2 dozen plans fly overhead, one even came into view while looking though the telescope, what a lovely undersection it was, all planelike with flashy lights and everything! Basically, there was way to many planes up there tonight.

Far too many of these for some reason.

Anyhow, tonight was both a sucess I feel, but also a dissapointment. Dissapointed because its become clear that Orion is becoming difficult to view from our current spot and that light pollution tonight was too high. We really wanted to learn Orion before moving on to a new constellation, but we feel we simply have to wait for it again later this year to go indepth. But of course, this led to new goals, we turn our attention onto Ursa Major. It was in a nice unlit portion of the sky for us, and spends some time above where we are, so that seems to be the good one to go with, hopefully by next post, we'll have some more indepth views, ideas and me just talking on and on and on. I consider this a good sign, cutting the loses so to speak and continue are learning of the stars. So tonight really wasnt nothing more than picking intresting stars or checking Starry Night 6 to see if we could home in on various items. While checking the piece of software, we find out The Whirlpoor galaxy. (Fact Fans: its M51 spiral galaxy, thats 'interacting' with a smaller galaxy, its face on to us, its companion galaxy is NGC5195).

Picture of M51 (From NASA).

Armed with location, (again for fact fans: its in constellation Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs of Bootes) we learn that its a staggering 37mly away. Thats a long way, I mean, a really long way, I know its technically a water drop in the universe itself, but 37mly?! It was a challenge thats for sure! After some familer viewing of our old pal Saturn, which appears to now be a regular view everytime we go out, simply because its amazing to look at no matter how many times you view, plus we're so good at finding it now, we can aim the scope in seconds! We then move on to try and find M51. Im reading up my books and information, its not meant to be that hard to find, and with my power scope, we should at least be able to make out its shape. Ideally a stronger scope is needed to see the arms and generally more detail, but we were confident we will see something.

Wayne really did prove hes somekind of virtual satnav of the stars when it comes to finding things, it didnt take long at all to find it. Looking though the telescope, we could clearly make out the bright centers, and although we couldnt pick out much detail, we could see, what looked a cloud that surrounded them in the shape of the galaxy, some checking up on angles and whatnot (yep, we even check things now!) we are assured we found the Spiral Galaxy, with a joyful glee we look on.

There is not much else to post for tonight, as it seemed the light was really against us, there was alot we wanted to see, but couldnt. But we are confident and will continue, not only to look but also learning as we go.

Its great that with each passing week we are learning something new, everytime we go out, even prepared, we find something that just blows our minds, but we have the power to research, and discover what it was, and next time, we know that little bit more. From stars, galaxys, nebulas and even telescope usage, we learning every step of the way, and its bag loads of fun! Hopefully my next post on star gazing will be a bit more indepth Ursa Major plus a load of random stuff, because thats always fun to find! Also, we're going to look for a new spot and we are going meet up with one of the local clubs and learn even more, its going to be fun!

4th Night into the Great unknown!

Tonight we tried to be a bit more selective in our viewing, and try and discover and learn the stars piece by piece, rather than "Wow! whats that!", ok, that still happened, but the start of the evening was planned, honest!

This evening we stuck to observing Orion, its main features and discovering things inside Orion we dont see by the naked eye. With reference card and Planispehere in hand, we set up and turn towards Orion.

Since my last post, Ive learnt alot about magnification and how it works, we ran a short test night before, just outside my flat on the stars confirming that it isnt going up in lens size (ie, 20 to 30 to 40mm and so on) but the other way (20 to 10 to 5mm etc) sucessful test, wasnt much else to write about, as we pretty much only set up for 10 minutes, if that.

Back to tonight and return to Waynes mum garden, we aim up, (side note: red dot finder is a joy to use) and we bring Betelgeuse into view once again. (For fact fans, Betelgeuse is some 430 light years away and its so large astronomers have been able to map out its survice.)

We've used Betelgeuse as a start point all the times we've been out now, its quite a distinct star, its easy to point out and easy to find. Plus seeing as tonight we're staying with Orion, it seemed a great idea to start with its giant red star. We then move on to Orions belt, and in turn pulled all three stars into view, Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak. Alnitak with stayed with the longest, a bright double star that looked simply stunning on the scope. Going down slightly, on to what I believe is nicknamed "Orion's Sword", those 3 very faint stars just under Orions belt, little did we know the treat it had in store for us! The faint shape of Orions Nebula! (or M42) we could make out the shape and "the cloud" that made up the nebula, it was then we relised, we really should be looking into getting filters. so that item is now on my research and shop list.

