My first image of the Milkyway

So with my new Canon 700D & 14mm Samyang Lens I decided to try and see if I could pick up the milky way from my heavily light polluted back garden.

I will be honest and say my initial images were horrid, they were basically yellow! However, I took 10 x 30 Second ISO 3200 subs and used DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop & PixInsight to actually pull out an okay image with the Milky Way actually reasonably visible.

I am looking forward to taking the camera out to some actual dark sites as well as plugging it into my telescope but for now I am happy with what I have managed so far!

Christmas Bonanza!

So Santa went nuts for Christmas this year and provided me with lots of new bits and pieces for my Astronomy adventure so I thought I would share my new equipment with the world.

First up is something I have been in great need of which is some nice warm Quechua snow boots. There has been several times that I have been outside for only two hours and realised I can no longer feel my toes! I either cut my evening short or I end up suffering with rather sore feet as the feeling comes back to them whilst I drive home. Santa was pretty cheap with these boots to be honest as they only cost £10 and the basically look like welly boots. However, they have supposedly been tested down to -18C for someone is at rest so I am pretty confident they should do a much better job that my trainers have been doing.

Next up is my major present of the year which is a Canon EOS 700d. Finally I can stop borrowing my friends DSLR when I want to do some imaging and use my own. It comes with an 18-55mm STM lens which should be useful for basic things but I suspect this lens is more going to be used for daytime photography when I just want to take some quick pictures. To be honest, I am new to DSLR cameras so I think there will be a fair bit of learning to get through but I am looking forward to it.

I also recieved a prime lens which is the wonderful Samyang 14mm f/2.8 widefield lens which I hope to use for future milky way & constellation shots. I have read good reviews for this “budget” lens and whilst it is manual focus, this won’t really cause a problem for astrophotography shots as I can just set it to infinity focus.

My last camera related gift of Christmas is a tripod which means I can actually take some long exposure shots. One day I hope to get an EQ mount and fit the camera to that but for now a fixed tripod will at least enable to get some decent widefield shots. The tripod I received is a Red Snapper RST-283 & RSH-61 Ball Head which isn’t as expensive as some of the Manfrotto tripods but it seems to be well built and should be stable. The brief play around I have had with it has shown me that it may take me a while to get used to the movements of a ball head but it does offer a fair bit of flexibility in regards to moving the camera.

Santa didn’t forget my telescope either and my final gift of the year is a Skywatcher UHC filter. A few times recently I have contemplated that the views of various nebulas would potentially be enhanced by the use of an UHC filter. So now we shall see if I am right or not, I understand that dark skies are the best way to get better views but hopefully the UHC filter will still help the view from my back garden.

A Year of Astronomy

So it is now a year since my parents bought me a Skywatcher 127 MAK for Christmas in 2013 and I have thoroughly enjoyed the late nights and amazing views it has brought me. As it is a year I thought I would have a look back over my current observation stats and see how well I am doing against some of the standard target lists.

Messier : 23 out of 110
Herschel 400 : 13 out of 400
Planets : 5 out of 7
Caldwell : 7 out of 109
Lunar 100 : 9 out of 100

Overall not bad for the first year although I suspect I will never complete the Caldwell list and many of them aren't actually visible from Scotland.

I have started some exploration into Astrophotography as well and am quite happy with several of the images I have taken even though I don't have the best of set-ups yet. Anyway, my favourites from the year are shown below.

Jupiter with Callisto, Io & Ganymede

Caldwell 13 / NGC 457 / The Owl Cluster

An Iridium Flare

Constellation Orion

Double Stars & A Little Bit More

Anyone reading this blog will know that I am slowly discovering the various double stars in Ursa Minor and this post details the next three stars in my adventure, STF 1958, STF 2134 & STF 2299. However, the same night that I observed these stars I also decided to explore a few other night sky objects such as the Garnet Star, Foxhead Cluster (NGC 6819), Caldwell 1 & NGC 7160. The locations of all these targets are shown below.

STF 1958 (SAO 16749)
RA: 15 29 24.12 Dec: +67 12 16.0
Magnitudes: 9.63, 9.97
Separation: 29.7”
Position Angle: 338°

The first of the double stars of the night and to be honest it wasn't that impressive with me not actually noticing the secondary star until I used averted vision even with the decent separation. As my night vision improved I managed to look at it directly but to be honest both the stars just looked a dim white colour.

STF 2134 (HIP 83092 / SAO 8679)
RA: 16 58 44.10 Dec: +76 06 33.0
Magnitudes: 9.43, 10.22
Separation: 45.8”
Position Angle: 144°

As my night vision was better by now I could see both the primary and secondary straight off without needing any averted vision, this was of course helped by the decent amount of separation. As with the previous double, both stars appeared white although the difference in magnitudes made for a greater level of contrast between them.

STF 2299 (SAO 2933)
RA: 17 38 55.61 Dec: +84 02 42.9
Magnitudes: 9.46, 9.67
Separation: 33.5”
Position Angle: 124°

My final double of the night and another uninspiring target with both stars once again coming across as white and easily separated. I appear to be at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to interesting doubles in Ursa Minor but I will keep going until I think I have reached the limit of my current scope.

Garnet Star / Mu Cephei (HIP 107259 / SAO 33693)
RA: 21 43 30.46 Dec: +58 46 48.17
Magnitude: 4.08

The Garnet Star is a red supergiant in the Cepheus constellation and is one of the largest and most luminous stars known in the Milky Way. Its name comes from the fact that it Herschel noted it had a Garnet Red colouring. I have to admit it is a lovely sight to look at which a lovely red colour that clearly comes through. After looking at plenty of white coloured doubles this evening it was nice to see something showing a bit of colour. It reminded me a little bit of the star La Superba in Canes Venatici which also has a clear red colouring.

NGC 6819 / Foxhead Cluster
RA: 19 41 18 Dec: +40 11 00
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 7.3

NGC 6819 is located around 7,200 light years away in the Cygnus constellation. It is called the Foxhead Cluster because the brighter star form a triangular shape which is supposedly like the head of fox.

I have to admit that I struggled to see much from my back garden and I could make out maybe 4-5 stars at most which was very disappointing. However, even with this limited number of stars I could see that there was a vague "V" shape to them which helped confirm I was in the right location. Another interesting thing I noted was that surrounding this small cluster was another set of brighter stars which also formed a triangular shape.

