Bits 'n Pieces

Bits 'n Pieces

This page contains oddments which don't come under specific headings.

Laptop Upgrade (Separate page)

2004 Messier Marathon

Transit of Venus

Dalby 2004 Star Party

Isle of Man Observatory

Kelling Heath 2007

Light Board (Separate page)

Playing with Canon Lenses (Separate Page)

Artificial Star (Separate Page)

Tasmania Trip February 2013 (Separate Page)

Messier Marathon 2004

We'd been having some pretty poor weather in March 2004 - lots of wind and cloud. But on the night of Sunday 28th. March the forecast was promising, and the skies were clearing nicely from the West with only light winds. So my friend Paul Jenkins drove up to Hexham with his Celestron Nexstar 8 GPS. He'd intended to try for a photographic Marathon, but left his laptop at home. Aaagh!

He had arrived just as I was setting up my Meade LX90, and so we started a visual Marathon pretty well together. I was slightly ahead, and had already given up on M74, M76 and M33. M74 was impossible - lost in the evening sky glow earlier, and behind buildings later. M76 was behind a tree, but Paul managed to see it from his slightly different position in my garden. I should have seen M33, but didn't have a low enough magnification - I was using a 26 mm eyepiece at f10, but he had his 6.3 focal reducer in with a 40 mm eyepiece and spotted it! We continued down the list, and both saw all the same objects. Out of the 99 possibles, he observed 97 and I observed 95. Apart from those mentioned above, the other lost one was M83.

OK, this was not a 'purist' Marathon - we used the GOTO facilities of our telescopes. As a partial excuse, if one is needed, at our latitude of 55 degrees North many objects are very close to the horizon. For those objects it's impossible to see even bright guide stars with the naked eye, and under the conditions of first quarter Moon and a degree of haze and occasional thin cloud I doubt even the most experienced star hopper would have succeeded.

Transit of Venus

On June 8th 2004, starting at 6:20 am and finishing at 12:20 pm (BST), a rare transit of Venus across the Sun was witnessed by vast numbers of people worldwide, both personally and via TV links - the first time in history that mass media were able to become involved, the last event taking place over 120 years ago. Those who missed it will have another opportunity in June 2012, but must travel to the Pacific zone to see it! And then another 120 years to wait for the next transit, so unless there have been some remarkable advances in geriatric medicine.....

Southern England was blessed with excellent conditions. Alas, Northern England was not so fortunate, and at my location in Hexham, the first few hours were totally misty and clouded as witness this sorry scene! My friend Paul Jenkins had joined me for the event, and we both had our Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes set up in addition to the permanent installation in my Observatory.

The first glimpse we had we were able to briefly observe the disc of Venus without solar filters - the mist provided protection. Then a considerable time passed before the clouds gave way sufficiently to take any photographs. But eventually, though still almost total cloud cover I was able to obtain these images during a brief brightening with my Olympus camera afocal on my LX90, using a 40 mm eyepiece, the full Solar disc unzoomed, the close up 10x optical zoom.

The previous day I had done some Webcam tests with the Vesta Pro on my TMB on the Gemini mount in my Observatory, barlowed x 2 to 1300 mm focal length. I left them set up, and because the system was already focussed and aligned I was able to take advantage of occasional brightening towards the end of the transit and obtain several short (16 second) avi's.

All of them had clouds scudding across, and only a few were sufficiently consistent to stack, but each one was 50 frames, and stacking has effectively averaged out the clouds, to give these images.

Disappointing, yes, but not a total failure. We both saw some of the transit and obtained images. Maybe in 8 years time I'll take a trip to a more favourable location. Wonder what the weather will do then......

Dalby Forest 2004

The weekend of August 13-15 2004 was the annual Scarborough Astronomical Society Star Fest. The weather had been very wet and cloudy in the run up, but some clear patches showed up on the Friday night, and Saturday dawned bright and cloudless. Unfortunately the clouds rolled back in on both Saturday and Sunday nights, so only a small amount of observing was possible. Nevertheless there was good fellowship and renewal of acquaintanceships!

The clear daytime sky afforded some worthwhile Solar observing on the Saturday, and although the Sun was well past its period of maximum sunspot activity, there was a substantial naked eye (with filter!) spot group visible, photographed with a web camera through the TMB refractor.

There was also a large prominence observable for a while through my recently acquired Coronado Helios 1 Solar 'scope. Again a webcam image.

Isle of Man Observatory

During New Year 2006/7 celebrations I visited friends who have recently moved to the Isle of Man. Many people will know this small island in the Irish Sea for its wide variety of scenery and terrain, and hosting of the annual Tourist Trophy motorbike races. But of particular interest to Astronomers is that most of the street lights on the Island are switched off between 2 am and 6 am every night! Even with the lights on, light pollution is relatively low, so the skies are dark and there is a flourishing Astronomical Society of around 150 members.

On a previous visit I had seen from a distance an observatory on the Island, and when I found the Society via the Internet and made contact, they most kindly allowed me to visit on New Year's Day! The facility, entirely funded by the Society and friends, is well located with excellent views of the sky and a good distance from the major towns yet very accessible by road. Most impressive with a huge 20 foot diameter dome! My partner Carolyn gives scale here.

If you are ever on the Island, it's worth contacting the Society. And have a look at their web site.