This fantastic picture of Orions Nebula is one of Hubble's photos.

Of course, if your going to view Orion, you as well take a peek at Sirius the brightest star in our sky, also known as the "Dogstar" is even more beatiful though the telescope, it was so bright in the view finder, it "bleached" out everyother star around it, its center a bright white with a pulsing blue outer rim, albeit of course, its a binary star system, so the blue lights may have belonged to Sirius B, the white dwarf star.

Having fun mapping out Orion as we did, the curse of the inner city was upon us again, the bottom part had already started to creep behind the houses, and the top was quickly following. Oddly enough, it wasnt until I started doing all this do I notice how fast these things are moving, they appear even more faster trying to view them!

Of course, the night sky tonight had a full Moon, so, as Orion sunk below the rooftops, we turn our gaze onto the Moon, on the downside, we learn tonight my supplied Moon Filter, simply wasnt any good (better one now on order) we couldnt just look at the moon, it was too bright and hurt our eyes! Its a shame, because what we did see, the telescope showed fantastic detail, better than last time, but we simply couldnt enjoy it, which was a shame, because I was really looking forward to a full moon and identifying features and mapping it out for myself, however like I just mentioned, we were able to order a new filter, so next full moon, we'll hopefully be better prepared, unless my order comes tomorrow, then im sure me and Wayne will grab a sneaky look, ya know, to test things.

The Moon led to another problem, I dont know about the rest of the country, but it lit the sky up really well, hiding other stars, with a sigh, we admit defeat to the moon, but next time coming out with a better filter! And hopefully getting the rest of Orion, before moving onto the next constellation, either way, its fun!

3rd Night out, and a new scope already!

Tonight is a bit of an odd one, as it wasnt planned as normal, you see a couple of days ago I treated myself to some new bits and bobs, and today a FedEx van came to my place and delievered it all. Basically, what I started off with was this;
I knew when I got it, it wasnt going to set the world alight, it was a 76mm Newt on a Azimuth mount, little though it was, it did do a great job, however it was clear that something else a bit bigger would be the order of the day, so from that little scope, we move on to this;
Its a Skywatcher 130PM, on a EQ2 mount, after alot of fiddling around we manage to set the mount up correctly, and its been an absolute joy to use, not only is everything clearer (its a 6" so more light for a start) the mount makes tracking a breeze, after a while setting up, this really was a joy to use.

It was quite a jump, and the new scope is excellent, but the Drapper will still have a home here, as we do more star gazing, we seem to attract friends and family, so the Drapper will make a great scope for everybody to use, well, anybody who comes along and wants to try out a scope. They will be on their own when it comes to the finder scope, I still havent got my head around that thing and the new one has a red dot finder making the whole finding process so much easier, we even got the red dot in the center, properly! (Again, like my first post, read the manual, we honestly didnt have a clue until we did!)

I tried to take some pictures using my mobile phone, here they are, completely piss poor, but I shall share them anyway.
This was meant to be Wayne next to the new scope with the old scope behind it, it, erm, didnt quite work, the only light we had, as you can see was his mums secruity light they use for the back garden (we switch this off completely when spotting, we use it when setting up). For want of a camera flash.
This is "meant" to be the half moon we had tonight, again taken with a mobile phone (just pointing upwards) its complete pants, but at least its our own photo!

Most of tonight was the setup and learning of the new scope, I found the EQ style mount a real joy to use, viewing stars for longer without having to re-adjust all the time was a real pleasure.

We did compare the scopes with each other, mainly by lining up on areas we already know and seeing what the difference in quaility is like. Again we pick on Saturn, we cant get tired of the ringed gas giant, always a beautiful sight to behold, and in the new scope we picked up at least 3 of her moons clearly.

Our flashing oddity was back from last time, in roughly the same area of sky, but this time not flashing as violent, although still quite bright and you could still see its colour changes by the naked eye.

Next time we go out, we're going to make a point of only tracking certain items, ie, to make a goal, say for example, view and log Orion, logging it down properly and taking the time to study the constellation before moving onto a new target, thats the plan anyway!

Dave

Second night star spotting, and oh so clear!