Caldwell 1
RA: 00 48 Dec: +85 15
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 8.1

Caldwell 1, also know as NGC 188 is an open cluster in the Cepheus constellation about 5,000 light years away. Unlike most open clusters that drift apart after a few million years because of the gravitational interaction of our galaxy, NGC 188 lies far above the plane of the galaxy and is one of the most ancient of open clusters known, at approximately 5 billion years old.

The light pollution from Grangemouth Oil Refinery to the North of my home meant there was a fair change I wouldn't see anything but I could still make out a barely perceivable patch of light in the sky. For this cluster I really need to use a bigger aperture although I might be able to get more from a darker site as well. Either way, the most disappointing of the night but this probably should have been expected given a 5 Inch telescope was always going to be pushing it due to low surface brightness etc.

NGC 7160
RA: 21 53 40 Dec: +62 36 12
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 6.1

NGC 7160 is located around 2,600 light years away in the Cepheus constellation. This was probably my favourite Open Cluster of the night because it was pretty clear to see with about 9 stars being visible. The shape itself was quite interesting to behold and to me it looked almost like a tadpole.

It was quite a compact cluster so I am not sure how much more I would be able to resolve at a darker site but I still suspect I will be back to it in the future as it was quite nice to see.

Some Widefield Imaging of Andromeda

For Christmas I am getting a DSLR so I can make an attempt at really getting involved in astrophotography. I decided to search Ebay for some cheap prime lenses  in preparation for getting my hands on the camera and I came across an old Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 Lens which was only going to cost me about £6. At that price I couldn't resist it even if I did also have to pay another £3 for a converter so I could fit it to Canon DSLRs.

After it arrived I quickly borrowed a friend's camera and put it to work on an easy target, namely the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31). I basically took 10 x 8 seconds subs at ISO 1600 and then used DeepSkyStacker to stack them before undertaking a fair amount of processing work in Pixinsight & Photoshop. There was a lot of processing required as the image showed a lot of coma as I had the lens set to wide open and therefore I had to crop out a large chunk of the image and then try to remove the coma that remained. In the future I will probably need to step down the lens to get a wider view although this will reduce the amount of light I am capturing, I suppose an EQ mount of some sort will need to be procured at some point to help me extend the sub length. Anyway, despite this I am actually quite happy with the image I took which I have attached below.

My favourite aspect of the image is that you can actually make out M110 & M32 as well although they are rather small!

Back to Ursa Minor for Double Star Hunting

So my journey through the double stars of Ursa Minor continued recently on the 28th October when I observed and sketched three more stares. Those stars were 8 Ursae Minoris, STF 1761 & STF 1859 whose locations are shown below.

8 Ursae Minoris (HIP 73136 / SAO 8127)
RA: 14 56 48.35 Dec: +74 54 03.3
Magnitudes: 6.94, 8.92
Separation: 171”
Position Angle: 32°

So 8 Ursae Minoris was pretty easy to find with the bright star Kochab being very near. The primary and secondary were incredibly easy to spot as there is a large separation between them and they are more than bright enough for me to spot from my light polluted back garden. One thing I did enjoy about this double is that I actually picked up a very vague hint of yellow in the primary star and whilst I have tried to show it in my sketch it is probably very hard to see the difference between it and the other starts which looked white.

Another nice aspect of the view is  that variable star TT Umi is very close by towards the West of 8 Umi and has a lovely orange hue which I could clearly make out.

STF 1761 (HIP 66011 / SAO 7837)
RA: 13 32 01.67 Dec: +71 43 01.3
Magnitudes: 9.3, 10.1
Separation: 20.2”
Position Angle: 71°

The second double of the night was STF 1761 which was much fainter than 8 Umi but I was still able to make out both components. The sky wasn't the most transparent so it wasn't the easiest of views but it was obvious enough even if it was over shadowed by some of the brighter stars around it in the field of view. I couldn't pick out any colouring in the stars and it wasn't that interesting a view but at least it is another Ursa Minor double off the list.

STF 1859 (HIP 70783 / SAO 8027)
RA: 14 28 31.85 Dec: +73 03 18.3
Magnitudes: 8.63, 10.12
Separation: 19.8”
Position Angle: 234°

STF 1859 had a slightly brighter primary compared to STF 1761 which actually made it much easier to make out even if the secondary wasn't any different in magnitude. It was also much easier to focus in on it as the stars around it were not as overpowering in magnitude as I had seen with STF 1761. Once again though I still couldn't pick out any colour in the two components but I did enjoy watching them hover in the eyepiece.

Single Exposure Astrophotography

So recently I decided once again to play around with a friend's Canon 1100d DSLR and my telescope to see what images I could capture. Unfortunately I had a couple of issues; I couldn't get the mount properly set up so star drift was bad and the clouds came across meaning I couldn't take more than a couple of .

However, thanks to the joys of Adobe Photoshop I was able to at least get something to show for my hard work. My first image was of Messier 13 also known as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules.

This is basically just a single 30 second exposure taken at ISO 1600 and there was some pretty bad star trailing but I did some work to remove that. It does seem to be rather blue but it is obviously a Globular Cluster and I am curious to know what I could manage with multiple exposures and a better set up mount.

My second object I imaged is Messier 57 which is also known as the Ring Nebula.

This is an even weaker image than what I managed of Messier 13 as it is only a 15 second exposure and the star trailing was even worse. However, I was pretty happy about it as I just took the 15 second shot as a quick trial before the clouds came in and I suspect I can get much better in the future.

A Couple of Globular Clusters & The Dumbbell Nebula

For my most recent night outside with the telescope I dedicated to hunt down a few Messier objects I hadn't seen before which you can see detailed on the image below.

Messier 71
RA: 19 54 Dec: +18 47
Type: Globular Cluster
Magnitude: 7.1

Messier 71 is a Globular Cluster in the Sagitta Constellation and is a distance of around 12,000 light years away from Earth. For quite a while this cluster was actually dense open cluster due to it lacking a dense central region. However, further research has confirmed that it is actually a very loosely concentrated globular cluster, much like M68 in Hydra

To be honest, I really struggled to see this object in my telescope. It was very faint and it took a fair amount of time at the Eyepiece and some averted vision to bring out a very faint smudge of light. To be honest I was having issues of light pollution from my home as my wife kept switching on the lights which wasn't helping. I will need to take a further look at this globular cluster from a darker site at some point.

