We’ve had a great run of clear skies. The night doesn’t get truly dark till after midnight, so I’ve not been arranging observing sessions for the club. I did take my Skywatcher out for a rare ‘roadside session’ the other night, because I particularly wanted to image Saturn. I took a minute film and did the usual Pipp/Autostakkert/Registrax thing, though I’m still not convinced I’m using the things right. But I got an identifiable shot, that is better than what I’ve got before of this planet. I think it’s a little over-sharpened.
The planets are putting on a fine display at the moment. Venus the brightest in the West, dipping below the horizon about 11.40. Jupiter is quite high, with Saturn to the left, lower, dimmer, and Mars to the left of Saturn, rising around idnight, very bright and red (though I didn’t capture the ruddiness in my shot from Pattingham below).
The photo of Saturn above was taken on the 23rd June, as was this photo of Jupiter.
Last night I was out again, and once again hooray for the table-top dob. That little 4″ reflector is really so much fun. Through my 9mm eyepiece I can easily see the cloud-bands of Jupiter, and the rings of Saturn. And last night I took in a lovey view of M39, an open cluster in Cygnus. The sky was full of summer haze even in the countryside, but still I managed some deep-sky work. Hercules was overhead, and the great cluster of M13 was surprisingly bright. Back in the early 90’s, I used a 4.5″ mirror a lot, and I’ve forgotten just how useful a small mirror can be.
The Wolverhampton Society has been really busy lately, I’m really pleased. Last month we had a trip to the Spaceguard Center in Knigton, and there’s an observatory project in the pipeline that’s very exciting indeed. I’ll post more about that later, but in the meantime here’s us at the Spaceguard Center, and here’s the observatory, on its way to Wolverhampton.
I Need my Space 