Author: Dave Shavewall

Viewing Report 26th October 2018 – Basingstoke

Viewing time period – 21:30 – 23:54

Tonight was my first night for first light through my new Altair 100mm Giant Binoculars before my trip to La Palma in early November. The Moon was waxing at 93.7% being 17 days old and at the time of observing around +40 degrees in altitude.

Moon – Given the Moon was up I thought I would test the binos on her first. The FoV with the Altair 18mm eyepieces in gives about 1.7 degrees, this meant the Moon fitted lovely in field. Given the brightness and the fact I went of for the more reasonably prices binos, there was a hint of red and blue fringing on the lunar limb. This was not surprising and did not bother me since my interest was rather more focused on the lunar surface. To say the least, the detail was phenomenal given a pair of binoculars, okay they are giant, but still very supprising. I could make out numerous craters around the edge of Mare Tranquillitatis, the Eastern edge of Mare Fecunditatis and the Western edge of Mare Serenitstis. Various smaller craters, Riles and mountain ranges could be seen very sharply.

M31 – The Andromeda Galaxy is stunning in the binos, taking on an almost 3D appearance. The associated M32 and M110 galaxies could also seen in the same FoV. Whilst I could not make our any structure due to the Moon’s light pollution I was happy with the view none the less.

M45 – The Pleiades were pin sharp with the brighter members piercing the cluster and seemingly sitting in front of the other dimmer members. Sweeping around the cluster you realised how big it is, although it almost entirely fits in the FoV.

M34 – This Open Cluster in Perseus is small and indistinct, a few stars seemed brighter than others else fairly unremarkable for a Messier object. I hope to view again once the Moon is out of the way.

M103 – This is a small Open Cluster in Cassiopeia. Almost too small for the 4″ binos, I managed to find star hopping from the bright star Ruchbah in the main constellation ‘W’ drawing.

M52 – Again a very small and dim cluster near the famous Bubble nebula. A single bright star could be seen to the North Western edge. Star hopping from another bright star in the ‘W’ drawing Caph, I found the cluster fairly easily.

NGC 7510 – Almost by accident my eye picked out a small cluster across the boarder, although I had no idea at the time, in Cepheus. This tiny cluster of stars has a distinctive arrow or triangular shape to it and I found it by nudging the binos slightly West of M52.

Uranus – Not to be outdone with the banter on the WhatsApp channel I went star hoping for this outer planet. When I found it, it was not instantly obvious so I needed to refer to a star chart to make sure. I could just make out a greenish hue to the planet itself although I wonder if I thought I saw this rather than actually seeing it.

M74 – Whilst I could NOT see the Spiral Galaxy M74 as the only failed target for the night, I could make out the star TYC 1205-0785-1 at Mag +10.8 thus enabling me to realise I was in the right area.

Attending Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018

So it was a great pleasure to attend the Astronomy Photographer of the Year at Greenwich, London this year after being shortlisted for the category of the Moon.

My good friend and member Bob Trevan accompanied me as I had submitted half a dozen images taken throughout 2017. The event was held at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich which aided a larger venue for this years global competition. With submissions from around the globe in the region of 4,000 images were judged. On arrival complimentary champagne and wine was given whilst we mingled with winners, runners up and shortlisted photographers. The award ceremony lasted about an hour, it was a real shame many of the winners were unable to attend including the renowned Damian Peach, apparently it was his 40th birthday so we may let him off.

Afterwards we got to walk around the new display that opened to the public the following morning.

All the images were excellent and many were targets we would go after during the following season. What was slightly disappointing was that many people won 2 or event 3 prizes even in the same category, given the amount of submissions it is hard to understand why there judges did not use their discretion to choose other people. Out of all my images, whilst I did not win or even get a runners up prize I did get shortlisted for my photo of the Moon through a 20″ telescope on the top of Tenerife, surprisingly with an iPhone. This image and details therein were published in the 7th edition of the competitions official book which I am very proud of.

At the end of the evening we retired to a hotel in London and then the following morning, Bob and I travelled back to Greenwich to have another look (with less alcohol in our systems, to review the images and to collect a complimentary copy of the book.

Overall it was a great evening and morning and a great event.

Clear Skies

Dave Shave-Wall

Members Visit Kelling Heath Star Party

On the 10th September, members Mark Radice and Dave Shave-Wall set off for the remote corner of East Anglia, the most north easterly part of England to attend the Kelling Heath Star Party. The roads to Kelling from the South East of Englands home county of Hampshire never seem to end, but after nearly 6 hours of driving in Friday afternoon traffic we arrive is this very rural part of England.

We set about setting up tent, cooking some food on the stove and watching the light fade, then we venture out to see who and what have arrived to one of the darkest sky sites and largest star parties England offers.

