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Impressions of Hardraw, July 04 - 06, 2008 ...
To be honest this had already been the third time we had been to Hardraw during 2008. However, due to the very unforgiving weather it really hadn't been worth writing anything about our previous visits ...
But, quite literally out of the blue came a clear sky. As Christopher mentions, it wasn't particularly dark but for me that doesn't matter. July is a wonderful time of the year to observe. The Milky Way slowly appeared out of the dusky sky but only showed itself as a faint milky swathe. I spent my time using my AstroTrac mount to successfully image parts of the Great Rift in Cygnus and also assisting Andrew Huggett with his impressive Nikon D3 and Celestron equatorial GoTo mount. We utilized the clear sky well; successfully aligning the mount with three alignment stars, which allowed Andrew to perform long exposure photography around the sky. It was the culmination of nearly two-years of frustration trying to find the opportunity to get all the bits of equipment set-up properly and working in harmony ... We all hope that it gives Andrew the incentive to do more!
The highlight of the night was the appearance of two extremely bright points of light (which eventually faded) separated by approximately a degree slowly moving through the sky. What a sight! It's not often such geometry is seen in a sky splashed with seemingly random points of starlight. We were all very puzzled by the observation. The closest explanation was that they were a pair of NOSS satellites, but to be honest they very rarely rise beyond sixth magnitude, and these were more like -2 at their peak!
Andrew Greenwood
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For me the 4th of July started early. From 0030 to 0130 I was videoing Jupiter with my 6 inch Maksutov and ToUcam, from 0200 to 0220 my Pentax was following the summer constellations. At 0230 a bright polar satellite caught my attention and from 0300 to 0320 I was rewarded with a magnificent display of Noctilucent Clouds low on the northern horizon. Then to bed!
After a quick blast up the motorway it was the winding roads of Yorkshire in the Friday evening sunshine. I arrived in time to see a magnificent sun-dog, but not in time to photograph it. In the evening the stars came out with the midges. Two clear nights in a row! The sky was not very dark though, at this time of year the sun does not drop far below the horizon at night.
The Dumbbell nebula looked magnificent through Jason's 12 inch reflector. Andrew was too busy admiring his new Russian 7 inch Maksutov to actually look through it (How unfair! - Ed). When I wasn't looking through my 80mm refractor I was photographing Cygnus. M13 and M31 looked good through my Nagler eyepiece.
Saturday gave me the perfect opportunity to process all of the pictures I had taken. And it gave the walkers in the group the opportunity to get soaked to the skin, but the thunder was very dramatic. The poor July weather put an end to the astronomy, I did not even get my PST out, so we had to make do with salmon and strawberries dipped in chocolate (By the way, that's not salmon dipped in chocolate, just in case you were wondering ... - Ed).
On Sunday it was a quick breakfast, a quick whiz round with the hoover and a rush to get home in time for the British Grand Prix (Lewis won of course).
Christopher Hill
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 July and August updates ...
The bright twilight nights are slowly giving way to darker skies and the prospect of revealing a little-known nightly sight. Away from the towns and cities, the Milky Way will soon be glimpsed meandering through the constellation of Cygnus. This river of stars was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians ... Nowadays, especially when we approach the end of Summer, it's astronomers that turn their gaze skyward and praise the sight of a myriad of stars arching high above them.
The following sections have been updated: This month's night sky and observations.
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Would you like to join our newly formed visual observing group? We will now be holding regular observing sessions at some of our dark-sky sites across Macclesfield. If you would llike to be added to our contact list, don't delay ... Click
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For information on our observing
field trips to Hardraw, Yorkshire ... Click
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Our Workshops continue to be a
great success. As a result we are looking for more of you
to participate and give your own short presentations to Society
members. Let us know if you'd like to get involved ... Click
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