Sun sketch

Carted the PST around the place, and it wasn't until our second last day on proper holidays that we remembered to get it out! J set it up on the double mount we bought for the Losmandy; he set it up fairly early, and I wandered out for a look three times over the day - and it managed to track fairly well for the whole day, too.

I even did a sketch:
Done at about 2pm, over a few minutes. It's a composite from a couple of different tunings. Most excitingly, as I went from one tuning where some of those sunspots were more obvious back to where I could also see the prominences (on the limb) - that one on the righthand side suddenly appeared!

My first sun sketches

These are my first attempts at sketching the sun.

The prominences are certainly out of proportion. Obviously because I wasn't using black paper, I struggled to convey the lighter areas on the surface; I chose just to represent them as lighter, squiggly lines.

Both were drawn while viewing through my 10mm Ethos, on a PST. The first was done at about 12.15pm today (19 Oct 2010), while the second was at about 5.50pm.

Sketch from Mansfield

I don't know how he managed it, since I was shivering too much to be able to hold a pencil...

Sketch

This past weekend we were in Ballarat again. We had hoped that we would get nice clear skies to do some observing. Thursday night was clear... but I was feeling absolutely dreadful, for no apparent reason, so I managed to stagger out and have a look at Saturn (awesome, especially with the extender, which J kindly found for me) and then staggered back inside.

J, however, produced this:

Apparently it's common to invert them, so:

... which I think is pretty awesome for a first go at drawing a nebula.

Friday night = absolutely no chance of clear skies. Boo hiss.

Can't believe we got to view tonight

... given that the whole day it's been raining, and raining, and raining.

It's the first night for viewing all week, basically - clouds have come in every night - except Thursday, when we had some friends over and showed them a fingernail of moon (first time for all three!) and Jupiter + three moons (also first time!), which was fun.

Tonight, given we're both awfully tired, we just looked at the moon and Jupiter. J decided to have a go at crossing off one of his sketching goals - from the Lunar 100 - the result of which is this:

He's not sure whether he likes it without the square border. What do you think?

It's number 20 on the list. We like lists. I downloaded a list of galaxies to try and view, the other night. One for dark sites I think.

Jupiter was pretty easy to see; it's clear that in a few months it's going to be completely gone from the night skies, at which point I may cry. When I first pulled it up, all four moons were visible, with two very close together and only just separate. I wasn't sure if they were coming or going... until all of a sudden two became one, which answered my question. Stellarium informs me this was Europa and Io, and that if I'd been just a little more patient - or a little less tired - I would have seen them come apart again quite quickly.

A few days ago...

... it was clear enough to have a quick look at Jupiter, but really not much else; there were skating clouds, and a haze that made it even brighter than normal because the lights were reflecting back off. Did I also mention the mosquitoes?

It's weird to notice the sky having moved around since we started on this caper. Where is Scorpio going?? Why isn't it stable??

Approved

God clearly approves of our new hobby. All afternoon - clouds. I came home early from uni partly because I didn't want to get stormed on. We get out of pilates... and the sky is completely and utterly devoid of cloud.

Of course, we still had to deal with Killer Mosquito Brigades. It's warm enough I could have been outside in a tshirt, but I wasn't; I like my arms without welts.

Moon was lovely: Copernicus is hugely impressive, of course - I love it more every time. My new discovery tonight was Schiller, an elongated crater that looks really bizarre with half of it full of shadow. I also quite liked this crater, even before J drew it:

Jupiter looked pretty normal. Seeing was entirely average from the backyard.

Bloody mozzies

Nyagh. Hate mosquitoes.

All day it was cloudy, and then - ta dah! - it mostly cleared at sunset. Having not expected to be able to observe, this was a nice surprise. J took the 'scope out and produced this:

which he's not very happy about, because he didn't get a lot of the detail he could see. I like it. I hadn't realised Copernicus would be visible already! - I forget just how quickly the moon progresses through its phases, if that makes sense - the fact that it's going on while I can't see it... I like Copernicus. And I really like it in our zoom; it's that much more immediate.

He also produced this:

I could see quite nice detail on Jupiter tonight, too - not sure whether this is because of better seeing conditions or more experience in looking, but probably at the moment it actually doesn't make much difference.

Then the mosquitoes drove me inside.

Oh Melbourne

Another lovely clear night! We've been blessed the last few, and apparently it should stay like this. Of course, given we have a long weekend coming up, it's likely to be cloudy...