Messier 92
RA: 17 17 Dec: +43 08
Type: Globular Cluster
Magnitude: 6.4

After barely being able to see Messier 71 I decided to check out Messier 92 which was another Globular Cluster, this time in Hercules. This cluster is about 26,700 light-years away from Earth and is one of the oldest known Clusters.

My first interesting observation on this cluster was that it was much brighter than Messier 71 even though it is so much further away from Earth. It was very clear, compact and bright in the 32mm eyepiece with an obvious brightening towards its centre.

Messier 27 / The Dumbbell Nebula
RA: 20 00 Dec: +22 43
Type: Planetary Nebula
Magnitude: 7.5

My final target of the night was the Dumbbell Nebula, also known as the Apple Core Nebula or Messier 27. It is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula and is a distance of about 1,360 light years from Earth.

The GOTO on my mount was actually off by a little bit when I tried to find it but the nebula was actually visible in my finderscope so it was easy enough to centre it in my 32mm eyepiece. The moment I realised I could see it in the finderscope I knew I was going to be in for a treat and sure enough it was a lovely sight. I could clearly make out an hour glass shape and I am sure I even managed to pick up a hint of green colouring. I am actually a bit upset I left it to last as light cloud was affecting my view and I suspect I could have gotten a clearer view if I had looked at it earlier. It can join the ever growing list of objects that I want to look at again from a darker location.

Clusters in Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia has been a regular target for me since the late summer nights started getting dark enough for me to be out with my telescope. The constellation is full of clusters, several of which I have already mentioned in previous blog posts however there are others and I decided last night to try and see a couple more of them in addition to imaging my favourite of them all, NGC 457.

Messier 52
RA: 23 24  Dec: +61 35
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 5

Messier 52 is an open cluster that is anywhere between 3,000 and 7,000 light years away and is comprised of at least 190 stars. I wasn't sure if it would be that easy to find this cluster as the brightest star has a magnitude of 11 but due the number of stars I actually saw it in my finderscope as a small hazy patch. Through the telescope it didn't initially look that special but once I used averted vision it became a lovely compact collection of faint stars. Even now 9 months since I started my astronomy adventure I find the power of averted vision to be quite amazing.

Supposedly the Bubble Nebula is less than a degree away from this cluster but I couldn't see it, then again from a light polluted back garden with my small telescope I didn't really expect to.

NGC 7789 / The White Rose Cluster
RA: 23 57  Dec: +56 43
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 6.7

The White Rose Cluster is an open cluster that is approximately 8,000 light years away and was actually discovered by William Herschel's sister, Caroline. The name is because when viewed visually the loops of stars and dark lanes supposedly look like the swirling pattern of rose petals. Personally, I don't see what the heck people are talking about as to me it just looked like a plain old cluster of stars but I may need to take a look at it from a dark site in the future to see if that was the issue.

NGC 457 / Caldwell 13 / The Owl Cluster
RA: 01 20 Dec: +58 17
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 6.4

I have discussed NGC 457 previously when I detailed my visual observations but to recap it is an Open Cluster about 9,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 200 stars in a region 30 light years wide. It does have a beautiful shape and I was therefore determined to try and get an image of it to share with you all. Amazingly enough I think I did a pretty good job considering the limitations of my set up but feel free to make up your own mind on how good a job I have done.

The furthest planets in our Solar System

So over the past 9 months of owning my telescope I have looked at and imaged three planets, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn. A few nights ago I decided that I would see if I could capture the 7th and 8th planets in our Solar System, Uranus and Neptune.

I started with Uranus and was annoyed to find that it was rather close to some  very annoying street lights. It was so bad that my finderscope just showed orange glow when I did get the main telescope pointed at Uranus. It is times like this that I really appreciate having GOTO capability as my alignment was good enough to get the planet into my 25mm Eyepiece FoV straight away. I was pretty chuffed to see that I could make a slightly green/blue tinged disc hovering there. Unfortunately, when I moved to the webcam I failed utterly to get an image appearing, I even used my reticle eyepiece to make sure it was centered but still nothing. To be honest, I suspect the low aperture of my telescope means that there is not enough light getting through. I did do a quick check on Astrobin and most people who have posted images are using 8 inch telescopes. Perhaps from a really dark site I would have more luck, but I think I will skip trying it again until I get better webcam.

After this minor disappointment I decided to look for Nepture in the hope that I could catch sight of this, the most distant planet in our system. There were no street lights this time although the Moon was close by which did wash out the view a little bit. However, I did managed to spot it as a tiny pin head of blue tinged light. I did try and up the magnification with my 2.5x barlow but the dimming effect all but made it impossible to spot Neptune beyond the odd fleeting glance. I don't see anyway that my telescope could pick up this planet to be honest so I guess imaging it will need to wait until I get something bigger.

In the end it was still nice seeing both these planets and actually getting some form of colour. I am sure I will take another look in the future from a darker site which will hopefully enable me to get some more magnification.

The Lunar 100 - Three More Off the List

So it has been a fair bit since I last tried to explore the Lunar 100 but last night I decided to once again continue my journey exploring the Moon's surface. So I fished out my check-list and decided on three targets from the list with the first of these being L6 - Tycho which is a rather prominent and well known crater in the Southern lunar highlands.

Tycho is in a pretty busy section of the moon with quite a large amount of craters surrounding it, some of which were formed by ejecta from Tycho itself. One thing I really like when looking at the Moon are the ray systems and Tycho has a very distinctive ray system so I spent a fair amount of time gazing over it. The image I took which is shown below doesn't show off the ray system as much as I would have liked but it is still visible to some extent.

After Tycho I decided to head south to L9 - Clavius which is one of the largest crater formations on the Moon. I loved looking at this crater, mainly because it contains a lovely semi-circular arc of smaller craters on its floor which seem to line up in size order with the largest on the Southern rim being called Rutherfurd. If you look at the image below you will notice a 2nd crater sitting on the rim which is called Porter.

My final stop of the night was at L13 - Gassendi which is a large crater sitting on the Northern edge of Mare Humorum ("Sea of Moisture"). The crater  filled with lava during the formation of the Mare but the outer rim of Gassendi is still visible as a circular shape. A smaller crater known as Gassendi A intrudes into the northern rim which gives the crater formation the appearance of an engagement ring.

