Horse Head Nebula

I’ve always liked the Horsehead nebula (also known as Barnard 33 in emission nebula IC 434). I remember looking at amazing photos of it in astronomy books and marvelling at it. It is s a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest west on Orion’s Belt.

I haven;t yet been able to see it through our telescope, but I was pretty pleased to manage to capture it, albeit faintly, in a photo. The photo was taken using my Canon 450D with a 60mm lens, piggyback mounted on the telescope. You can quite clearly see the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) just below the atar Alnitak and to the right o f it you can make out the dark horsehead shape of the horsehead nebula too.

Ok, it’s nothing compared to some of the truly amazing photos that some astro-photographers manage to produce, but considering the equipment I’m using and the fact that I’m new to it all I’m quite pleased to have captured this. It’s pretty clever that a standard SLR camera with a small 60mm lens can capture detail in something that is 1,500 light years from Earth.

Tags: Astronomy, Horsehead, Nebula, Photography

I went to a Triathlon training day with INTRtri Club at the weekend. We started off with a nice 90 minute swim session which was fun, and then headed out for a run session. Although, to be honest we didn’t do a whole lot of running as it was a special technique session so we spent the majority of the hour long run doing various drills in the car park.

We did everything you can imagine, from your normal squat jumps and side-stepping, through to full-on John Cleese style silly walks and even some Russian dancing. It didn’t feel too bad at the time, although no one was too keen on doing more squat jumps in the hour long Core session after the run. We must have looked pretty silly mind you!

I certainly felt it afterwards though. My legs were sore yesterday morning and gradually got worse all day. Any form of squat hurt and going up and down stairs was next to impossible. I’m just glad we live in a bungalow. I did manage a Turbo Trainer session in the afternoon, but that didn’t help to ease the muscles in my legs and today they were even worse.

It’s all good though, “no pain no gain” and all that, and its good to do something a little different and work some muscles in ways they aren’t used to. It’s all too easy to stagnate and keep doing the same workouts at the same intensity all of the time, so shaking it up a little and doing something different may hurt, but its a good way to prevent yourself from plateauing too much. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway!

Following on from the BBC Stargazing Live programmes, there was an event at Nant yr Arian yesterday organised by the Physics Department at the university, so we booked onto it and had been looking forward to it for a while.

Our plan was to get there mid afternoon, have a mountain bike ride / walk around Nant yr Arian, stop for a hot chocolate in the cafe and then off to the Stargazing Event at 5pm. We got there at 3pm and Morgan and I headed off to do a bit of mountain biking whilst Anna went for a walk around the lake. Morgan still isn’t great at going up hills so we only went to the top of the first climb out of the car park and then onto the ‘High as a Kite’ section back to the Visitor Centre. Morgan was a bit tentative coming down this too, but he’s getting there and it was the first time he’d ridden it.

We met back with Anna and I went off for a quick spin around the Pendam Trail on my own whilst they headed off to the cafe for hot chocolates and to meet Jackie, Cameron and Eva. My back is still sore, my right knee hurts and I’m just recovering from a cold so I’d planned to have an easy ride around the trail. However, I’ve been uploading my rides to Strava.com lately and had noticed that there were a couple of ‘King of the Mountain’ awards up for grabs on the Hippity Hop climb and the top of the Legburner climb, so I did push fairly hard up these despite not wanting to. I did the trail in just under 39 minutes which is nowhere near a record for me, but not too slow either.

Back at the car park I met the others, only to find that the cafe had closed just as they tried to go into it, so no one had managed to get a hot chocolate. It seemed a shame really, I know they were setting up the planetarium in the cafe but I’m sure they could have continued serving drinks and cakes at the very least. I was certainly looking forward to a hot chocolate and a flapjack and the Planetarium showing was sold out all night long so they would have made loads of money off everyone and it seemed as though most people had been for a walk first and were hanging around – probably hoping for a warm drink – like we were.