We looked at Jupiter: Europa was getting very close and, over the evening, we saw it get closer and closer until - blip, its light was swallowed up Jupiter's. It's passing in front, so eventually there will be a shadow chasing behind, but I don't think I'll be up for it. Sadly, along with a lovely clear night, we've got mosquitos. J did a sketch:

I too could see that faint half-band to the south; this was very exciting. I could also definitely see some texture especially in the lower of the two dark, middle bands.

We looked at the moon: going from crescent to gibbous, it looks awesome. There's a really cool section at the south pole, right on the terminator; very cratered.

We split Alpha Centauri definitively.

We gave the UHC filter another go, and the result on NGC 6231 was very convincing (we did a with/without test). It's a winner for urban astronomy. Also convincing when pointed at the Lagoon Nebula (both of these with the 10mm, the rest with the zoom). I tried it on Antares, too, since there's apparently nebulosity around it... I thought I could see some fuzziness, but I might have been kidding myself.

Fast moving clouds are good moving clouds

If you have to have clouds, at least they can be patchy and in a hurry.

Our regular Sunday date was cancelled - their kids are a bit under the weather - and at sunset it looked fairly clear with just a couple of clouds around (this has changed the later it gets). So, went out and looked at the moon for a little while - that zoom lens is wonderful! Atlas and Hercules in full sun, as is the entirety of Serenitatis and Tranqulitatis. Then I got sent inside while J did a sketch:

I like this one.

Out again a bit later, after J had played with the collimation a bit; the zoom lens had demonstrated fairly clearly that we had some issues in that area. It's almost fixed now; our trek to a dark site will hopefully clear up all issues. Anyway, we found Jupiter - complete with a moon transit! There was a black spot, moving across, which Stellarium confirmed for me was Io. I actually thought I was looking at the moon itself, but I was actually looking at the shadow trailing behind it, which makes sense I guess. Other than that, we toyed with the notion that we might be able to see other bands (I think I could, in the polar regions, but that might have been wishful thinking), and also about whether there was a darker patch in the lower cloud band (again, wishful thinking?). We came back a bit later and the moon had just come out - little pimple on the side. So cute.

What with a big clear patch and the UHC filter (apparently good for showing up nebulae in urban areas), we decided to try for the Lagoon Nebulae (M8), around which we totally failed to see nebulosity last week. And it was indeed better! Interestingly, it was also better through the 10mm rather than the zoom; apparently the former is perfect for our little Takahashi and deep-sky objects. Anyway - nebulosity: we saw it. We also saw a bit around M20 (Trifid Nebula), although not as much.

Back to Jupiter for a last look, and J decided there was enough of a cloud gap that he would give sketching it a go...

For a fairy cloudy Sunday night, on the chilly side, it was a remarkably rewarding night.

Red wine and observing?

I'd need a straw for that.

Got out just after sunset - still a purple glow in the sky - to look at the moon, and again that crescent was just lovely. Mare Crisium was doing its wonders; Endymion was stark and lovely. Atlas and Hercules should be out tomorrow. Mare Fecunditatis is my next project - to get to know it quite well. I really struggle with the southern section; it seems more cratered than the north, as I may have noted before. It's possible I guess that if we turned the image upside down it would be easier to make sense of - but then I'd have to read the map upside down, and my brain just doesn't process images upside down. I am so not a visual learner.

This picture is of Langrenus, on the eastern side of Mare Fecunditatis.

While J was composing the above sketch, the clouds rolled in. Jupiter had been visible earlier, but we didn't look because the moon was going to disappear first; as it turned out, the clouds stayed around and we didn't manage to see anything else.

Itty bitty crescent moon

Awww, so cute! 11% waxing and it's a bitty crescent - couldn't be seen until quite close to sunset. But there she is: haven't seen it in a while, and it's very cool. Again. Still.

After the sun had set and it got a bit darker, the moon looked even more impressive because the rest of the disc was illuminated by Earthshine. It's just lovely, against a dark purple background - a star above and below - the disc just hanging there. Pity I'm neither poet nor painter.

I knew J wanted to do a sketch of the moon, so while he was futzing around I swung the scope over to Old Reliable. Jupiter is going to disappear behind our antenna, and then behind our house, in the next few weeks, I think. Tonight though: all four moons - three on one side; two bands, as always through this eyepiece. I think a planetary eyepiece may be on the cards. Maybe for Christmas.

