The bolts for the pillar have finally arrived and have been set in place in the shuttering. I’ve also run in some external grade power cable and some cable ducting to hopefully minimise running wires.
Once I’ve got the concrete delivery arranged and then laid that’ll be the base finished.
Until the next post, Clear Skies…
At last I’m starting to make some progress with my Home Observatory. I’ve got the foundations dug out, built the shuttering for the base and the block (that the pillar will connect to), and I’ve laid some hardcore; all with the help of my next door neighbour.
Here is a picture of the base with the shuttering and hardcore;
And here is a picture of the shuttering for the block on top.
I’m fairly fortunate in one respect that I didn’t have far to dig to get to solid ground.
Just waiting for the steel rods, nuts, and bolts to arrive and then I can finish off the base preparation ready for the concrete.
Next steps;
1) Build shed, modify roll-off-roof, and preserve (hopefully before the winter sets in)
2) Build and Mount pillar including mount for scope
3) Mount scope
4) Enjoy first night’s observing
I visited a friend’s home observatory a couple of weeks ago and got lots of ideas for developing my home observatory.
Until the next post, Clear Skies…
I’m a little frustrated with the progress of my Astro Imaging project. My current (home made) set-up is a little temperamental and I’m not getting repeatable results; I’ve not got the budget at the moment to do anything about the situation but I’m saving-up and should have the money in a few months.
Common guidance in ‘introduction to astronomy’ books suggest you to sketch what you see. I’ve often dismissed this advice with the thinking ‘why draw an inaccurate sketch when you can get a more accurate image with a digital camera’. A couple of weeks ago I found out why.
After two very frustrated hours trying to get an image of M42 (Orion Nebular) I decided to give sketching a go. So, I got out my pad and pen and drew what I could see through the eyepiece. Now, I’m no artist but I did manage to draw part of the Orion Nebular; the Trapezium with the surrounding nebulosity.
That’s the first time I’ve ever sketched what I’ve seen through the eyepiece and what really struck me was that you have to pay a lot more attention to what you are viewing in order to make a decent sketch. When simply viewing through an eyepiece it is easy to miss lots of detail. When you simply look at anything it’s amazing how much the brain takes for granted; try looking at any scene and then turn away from it and draw what you’ve seen without looking back at it; not easy. Sketching really makes you pay attention to the detail of the object in view.
I looked around for other astro sketchers and amongst them I found this site http://www.deirdrekelleghan.com/.
One obvious mistake I made was using white paper and black pen when really I need to use black paper (to represent the background – or should that be black with a hint of orange?) and white pen/pencil.
I’m going to improve my sketching skills before I post any pictures of my work.
Why not give astro sketching a go. Do you already astro-sketch? If so leave a comment with a link to your work, website, or blog.
Until the next post… Clear Skies! – and keep asking WHY?
According to the Earth Hour website the Earth Hour event last Saturday night (28th March 09 0830-0930) “… was an incredible success,”. Whilst I find that encouraging news, albeit declared by themselves, I feel they may have done even better if their publicity efforts had reached further. I am plugged into a number of social networking sites, blog feeds, news websites, twitter feeds etc… but first heard about this through my local radio station which I listen to on rare occasion.
At first I thought it must have just slipped through my net but from listening/reading other people I find they were in the same situation.
In my last post I said I’d be interested to know if Earth Hour would make any difference to our levels of light pollution; I was near the East coast of England (near Skegness but far enough away from the town to see the effects of light pollution) on Saturday night and I didn’t notice any difference at all 
So, to reduce the risk of missing Earth Hour next year I’ve signed up for notifications by email and I’m following them on twitter @earthhour too.
Until the next post… Clear Skies! – and keep asking WHY?
It’s Earth Hour this Saturday 28th March between 8.30pm-9.30pm – wherever you live on Earth.
On the back of it’s success in 2007 and 2008, Earth Hour 2009 aims to get 1 billion people switching off their lights with lots of famous landmarks joining in. All you have to do is switch off your lights at 8.30pm and leave them off until 9.30pm, and during that hour why not go outside and take a look at the night sky!