The Andromeda Galaxy - My First Deep Space Object Picture

So in my last post I had implied that I was going to try and image Messier 34 (The Spiral Cluster) once I got hold a T Ring and a friend's DSLR. Unfortunately I managed to fail quite hugely at trying to find that cluster when I had a camera attached to the telescope. However, one DSO I always know how to find is Messier 31 (The Andromeda Galaxy) as it is pretty clear in my finder scope even if I couldn't see it on my laptop screen and so it turned out that the first DSO I would ever image was that instead.

However, I am probably getting a little bit ahead of myself here and should probably try and explain to you what equipment I was using to get the photograph. Basically, I had a Canon EOS 1100d DSLR which I borrowed from a friend, I then used an EOS-T2 Adapter which enabled me to attach the DSLR to the back of my telescope. To control the camera I used the laptop and some software called "APT - Astro Photography Tool" which let me alter the exposure times, view the camera image via the laptop screen, conduct focus calculations on the image to ensure I had the focus as tight as possible and finally it allowed me to take a photograph without touching the camera itself.

Whilst the above sounds great I was actually using one piece of equipment which not suited at all to astrophotography. Namely my Alt-Az mount which isn't the most stable, doesn't have the smoothest tracking and doesn't track the movement of the skies exactly so you can get field rotation. So this is my excuse for why the images I am going to show below aren't the best!

Now it is time for me to actually show the pictures, the first is basically a single 25 second sub which has had 10 Dark Frames and 20 Bias Frames applied to try and help the noise issues.

As you can see all I have gotten here is a rather small patch of fuzzy light in the center although I also managed to get the satellite galaxy Messier 32 in the bottom right of the frame as well which was unexpected. My next step was therefore to try and stack a few subs together and whilst some of the images I took weren't very good due to mount movement etc. I did manage to at least get enough shots to enable me to stack 4 off 25 second subs together which I then processed with 10 Dark Frames and 20 Bias Frames which is shown below.

I got a much brighter and larger object here because the improvement in signal to noise ratio from stacking enabled me to pull out more data without increasing the noise as much. I think Messier 32 is even clearer here as well and obviously looks different to the stars that in the field which should be expected as it is a small galaxy.

Overall I am actually quite happy with the images and suspect that I could get some nicer images in the future even with this limited set up once I get better at using the equipment and processing software.

Clear Skies Keep on Coming

So another clear night meant I was out again in the back garden but this time I had a work colleague with me who at one point actually went in and made us both a cup of tea which was greatly appreciated. Although looking at the kitchen floor afterwards it appears that trying to make tea with just a red light isn’t the cleanest process.

Anyway on the whole I covered a lot of the same targets I seen the previous night with me once again enjoying the views of objects such as the Double Cluster (C14), the Owl Cluster (C13), Eta Cassiopeiae, Albiero, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) & its satellite (M32). I also enjoyed looking at my old favourites the Cigar Galaxy (M82) & Bode’s Galaxy (M81) which fitted wonderfully together in the 32mm Eyepiece and were reasonably visible even though they were sitting in a fair amount of light pollution.

However, I am pleased say that for some other objects I managed to improve on what I had seen previously. The first of these objects was the Ring Nebula (M57) which I had seen the previous night but I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t really make out any darker central region which would have given it a ring shape. However, this time I spent a fair amount of time looking over the nebula in both my 32mm and 25mm Eyepieces and actually managed to see a darker centre which resulted in the famous ring like shape being visible. I still think a UHC filter might enhance the view a bit more but I think that can wait until next Summer’s buying spree!

The next object that I managed to improve on was Iota Cassiopeiae which is a multiple star system that I only managed to spot 3 out of 4 components when I last looked at it. This time however I sat staring at this little point of light for ages in the 8mm Eyepiece and at this magnification I managed to finally spot the B component which has about 2.8” of separation from the A component. It was a struggle to see initially but once I located it sitting within the primary’s glare I then managed to find a viewing angle that clearly showed it. I can now happily say that I have seen all 4 components of the Iota Cassiopeiae system. An interesting titbit to mention here is that 2.8” was the lowest separation I had actually managed to split at that point although I was about to beat it later on that night.

So after this success I decided to try and look at a few other items in the night sky that I hadn’t seen before which I have detailed in the image below:

Messier 29 / The Cooling Tower
RA: 20 24  Dec: +38 31
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 7.1

Messier 29 is an open cluster in the Cygnus constellation that I had actually tried to find it previously but had failed in the attempt. Basically, at the time my alignment wasn’t good enough and that part of the sky is so crowded that I struggled to confirm its location. This time however I had some good alignment and I had looked up the area of Stellarium to make sure I knew where to adjust the telescope if I was out by a little bit.

The name of the cluster is derived by the fact that the brightest stars form a shape which resembles a hyperboloid-shaped cooling tower. This shape was actually pretty clear to me and I do wonder how I managed to miss it last time. As with nearly all open clusters that I look at from my back garden I didn’t really notice any background light from other stars in the cluster and it was only really the bright stars that I saw.


Epsilon Lyrae / The Double Double / STF 2382 + 2383 (HIP 91919 / SAO 67310)
RA: 18 44  Dec: +39 40
Magnitudes: 5.15, 6.1, 5.25, 5.38
Separation: 2.3”, 207.9”, 208.7”
Position Angle: 346, 171, 172

So I had previously heard about The Double Double but had never actually seen it so I decided that tonight would be the night. The system itself was pretty obvious to locate as the AB & CD elements were nice and clear in the finderscope and had a good deal of separation between them. The real challenge though was in trying to separate A from B and C from D and as the distances were 2.3” and 2.4” respectively which was closer than anything else I had managed previously.

I therefore pulled out the trusty 8mm Eyepiece which gives me about 188x magnification and sat staring at these two bright points of light for a fair amount of time. I could feel my eyes watering as I sat staring through the eyepiece but in amongst the glare I managed to split both the AB and CD components. The fact it was a double double actually made it easier to do as I could concentrate on the space between the two doubles and let averted vision do the rest. I didn’t see any colour in the stars but that didn’t matter as it was still a brilliant sight to see and I felt pretty chuffed I had managed to split stars that had separation as low as 2.3”.

Messier 56 
RA: 19 17  Dec: +30 11
Type: Globular Cluster
Magnitude: 8.3

Messier 56 is a globular cluster in the constellation Lyra and is about 32,900 light years from Earth with a width of approx. 84 light years. With the brightest stars in the cluster only being of 13th Magnitude it was no surprise to me that I really struggled to see it. With my telescope in my back garden it was a very faint fuzzy patch that I had to employ averted vision to see consistently. It was actually a bit disappointing when I compare it to the much brighter Messier 3 globular cluster in the constellation of Canes Venatici.

