Image courtesy of SOHO and NASA The forecast for Sunday was solid cloud with possible rain. What we got was pretty much the opposite, but not after a little frustration to begin with. I made the following log entry. Observation Started 10:58 UT Seeing: Variable over session. Transparency: Variable over session.Going for a gap in the clouds. By the time we opened up and got set up – less than 5 mins, there was almost complete…
Observing Session 9, August
Astroplanner view though Altair Astro 250mm, UWA 18mm, 113 X, 43.6′, I’m a bit behind with my observations recently. We managed to get out on the Thursday – a few days before the Perseid Meteor show peak, and got some observing done. In between the sessions at the eyepiece, Sand managed to catch about 20 meteors during the hour and a half session. Unluckily for me, I only saw about three while I was looking…
Funland
Working for yourself has many advantages, but taking long Summer breaks is not one of them. While the break is always welcome. it costs you a shedload in lost revenue, and creates so much of a backlog of work when you return, that you need another holiday to get over it. This years break was no exception and will a computer failure on the day I official got back to work, it’s taken three…
What's that Blue Stuff?
Well I was about to write that it’s been at least 3 weeks since it’s been clear enough to go out and observe, but I was wrong. My log shows the last clearish night we had was on the 24th June. Either way, it seems like an age since I looked through an eyepiece. Even during the day, the weather has been awful recently, but this morning the sky had larger bits of blue…
A bit of Art Wank!
Another trundle to Penzance and the The Newlyn Art Gallery for the Shezad Dawood exhibition. British artist Shezad Dawood (b1974) works across media in film, painting and light sculpture. His Indian and Pakistani roots have inspired a broad mapping within his practice, remixing various artistic traditions, and recalling influences as diverse as cosmology, science fiction and Sufism. I must admit I thought this was going to be a load of old tosh, but I really enjoyed it….
So what's this Observational Malarky all about then?
Since the Observatory went back online earlier this year, I’ve had a few months to start working my way through the Messier Objects. While there are literally hundreds of observer lists to choose from, the Messier list is probably the best known and it seems to me to be a good starting point from which to launch an observing programme While I’ve been into astronomy since early 2000 and steered my interest toward astronomical…