I should add that as ever safety comes first, e.g. leave your vehicle lights on if you’re travelling … 
Now, I’m not going to state where the blame lies for global warming (man made or natural), nor am I going to state whether the earth really is warming up or how fast it’s happening; Why? (I hope you ask Why? a lot:-)) Because I really don’t know enough about the topic (nor does the average man in the street for that matter) to make an authoritative statement; I’ve simply not done enough research of my own, pawing over enough evidence to make my own mind up.
That said, I do believe that wasting energy is wrong, whether it be renewable or non-renewable, whether or not it has a lasting effect on the environment or our way of life.
Wasted light, especially that which hits the sky (Light Pollution), is also a big annoyance for Astronomers, and it’s for that reason that I took note when I first heard of Earth Hour whilst listening to my local radio station. The one good thing about Light Pollution (for Astronomers that is) is that as soon as you kill the source you kill the effect; ok, you might have to wait 30 mins to recover from any affect on your light adaptation. Mustn’t forget about the lasting effects light pollution has on the environment though. Go to the Campaign for Dark Skies CfDS website for more information.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t be switching my lights off on Saturday night, because they’d already be off; undecided whether I should turn them on for 5 mins just before 8.30pm to add to the big dip in demand; counter productive I know.
I’ll be outside hopefully with no cloud blocking my view of the heavens; it’ll be interesting to see if Earth Hour makes our skies darker; tell me your findings by leaving a comment.
You can find out more about Earth Hour from the Earth Hour website
Until the next post… Clear Skies! – and keep asking WHY?
Caught a tweet from @mattjones yesterday pointing to a great post on his blog that shows you how to configure Stellarium to allow you to follow comet Lulin. Comets are unpredictable objects and so we can’t expect Stellarium to predict their course through the solar system; especially the one’s we’ve never seen before!
I’ve often wondered if Stellarium could be configured to help track comets but never looked into it; now I know how Just need the clouds to part and then we’ll see if it really works. Failing that, here’s an animated gif tweeted by @astrophoto.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
Now that Christmas and New Year is out of the way its time for another celebration; Happy Perihelion!; OK I’m getting carried away but it’s a good excuse to focus on a really interesting fact that in the Northern hemisphere we experience winter when the Earth is closest to the Sun in it’s elliptical orbit of the Sun.
I have been asked a few times recently by friends why this is so. The answer lies in the fact that the Earth orbits our star tilted on it’s North-South axis by 23.5 degrees (the 23.5 isn’t that important here only that it is significant enough to make a difference). When the Earth is at it’s closest point to the Sun, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun and the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun. This means that the Northern Hemisphere inhabitants (me included) experience shorter time spans of exposure to the sun (i.e. shorter days) and being further way from the Sun; all leading to a general reduction in temperature. The Southern Hemisphere inhabitants are having their summer; lucky so and so’s.
On the 4th July, other than Independence Day (for our US friends), we can celebrate Aphelion where the tables change; Northern Hemisphere people get to sunbath and the Southern Hemisphere people have to rap up warm.
I should add that the main reason for the season change is axel tilt as opposed to the distance from the sun.
Just a quick post to wish all my readers a Happy New Year and all the best in your astronomical exploits in the International Year of Astronomy of 2009.
2009 promises to be a great year for astronomy. I have a number of astronomy projects lined up, some to start and some to complete; AstroImaging, Astronomy GCSE, Home Observatory, Astronomy Guides, Shows, Tutorials, and (hopefully) more… but maybe not in that order.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
In the UK Monday evening (1st December 2008) at about 17:15 Venus began to appeared from behind the crescent moon and end it’s occultation by The Moon. Cloud had significantly impaired my view of the start of the occultation and I foolishly gave up on the hope of being able to observe anything worth while. Driving to a nearby shopping centre the clouds moved on (hopefully not to where you were viewing) and unveiled a truly beautiful sight of Venus as it came back into view from behind the Moon. To me it looked like a diamond on a ring.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to take any images but here’s one from Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD).
Do you have any links to images of the Moon’s occultation of Venus? If so please leave a comment; good quality images will be linked from the body of this post.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
A post over at ProBlogger led me to the Scribd site where you can search for books on a topic. Naturally I chose Astronomy and here’s a long list of documents I found. Some of the documents don’t seem that interesting but there looks to be a few gems in there.
I remember seeing the Scribd site a while back and forgot about it; enjoy!
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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