J is currently sketching the baby moon before it disappears behind the tree and fence. After that... I'm not sure what we'll look at. I should look at a map. Fortunately, one of the results of J's spending spree was Sky and Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas, which is a whole lot easier to use than the bigger sky atlas we also got.

I didn't get back out to the scope until the moon had disappeared, so no more lunography for me. There was this, though:

Inspired by the pocket atlas' picture of double stars, I found alpha Centauri - which I think I split, but the south is the brightest part of the sky around here - and then tried to split Kaus Australis - Sag Epsilon, I think - the brightest star in the Teapot. No luck. Spotted J's little favourite open cluster, NGC 6231, and its more diffuse neighbour Cr 316 (not sure what that designation means; something else I ought to learn). Checked out Antares, in Scorpio's tail, because the atlas showed bright nebulosity around it; not in my sky there wasn't. While in the vicinity we tried finding the globular cluster M4; we think we found it, based on a very faint fuzzy patch that was really only apparent when the view was jiggled around.

Ah, urban astronomy. It's all about what you don't see.

Tycho! Copernicus!

Plato! Keppler! Herodotus!!

We've had clouds for the last too-many nights, despite a couple of clear days. I've been all desperate to get out there and view the moon, feeling like I was missing out on something... as if it won't be there again, in almost exactly the same place and illumination, in a month. I'm not used to this idea of being able to go back later and I won't have missed anything.

There was some haze around last night, which made the seeing a bit unpredictable and shimmery, which eventually gave me a headache. Before that, though, J managed another sketch - very nice.

ETA the picture:

I got an eyeful of Tycho and Copernicus, which are both very impressive craters indeed. Herodotus and his companion crater weren't on the terminator but are obviously on enough of an angle that they still looked impressive with shadows and stark white centres. Again, it was exciting to look up and think - 'hey, Mare Crisium!' and be able to actually recognise some lunar geography. This is something I'm sure I'll get better at over time; yet another way to prove my nerddom.

The seeing for Jupiter was crap; very hazy. Only three moons visible - I think Io was transiting behind. Two bands of cloud obvious to my eyes.

This might be getting predictable

This sketch J did while I was preparing dinner:

This one I commissioned; I'm quite a fan of that Atlas/Hercules pair, for some reason, and the craters like Posidinius with their own little craters which look like mountains in the middle? they're awesome.
Melbourne turned on another lovely night, for this sort of thing; only a little cloud, and the moon looked lovely. I'm sure I'll get over it eventually, but the wonder of seeing last night's area in full sun and a whole new area revealed is just marvelous. I can understand the first telescope-users' amazement at the details on this close, yet so different, world. And the Mares really do look like shallow seas.

Anyway - it was great fun looking, again. It's 1/3 illuminated tonight, as I can tell (and you can too, Dear Reader) thanks to the widget someone over at Ice in Space provided the html for. Particularly freaky this evening was some cloud blowing past in front of the moon, all wispy like. Also, I realised I'd been spending most of my time looking to the north, because it's the easiest bit when the moon is centred in the eyepiece; so I moved it a bit and had a closer look at the south. It looks much more cratered than the north at this illumination and resolution.

As usual, I checked out Jupiter before turning in. There was some high-level cloud or general murkiness, because I could not focus properly at all. Only two moons out - Stellarium informs me they were Ganymede close in, and Callisto further out. Europa was behind Jove, and for some reason Io was down at mag 28 or so; maybe occluded by Ganymede's shadow?

Another good night.

The moon, and a sketch

Check it out!

As part of his/our Amazon haul, J bought himself a how-to of astronomical sketching. Drawing is something he's been interested in for a while, but never had the chance? opportunity? impetus? to get seriously into. The moon in particular seemed like a good target, so today he went and faithfully bought everything recommended. After a will-she, won't-she kind of day this evening turned out cold and cloud-free, so we had another awesome moon viewing (illumination 24.5%, 4.9 days old). It was very cool to see how the terminator had moved from last night (I didn't think it moved that much between my two viewings - had to watch Spicks and Specks - but J said it moved noticeably while he sketched). I'm so glad our first moon viewing was really at the start of the lunar cycle, because I will get a very good sense of lunar geography (lunography?) - seeing Mare Crisium totally in the sun was a good reference point. I particularly liked the craters Atlas and Hercules, north of Crisium (not in the sketch); and the very southern section of the moon, near the terminator, is just rife with craters - not a good area to start sketching, hence the concentration on the north.

Once again I indulged in a little Jupiter viewing to finish the night; two bands, Io very close in. The other three moons were spaced out fairly regularly.