The planetarium itself was good and the children enjoyed it. We then went onto the balcony where they had some telescopes set up for us to look through. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy which couldn’t be helped, although we did have some good naked eye views of Jupiter and Venus. What could have been helped though was the fact that there were three huge great big security lights shining onto the balcony. These blinded us and ruined any chance of a view of the stars. Silly really to have an astronomy event in such a good dark sky location only to ruin it with huge security lights. If the lights couldn’t be turned off then they would have been better setting the scopes up in the car park. The skies up there could be spectacular and without the Visitor Centre there would be very little light pollution, but that just wasn’t the case last night.

The telescopes weren’t actually set up when we first got out there either, so the ten minutes that Jupiter and Venus were visible for before the clouds rolled in were spent with students from the Physics dept fiddling with the scopes. Really that should have been done before we got out there so that people could have had a look through them straight away. Unfortunately  by the time they were set up, the clouds had rolled in and there was nothing to see so we headed home without looking through the scopes. A shame really as they had a nice 10″ Meade LX200 scope that I would have liked to have a look through.

Despite this, it was a nice evening out, finished off with a meal in the White Lion in Talybont.

Tags: MTB, nant-yr-arian, Planetarium

Can’t say I’m feeling much like a triathlete at the moment. Not that I’ve ever REALLY felt like a triathlete mind you! My back has been playing up for a few days so I’ve had to ease back on the training and now the lurgy has me well and truly in its grips.

I should look on the bright side though – having both at the same time is better than one after the other as far as lost training time is concerned, and this is supposed to be an easy week anyway.

No electrolyte drinks and hardcore training for me – its Lemsip, physio and back to bed I’m afraid.

After a glorious night of star-gazing last night we were treated to an amazing sunrise too. You can’t beat the natural world for a light display.

Tags: Photos, Sunrise

After spending some working on the basics of piggyback astro-photography with some shots of Orion, I decided to turn my attention to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).

I hadn’t been able to see this object yet, either with the naked eye or through the telescope, but I had a good idea of where it was. I therefore simply pointed the telescope complete with my piggyback mounted SLR camera at the right area of sky, and took a couple of photos.

Amazingly it worked…. The camera sensor had managed to pick up photons that I couldn’t see. These were photons from the Andromeda Galaxy that had travelled for 2,540,000 years at the speed of light to reach us here on Earth.

There it was, plain to see on the photo, the swirling mass of the spiral galaxy Andromeda, just as it was 2.54 million years ago. It wasn’t an amazing photo but it was without a doubt a photo of the Andromeda Galaxy, so I was pleased with that and hopefully as my technique improves so will the quality of the photos.

You can even see the Messier object M110 as well, which is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy that is a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Tags: Andromeda, Astro-photography, Astronomy

We had another lovely clear night last night so once again it was time to get our new telescope out. I had to have a bit if help from Anna to carry it out as my back was still sore, but we all wrapped up warm and soon had the necessary equipment in the garden.

I spent some time polar aligning the telescope and then Anna and Morgan joined me for an hour of observing. Anna hadn’t really seen through the scope before so we gave her a little tour of what we’d look at before. Jupiter and its Gallilean Moons, the Pleiades Cluster, a few stars and of course the Orion  Nebula.

It was pretty cold out there and soon time for Morgan to go to bed, but I stayed out on my own and started my journey into the world of astro-photography. My plan for tonight was to try some piggyback astro-photography. This simply means that I mount my camera on top of the telescope, piggyback style, and take photos of the night sky through my normal camera lens. The telescope isn’t really used, but it’s mounting and motor drive are. The motor drive moves the telescope and therefore the camera at a rate of 15° per hour. If the mounting is properly polar aligned this movement compensates for the spin of the Earth and allows longer exposure photos to be taken without star trails developing.

Focussing is difficult as you can’t really see anything to focus on, but this isn’t supposed to be easy. I aimed the telescope at the Orion Nebula, set the camera up and realised there was nothing at all to focus on. So, I aimed it at Rigel, a bright star in the Orion consteallation and  focussed as best I could on that. I then repositioned the scope and camera and took a photo using my 60mm lens.

