Tagged: Astronomy

Lunar Eclipse 0

Lunar Eclipse

Well, you couldn’t get better viewing conditions for the Lunar Eclipse than we had last night. Super clear skies, no wind and a perfect view of the moon as the Earth cast it’s shadow over it. The full ‘supermoon’ was shining brightly out there when we went to bed and t was a little chilly out...

Eclipse Projection 0

The Eclipse from Aberystwyth

Morgan’s school gave special dispensation to the children today allowing them to stay out to watch the Eclipse until 10:30am before going to school. Anna and I were working, but we got in early, got on top of things and were then able to meet at the Arts Centre for 10 minutes to see and...

Sleeping Under the Stars 0

Sleeping Under the Stars

We have a house full again at the moment which means lots of bed juggling to fit everyone in. Pat (Anna’s Mum) is in Morgans bedroom with the guinea pigs, My parents are in our room, Morgan is on a camp bed in the beach Room and this time, rather than ‘glamping in the garden‘...

Glamping in the Garden 1

Glamping in the Garden

We have visitors coming this weekend – Well, actually they are arriving Sunday night for a couple of days. It’s my Sister Trudi, her boyfriend Mike and he children Kia an Shaun. As we only live in a small(ish) bungalow we don’t have huge amounts of room for them, mainly because one of our bedrooms...

Andromeda 4

Andromeda through my Meade 15mm Eyepiece

Christmas may only be a distant memory now, and my birthday was a couple of weeks before that, but one of my birthday presents was a Meade 15mm eyepiece for my Skywatcher 130 telescope. I have briefly used it once or twice since then but Sunday night was the first time I got to use it properly. This isn’t...

Saturn 1

Photos of Saturn

After our successful viewing of Saturn on Friday night, Morgan was excited about staying up on Saturday night to have a look for himself. We’re not sure if it was the prospect of seeing Saturn for the first time or the staying up late that had him excited, but with clear skies it promised much. Venus was...

Out with the night time toys – Viewing Saturn 3

Out with the night time toys – Viewing Saturn

At last, the rain has stopped, the murk has cleared and we had a relatively clear night in store. I mowed the lawn so was already one step ahead this weekend and I was able to get out the night-time toys – namely the telescope and moth trap. Not at the same time of course as...

Horsehead Nebula 2

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...

Andromeda Galaxy 2

Tracking down the Andromeda Galaxy

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...

Warm clothes on! 5

Astro-Photography – My First Attempts

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....