Kelling Heath Star Camp, September 2007

This annual event at the Kelling Heath Holiday Park in Norfolk is always well attended, and this year was no exception, also blessed with fine dry weather for the first week of the event. I was there from Wednesday 12th to Monday 17th, and only experienced a brief shower on the Sunday night, with most nights being cloud free for much of the time.

There was some seriously high end equipment there - Astrophysics 1200 mounts and a Software Bisque Paramount in evidence, along with BIG Optics!

Arthur Edwards' fine 22" Dobsonian was among the biggest there - when observing near the zenith you needed a good head for heights!

Among the trade stands on the Saturday 'main event' was the innovative 'Pod' observatory. Definitely worth a look for anyone in the market for a home unit. Marketed in the UK by Altair Astro

Not all Astronomy however. There is some delightful woodland adjoining the site with many pleasant walks.

Trees also abound at the lower end of the tent field, so early booking is essential to get a pitch with a clear view. I was rather late this year! I took this photo as an afterthought while packing up, so my telescope was already put away. I was using my EQ6 Pro mount which I bought secondhand late last year as a travel mount - I prefer to leave my Gemini G41 permanently set up in my observatory. The EQ6 performed satisfactorily!

As a consequence of my location, my sky was limited to the 180 degrees Eastern section. So although M16 in Serpens was reasonably high, by the time it was dark enough to image it had crossed the meridian and was rapidly approaching the trees. Always worth a try tho' and I managed to squeeze in 8 x 3 minute IR luminance and 2 each x 3 minute RGB before it disappeared. SBIG ST8 and Mirage8 at f6.3. Full size

On the other hand, Pegasus was well located for the bulk of the evening and NGC 7331 (in the so called 'Deer Lick' group) is always worth a visit! I collected data over two nights, and this is the result. How many galaxies can you see in this image? (Hint - more than 12!) Luminance 16 x 5 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes. SBIG ST8 and Mirage8 at f6.3

This image and the above M16 image appeared in the October 2007 issue of Practical Astronomer

Full Size

The Saturday night was particularly fine, and by the time I'd collected more data on NGC 7331 Ursa Major began to rise above the trees. M81 was the choice, and again I was able to accumulate a reasonable amount of data, although eventually cut short by the onset of twilight. The faint dispersed galaxy UGC 5336 is just visible left of centre. Luminance 9 x 5 minutes, RGB each 3 x 5 minutes. SBIG ST8 and Mirage8 at f6.3 Full Size

The weekend of August 13-15 2004 was the annual Scarborough Astronomical Society Star Fest. The weather had been very wet and cloudy in the run up, but some clear patches showed up on the Friday night, and Saturday dawned bright and cloudless. Unfortunately the clouds rolled back in on both Saturday and Sunday nights, so only a small amount of observing was possible. Nevertheless there was good fellowship and renewal of acquaintanceships!
The clear daytime sky afforded some worthwhile Solar observing on the Saturday, and although the Sun was well past its period of maximum sunspot activity, there was a substantial naked eye (with filter!) spot group visible, photographed with a web camera through the TMB refractor.
There was also a large prominence observable for a while through my recently acquired Coronado Helios 1 Solar 'scope. Again a webcam image.

This annual event at the Kelling Heath Holiday Park in Norfolk is always well attended, and this year was no exception, also blessed with fine dry weather for the first week of the event. I was there from Wednesday 12th to Monday 17th, and only experienced a brief shower on the Sunday night, with most nights being cloud free for much of the time.
There was some seriously high end equipment there - Astrophysics 1200 mounts and a Software Bisque Paramount in evidence, along with BIG Optics!
Arthur Edwards' fine 22" Dobsonian was among the biggest there - when observing near the zenith you needed a good head for heights!
Among the trade stands on the Saturday 'main event' was the innovative 'Pod' observatory. Definitely worth a look for anyone in the market for a home unit. Marketed in the UK by Altair Astro
Not all Astronomy however. There is some delightful woodland adjoining the site with many pleasant walks.
Trees also abound at the lower end of the tent field, so early booking is essential to get a pitch with a clear view. I was rather late this year! I took this photo as an afterthought while packing up, so my telescope was already put away. I was using my EQ6 Pro mount which I bought secondhand late last year as a travel mount - I prefer to leave my Gemini G41 permanently set up in my observatory. The EQ6 performed satisfactorily!
As a consequence of my location, my sky was limited to the 180 degrees Eastern section. So although M16 in Serpens was reasonably high, by the time it was dark enough to image it had crossed the meridian and was rapidly approaching the trees. Always worth a try tho' and I managed to squeeze in 8 x 3 minute IR luminance and 2 each x 3 minute RGB before it disappeared. SBIG ST8 and Mirage8 at f6.3. Full size
On the other hand, Pegasus was well located for the bulk of the evening and NGC 7331 (in the so called 'Deer Lick' group) is always worth a visit! I collected data over two nights, and this is the result. How many galaxies can you see in this image? (Hint - more than 12!) Luminance 16 x 5 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes. SBIG ST8 and Mirage8 at f6.3 This image and the above M16 image appeared in the October 2007 issue of Practical Astronomer Full Size
The Saturday night was particularly fine, and by the time I'd collected more data on NGC 7331 Ursa Major began to rise above the trees. M81 was the choice, and again I was able to accumulate a reasonable amount of data, although eventually cut short by the onset of twilight. The faint dispersed galaxy UGC 5336 is just visible left of centre. Luminance 9 x 5 minutes, RGB each 3 x 5 minutes. SBIG ST8 and Mirage8 at f6.3 Full Size