Messier 13 / The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
RA: 16 42  Dec: +36 28
Type: Globular Cluster
Magnitude: 5.8

So after the disappointment of Messier 56 I decided that I would try and find a more impressive Globular Cluster and as Messier 13 is called The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules I was sure that it would fit the bill.

Messier 13 is about 145 light-years in diameter and is approximately 25,100 light-years away from Earth and when I looked at it through my telescope it appeared exactly as I expected it to. I saw a lovely bright patch of light that was clearly a circular shaped cluster of stars. I didn’t managed to resolve any individual stars as I looked at the cluster but I wasn’t expecting to as I have gotten used to that from looking at other Globular Clusters.

Messier 34 / The Spiral Cluster
RA: 02 42  Dec: +42 46
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 5.5

My final target of the night was Messier 34 which is an open cluster in the constellation Perseus.and is sometimes known as the Spiral Cluster due to stellar arcs visible under low power. Personally, I couldn’t really see the reasoning for the name but I may as well mention it.

Anyway, the cluster is located approximately 1,500 light years away, contains an estimated 400 stars and is 7 light years wide. To be honest, for it containing so many stars I can’t see I saw that many more than some of the clusters than contain only 100 or so stars. Then again, I am becoming a bit wary about the “facts” I dredge up about these various cluster as many of them have disagreeing comments in regards to aspects like the distance from Earth or the quantity of stars that are members. Despite all this, what I did see was actually quite an attractive cluster. Most of the bright stars in the cluster almost appeared to be paired off so it looks like a collection of double stars. For someone that enjoys hunting double stars it was really nice to see and it is possible that some of them really were doubles, I just need to do some more research into it.

As a final note, I am hoping to get a T ring in the next day or so which will enable me to borrow a friend’s DSLR and attach it to my telescope. This Cluster is going to be my target mainly because it is currently low down in the East, reasonably bright and should hopefully fit in the image frame. This means I may have at least a small chance of getting an okay image out of my Azimuth Mount. So hopefully in a few weeks or so I might be able to show my first DSO astroimaging attempt even if I am not using the best equipment for the job.

Dark Skies Have Arrived

So I have been waiting quite a bit but on the 23rd August 2014 the sky was clear and the skies actually looked dark and so I decided to take my telescope out into the back garden and explore the night sky. Part of the fun was getting to use all my new toys of course and straight away I was using my new illuminated reticle eyepiece to get the alignment more exact and had my laptop plugged in to the handset so I could use Stellarium to control the Telescope which is a bit quicker to use than the handset itself. After setting up though I still had to decide what to look at which was a tough choice as I had been suffering from night sky withdrawal.

In the end my first target of the night was actually an obvious one, it was the comet named "C/2014 E2 (Jacques)" that people had been discussing recently on the astronomy forums. I had never actually looked at a comet yet through my telescope so I was a bit excited about it. To be honest it was actually a bit of a letdown as there was no tail present and it was lacking in colour, it basically just looked like a small smudge similar to how distant galaxies can appear in my scope. I have seen pictures so I do know that it is a green colour but that doesn't come up when looking at it visually which was a shame. It was still nice to see but it wasn't as wonderful as I was hoping for.

So after this I decided to spent a little time exploring the area of the sky that the comet was sitting in, namely Cassiopeia and the various sights I ended up looking at are highlighted in the image below.

Caldwell 14 / The Double Cluster
RA: 02 20 Dec: +57 08
Type: Open Star Clusters
Magnitude: 3.7 and 3.8

The Double Cluster is the common name for the two naked-eye open clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884. NGC 869 is about 7,500 Light Years away and is comprised of about 350 stars in a region 75 light years wide. NGC 884 is very similar in both size and distance with it also being about 7,500 Light Years away and comprised of about 300 stars in a region 70 light years wide. Although I have noted a few comments around the internet and in books that imply some measurements show there may actually be almost 1,000 light years of difference in the two cluster's distance from Earth.

I have seen the double cluster before but this is the first time in my own telescope and it was lovely sight. My new 32mm Eyepiece managed to fit both clusters in the FoV without any issues at all. One day I may need to try and put a sketch together but it would probably take me hours to do and I am not sure my back can take being hunched over the eyepiece that long.

Messier 103
RA: 01 33 Dec: +60 42
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.4

M103 is an Open Cluster about 8,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 50 stars in a region 15 light years wide and to be honest it took me quite a while to find. The problem was I was looking for something that really appeared like a cluster with at least 10 stars and the odd dim background light.

When I found it, what I saw with 4 small stars with a center one showing a clear orange colour which was actually the reason I realised I had actually found it plus checking Stellarium on the laptop to confirm the star pattern.

It isn't the most exciting of clusters at all and as with all the clusters I checked this night I didn't notice any dim background light like I supposedly should do. I suspect this may be related to the fact it isn't the darkest site I am using.

Caldwell 10
RA: 01 46 Dec: +61 15
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.1

Caldwell 10 or NGC 663 as it is also known is an Open Cluster about 5,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 100 stars in a region 35 light years wide. It is quite a nice little open cluster which is much more notable that the nearby Messier 103 or the other clusters around it. Supposedly I should have been able to see a hazy light background due to the other stars in the cluster but I have to admit that I didn't notice this.

NGC 659
RA: 01 44 Dec: +60 40
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.9

NGC 659 is an Open Cluster about 7,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 30 stars in a region 10 light years wide. It is a very uninspiring cluster with about three stars actually visible and none of them showing any sort interesting colours. From a darker site I may have been able to see some background light from other stars in the cluster but even then I doubt it would have been that exciting.

One thing I was able to do was get it into the same FoV as Caldwell 10 which did at least make the view a bit more impressive.

Caldwell 13 / The Owl Cluster
RA: 01 20 Dec: +58 17
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 6.4

NGC 457 is an Open Cluster about 9,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 200 stars in a region 30 light years wide. This is my favourite cluster of the night as it is cluster with a very clear and beautiful shape, I could easily find myself staring at it for hours I suspect in an attempt to explore every star. It does have various names but I prefer the Owl Cluster as that it what it was first introduced to me as and I can see that shape clearly. I have to be honest and say I still don't see the shape of ET in it which I believe is a popular name of the cluster in the US.