Now, the results aren’t spectacular, but I did managed to get some photos of M42 the Orion Nebula and was pleased to see some of the nebulosity and even some colour in the gas clouds. When looking through the telescope, these colours aren’t visible and all we can see is a faint, misty grey patch. I took a number of photos, experimenting mainly with focus, but also with different exposures lengths. Most exposures were in the range of 1-3 minutes at f2.8 - f3.5 and ISO 800.

I’m fairly pleased with the results for a first attempt, but need some more practise at polar alignment and focussing as well as experimenting with different exposures. Next time I try I shall probably use my 300mm lens as well. This will give more magnification on the objects I’m trying to capture, but will also exaggerate any inaccuracies in my focussing and tracking abilities. At first this might lead to less satisfactory results but hopefully I’ll learn from it and improve my technique.

I also took a photo of the brighter stars in the Orion Constellation. It only just fits in the frame but you can clearly see; Orions Belt in the middle, Betelgeux - the orangey coloured star vat the top left, Bellatrix at the top right, Saiph – bottom left and the bright star Rigel in the bottom right of the photo. You can also see the Orion Nebula which represent Orions dagger hanging from his belt.

I know these photos don’t compare to what is possible, but we all have to start somewhere, and this is my starting point. I shall be out there again expermineting with different settings and techniques soon. I should also try taking a whole load of photos of the same object and then stack them in a software application such as deep sky stacker. This is designed to improve the signal to noise ratio and improve the image. However, before I do that I want to make sure that the images I’m capturing in the camera are as good as they can be.

After a couple of hours my hands were freezing and not so good at operating the various controls so it was time to pack up. I’d completed my first attempts at astro-photography. The results weren’t amazing but I was pleased to have captured something, and I’d had an enjoyable evening under the stars in Wales.

Tags: Astro-photography, Astronomy, Orion, Orion Nebula

All has been going well with my training lately – I’d been building up the weekly volume slowly but surely and had just about managed to burn off the extra weight put on over Christmas. I hadn’t been out on the bike at all, but both my swimming and running were feeling OK. I wasn’t feeling fast but my base fitness was OK and I’d soon have a decent base from which to starting working on the speed ready for the triathlon race season.

That was all until Fridy afternoon when my back started playing up. I’ve had a history of back pain but I’d been managing it well lately, but by Friday afternoon there was a niggling soreness at the base of my spine and in my left buttock. It didn’t get any better and by Saturday it had become an excruciating pain. No matter how I sat, stood or lay down I couldn’t get comfortable. Ibuprofen or paracetamol didn’t seem to help and nor did any of the stretches, cold or heat treatments or pain relieving rubs that I tried. The pain just got worse and I got grumpier and grumpier. I shall have to contact some sports physio’s tomorrow and see if I can get myself back on track before it really gets me down.

Hopefully it will begin to ease soon and I won’t miss too much training but these sorts of things really annoy me. This back pain may have so far only resulted in a single days missed training (today) but it’s already driving me nuts. I was supposed to do a run and a swim today but couldn’t and now I feel as though I’m getting slower and fatter already!

Obsessive?… Me?… Never! … Well, maybe just a little bit but I guess it’s better to be obsessed with keeping fit than with lots of other things I could think of.  Mind you, as mentioned above, I’ve tried sitting, lying and standing in various positions all of which are painful. Maybe, just maybe sitting on a bike and riding miles and miles will be OK? It’s got to be worth a try!

At last, we’ve had a couple of clear nights, the first since Xmas, so we’ve been able to get our new telescope out. Anna was out rehearsing and doing the pantomime with the Scouts, so it was just Morgan and me. We set the scope up under clear skies, but on the first day night it wasn’t before long clouds started rolling in and obscuring our view, but we persevered and got some good views in between the clouds. the next night it was the frost that beat us into a hasty retreat indoors, but we’ve still seen plenty of sights that we hadn’t seen before.

The Moon had yet to rise so the skies were dark and there was plenty to look at. We’re beginners at this, so I pointed out a few obvious things to Morgan such as the Plough in Ursa Major, and showed him how to find Polaris, the North Star, from it. Once we had that in our sights I then Polar Aligned the telescope using Polaris as a guide and we set about looking for a few more objects.