Many people are still setting up, deep sky imaging rigs are being attended to by budding astrophotographers who dart from here to the there, the red light from their head torches betraying their location as the tighten bolts and attach cables whilst waiting for the clouds to clear. Meanwhile deep sky visual observers sit and relax in their large lounge chairs, massive dobsonian beasts lie still facing horizontally on the grass surrounding the tents.

The Kelling Heath site is massive, over the course of the nights Mark and I walk in the region of 8 miles, back and forth from the Blue to the Red fields, stopping every now and then to ask what people are up to and to hopefully be offered a view through their scopes. Most people are pleasant and welcoming, some less inviting people make a few comments about viewing when people have left their little ‘dell’. In the main though the majority of folk are very nice indeed and this is what makes this star party special. The community of strangers with astronomy in common becomes a close community of friends who want to share.

After a whiles Mark and I stop at a pair of massive binoculars, that turn out to be 5″ APMs and we stare through with eager interest of what is on view. The sight that greets your eyes is pronominal. I had forgotten the effect of using both eyes. Despite the stars being appreciably far away that depth is not really seen, you fall into the large binoculars, eyes darting left and right, up and down, soaking in the view that is most definitely 3D in its nature. M81 and M82 that I had previously looked at through my 6″dob now looks like someone is holding the on a piece of fine fishing line, dangled in front of the stars the actually sit behind. This is the moment of conversion for me, an epiphany, a calling, I commit at this moment in time to go back into visual. No I won’t give up astrophotography, of course not. I will move my setup at home to Spain and gain more data, but I will also buy a pair of these wonderful binoculars and use my 6″ dob to view the night sky, connecting in a way which no other astronomy can connect you to the majesty of the universe.

We wonder here and there, look through the mighty 22″ UC Obsession dob owned by the extremely pleasant and knowledgable Owen Brazell and spy the comet of the moment 21p Giacobini-Zinner just above the hedgerow. The tail definitely showing as it points to around 7 o’clock in the field of view. A view through a set of 6″ binos produces a slightly wider view as the comet sets. We went on to have around a few hours of clear skies, I bagged a handful of objects in the 6″ reminding me just how good this little scope it that is owned by my daughters.

The next day brings conversation with many astronomers after a leisurely bacon fried breakfast cooked by my good friend Mark. We head across to the trade stalls and I decide to dive into the purchase of The Night Sky Observers Guide, Mark had shown me the night before. Think of it as the serious astronomers version of Turn Left at Orion with over 5000 objects to hunt down and see. I purchase volumes 1 and 2 along with a years membership of the Webb Society, with it’s quarterly magazine, The Deep-Sky Observer.

After looking through both 5″ and 6″ binoculars I bump into Altair Astro and their own pair of 4″ binos, much more portable for me for Tenerife and superb quality. They are even about to produce and sell their first bino wedge for the binos which is very akin to the APM wedge on show. A must buy before this years November trip to La Palma.

Again we meet with long lost friends such as Keith Venables whom started my observatory building 14 years ago by borrowing his dome mould that build the IMT-1 and IMT-2 at Bob’s house.  After another night with cloud in toe, we wake, have another breakfast and pack up and head home across the South East. I must admit it was a good trip, great conversation with my friend Mark and having learnt a lot from the new astronomers I met a real change to the direction my astronomy will take over the next 14 years. I look forward to returning one day to Kelling Heath.

The processing begins

Now we have returned from the Tenerife trip, sorting through the data accumulated, in my case some 0.72 Terabytes, starts. Most of the data comes in the form of movie files for the Moon and planets through the MONS telescope. The rest is a mixture of deep sky objects and a small portion of night time shots around the observatory. An example is this shot taken from the ridge overlooking the observatory.

So what types of image am I processing right now? Well here is one I processed in the past few weeks whilst I start to work on some shots of Mars. This is an image of NGC 7023, the Iris nebula. What you are looking at is a reflection nebula, containing dust and gas which has it’s electrons excited by the star within. The rest of the image contains a lot of stars and a huge amount of Interstellar Flux Nebula, pervading clouds of dust within this region of space.

So I will go back to processing some more images and see if I can crack through the 10s of images yet to come from our successful week away.

Visit to BAA Summer Meeting

Well a few of our members decided to have a day out, to fill the gap in our annual calendar from having a yearly visit to Astrofest, to our trip later this week to the MONS observatory on mount Teide in Tenerife.

So we travelled up to the BAA Sumer Meeting which had a host of great speakers from the professional field. Professors and Dr’s alike came to update us on their field of research based around planetary systems, both here and in the wider cosmos.

A couple of the talks that resonated really well were from Professor Giovanna Tinetti on Exoplanets and the best of the day had to go to Leigh Fletcher specking about the weather on giant gas planets.