On thing I noted is that the star Phi Cassiopeiae is fairly obvious in the eyepiece as it is by far the brightest star there. Interesting enough though, it has never actually been confirmed if it is actually part of the clsuter or if it just happens to lie along the same line of sight. If it really is part of the cluster then this would probably make Phi Cassiopeiae the brightest star in the galaxy.

Eta Cassiopeiae / Achird / STF 60 (HIP 3821 / SAO 21732)
RA: 00 49 05.1 Dec: +57 38 59.4
Magnitudes: 3.52, 7.36
Separation: 13.2"
Position Angle: 323°

Eta Cassiopeiae is a lovely double star comprised of G0 V primary star and a smaller K7 V secondary star. I could actually see the colours of the stars within the eyepiece with the primary appearing white whilst the secondary had a pale orange colour. The secondary actually has a ghostly appearance but was still clearly visible against the glare from the brighter primary component. It is actually quite a mesmerising sight and I could probably stare at this double for quite a long time if I let myself. I was actually a bit saddened that I hadn’t brought my sketching materials out with me as I would have loved to try and capture what I was seeing.

An interesting piece of information I found out about this star is that some of the double star catalogues list further dimmer components. However, it appears that these are actually more distant stars and are not related to the Eta Cassiopeiae system at all. I may at some point try and see all of these optical companions but that is something I will need to do at a darker site as they do have quite low magnitudes.

Iota Cassiopeiae / STF 262 (HIP 11569 / SAO 12298)
RA: 02 29 04.0 Dec: +67 24 09
Magnitudes: 4.63, 6.92, 9.05, 8.48
Separation: 2.8", 7.2", 212"
Position Angle: 42°, 230°, 116°

This was a fun little multiple star to look at due to the high quantity of components that comprise the system. I have to admit however that I didn’t realise it had 4 components that I should have been able to see and so I concentrated on trying to see only 3. I blame the various webpages around which only seem to concentrate on 3 components and myself for not realising I wasn’t even concentrating on the 3 that most people notice. I basically only noticed the A, C & D Components and completely missed the B Component which was the closest one to the main star. So my initial happiness at having managed to see three components in both my 32mm and 8mm Eyepiece has since been dulled now that I know I missed something although I doubt I would have picked it up in my 32mm anyway. Next time I look at this star I am determined I will get a glance at all 4 components!

These doubles were my last targets in Cassiopeia for the night as I knew it was getting late and I wanted to grab a quick look at some other targets in the night sky. The first of these was everyone’s old friend Messier 31 otherwise known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The view I got of this galaxy in my new 32mm Eyepiece was superb and it really was the best view I have had. The core was clearly visible alongside some dimmer outer regions, this was the first time I have managed to see real structure in a galaxy beyond it just being a fuzzy patch of light. I got an additional bonus in that I also managed to pick up the small fuzzy shape of Messier 32, which is one of Andromeda’s satellite galaxies. It was completely unexpected but I had a huge grin on my face when I saw it sitting there quite clearly below Andromeda.

After getting this unexpected first sight of Messier 32 I decided I wanted to explore some more objects that I hadn’t seen before and settled on the two targets highlighted in the following image:

Messier 57 / Ring Nebula
RA: 18 53 35 Dec: +33 01 45
Type: Planetary Nebula
Magnitude: 8.8

The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula which sits within the constellation Lyra. Such objects are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf.

I was actually a little bit disappointed with my viewing of this nebula as I had been hoping to see something that looking like a grey smoke ring but that didn’t happen. What I did see was a very clear small and circular shape when using my 32mm eyepiece but I couldn’t make out any dimmer central region. This is probably due to a mix of light pollution and low magnification but when I tried to increase the magnification via the 8mm eyepiece the nebula became very dim and hard to resolve so I had to revert back to the 32mm. Next time I think I may attempt to use my 25mm Eyepiece which I didn’t think to try this time. In addition, I am going to consider getting a UHC filter or something similar to help when viewing nebulas.

Beta Cygni / Albireo / STFA 43 (HIP 95947 / SAO 87301)
RA: 19 30 43.3 Dec: +27 57 34.6
Magnitudes: 3.19, 4.68
Separation: 34.7"
Position Angle: 55°

My final target of the night was this beautiful double star which form part of the Cygnus constellation. It is comprised of a lovely yellow primary and a blue secondary which I saw very clearly from the moment I had it in the eyepiece. It really is very striking and reminded me of the similarly coloured and equally impressive double star of Almach. I found myself switching between multiple eyepieces whilst studying this star but I think I preferred the 32mm which still easily split the star but also showed the surrounding stars. These less colourful stars helped to really showcase the wonderful colours that are present in Albireo.

Overall this was a wonderful night; I saw so many new things, many of which were quite impressive. My new equipment all performed well and I found using the laptop outside helped me select target quicker and it helped me verify where I was when the slewing didn’t hit the target exactly. It was so good to be out again and I am already looking forward to getting back out there soon.

I Can't Stop Buying Things!

So after buying a couple of new eyepieces which I detailed in the last post I thought that I would stop buying any more equipment for a bit. Unfortunately I didn't count on the Sky at Night magazine which mentioned the fact that it was almost the best time of the year to try and spot Uranus.

The problem I have is that Uranus would look rather tiny if I image it without a barlow and my current stock skywatcher 2x barlow is quite simply rubbish. I always struggle to get any colours to show up and the less said about my attempts to focus with it the better.

I decided therefore that if I wanted to have at least some chance at imaging the planet at a size which isn't a tiny point of light I was going to need a new barlow. A fair bit of checking online showed that there were some superb ones at high cost but with my current webcam I would rather just buy something that was good but wouldn't break the bank. I was therefore attracted to the Revelation 2.5x barlow which has a higher magnification than my current barlow and there seemed to be a lot of happy folks who use it.

And so I am now the proud owner of a new barlow and I just hope it will actually prove to be better than my previous one.

Summer Equipment Buying

It has been a long Summer meaning I haven't been able to get out and explore the night skies so instead I have been buying more equipment in preparation for when I can get back outside.

My first purchase is a 32mm GSO Eyepiece which should enable me to get a wider field of view through my telescope. Hopefully this new eyepiece will enable me to really appreciate some of the open clusters etc. a bit more.

