I'm sure most people know that there's a new Google Earth available for download. I'm sure most people know that they've added Mars to the mix. I'm sure most people know that Google Earth has a really simple flight simulator built into it.
Well, it's obvious what comes next isn't it?
Okay, not exactly astronomy, not really astronomy at all to be honest, but.... it was pretty cool anyway.
I was woken up by an earthquake last night, quite a strong one by UK standards. I've written more about it over on my general weblog.
Last Saturday I managed to get out for my first "proper" observing session in a while. I had a pretty good night and managed to get views of Mars, M42, Saturn and M81 and M81.
But that wasn't the best part. The best part was the bit when I spotted something odd near Algol:
While stood looking at the Double Cluster with the naked eye I spotted something close by, near Algol, that appeared to be about the same size and of a similar brightness to it. Initially I was confused about what it was. I quickly grabbed my monocular and had a look and could see that it was a faint but noticeable misty patch. Given that I wasn't aware of any object in that location, and given that I couldn't find any such thing on my charts (not that I expected to — I'd have known about such an object if it were a "fixed" item in the sky), I suspected that it was comet Holmes.Further visual checks at the time and checks with online charts for Holmes suggest that I really was seeing the comet.
Also, totally aside from the above, I also decided to try something a little different (for me) in terms of astrophotography (not that I do much astrophotography). I took along my Lomo Lubitel 166B, loaded with Ilford FP+ 125, and during the observing session had it pointing at various parts of the sky for around ½ hour at a time. I've no idea what, if anything, I'm going to get out of it, but I needed to use up some frames on the film and the chance to do some astrophotography with a TLR, on black and white medium-format form, was too good to pass up.
That explains something.
This morning I was checking the stats for my astronomy site and I noticed that an old Mars as big as the Moon post had reappeared in the list of referrers. I've not seen that post in my logs for quite some time.
Well, it's almost August again isn't it?
Anyone who has read this blog for a while now will know that, on occasion, I've had a silly moment and tried to use the camera in a mobile phone to grab images of what I was observing (things like the Sun, Mars, the Moon, the partially eclipsed Moon, Saturn and even the Moon and Saturn together).
I've never had that much success, the images have never been that good (neither has the equipment) and, in each case, it's always been more about being a bit silly than about trying to get a useful image.
However, Ian Musgrave has, to my eyes, managed to capture an astonishingly good image of the Moon with his mobile phone.
Even more astonishing is his image of Jupiter. While the planet itself is devoid of any detail, he's managed to pick up three of Jupiter's moons.
On a mobile phone!
Next Monday there will be a daylight occultation of Venus by the Moon. Details of the event can be found over on the SPA website.
I hope to try and observe this. Having managed to observe the recent occultation of Saturn I'd love to have another occultation in my observing logs.
However, I foresee two problems with this. The first is that, being a daylight occultation, I'll still be working. I can probably take some time off but I can never be sure if something is going to crop up. The other problem is the weather. According the the Met Office Monday, around here, is going to be cloudy, probably with rain.
For those of you who won't be able to observe this, either due to work, weather or just simply being on the wrong part of the planet: Peter Grego is planning a live webcast of the event if he's lucky enough to have clear skies.
Tonight I was lucky enough to observe the lunar occultation of Saturn.
Skies were nice and clear for me when I got the Explorer 130M out at around 18:45 UT. By 18:51 UT (yes, no time to let the 'scope cool down) I had Saturn in the eyepiece. This in itself was a first for me. The Sun was still above the horizon — that's the first time I've observed that planet during the day.
The view kept switching from being very hard to make out to being very clear, sometimes clear enough that I could just about make out the planet's shadow on the rings.
The dark limb of the Moon wasn't visible at all so I had no visual clues as to how long I had to wait. There were a couple of false starts where I thought I could see part of Saturn was missing. And then, suddenly, it was really obvious that the Moon was cutting into the rings.
Sadly I didn't have a stopwatch with me so I had no way of timing how long the event took. It felt like it was over in about 30 seconds. I know I was very surprised at how quickly it all happened. It was all over by 19:06 UT.
And then I had a break. I had about an hour to wait until Saturn emerged.
Fast forward to 20:00 UT and the Moon was lost behind a load of cloud. I could see, towards the western horizon, a gap, but I didn't hold out much hope for it getting into place in time. For a while all I had to look at was:
It seems that lots of people either observed or photographed the Moon along with Venus. Amongst the astronomy blogs I read Ian got a shot despite the clouds, Nick got a shot (along with a shots of an Iridium flare and a pair of sun dogs) and Tim got a couple of images (including one exposed for the Moon's highlights and one exposed for the earthshine).
After doing a search on Flickr it seems that lots of people had a go at photographing this conjunction. The most unusual one I've seen is this one.
I really should prepare myself better before I go out observing.
Paul S, over on the SPA BB, pointed out that I should have captured Mercury along with the Moon and Venus. This is where I should have been prepared, I hadn't even realised that Mercury was visible around that time from that location.
