Observation reports - Langley cricket ground ...

Reading about other people's experiences at the eyepiece of a telescope often inspires us to view the glory of the night sky. Go forth and explore ...!

Remember, don't forget to send your observing reports to observations@maccastro.com.

04-05/03/06 - comet Pojmanski

The weekend was the longest I can remember for a long time, most of it was spent awake! I'm pretty tired but feel very fulfilled ...

Jason, Zeineth (from WDAS) and I met at 0430 on Saturday morning under clear skies with a view to locating and imaging comet Pojmanski. Surprisingly, for a morning comet, it was a very easily task. Jason set-up his LX90 and took lots of images and I struggled with flat batteries ... It was more than a little frustrating. The night sky was lovely and clear. We saw at least six meteors, three of them within 5-8 seconds of each other. However, as sunrise approached the cloud gathered and at just gone 0600 it started to snow pretty heavily and brought whiteness to the landscape. It was (as Zeineth said) quintessentially English - I'd agree it was brilliant!

We went home for 0730 and by that time it was sunny again.

So, no doubt you'll know what happened on Sunday. Yep, we went to Langley again, only this time we were there for 0330. We wanted more time to set our equipment up to be in good time for observations and imaging. We arrived under cloud and a biting wind. We mooched around for a bit and then all of a sudden the sky broke (just as the Meteoblue/Metcheck had forecast). It was really uplifting and very exciting as the Milky Way appeared. Then the guide star (Altair) popped out allowing us to locate the comet. This time we were all ready and set. I located the comet in binoculars and found it in my refractor so I pointed my camera and started shooting. I got about 15 shots. They're okay and you can see the tail faintly. Jason struggled a little finding object but he got it eventually. His shots clearly showed a tail and a lovely green coma.

In terms of observations, the comet was more or less a 'fuzzy star', definitely different in colour to those around it and sporting a pretty faint, straight tail. Relative to the background starts it was a real mover! It was certainly easy to discern the comet's direction over a sort time period - something that is noticeable in my images.

As the sky brightened, the nucleus of the comet became much more stellar. It was easy for me to see the brightest inner area of the 'head' of the comet itself. To my surprise it fought the dawn gallantly!

By this time the colour of the sky was amazing. It's so different to sunset.

We saw Venus rise (we did the morning before too) Jason initially thought it might be car headlights on top of the hill (it was that bright), but we all agreed it must be Venus - it was extremely brilliant - almost unreal, like a glittering diamond.

The whole ambience of the place was so tranquil I can't explain it. The light was awesome. We knew the Sun was close to rising because it was catching the top of Teggs Nose and the hills beyond in a fresh, pink light. As the Sun came up it hit our faces and it felt really quite Spring-like. We listened to the birds, identifying their songs. Jason and I agreed that we didn't want to leave, so we just stood waxing lyrically about how beautiful it all seemed.

It got to 0800 and we decided to leave. We were so sad to go. After all this, I just have one question: Why do we have to work ...?

07/08/04 - Summer Skies at Langley

August 7th 2004 was a perfect English summer’s day, warm and sunny with recent rain having scoured much of the dust from the atmosphere. I returned home from a hike in the Peak District to find that our Chairman had been on the telephone to invite me to an impromptu observing session at Langley Cricket Club that evening. Having recently purchased Andrew’s Vixen refractor this was a splendid opportunity to find out how to use it.

Given that I hadn’t heard about a (very) bright supernova in the western sky I thought that a 2000 start was a bit optimistic for summer stargazing. Perhaps the intention was to include the last few overs but at least I knew that I would be able to set up my telescope in the daylight – a distinct advantage for a novice like me. But when I arrived all became clear. Andrew, Chris Hall and Mike Williamson were already observing a star, the Sun. Of particular interest was Chris’s new acquisition, a Coronado 40mm PST. With its specialist filters we were able to see a number of huge limb prominences, dark filaments against the rose-red chromosphere (presumably the tops of prominences seen end on) as well as the solar granulation. A more conventional view in Mike’s refractor revealed a couple of sunspots.

Our party was complete when first Richard Jackson, and then Jason Woolley and Zea arrived. Richard produced a stunning A4 image of M31, formed, he explained, from stacking a number of 4 minute digital exposures. Seeing images of this quality encourages us all to learn more about digital imaging and processing.

In the process of setting up my telescope I learned several valuable lessons about doing astronomy in the field, lessons that you don’t read about in the textbooks. It’s the little things that matter, like the correct order to attach telescope and counterweight to the mount, and the fact that the latter can be attached after its shaft has been screwed into place. Also, how not to lose the numerous plastic stops and covers that protect the kit when it is not in use. Thank you to all who helped me over these first, vital and seemingly trivial matters and in taking me through the basics of polar alignment.

As the sky darkened the eagle-eyed spotted the appearance of stars, Vega, Deneb, the Plough and, in the north-east, Capella. Initially each time I thought I had seen Capella the light moved towards Manchester Airport. In the meantime midges were having supper at our expense so it was a welcome relief when a breeze got up around 2230.

Over the next couple of hours we saw a number of meteors, some bright, both Perseids and sporadics. We didn’t spot any satellites but we were briefly entertained by a bright iridium flare. I am grateful to all those who helped me to see M31, the double cluster in Perseus and M57. I was impressed by the Vixen’s performance, which gives pin-sharp stellar images. Of course 102mm is not a light bucket so it was to be expected that M57 was more of a grey smudge than the smoke-ring I had seen through the 12 inch at COAA. A number of double stars were observed with beautiful colour contrasts (why is it that many doubles seem to be orange and blue with the orange component the brighter of the two?). Viewing of the star clusters in Sagittarius was hampered by poor seeing towards the southern horizon but we finished the session on a high note around 0130 with splendid views of the final quarter Moon as it rose above the trees to the east.

Roy Sturmy

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