The eyepiece was a bargain as I got it 2nd hand through AstroBuySell for £18 when they would normally be around £34 if bought new. 

This wasn't the only eyepiece I bought however as I also got myself a 12.5mm illuminated reticle eyepiece to help with GOTO alignment and webcam targeting. Basically this eyepiece will ensure I can put alignment stars dead center in the eyepiece and when conducting webcam imaging I should again be able to make sure it is again centered so it will be visible on the camera sensor.

This is a non branded eyepiece but this meant I could get it for £20 from Ebay. The optics are probably not that great but that shouldn't matter as I won't be using it for actually viewing targets. I would rather have had an eyepiece with a larger field of view but the prices were getting quite high when you get up to 20mm eyepieces.

Target Saturn

So the short nights have arrived and it is getting harder and harder to conduct any real stargazing activities but on the night of 30th May 2014 I decided to stay up past midnight and try to at least see Saturn through my telescope which I haven't managed to do so far. So I said goodnight to my wife who was tucked up in bed and set everything up outside my front door from which I could clearly see Saturn hovering in the sky.

The set up wasn't actually that hard as there were a few stars visible in the twilight for me to align the scope so before long I had a lovely image of Saturn in my 25mm Eyepiece. I even managed to spot the moon Titan hovering nearby which was a nice bonus. I did use my 8mm Eyepiece as well but there was a fair amount of atmospheric distortion so it wasn't the clearest of sights and quickly put it away.

It was as I began to setup my webcam and laptop that a funny event occured, one of my neighbours teenage daughter had friends or family visiting and for some random reason they were outside the front of their house. The visitor saw me hunched outside the front door and thought I was trying to break in so quickly came across and asked me if I actually lived there.. she did look a bit embarrassed when I said yes and pointed to the telescope, laptop and power supply I had arrayed in front of me. Either way it is nice to know if anyone tries to rob me there is a chance some random teenage girls may attempt to stop them!

Anyway, after that interruption I soon had the camera all set up and managed to take a few AVIs which I have since processed with the best result shown below.

I then decided to go all out and attempted to use the 2x Barlow in order to increase the magnification.

Even with a fair it of processing I haven't managed to clean up the image as much as I would have liked but I still think it was okay for a first attempt.

Overall I was glad I managed to at least get out one more time before the Summer nights get to light for me to really appreciate the night sky. It was even more special that I used this potentially final night of the astronomy season to see Saturn which I had never seen before. I hope the next time I see it I can try and capture an even better image but I suspect it will be difficult with the gear I currently have.

Stargazing with my parents

Whilst I have shown my parents the odd sight through my telescope from the back garden I was actually quite surprised when my father asked about me taking both my mother and him out to Harperrig Reservoir to see what we could see from a darker site. I was more than happy to oblige as it would mean I would have company if no one else was out there. It turned out that this was a pointless worry as a fair amount of people from the Central Scotland Observers Group forum were there.

Anyway because I was showing off things to my parents I actually scanned a fair amount of the sky but from a personal point of view I saw my first sights in Cancer and Gemini constellations which I have highlighted in the image below.

Messier 44 / Beehive Cluster
RA: 08 40.4 Dec: +19 59
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 3.7

The Beehive Cluster is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer that I had seen through other telescopes  so it was nice to finally get a look at it through my own scope. The Beehive Cluster appears as a nebulous object to the naked eye and has been known since ancient times, in fact it was one of the first objects that Galileo looked at through his telescope.

The cluster is around 520-610 light years away and the title of Beehive Cluster is supposedly due to it supposedly appearing like a swarm of stars in a dance of activity. Personally it didn't really strike me as being much different that many other open clusters. Either way it was still a nice view in the lower power eyepiece although I think there was still a little bit to much magnification.

Messier 67 
RA: 08 51.4 Dec: +11 49
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 6.1

Messier 67 is another open cluster in the constellation Cancer although this one is dimmer that the more famous Beehive Cluster. The interesting thing about this cluster is that it is actually the oldest one in the Messier list at between 3.2 and 5 billion years old. This could explain why it isn't the brightest of clusters as beyond the odd blue stragglers there are no bright blue stars left in the main sequence stage.

Overall, it was quite a nice cluster to see as there are a lot of stars present and it easily filled up my field of view and there are some nice reds and yellows present.

Messier 35 
RA: 06 09.1 Dec: +24 21
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 5.3

The third open cluster of the night was Messier 35 which sits in the constellation Gemini and is around 2,800 lights years away. With several hundred stars present it is quite a nice sight to see although I suspect I could barely see more than sixty myself but even that was an enjoyable view. The interesting thing I noted about this cluster is that it didn't appear to have any core region where stars are condensed  together.

NGC 2392 / Eskimo Nebula 
RA: 07 28 10.8 Dec: +20 54 42.5
Type: Planetary Nebula
Magnitude: 10.1

It was great to finally look at something that wasn't an open cluster although with a magnitude of 10.1 I can't say NGC 2392 was the easiest object to see. The nebula which is named the Eskimo Nebula or Clownface Nebula supposedly resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood although to me it just looked like a tiny faint nebulous region more akin to a fuzzy star. I suspect on a darker night I may have tried to up the magnification to see if I could get a better look but I knew there was little point at the moment due to the spring night quite simply not being that dark at the time I was looking.

One additional object I want to highlight in addition to those I saw within Cancer and Gemini is the Whale Galaxy (Caldwell 32) which is an edge-on spiral galaxy within the constellation of Canes Venatici at RA 2 42 8.0 & DEC +32 32 29 and is is approximately 30 million light years away. I had previously tried to see this magnitude 9.8 Galaxy but hadn't managed to pick it up so I was pretty happy when I slewed to its location this night and was able to make out a very faint elongated shape that reminded me of the Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82). Of course I couldn't make out its tiny companion, NGC 4627 which is as dwarf elliptical galaxy with a magnitude of only 13.1

Besides the objects above that I have highlighted I also showed off a few of the usual targets such as the aforementioned Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82) along with Bode's Galaxy (Messier 81), Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), Messier 3 Globular Cluster, Caldwell 21 Galaxy, Mars, Almach and Mizar. I have to be honest and say that most of the Deep Space Objects were a bit washed out as it just wasn't dark enough for my scope to capture them. However, due to the Cigar Galaxy and Bode's Galaxy being pretty much at the zenith they came out superbly. I even managed to get both of them in my field of view at the same time and was quite impressed.