I fired up Starry Night and had a look at where Mercury was and then went back and looked at the photographs I took and, sure enough, in just the right spot, there was faint little Mercury.
Of course, in the photograph I posted yesterday, my unprepared head was occulting the planet.
Have a look at this image. It's a blown-up crop of this:
I had a pretty late observing session last night, out with a couple of friends just enjoying the available sights (sadly cloud stopped play in the end).
Almost right up until the point where we packed up (around 00:00 UT) the sky had one obvious and striking sight that you just had to keep going back and just looking at. For me nothing quite matches a crescent Moon and Venus. I'm not one for doing much in the way of astrophotography but I had to catch that sight. Not having the gear to do a good close-up (this is the best I could manage) I opted for a landscape shot instead. Actually, more of a landscape and self-portrait:
Sorry about this, but this is yet another one of those "look what I imaged with my mobile phone" posts. I know it's not big, I know it's not clever, but, but, because I can....
This evening I was out observing Venus for a while and then, when Venus got low, I turned to Saturn. What a view! One of the best I've ever had. And, as I have a horrible habit of doing, in a moment of madness I decided to see what I could capture with the mobile phone. This is what I got:
As I noted a few days back, I've finally been observing Venus via a telescope (to the best of my knowledge this year is the first time I've ever done that). The log from the first session can be found here, the second session was a couple of days later.
Two things stand out so far. The first is that these sessions are probably the first time I've noticed filtering making a big difference to a visual image. I've found that, on the 905, a combination of the contrast booster and a 80A medium blue work really well.
The second thing I've noticed is just how tricky a target Venus is. While it's obvious that I've been observing something that has a gibbous phase I've been struck by how indistinct the view is. Of course, this won't be helped by the fact that I'm observing Venus when it's quite low to the horizon – lower than I'd generally observe other planets. It's probably also not helped by the fact that I'm not really using the best 'scope for the job.
But! Will Gater comes to the rescue. His great picture of Venus reminds me an awful lot of the view I've been having of Venus (albeit my view is obviously somewhat smaller than that). It's always nice to have something to compare to and that image really helps.
While they don't quite qualify as astrophotography I did make a point of including Venus in some of the shots.
Even better, when I got back home, I noticed that Venus was still visible from my back garden. I immediately got the Antares 905 out and had a session observing the planet. I think this is the first time I've ever observed Venus through a telescope. It's definitely the first time I've observed it via a 'scope since I got back into observing.
As it was they didn't turn out that well, I really need to work on getting the focus right.
I notice that Ian also took some images and also did an animation too. Although, as always, he seems to have managed to photograph everything upside down. ;)
Seems that the state legislature of New Mexico has decided that Pluto is a planet.
Apparently March 13th 2007 (only 2007?) will also be "Pluto Planet Day".
Finally, on Saturday night, I managed to break the bad run for December. Also, it was a rather different kind of observing session for me because it was the first time, since getting back into observing, that I've observed away from my own garden and in the company of someone else.
I met up with a fellow observer (based in Grantham) at Woodland Waters (it's about ½ way between our locations) with a view to seeing how good it is as an observing location. For the most part I was impressed. While there are some sources of light pollution on site they don't get in the way that much and it's much better than observing from my own garden. The big difference was how much sky there is available. With no houses to get in the way the view was pretty much horizon to horizon.
Most of the observing I did that evening was of an object I've generally managed to miss so far: M42. From my own garden Orion is hidden behind the house most of the time and, by the time it's in a position where I can see it, it tends to be rather low and lights in the village get in the way. On Saturday night I had a perfect view of it.
I also managed to observe M81 and M82 for the first time.
The other highlight of the night was my first telescopic view of Saturn for this apparition. The view wasn't that good, it was still rather low and moving in and out of view over some trees, but it was good to see it anyway.
Although I probably didn't observe as much as I would on my own (as much time was probably spent on conversation as was spent on observing), and even though I didn't log things as carefully as I would when observing on my own, I really enjoyed the evening. It was great to be observing with an unobstructed view and having company and being able to share thoughts and ideas added a totally new dimension to the experience of observing. It's something I aim to do again and as often as possible.
Okay, I'm pushing it a bit with the title of this post, but I am fascinated by the results that people can get with the little cameras you get in mobile phones (or "cell phone" for those in strange parts of the world) these days.
I've used mine in the past to (try and) record sunspots, the Sun itself (although that one's really rubbish), Mars (yes, I know, I'm pushing it a bit there), the Moon, the Moon with Jupiter, a solar eclipse and various forms of atmospheric phenomena. The results have never been that great but I never really expected them to be that great.
That said, if LPOD is anything to go by, some of the better phones seem to give amazing results.
But, for me, none of the above quite match the image in this post on the SPA BB. Sure it's blurred. Sure it's smudged. Sure there's no real detail. But you can instantly tell which planet it is. An identifiable planet, on a mobile phone! How neat is that?
