Tonight was one of those Keyhole Astronomy sessions, where you observe through the gaps in between slowly moving banks of cloud. While this wasn’t a problem, the 77% illuminated Moon was! I’m still struggling to complete the remaining items in Sagittarius (M69 and M70) as these are all pretty much on the horizon when I’m able to observe them. There was a little low murk above the horizon, but this seemed magnified by the effects…
Observing Session: 26, July
Moon is up and rising in the East 77% Illumination. Conditions are quite awful. High and not so thin cloud is abundant but, there are patches through which I can observe – I think it’s called ‘Keyhole Astronomy’. Still trying to observe last few Sagittarius objects but the cloud patches weren’t playing ball for anything below 30 degrees above the horizon and other Messier objects still to be ticked off at higher declinations, were…
Observing Session: 17, July
Things this evening were looking a little dodgy, but if I can see the Milky Way through the high thin murk, then I figured it was probably just worth opening up. The Moon is 70% illuminated, but slowly setting. Session Data Date: 17/07/2013Time: 22:11 – 00:23 UTTemp: 14.7c, Air Pressure: 1019Mb, Humidity: 99%, Dew point: 14.5c, Wind Speed: 4.0 MPH . Seeing: I Perfectly Stable, Transparency: Mostly Clear. M24 Can’t really make this out from the…
Observing Session: 11, July
While July is mostly warm and makes for some balmy nights in which to observe, the big downside is that it doesn’t get dark until around 11:30pm. We’ve had a huge high pressure area over us for the last 10 days, but despite a lot of clear nights, I’ve been too pooped to stay up till that late hour and do a couple of hours at the scope. However, last Thursday, I was sufficiently…
Country Life: June
Having moaned about the lack of birds at the bird table throughout last month, they are back with a vengeance. I can only presume that as most of them would still have been nesting, they were passing up food on the table for something a little more alive! While most of the fat balls are being eaten by the Magpies, the food of choice seems to be the crushed seed. Pretty much everything we…
A Bit Like Buses
Having mentioned in my ‘May Country Life’ entry of a single Swallow sighting and bemoaning the lack of them here, guess what turns up a week later…..Yup, you’ve guessed it, a Barn Swallow. He’s sitting on the power line going to the house and I bagged this shot mid morning. Throughout the day we noticed he would fly around and feed for 20 minutes or so, then perch back up on the line and sing…