Great! It was another wonderfully clear night, fantastic time to go star spotting. This time I had the joy of taking my partner and my daughter along for part of it. Again, we had to our friends mums backgarden, although we are thinking of finding other areas, we figured the safety of the garden which was fenced in, plus a nice warm house is better (and safer) for our little ones, Jessica (my lil daughter) is only 4, so safety was top concern, as well as warmth when needed. Our car-able friend, who I shall name now, because its easier to write his name each time, Wayne, also brought along his partner. He was looking forward to bringing his daughter, who is slightly older than Jessica, but was down with the chicken pox.

After such a great first night, I was keen to see what the Universe could show me tonight, and she did me proud. Tonight was fantastic. Even down to the cups of coffee coming out.

Tonight I came a bit more prepared, well, it turns not as well as I hoped, but still better than last time, I came with pen, paper and a red/low light torch as well as references and charts. My copy of Starry Night 6 had by this point already came in the post, after having spent some time learning how it worked, I sat down to mark various places to see. Im quite impressed with the Starry Night software, it took a little bit longer to get around it, but in the end, well worth it.

Anyways, on to our adventure in the stars. We setup alot earier this evening, around 7pm we had the scope set up and ready to go, we started at this time because we wanted to catch Venus before she dissappeared.

Although only a cresent Venus, it was still wonderful.

As you can see in the picture here. (Again, not ours, but this is pretty much bang on). We didnt see the whole planet, we saw the cresent Venus at roundabout 1915 hours, she was still a wonderful planet to spot, albeit only part of her. Its a shame she moves quite quickly, as she was out of our viewable range in about half an hour, again we could have possibly of seen her longer, but alas peoples houses get in the way, the curse of inner-city living.

Next place to spot was the Moon, above Venus and slightly to the left of where we were, although again, not a full Moon, but in her Waxing Cresent phase, but still the brightest object up there by miles. We home in onto the moon, now sadly, ive never seen the Moon for myself, aside from videos/pictures/websites etc, so this was my first time viewing it.

The Waxing Cresent of the Moon.

I was really quite surprized on how much detail our telescope was able to view, I was quite simply in Awe. The best bit, before I go on, is when we got Jessica to have a look, me and Wayne lined up the scope, while my partner picked her up so she could see though the lens. We first explained to Jessica what she was about to see before we showed her, as soon as she saw the brilliant view, my 4 year old angel gasped and said "oh my!" She didnt turn from the scope straight away either, instead getting a good look at the Moon, be a great one to tell her school friends come Monday! At this point, everyone wants to take a peek, so my Partner, then Waynes Partner, Jessica again, then Waynes mum all want a peek at our Moon. Which is both great, but, I wanna see it toooooo! But no matter, afterall, other people getting intrested can only be a good thing. I get my chance to see, I was looking at the Mare Imbrium area, I could quite clearly see Cassini and its "dimple", as well as a whole host of impact craters on it surface. But the details was amazing, I could clearly make out the shadows, cracks, holes, lumps etc. I am so looking forward to a full moon now, its unreal, I really want to see everything it can show me.

Now getting on for part eight o'clock, we aim South and we get Sirius into view, its quite surprizing that we didnt get this last time, considering how bright it is. I didnt know quite how bright Sirius was until I viewed it. We were getting in the same portion of space as our faithful friend from last time, Saturn. It was way past Jessicas bed time and she was getting tired (grumps had started to set it) so I thought what a great way to end the night for her than a glimpse of the yellow gas giant, Saturn itself. As before, me and Wayne aim the scope, while my Partner holds up to the lens, after a small paddy of her not seeing anything, she finally saw Saturn and its Rings, albeit a bit flatter today than last time, but still quite viewable, with the added bonus of what appears to be some of her larger moons in view. Tonight must have made an impact on her, as tired and grumpy as she was, she didnt want to go home and wanted to look some more, so maybe ive started something here! But, school tomorrow and bed she must go, I stayed behind in the backgarden while Wayne kindly got Jessica and my poor suffering partner home. Wayne was quite keen to get back, as we appeared to start finding... oddities...

It was roughly this point, waiting for Wayne to return, I watched the moon myself for a while as it dissappeared behind the houses, I text my other friend Jumile, who has been out himself with his binos looking at Venus and the Moon. After Waynes return, we're now getting on past nine o'clock, Wayne spots a glittering star West of our postion, so we "tune" in as it was.