Overall this was actually a successful night with me seeing a target in Canes Venatici I had failed to see in the past and seeing a few new deep space objects in both Cancer and Gemini. Very soon the astronomy season will be over due to the long summer days but I want to try and get out like this as much as possible for the time being.

Double Stars in Ursa Minor - Chapter 3

My continued adventure to try and observe double stars in Ursa Minor has entered its third chapter with another three stars observed and sketched. The double stars I am going to discuss tonight are STF 1583, STF 1928 & STF 1980 whose locations are shown below.

STF 1583 (HIP 58531 / SAO 1966)
RA : 12 00 10.43   Dec: +86 59 40.0
Magnitudes: 8.1, 9.3
Separation: 11.3”
Position Angle: 285°

Whilst looking for this star I discovered that the SAO number was not in the GOTO database which meant using the Right Ascension and Declination co-ordinates to find it.  As always, my pre study of the locale via Stellarium was very useful in helping me confirm I had the right target. Both components were pretty clear with a reasonable separation evident however whilst the primary stars A2 classification would imply a potential white blue colour it just looked like standard white to me. Then again I have to admit that unless stars are quite vivid in their colour I tend to struggle at seeing anything beyond white.

STF 1928 (SAO 8177)
RA : 15 09 17.20   Dec: +72 27 16.4
Magnitudes: 9.6, 10.2
Separation: 6.5”
Position Angle: 275°

Without doubt this was the most difficult target of the night, as with the previous star it didn't come up in the SAO catalogue on my GOTO mount and I had to use the Right Ascension and Declination co-ordinates. However, the reason I struggled was the close separation and low magnitude of the stars involved when I was looking at them in a Spring evening which wasn't that dark.

I was forced to employ averted vision to make out the lower magnitude companion and even then it was only a fleeting look.  The separation wasn't actually that bad and on a darker night I don't think I would have had any issue to be honest. Either way, the double star itself was fairly regular with both components appearing to be white. The real dominant star in the eyepiece was actually HIP 70942 which shines at a brighter magnitude of and 7.8 and can be seen in the sketch below at the 7 o'clock position.

STF 1980 (SAO 2568)
RA : 15 32 27.04   Dec: +81 03 10.4
Magnitudes: 9.2, 9.5
Separation: 10.1”
Position Angle: 49°

The third double star of the night and another no go with the SAO number, I may need to look up how many SAO numbers are actually present in the database as a fair few don't seem to be there when I look for them. The similar magnitudes of the stars involved with this double made it quite easy to make out and split in my 25mm eyepiece.  The primary appeared to be white which ties in with the F0 stellar classification, however I haven't been able to discover the stellar classification of the secondary component but to me it looked almost identical to the primary.

Overall, it was another successful double star hunt although the lighter skies are making it harder to make out the dimmer stars. Hopefully I will manage another night or two out looking at some more doubles before summer fully closes in and the telescope gets retired for a few months.

Gemini & Cassiopeia

Sometimes at night I prefer just to look at the sky with my own eye rather than using binoculars or my telescope. I am enjoying trying to learn the various constellations and identifying them in the night sky. Of course, as I begin to identify them I also want to try and capture them with my camera.

And so recently I decided to try and capture Gemini and Cassiopeia which are currently both visible from my back garden. Gemini in particular is quite nice due to Juptier currently sitting within its boundaries so of course I am going to start with it.

Gemini is one of the constellations of the Zodiac and was described in the 2nd century AD by the astronomer Ptolemy. It's name is the Latin for "twins" and it is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology. In fact the two brightest stars in the constellation are actually named Castor and Pollox. Gemini lies between Taurus to the west and Cancer to the east, with Auriga and Lynx to the north and Monoceros and Canis Minor to the south. In fact you can actually just make out Cancer and Canis Minor in my image below to the left of Gemini.

The other constellation I imaged was Cassiopeia which is named after the vain queen Cassiopeia in Greek mythology, who boasted about her unrivalled beauty. Cassiopeia was also one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century Greek astronomer Ptolemy. It is easily recognizable due to its distinctive 'W' shape, formed by five bright stars. It is bordered by Andromeda to the south, Perseus to the southeast, and Cepheus to the north. In the image below you should hopefully be able to see it in the central lower area just above the cloud cover.

Space Stations & Iridium Flares

Planets, Stars and Deep Space Objects aren't the only thing you can see by looking up at night. You should easily be able to see the odd tiny spot of light moving quickly across the sky which is of course one of the many satellites which orbit the Earth. These satellites range from the rather huge International Space Station to space debris like discarded rocket boosters. An interesting tool to find out what satellites are passing overhead is Heavens Above, this is a website where you enter your location and it gives you the time a satellite will pass along with its actual path across the sky.

Amazingly enough one object I had never actually seen was the International Space Station even though it is quite bright in the night sky. Therefore I used Heavens Above to find it when it would be visible from my back garden and went out to have a look. Its magnitude was supposedly -2.5 and I have to admit it was very obvious moving across the night sky. I managed to get a 15 second exposure of its transit across the night sky which you can see below. It is quite an amazing site when you realise that what you are seeing is a man made space station with people on board.

Another interesting thing I noticed whilst on Heavens Above is that there is something called Iridium Flares which seem to happen quite consistently every night and actually get up to a magnitude of around -8.5 which is brighter than Venus. It turns out that a satellite flare is the phenomenon caused by the reflective surfaces on satellites (such as antennas or solar panels) reflecting sunlight directly onto the Earth below and appearing as a brief, bright "flare". The Iridium Communications Satellite has a peculiar shapes which results in these flares being quite bright to the point that they can potentially even been seen in daylight.

Anyway after reading about these I decided I had to try and both see and image one of these flares. Seeing them was quite easy and I even got my normally uninterested wife to say "Wow" when she saw one of the bright flares. Imaging them however was a bit of an adventure, my first attempt failed because my timing was off and I got an image of the satellite before and after the flare, the second time was ruined by cloud cover meaning that whilst I saw the flare I failed to aim the camera correctly, the third time the satellite failed to flare for some reason and the forth time was when I forgot part of my tripod meaning I couldn't set up the camera. It was fifth time lucky however and on Easter Saturday I sat outside and finally snapped a picture which you can see below.

This wasn't actually the brightest flare I saw but at least I managed to catch it. You can see the transit of the satellite brighten in the centre which is of course where it has flared.