Jupiter is still one of the brightest objects in the sky. Venus is also visible so we tested out our aiming of the telescope on these easy targets first. We soon had them in our sights and once again could clearly see the banding of the cloud formations and the four Galilean Moons of Jupiter. At a higher magnification the rotation of the Earth meant that Jupiter only stayed in the field of view for a few seconds, so it was time to try out the motor drive on the telescope.

I’d already polar aligned the telescope so once I had Jupiter centered in the field of view I turned on the motor drive and left the telescope to track the planet, compensating for the Earths rotation. It worked really well and now Jupiter stayed in the field of view.

Morgan seemed to be enjoying the views through the telescope too and had brought out a note book and was busily drawing pictures of what he could see. If he carries on like that I’ll be referring to his notebook for reminders of what we were looking at when writing this blog!

We then decided to look for some ‘Deep Sky’ objects. First target was the Orion Nebula (M42, or NGC 1976). This is a nebula or area of star formation located just below the three stars that make up Orions Belt. I managed to point the telescope straight at it and could clearly see a cloudy, misty patch of light with several stars shining through it. I was pleased that Morgan was impressed with it, as I wasn’t really sure what he’d think. These days with easy acces to special effects on the TV and amazing astronomical photos of such things from Hubble it is easy to be underwhelmed by a small, faint, greyish misty patch through a telescope, but Morgan seemed to be excited.

What really makes these things exciting is the intellectual appreciation and understanding of what you are observing and the realisation that light from these objects have traveled incomprehensible distances across space before you get to see them in the eyepiece. The Orion Nebula is around 1,344 light years away and is the closest region of massive star formation to the Earth. It makes your mind boggle when you start thinking about these distances. Travelling anywhere for 1,344 years will get you quite far, but when you are travelling at the speed of light, a speed that we can’t even begin to imagine, then you really will have covered immense distances. The light from the Orion nebula has been travelling across the vastness of space for 1,344 years before Morgan and I captured it in our telescope and saw it. Amazing really! The nebula itself  is estimated to be 24 light years across and it has a mass of about 2000 times the mass of the Sun.

After looking at this for a while and talking about the distances etc. we had a look for the Andromeda Galaxy. This is further away still and is supposed to be the most ditant object that you can see with the naked eye. Unfortunately it eluded us, but we’ll be back to look again another day..

Next up was the Pleiades Cluster (M45). This is an open star cluster located in the constellation of  Taurus It is one of the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious in the night sky. With the naked eye it is seen as a loose cluster of around 7 stars. Through the telescope many more were visible.

We did play around trying to do some astro-photography, but it isn’t easy and I haven’t really got to grips with it yet. There is plenty of time to learn and practise though. The best I managed was a wide view looking south with both Jupiter and the Pleiades Cluster in it, and the photo of Jupiter that you;ve seen above. Unfortunately I don’t have the budget that NASA have to get photos quote like those of the Orion Nebula and Pleiades Cluster!

Tags: Astronomy, Telescope

I haven’t posted any training reports here for a while, but I’ve just got back from a nice hilly lunch time run so thought I’d share it today.

I’m having quite a hard training week this week. I started back at circuits and swimfit last night after a break for Christmas. I actually missed a couple of weeks before Christmas as well, so it was pretty tough after a few weeks off, and the extra mince pies over the festive period didn’t help either. I wasn’t the only one suffering though.

Today’s run went OK though, I was a little sore from circuits and my back (sciatica type pain) is playing up a little, but once I got going I felt fine. I was pushing hard up and over the tops of the hills and climbed over 1200 feet altogether, with 4 main hills in the run. Starting in Borth, I ran up over the top to Dolybont, through Dolybont and then up the steep climb to the radio mast overlooking Borth Bog. From here it was downhill towards Taliesin, but before reaching Taliesin I turned right onto the road through Staylittle and climbed to the top, heading back towards Dolybont. It was then a quick dash through Talybont again before starting the long slog back up to the top and over into Borth.

I was hoping for an hours run and it took me 59 minutes 28 seconds so pretty much spot on. It wasn’t easy and I could do with loosing some of the extra Christmas weight, but a few more runs like that should sort me out.

Tags: Routes, running, Training, Triathlon