This is were we lack research now and entering the "unprepared zone", some may argue this is best bits, not knowing what stuff is, at first the glittering star is a nice white center with greens and reds dancing around the outside, it was quite some distance out, thats for sure, we had no idea what we were looking at, however clever old stick me, whos brought his pen and paper out mark down location and time, and when we got back, we did some research in both Starry Night and Stellarium. Cross referening both sets of information we had from both programs, we narrowed down to one possibility, we saw the Great Andromeda Nebula.

Great Andromeda Nebula

Of course, what we saw was no where near as clear as this picture, however as soon as we did see it, before we even knew what it was, we kinda agreed we need a bigger scope! Even before we knew what we were looking at, finding blinking stars or stars doing odd things quite exciting, the not knowing of what it was, was sort of appealing, so we go on to hunt down another.

Getting on for 21:15 hours, we find a lovely glittering suspect in the Eastern sky, a lovely big star, which appeared to be the same as the Nebula, however again, it wasnt til we got home and able to check out our information where we able to tell what we were looking at, and after alot of disscussion, and we're still 100% sure, but we believe we hit upon the star of Vindemiatrix. A bright star in the Virgo constellation. (Apprently, it means Grape Gatherer, in case anyone wondered...)

Wayne was quite keen to go back to Saturn for a while, as we were sure some of its moons were in view, plus the fact it was familier ground again, and plus another fact, Saturn is a joy to behold.
Plus a 3rd fact, Waynes got really good at finding her. We could see smaller objects around Saturn, best guess I feel would be her larger moons doing a show for us, Titan was some ways out according to our Software, although we could see smaller items, I think Titan was just too far and too dark to be seen, Titan was also quite a distance from Saturn at the moment anyway. so I believe at the moment, Titan is a no-no. Doesnt mean it will be like that forever tho ;)

Roughly 22:00 hours, we see an extremely bright, colour changing object between Southwest and West, without hesitation, we set the scope up to view our new found object.

We've never seen something so bright, yet so, for a better word, frantic. It was close to the Orion Constelation, to the left of it infact, but quite low down. It was a dazzling array of color, ranging from purples, reds, blues, greens. Jokingly I said it must be a star on acid, but it was something thats for sure, by this time, im texting Jumile to get him looking out that way, some suggestions were flying back and forth. Jumile hinted that it may have been Procyon a Binary star in Canis Minor. Some checking on various Software later revealed that Procyon was too high for what we were looking at, what we saw didnt appear to be listed the software we were using, including Starry Night 6. Some investigation was needed! Some searching on the web, we found a discussion board talking about a strange star recently found with various world sightings, some possible theorys on what it is but nothing solid. Another discussion board appears to be talking about the same thing. But one thing was for sure, we couldnt find anything solid on what it was. The view however, was amazing, it lit up my entire scope viewfinder, blocking out light from anything else. The light was quite intense at one point Wayne even remarked that looking at it was brighter than the moon. Yet it put on this dazzling light show, to quote something I text Jumile while trying to figure this out, "The colours are dancing on my scope." It was rapidly flashing colour after colour, it was clearly moving from South to West, it was beatiful, yet mindblowing, what was it? I kept asking myself. Wayne did remark, if that answers you back im going! We laughed, but still, this strange thing kept us glued to the scope, it was intense. Even by the naked eye, you could see its colour pattern dance away. Its blown my mind, and I am going to get searching til I get something solid on what it might be, but that aside it appears the universe has lots of wonderous things to show me and I cant wait for our next encounter with any show she cares to prepare for us. Getting on now, past 23:00 hours our odd new friend, like so many others disappears behind houses and various other buildings. We decide to pack up for the night, and get back to research our unknown finds, aside from our new friend and his amazing lightshow, we pretty much catalogue everything we saw. And next clear night, we're going to try to be even more prepared, hopefully :D

There is something here I forgot to include, roughly 21:00 im playing around with the finder scope, when waybe taps my arm, "Look up!". Starry Night 6, predicted that roughly 9 O'clock the APEX satelite would be viewable, and it was pretty spot on, we saw it pass overhead at such an amazing speed, I think setting up the scope for a better look would have been in impossible, however I thought made a nice addition to what we found.

It was also great to see Jessica enjoy herself tonight, Im hoping we can do it again one day soon, it was fantastic when I saw her face get gobsmacked when she saw the Moon, I think she had a "Wow!" moment like I did my first time the other week, she seemed so keen, so I think me and Jessica star gazing may become a bit more regular, who knows? Maybe I have started something great.

Dave